A big and a small Humpback whale swimming along having a good time

 

And we can see that the smaller seems to lack the power to lift the fluke when diving

 

 

 

 

 

My favourit whales to watch are the Humpback as this is a real player. Likes to jump around etc. I also like to watch the Right whale as they are also giving a good show.

 

The Bluewhale is very boring. You only see the back. And of course you can see that it is a big whale because of the time you see the back

 

Blow-back-back-back-back-back-the smallest dorsal fin you can imagine-back-back-back-back and the whale is gone

 

Here we have yet another Humpback swimming along having a good time

 

 

 

Yes, the whales get me excited and I never get bored watching them

 

 

Another Humpback and the whale is very close

 

 

 

 

And there is no chance to miss the blow as they sound is very loud

 

 

Looking for whales among the ice berg

 

These ice bergs are stuck on a threshold with a water deep of 300m The Ice fjord have a deep of 1000m and to get out in the sea they need to get over a threshold with only 300m. So the iceberg have 1 km under the water surface, amazing.

 

A sight I will never forget

 

 

 

 

So, in the middle of all this beauty there are bad news lurking looking to kill my friends

 

 

We can see the harpoon up front of the boat, not used for cod or herring

 

 

But my friend is hiding in the ice

 

Sorry for all the whale pictures. But I never get tired of it. I met a guy from Germany. He asked if I had seen any whales and I said yes. Then he asked why I would go to look for them again

 

I could not come up with something to say for 20 minutes, well, what to say?

 

 

Here we have a good example of why I will never become any good photographer. I get to excited and forget all about the camera settings.

 

The professionals does it without thinking. Look through the camera while adjust the settings and they get perfect pictures

 

I had been taking night pictures and the day after I spotted a volcano. I got so excited and I started to take pictures with the middle of the night setting. All pictures was nothing but white

 

Same here, I spot three whales playing between 2 ice bergs. I had been taking pictures in the sun, and turning around to see the whales in the shadow and the exposure is ducked up. 

 

 

 

 

Spotted deer have found a new friend

 

 

I discovered today on my photography french forum; it's about Iceland and an old Olympus E-M5 Mark I

 

 

https://photographylife.com/postcards-from-iceland

On 11/5/2016 at 8:06 PM, Assurancetourix said:

I discovered today on my photography french forum; it's about Iceland and an old Olympus E-M5 Mark I

 

 

https://photographylife.com/postcards-from-iceland

 

Cheers ASTX

 

Yeah, Iceland is very beautiful and many of my whale pictures above are taken on different whale watching tours on Iceland

 

 

Pond Heron fishing from the back of a swamp deer

 

 

 

 

 

Sun is coming up and it is slowly getting warmer. And we will soon be having a show of wilderness waking up in front of us

 

 

 

 

 

Suddenly I have a "new" friend in front of me

 

Even though Kingfishers are my favourite (any Kingfisher) I still think the Indian Roller is the most beautiful bird in the world

 

 

 

 

DARN! The bird takes off and is out of focus

2 best friends

 

I put this down as a White-napped woodpecker. There are so many of these "flamebacks" and a different white spot make it change the name

 

 

Here we have a black-rumped flameback

Early morning and a Rufous treepie wants to join me in my jeep going to look for tigers

 

My friend was in India, he saw exactly ZIP. Zero tigers, of course he saw a lot of other beautiful animals. When he w as leaving, going to the airport. On the highway, suddenly a deer running across the highway with a tiger chasing the deer. So one tiger, even only for a few seconds.

 

A tiger family with a mother and 4 babies walking through the forest. It was getting dark so I never got any good pictures.

 

I was a wee bit more lucky. I saw maybe 5 or 6 tigers, not counting the tigers that was too far away. I saw a few in the horizon and I heard a few of them.

 

Suddenly I have a tiger walking towards us, no worries in the world. He is not afraid and he was walking around making his territory. He was just like a normal farm cat. Walking along dropping a few drops of urine every 20 meters. He also dropped poo on a few places to say STAY OUT OF MY AREA!

 

I was told that the leopard is killing more people than the tiger in India.

Does any of our native English speaker or English Teacher know why the call it Lepard and not Leopard as it spells? To me Lepard sounds like a sickness. But it is the most beautiful cat, at least I think so. Well, the lion that attacked me in Africa was also quite beautiful and impressive.

 

I gave the lion some attitude adjustment ( I shat my pants) and all went fine

 

 

 

 

Leopard  is the way I have always spelt it, Aladdin.... Just checked Google and says same!!!

 

Wow great shots,

Yes great photos;

can u write which camera and lenses u use for these photos ?

Thanks a lot in advance

21 minutes ago, samuijimmy said:

Leopard  is the way I have always spelt it, Aladdin.... Just checked Google and says same!!!

 

Wow great shots,

 

Cheers sammuijimmy, not seen any pictures from you for a while.

 

Thanks, I spell it Leopard, and I always pronounce it Leopard. Like a Leo beer with the pard behind the Leo. But people look at me like I'm an idiot

 

I only hear people pronounce it like Le-pard like Le in Le mans rally. Confuses me, but now I also say Lepard

 

18 minutes ago, Assurancetourix said:

Yes great photos;

can u write which camera and lenses u use for these photos ?

Thanks a lot in advance

 Cheers ASTX

 

Same as before, a Canon D5 Mark III

I have 2 lenses

Canon 28-300

Canon 70-200 2.8 and an Canon 2x adaptor 

 

I bought it a Fotofile and they asked me who I was going to give one of the lenses to. I told them that I was going to use both off them by myself. They said it was a waste of money. But the 28-300 is for my ALL AROUND needs. If I need more than 200mm to take a picture of an animal I have not been close enough. So the 28-300 is the one I usually carry around when in the wild.

 

28mm comes in handy when in the jeep with my driver. I spot a lion and I use the 200mm. My driver is attacked and I turn around to get a picture of the carnage, then I can quickly get down to 28mm to get all the action.

 

If I use the 70 - 200 I will only get a corner of the lion's teeth. 

 

I will bring the 70-200 when I go see you. Birding and I need the extra 200mm as 200mm isn't enough for birding. Using the 2x adaptor gives me a 140-400mm f 5.6 and the adaptor is very small so it is easy to carry it in my belt together with my 16- 35 or 40mm lens is also small and I can have it in my belt. They suggested 600 or 800 mm for birding, but then I feel like I have not been close enough to have "seen" the bird

 

So I guess you can imagine "Lard Man" sneaking around trying to get close enough to use the 400mm lens

 

 

The Leopards are not easy to see, very shy. But thanks to the Peacock I found the Leopard. First I thought it was a elephant, but it was a Peacock warning call. And that means a tiger or a leopard.

 

They are not easy to see

 

 

But it is a beautiful cat, but the leopard is very shy

 

 

 

 

African Leopards spent their life in trees. They go down to catch dinner and then they drag the dinner up in the tree.

 

You know there are leopards in the area when you find dead antelopes hanging in the tree.

 

 

Very shy and the leopard leave as soon as he catch sight of me. And I thought that I would never see the leopard again...

 

 

... I was so surprised to discover that the leopard came towards me. I had though the cat had disappeared.

 

Yes, I was very happy to discover that the leopard came towards me and not walking away. A cat's way of giving me the finger?

 

 

Leopard, I have a hard time to imagine a more beautiful cat! And I'm pretty sure this is the leopards way to give me the finger

 

 

 

 

Avon Valley York .. West Australia

I saw your "MINI" dung beetle in another folder. One of my favourite animals in Botswana, never mind the lions that was only sleeping

The dung beetle is a truly fascinated animal. And they are quick, just turn you head and back and they are 15 meters away

Always fun to watch them and here we have a fight. The dung beetle don't mind stealing another beetle's ball of shit

 

I was on the way back to my room after 11 hours of safari when I spotted a dung beetle fighting with is “shit” His ball was in the shape of a disc and he was really struggling to shape it in to a ball

 

 

And as he would never catch a wife with his “disc” of shit our hero had to step in to help him. And as almost the whole country of Botswana is a national park. You are not even allowed to take a twig or a small rock.

 

So it took quite some convincing to talk the driver/ guide to let me help the dung beetle. The girls are giving each of the shit balls a thorough examination before they decide to jump on board the ball to set-up her new home. So it needs to be a great ball

 

First we needed to get the shit wet

 

Making a ball out of the disc, and as it was a nice beetle some new shit was added

 

Off he goes with his shit to look for a new wife. And he looked happy when he left with his new ball

 

 

 

Great stuff Aladdin, .... makes one envious of places we could visit to see ....even it is to see Dung beetles.... and other wild life of course !

 

I like Bundycat's rainbow over the mustard fields too... I think it is mustard, maybe Rape?

Cheers Samujijimmy

 

You don't live in a bad place either. Have checked out birding on Koh Samui and it seems to be a beautiful place. I'm in Bangladesh so I had to cancel my Bali trip. But I will go there in January to try out my new wet suit and underwater camera equipment preparing for the big humpback whale adventure on Tonga

 

I will got to Udon Thani in January and I will also go to Koh Samui to watch the birds. I just passed by Koh Samui ( 10 minutes stop to drop some passengers) 25-30 years ago on our way to the other island. Don't remember the name, but there was no electricity and well, back then we were only in for the party

 

But the was no electricity on the "other island" and we wanted to have music. We have heard about this "party island" but only mushroom omelettes and beer

 

I put 3 slides here just to avoid wasting my post quota on posts with no pictures. All of them from the "other island" and I guess it looks pretty different today 

There was noting to spend your money on

 

My friend having a power nap waiting for them to turn on the electricity

 

 

The "other island" turned out to be pretty boring as they didn't have any electricity and music so we took the evening ferry back to the main land. 

On the ferry back to the main land where we took a taxi to Phuket

 

 

 

I can never see those beetles without thinking of this ....

 

 

On 20/11/2016 at 0:56 PM, Aladdin said:

I saw your "MINI" dung beetle in another folder. One of my favourite animals in Botswana, never mind the lions that was only sleeping

The dung beetle is a truly fascinated animal. And they are quick, just turn you head and back and they are 15 meters away

Always fun to watch them and here we have a fight. The dung beetle don't mind stealing another beetle's ball of shit

 

I was on the way back to my room after 11 hours of safari when I spotted a dung beetle fighting with is “shit” His ball was in the shape of a disc and he was really struggling to shape it in to a ball

 

 

Hi Aladin  my dung beetles were about the size of pea.. and they were on a footpath beside a swimming pool collecting the host's puppy dog poo.. oh in Phuket :)

 

 

On 20/11/2016 at 1:44 PM, samuijimmy said:

Great stuff Aladdin, .... makes one envious of places we could visit to see ....even it is to see Dung beetles.... and other wild life of course !

 

I like Bundycat's rainbow over the mustard fields too... I think it is mustard, maybe Rape?

canola actually  Sammy :)

 

I decided to start shooting something different ...

Lets try this again , I decided to start shooting some different subjects ... seems @ 2.8 has it's own set of problems when the focus is on a different genre'