December 12, 2013: Altocumulus beauty :)

365 Project, Day 137

Here is my day 137 submission to my 365Project:

Okay, I'm way behind on my posts because LIFE happened, ha ha! Actually, we were finishing up the project and I got busy working on our data and writing the report. 

So, It's now well into January and I'm catching up again, eek! Oh well, such is life! Here are some photos from yet another amazing offshore sunset. I absolutely loved how golden the sky was and these altocumulus cloud formations created such an interesting ceiling effect:

Fun fact of the day:

I believe these were Altocumulus clouds. Altocumulus clouds do not usually produce rain but could indicate a weather change in the next day or so (in fact we had light rain the following morning!). 

To read more about altocumulus clouds and other weather formations check out this webpage. 

December 10, 2013: Cumulonimbus Sunset

365 Project, Day 135

Here is my day 135 submission to my 365Project:

Yesterday, even though I didn't post any photos I had a couple of sightings...but, as seems to be consistent for this time of year in this area, they were frustratingly brief and/or distant. In the morning it was almost glass, flat calm and, just as we were turning in the  shallower end (at ~200m) of our survey prospect I spotted the blow, back and dorsal fin of a dark coloured baleen whale (which my best guess would've been a Bryde's whale, Balaenoptera edeni, given the location and size)  surfacing about 2 km ahead of us and swimming right at us. I quickly jumped up from my seat to mark a waypoint and grab my camera thinking it would be a great sighting and photographic opportunity...but, even after I called the officer on watch and my co-MMO to help me look for it, I never saw the whale again! It's amazing how difficult it can be at times to track these animals...even when the conditions are great! Such is the life of an MMO!   

The rest of the day was fairly quiet...until, once again while we were on a turn in the deep end of the prospect, I spotted a fairly low, bushy blow on the horizon near the glare of the setting sun. Fortunately, I was able to see the blows more than once but, being that it was about 6 km offshore of us, I couldn't make out enough details to identify what type of whale it was. The blow did appear to be much like that of a sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) whose blows tend to go sideways and to their left because of the angle of their single blowhole (being a toothed whale). The slant of a sperm whale's blow is usually a very good identification feature, even at a distance, and although it appeared a couple of these blows might be that of a sperm whale, something did not quite fit and I was not convinced enough to report it as such and was recorded as an unidentified large whale. Anyways, there is life around...just not close enough for us to get photos or positive IDs. 

Today, all was quiet and the only shots I took were of these towering cumulonimbus clouds at sunset: 

Fun fact of the Day:
Cumulonimbus type clouds are tall, dense and involved in thunderstorms and other intense weather so are the result of atmospheric instability. The name cumulonimbus originates from latin: cumulus = 'accumulated' and nimbus = 'rain'.

Read more about Cumulonimbus clouds at this princeton.edu webpage.

December 8, 2013: Polarised Clouds

365 Project, Day 134

Here is my day 134 submission to my 365Project:

Hmmm...another quiet day. While on watch I looked up and saw some cool cloud formations. Since I don`t have a polarising filter for my small camera lens, I played with shooting through my polarised sunglasses to photograph the clouds. I don`t think the photos really show how cool the clouds looked but it was another lovely day at sea with sun and warmth and...another beautiful sunset :)

Polarised clouds...as seen through my polarised sunglasses

Fun fact of the day:
Polarised lenses reduce reflected glare from surfaces such as on the water. Light reflected from such surfaces, instead of being scattered in all directions in more usual ways, travels in a more horizontally oriented directions creating an annoying and sometimes dangerous intensity of light experienced as glare. 

So, I guess polarised sunglasses aren't really necessary for looking at clouds...although they did add a nice shade to the clouds!

Read more about polarised sunglasses at this AllAboutVision webpage. 

The clouds...as they were

Another day at sea...almost complete

November 28, 2013: Kuito Green Flash

365 Project, Day 125

Here is my day 125 submission to my 365Project:

It was another lovely sunny and warm day today. I was on the sunset watch this evening and when I saw the sun setting next to Kuito FPSO. I thought it looked interesting having the the large natural gas flare flame and the large ball of sun in the same photo (see photos following). While I was photographing the sun, as a large ball of fire, setting with Kuito FPSO I realized we had good conditions to see the green flash...and I managed to get this photo of it just as the sun dropped below the horizon. 

You can just make out the green edging on the last bit of the sun as it drops below the horizon to the right of Kuito FPSO

Fun fact of the day:

There are several kinds of green flashes and almost every kind is a by-product of a mirage. All of the common forms are magnified images of the green rim produced by light dispersion on the bulk of the atmosphere (source). 

To read more about the green flash check out this San Diego State University webpage.

Sunset with Kuito just before the green flash

And more shots of another lovely offshore sunset:

November 26, 2013: Sunset Ship Silhouette

365 Project, Day 123

Here is my day 123 submission to my 365Project:

We had perfect weather today for observations...and while I did spot some dolphins traveling and leaping in roughly the same direction we were heading this morning they did not come any closer than 5 km so, unfortunately, no photos. 

Oh well, hopefully sometime soon we'll get a nice sighting that is close enough for me to get some good shots! With the great weather we had a gorgeous sunset this evening which, surprisingly, we haven't had so many of on this job with the mainly grey, overcast days. When they do happen...I still love the offshore sunsets!

Here's my sunset photo of the day. I did some cropping and added the border but for some reason, and this is the first time I've had this problem, the edits look funny on here even though the photo looks fine when viewed from the original file.  After some time it has grown on me anyways, so here you go:

Fun fact of the day:
As the sun is setting it is getting lower and lower on the horizon and it's light must pass through more of the atmosphere to reach us. This creates a prism effect as the light has to pass through thousands of miles of the atmosphere when the sun dips below the horizon. As this happens the bluer wavelengths of light get scattered leaving the reddest wavelengths to be detected by your eye. This is scattering of the blue, green and violet wavelengths is what creates the beautiful reds and oranges of the sunset.

Read more about the physics of Sunsets at this Scienceblogs.com webpage.

Here are some more shots from the day:

BBLT on a beautiful, sunny calm day

BBLT on a beautiful, sunny calm day

Another gorgeous offshore sunset

September 5, 2013: Thunderstorm!

365 Project, Day 72

Here is my day seventy-two submission to my 365Project:

Tonight was, quite unexpectedly, the first night I got photos of a thunderstorm. These are so rare here in Victoria and I've never tried to photograph them before but I was incredibly happy I managed to get a few photos!

Fun Fact of the day:
Lighting is a giant discharge of electricity accompanied by a brilliant flash and loud crack of thunder. The spark can reach over eight km in length, raise the temperature of the air by as much as 27, 000 degrees Celsius and contain a hundred million electrical volts. 

Read more facts on lightning at National Geographic's page Flash Facts About Lightning. 

Here are some more photos from earlier in the day and from the thunderstorm:

 Morning mist at Beacon Hill Park

Above two photos: Harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) feeding on a salmon just off the beach at Dallas Road early this morning

 I love how this young crow appears to be deep in thought

Gull angel wings

Above two photos: the colours of sunset at Macaulay Point

Above two photos: cruise ship and Ogden Point night lights

We could see the lightning from Macaulay Point but moved to Clover Point and that is were I got the lightning series :)

July 23, 2013: Sunset Silhouette

365 Project, Day 33

Here is my day thirty-three submission to my 365Project:

It was nearing the end of the  mostly overcast day when I realized the clouds had lightened up a bit and we were having a beautiful sunset. One of the other crew was having a stroll around the heli-deck and I noticed his silhouette in the sunset...and thought it would make a nice photo.

July 13, 2013: Ship's Instruments

365 Project, Day 23

Here is my day twenty-three submission to my 365Project:

Another day with sightings but too far for photographs. That was alright because as I was standing, at sunset, on the helideck I noticed all these ship's instruments with the sky behind them and thought they looked cool.

July 10, 2013: Helideck Sunset Bokeh

365 Project, Day 20

Here is my day twenty submission to my 365Project:

I was on the helideck at sunset this evening and thought it might be cool to photograph the sunset on the water as a background to the siding of the helideck. I'm constantly taking sunset and sunrise photos out here and try to find new ways to portray it :)

July 4, 2013: Red Ship in a Hazy Sunset

365 Project, Day 14

Here is my day fourteen submission to my 365Project:

I don't know what it is about the conditions around here (dust? haze? air temperature?) but we've had flat, calm seas and incredibly hazy skies that have created this consistent grey around us all day. We can barely distinguish where the sky and sea meet. Fortunately, at sunset, the sky and water had these amazing colours and I thought the red of the Seabed Prince (the ROV/OBN vessel we're working with) and the sunset looked great together.

MMO and PAM rotation offshore, Mozambique, April 2011

April and May - Mozambique

Following are photos from my rotation offshore Cabo Delgado, Mozambique during April/May 2011. It was a wonderful survey with good weather and calm seas, beautiful sunsets and sunrises and good sightings (over 100!) of a variety of species. It was a delight working this contract especially working onboard the Geo Caribbean, a beautiful newer seismic vessel of 100 m with beautiful crew lounges, a swimming pool on deck, a huge gym and even a large cinema for crew meetings and viewing movies! 

Cabo Delgado lighthouse

There were so many of these guys flying around the ship...beautiful to see while on visual watch!

Mahi Mahi (Coryphaena hippurus) swimming near the boat

Drill ship

Okay, I'm still a new birder...not sure what species this bird is!

Offshore skies :)

False killer whales (Pseudorca crassidens)

Cabo Delgado Lighthouse

Spinner dolphins (Stenella longirostris)

On PAM watch

Offshore sunrises...always beautiful!

View from the Geo Caribbean's bridge wing

Geo Caribbean's bridge lounge area

View of Geo Caribbean's bridge from helideck

Enjoying the helideck :)

Views around the vessel..art on the walls

One of my favourite features of the ship...the swimming pool!

My cabin...not too shabby!

View from my porthole

Stormy sunrise...my last morning on board

The fire team ready for helicopter operations :)

Views from the chopper en route back to shore

Our ride...at Mocimba de Praia

Airport at Mocimba de Praia, Mozambique

Where we waited for our flight to Dar and then home!