June 8, 2014: Minke Whale Silhouette

365 Project, Day 200

Here is my day 200 submission to my 365Project:

Today I finished another rotation working as Marine Mammal Observer and Passive Acoustic Monitor off the coast of England. This was my first rotation in the North Sea, and although I'd mostly heard about how rough it was and how relatively little marine marine life there was, we had mostly lovely weather and were in a fairly productive area and had a good number of marine mammal observations...we even had days of multiple sightings! 

We left the vessel by way of a workboat transfer today; we were lowered down the side of the ship on the davit, and then driven to one of the chase vessels which took us in to Immingham. It was a beautiful ride to shore and we even had a few minke whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) surface near us while en route. 

Today's photo is a backlit image of a minke surfacing in the opposite direction we were traveling. You can really see the distinctly sickle shaped dorsal fin in this image. What a beautiful June day on the water in the North Sea!

minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata)

minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata)

Offshore oil and gas platforms in the North Sea

The lighthouse coming in to Immingham near Hull, England

Taking in the lovely day on the cruise to Immingham

My wonderful co-MMO/PAM operators!

So close to stepping ashore for the first time in 5 weeks!

Bull Sands Fort, outside Grimsby, UK

Local Fishing boat near Grimsby, UK

Local Fishing boat near Grimsby, UK

Getting the shot...a local Fishing boat near Grimsby, UK

Wind turbines near Grimsby, UK

Cruising near Grimsby, UK

Taking in the beautiful sunny day :)

Awesome cloud formations!

Sailboats cruising near hull

Close pass astern

May 18, 2014: North Sea Jack-up Rig

365 Project, Day 190

Here is my day 190 submission to my 365Project:

Each day we have been passing closer and closer to one offshore installation in this North Sea prospect where we are conducting our surveys. Close passes are, obviously, more intense periods for the ship's crew as they have to careful to have good control of the vessel and the 6 km long cables towing behind us; today was our closest pass to this jackup rig and I snapped this photo on our approach (see photos of our barovane passing within a couple hundred metres below).

Here are some more photos from today's day at sea: a misty moon (with posterization...definitely going to be shooting raw in future shots of celestial objects, see more about this at this post :), another dove in flight and our close pass to the rig. 

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Another moon photo :) ...with posterization, grr!

Wood Pigeon (Columba Palumbus)

Wood Pigeon (Columba Palumbus)

On the approach...

Yikes...now that's close!

May 17, 2014: Here Comes The Sun

365 Project, Day 189

Here is my day 189 submission to my 365Project:

Even thought I've taken so many sunrise photos I just can't stop! 

Gotta love those offshore sunrises...gorgeous!

Some more scenes from this morning's watch; photos of the moon, sunrise, a Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) in flight, a close pass by Breagh platform and a nearly mature Lesser Black-backed Gull (Larus fuscus, I think?):

Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica)

A close pass by Breagh platform

Our barovane aka paravane (which keeps the seismic array spread) passing very close to Breagh platform

Possible 3rd year juvenile Lesser Black Backed Gull (Larus fuscus)

May 16, 2014: Feeling Moon-ey

365 Project, Day 188

Here is my day 188 submission to my 365Project:

Today I think I was able to capture a somewhat better image of the moon in the wee hours of the morning than I did on yesterday or the day before. I'll probably forget the settings by the time I try to do this again but that's the wonderful thing about digital, you have many opportunities to play with settings and capture the shot you're hoping for! 

The one thing I needed to figure out is why I'm getting posterization, or banding, in these images? It isn't so bad in my photo of the day but you'll see in this next photo that it's there...there are distinct bands of colour around the moon. According to this webpage the basic gist of it seems to be that these shots, which inclue areas of little detail, are posterized because they were shot in JPEG fine format and not Raw format. There is too little info spread too far apart in the JPEG image thus creating the blocky banding seen here. 

I have indeed heard in my path of learning photography that it's best to shoot in Raw, especially for post processing purposes including the cropping I've done here. I've gone through my phases of shooting in Raw and I understand there is much more information in a Raw format photos; the only thing is Raw files are just such big files and require even more time for post processing!  Oh well, looks like I'll be shooting Raw next time I want to photograph the moon and, although it'll take some more time to get the final result, there should be no posterization :)

Posterized moon

Breagh offshore platform

Sunrise over the barovane

Breagh sunrise

Breagh sunrise

Breagh sunrise

Breagh installation silhouetted at sunrise 

Lone Common Guillemot (Uria aalge) aka Common Murre 

Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus) taking off

Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus) 

Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus) 

Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus)