Blog #5c The Falkland Islands A mini-series 3 of 5

May 2024

David has arrived….it’s photography here on in for the next week, well maybe apart from a couple of days.

A midday arrival at Mount Pleasant meant after driving back to Stanley (about 45 mins), settling in, and grabbing some food, David and I could head out on the island for the first time together, there was only one place to start, Yorke Bay and the Penguins! David is much more a wildlife photographer than me, he travels extensively to do so but also, as an owner of a farm in Wiltshire, has an abundance of subject matter closer to home too……I knew he’d, if possible, jump at the chance to visit the Falkland’s, as it happened, it worked out well and he did. You can see some of David’s work here https://www.instagram.com/davidwhitewildlife/.

Having been to Yorke Bay previously and not quite managing to capture my ‘money shot’, I knew I wanted to try again should the opportunity arise, I also wanted some portraits and really wanted to get some ICM shots with the Penguins…I thought that would be a little different.

The portraits were going to be the easiest images to capture, an abundance of subjects and some nice light resulted in these couple of full-length efforts, maybe, in hindsight, a real close up of a face, maybe symmetrical & a square crop could have been a nice addition to the stock of images too although I’m not too unhappy with these.

Gentoo…a portrait, the light was fantastic.
ISO100 24mm f4 1/1000

Just a wander along the beach
ISO100 30mm f4 1/1000

I particularly like the second one, the light was perfect here. It wasn’t too long after these shots I turned my attention to getting that money shot. I plonked myself down and waited……Gentoo’s as mentioned, cannot resist being nosey, waiting and watching their antics was enough to keep me happy and very amused, but it didn’t take long for a group to form in front of me, here was my chance and I hopefully didn’t waste it! I loved the formation they took up, making my composition, the behavioural element, whilst I’m sure not intentional, of the ‘supporting cast’ turning their backs, gave a perfect frame for the lead character, standing proud, chin up, it worked out as well as I could have hoped during my visualisation of the image, which started weeks before, 8000 miles away at home in North Wales…..and also bearing in mind my subjects were wild animals.

Standing proud…..but its mates don’t seem too impressed!
ISO200 31mm f5 1/250

Having captured an image I was happy with, and with some time to work with, I tried to get creative with backlighting, silhouettes and those ICM images…..all of which as below, I’m really pleased with. The backlighting, in my mind, needed to be of a juvenile with its downy coat still present, it should catch the rim light well, another opportunity presented itself and I fired off some frames to end up with this one below, a Mohican that David Beckham would have been proud of!

A juvenile Gentoo with some remaining down feathers, a perfect backlighting subject opportunity.
ISO200 312mm f5.6 1/5000

ICM was next, slightly tricky and although I take a considerable amount of these images (so much so that I’m giving a talk on my images to a camera club in June), my subject matter is generally seascapes & landscapes. Clearly there is a lot of trial and error with this genre, although the errors are always learning experiences, I’m also very conscious it’s also seen as very ‘marmite’ as a genre too but I’m definitely a fan….I’ll leave it up to you to decide if you think the images I’ve captured and am sharing are good or not, I always encourage feedback/critique (if that’s what you call it) but ultimately, I shoot for myself and I really like the end results.

ICM Penguins…..love it or hate it?
ISO200 35mm f4 1.3Sec

Not quite as abstract this one…
ISO320 24mm f7.1 0.8Sec

Lastly from Yorke Bay, as the sun was getting low, Mr & Mrs Gentoo were having a conversation alone high up in the dunes, looks like someone is doing the talking here…and I hope they were being listened to. A silhouette was the order of the day for this image.

I wonder if someone is getting an ear bashing here……
ISO200 400mm f5.6 1/1600

Dinner & bedtime were fast approaching, we had a plan to head to Cape Pembroke the next morning for sunrise, I really wanted to show David a Sea Lion there, if one was around…..so we headed home, cleaned all the sand out of our equipment (& boots) and settled in for the night, the alarm was going to be early and a long day was in store as a big trip was planned after our CP visit.

Why do I never sleep well when I know I’ve got an early alarm set? I don’t think I’m alone there, it’s so annoying but at least, however bad the sleep, the day had a couple of really nice photo trips planned and the weather was good, windy as always but sunny and warm…in fact a beautiful sunrise with gorgeous golden light. When we first arrived at CP we split up, I headed toward the lighthouse, I didn’t capture an image of that subject that I was happy with, but I did manage to capture the moon setting over Blanco Bay and the hills to the North of Stanley….I wish the vessel anchored up would have been side on but it doesn’t always work out that way….on the plus side, the Belt of Venus looked lovely and the moon was full.

A longer focal length here kept the moon relatively large in the frame
ISO200 176mm f5 1/1000

Whilst I was busy doing my thing, David headed for the coast. I soon joined him to enjoy that beautiful light and concentrated on the wildlife again and have a great hour or so. Turkey Vultures, Magellanic Cormorants (I think), otherwise known as a ‘Rock Shag’ and the two Sea Lions (maybe an adult and a juvenile) were captured, I massively enjoyed the photography this morning but more so, enjoyed the experience of being in this magical place, I think it would be fair to say, I’m fairly smitten with the Falklands!

I’m conscious of the word count in this blog again, so I’ll end it here with the images from CP…..I’ll let you work out which is which species.