The surf is up!

Thurso is hosting an international surf event, the O`neill Highland Open at the moment, with the creme de` la creme of the international surfer elite attending.

After some surfing at Brims Ness because there was no propper surf in Thurso (sort of pancake flattness that only happens once a year) the contest finally made back to town with some whopping waves going on at Thurso East.

I contacted a fello photo buddy and off we went. After some long huha, I finally convinced him not to be a chicken and to go out on the rocks to get some good photo shots done. We braved the slippery seabed and kelp covered rocks and got a good view point not too far from the shore.

I was lucky enough to see the reigning word champion, Sunny Garcia from Hawaii and some other top surfers. Here are the fruits of my brave effort featuring Sunny Garcia, Michel Bourez, Adam Melling and Renato Galvao.

Next year I will be back with some wellingtons though....:-)

Judging

Today I recieved a letter asking me if I would like to judge the photo competition of the annual Caithness County Show in July this year.
Unfortunately I have to decline this tempting offer due to family commitments. I would have loved to do this as there are many talented photographers out there who might show their work.
Ironicly last year I would have been able to accept... but nobody has asked me then :-)

Excercises

I had four very good photo trips in one week, wow, thats an excellent outcome when you think that something is usually not wanting to cooperate. Light, clouds, mood and weather were perfect on each shot and location.

To me as a landscape photographer this was fantastic news, and made my heart go boomboom...

Finally I got round to process the photos on the pc and thought I give it nice and moody B&W treatment. I find it quite difficult to get B&W right, so I do practise a lot! There is so much that can go wrong... contrast, brightness, shadows... you name it.

For me there is no all in one treatment with some photoshop actions, I process every photo individually and you might see this in the outcome..... now and then :-))

At the beginning ot the month I have entered a competition in a national photo magazine. They wanted to have readers best HDR photos. I thought I give it a try and I am very curious what the outcome of this will be... watch this space...

Time to reflect...

Arent reflections in the wather just gorgeous? Whenever I see a nice reflection there is no stopping me... Over the last week I have captured two of the most superb refelctions I have come across in years and I thought I am gonna share them with you...

SWPP Gold awards March 2008

I am absolutely delighted to see that I have managed to get yet another three of the hard to come by SWPP Gold awards in March.

This time the judging was a lot stricter than last month with lots of images getting Bronze, a few getting Silver and only a handful getting Gold.

Since I became a member of the SWPP in March last year I have managed to get 25 of those awards. The desire to get more of them drives me on and on to go out and get better images...

Here are my awarded pictures: Fine Art, Monochrome and Science & Nature

The new website is online!

Well, finally after a long Hoohah, I have managed to get my new website online yesterday evening.
What you see will be the first basic shell, but for now it will do.
I am delighted that I have managed to pull this one off with a completely new program, which has caused me the one or the other few new grey hair.
I hope you will enjoy it the same than you did with the old site, visitor number show me that it is already in demand... thanks for visiting!

SWPP Gold awards February

In February I have entered 4 images in the monthly SWPP competition. The pet entry was nominated a "Gold" award.

I did not expect to get gold for this one at all, the one I thought would do well only got a bronze...

How one can be wrong... *laughs*

The departure

On Sunday 9th Julie and Colin Angus ( http://www.angusadventures.com/ ) finally set off from Duncansby Head, Caithness, Scotland on their trip to Syria.

Again, I wish them well, have a good and safe journey!

See my photos also on: http://www.hellyhansen.com/sport/index.php?menu=8

and on

http://ridethisbike.com/2008/03/rowed-trip-day-1-cycling-from-duncansby.html

The rowed trip...

Having finally met Colin and Julie Angus http://www.angusadventures.com/rowedtrip/index.html on Thursday this week, I could hardly wait to "shoot" them on Friday.
We went to John o` Groats where Julie and Colin let their two fantastic boats Tantalum and Niobium into scottish waters for the first time.
They had a great time rowing in and around the little harbour.

Today was the big departure day for their journey from North of Scotland to Syria. I really hope that all goes well on your trip and that you will have a smooth journey and return home safe and sound in 5 months.

It was fantastic meeting you!

Photography Monthly Photo Magazine

Back at Christmas Lisa from Photography Monthly contacted me yet again and asked if I would have any good storm photos.

As skies are a favourite subject of mine I gave her a good selection of what I thought might be suitable images.

In the March issue they have published 7 of my photos.