This past month has been a great month for photography in the Bay Area. Flowers are in bloom and birds come from all around to enjoy the warm days. However, this month has been hectic for me. I've had three midterms, the biannual plant sale at the botanical garden, stress from trying to find a job, and worrying about grad school applications. Taking pictures has been my stress relief this month. Here are my favorite shots from the past month!
Just Some Thoughts
It's already the second of March. I missed an entire month without an update. Whoops.
But to be honest, not much has changed. I'm nearing halfway through the semester and just finished my last midterm. Things have been fluttering through my mind: 1a. I'd like to start a Kickstarter to document the health of the Coral Triangle and the people that depend on it 1b. An alternative Kickstarter would be to purchase an underwater housing for my Nikon D7100 so that I can photograph freshwater streams throughout the Pacific Northwest during salmon runs and 2. Thinking about graduate schools and which programs to apply to. I have to start focusing on graduate school—researching schools, getting in contact with different labs, applying for grants, and getting summer research done to put on my resume—but at the same time, if my Coral Triangle Kickstarter gets funded I may have to postpone parts of the graduate school process (but a Kickstarter like that will likely not get funded so I probably won't have to worry about that).
Anyway, here are some pictures that I took recently. Hope you like them!
I also made a 2 hour and 15 minute timelapse (30 second video) of the clouds undulating over Briones Regional Park. It had some shaking from the wind blowing on the tripod really hard (I forgot to anchor the tripod down) and I opted YouTube to attempt to stabilize it and it gave me this strange wavy effect near the end of the video. Here's the video:
Timelapse Practice
Here's another timelapse of the sun setting that I've created as practice! It's by far my favorite that I've made so far. I think it looks really nice.
Also, keep an eye out for new pictures. I'll be uploading some great ones tonight! Here's a couple from the new crop:
Welcome Home
After a little over more than two months in the South Pacific, I've returned to California. I've missed the cold, crisp air but I don't know if I'll be able to cope with not being able to snorkel. If you're bored in Moorea, you slap on a pair of fins, put on a mask, and go snorkeling. But in Berkeley...not so much. On the bright side I got my new Nikon D7100. Here are some of the first pictures with it:
And now—since I've become all sad that I've left paradise—I'd like to share some of my favorite images that I took on the islands of French Polynesia.
Teti'aroa
On Friday, November 14th the class sailed to Teti'aroa, the atoll known for having been purchased by Marlon Brando after filming Mutiny on the Bounty. The islands are very isolated from any other land and are only a few feet above sea level so unfortunately the whole atoll will be gone in the fairly near future. The island is a biologically fascinating place. Islands unspoiled by introduced rats are coated in seabirds and their young.
The atoll is also fascinating and beautiful underwater. Because it's so isolated and because the reef is so long and deep, there's a lot of very rare and uncommon fish. Unfortunately, this year when they were finishing building the insanely expensive hotel, the Brando ($3800 per night for the cheapest room), they blasted a hole in the reef to allow for ships to enter and exit the lagoon. The health of the reef has dropped significantly since then. Hopefully it's capable of adjusting and rebounding.
One final image to leave you with:
Entering the Fifth Week
I wanted to make this post today—having not posted a blog entry since arriving on Mo'orea—to give a little update on what has been happening down here in the tropics. I chose today because tomorrow our class will be heading north to the atoll Tetiaroa, well-known as Marlon Brando's island. There we'll be checking out the insane reefs, the massive fish that hang out there, the shark nurseries, and the bird rookeries.
Anyway, since arriving here I decided to study cleaner wrasses here in Mo'orea. These fascinating little fish are unbelievably complex, charismatic, and important for the reef ecosystems across the Pacific. They make fish healthier and healthier fish make a healthier reef. Check out this picture of one that spent a good 5-6 minutes cleaning my fins (sorry about the graininess—it's surprisingly hard taking pictures of the bottom of the fins you're trying to swim with):
I spend about five hours per day, three to four days per week in the water looking at 100m² quadrats and counting fish, coral cover, and algae cover. This gives me time to see some insanely beautiful things. I'd like to share with you some of my favorite sights and experiences:
California Academy of Sciences
We depart next week for Tahiti and then Moorea. Today we made a long stop at the California Academy of Sciences to learn about reef fish and observe about three hours of their behavior.
In essence there was a lot of heads whipping back and forth following fish:
I've added a few pictures to Cities, Life on Land, and Life Aquatic from the museum visit. Here are some of the additions if you're too lazy to click and access the galleries above:
It's aliveeee!
If you're reading this it's because you're on my new website—obviously. After years I decided to finally stop messing around with Flickr, 500px, and other photography websites and just make my own. I'd like to welcome you to my website and thank you for visiting. I hope you enjoy what you see!
In a few weeks I'll be heading off to Mo'orea—one of the Society Islands next to Tahiti—for a semester long research course. I hope to be taking some great shots on the island and hopefully I'll be able to expand or improve many of my portfolio galleries and maybe even introduce a new one dedicated to the islands of the Pacific.
Until then I'll be taking pictures around campus and around the Bay Area in general and adding them to this blog. Really hope you like what you see!
I'll leave you with this experimental timelapse I created to test out some of my new gear:
See you soon
-Nick