A couple of years ago I did a short video where I demonstrated some techniques that utilised the Nik suite of plug-ins for processing photographs with ice and snow. Specifically, how you use the Tonal Contrast filter in Color-EFX Pro to ensure you had both tone and contrast in your snow and ice (without tone and texture in snow and ice all you have is a flat white scene). Google (who owns Nik) has more or less abandoned the entire Nik suite in recent times (and updates have been non-existent) so I have likewise abandoned Nik and switched over to the Luminar plugin by MacPhun. As a result of this switch I wanted to demonstrate how you can not only achieve the same effect as the Tonal Contrast filter in Nik with the Luminar suite, but actually have even more control over the results. As an added bonus the Luminar plug-in also runs a lot faster than the old Nik plug in. The short video below demonstrates how to achieve wonderful texture and tone in your snow and ice in just a few steps. Just click on the image below to watch the video.
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Digital Trends – Feature Interview with Polar Photographer Joshua Holko
Antarctica, Media, News and Updates, Travel Photography, Video, Wildlife PhotographsTwo days ago I returned to Punta Arenas at the bottom of South America from my expedition to photograph the world’s largest Emperor Penguin colony at Gould Bay in a very remote part of Antarctica. To date this trip represents the most complicated, most logistically difficult, and most weather dependant (as well as highest cost) trip I have ever undertaken. This was an absolutely life changing experience that I will have a full report on when I return home around the middle of December. In the meantime, I have uploaded a couple of video snippets I shot during the expedition that will give you some insight into what the expedition was like. Just click on the images below to play the videos.
I also wanted to share a recent interview I did with Digital Trends on Polar Photography, my thoughts on wildlife photography and global warming. My thanks to Bill Schiffner at Digital Trends for the interview.
During the 2016 PhotoPlus show in New York City, Digital Trends sat down with the winner of the 2015 Global Arctic Photographer of the Year award, Joshua Holko, and talked to him about how he got into photographing polar bears in the Arctic and penguins of the Antarctic (far treks from his home in warmer Australia), the effects of global warming, and his methods. Holko runs photography workshops and expeditions to some of the world’s wildest and remotest regions in both the Arctic and Antarctic.
You can read the full interview online: Digital Trends Interview with Joshua Holko
Tomorrow I am leaving South America and flying to the Falkland Islands where I will board our ship Polar Pioneer for my last expedition of the year to South Georgia Island and Antarctica – Photographers First Light. I am looking forward to sharing this expedition with all aboard and special invitees the Canon Collective. Having Canon Australia aboard for this expedition is going to be a fantastic boon for all aboard. Canon are providing access to a wide range of some of the latest professional camera equipment (including Canon EOS 1DX Mark II and 5D MKIV cameras and a wide range of Professional L series lenses) for our exclusive use in the field during the expedition. I will have no internet for the next few weeks so this will be my last planned update until I return in early December. See you in time for Christmas.
Arctic Arts Presents at Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavik Iceland
Arctic, Media, News and Updates, Travel Photography, VideoThe Arctic Arts Project of which I am a project photographer is in final preparation for The Arctic Circle assembly in Reykjavik, Iceland, where we will be co-presenting with Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, Earth Vision Institute and Stefansson Institute. With Photographers: Kerry Koepping, Örvar A. Þorgeirsson, Joshua Holko, Iurie Belegurschi, Carsten Egevang, Andy Williams and Marc Muench. Unfortunately, I will be unable to attend in person due to my other travel commitments. However, I can share a preview of the video we will be showing at the Assembly. Just click on the image below. Read more about the Arctic Circle Assembly HERE.
Kingdom of the Ice Bear – Movie Release
Arctic, Media, News and Updates, Travel Photography, Video, Workshops and ExpeditionsIn August this year (2015) I took a small film crew (Untitled Film Works) with me on a photographic expedition to the very edge of the permanent pack ice, high above the Arctic circle. At our most northerly position we were a mere 500 nautical miles from the North Pole. The film crew documented our expedition as we searched for and photographed the increasingly rare, elusive and threatened Polar Bear. During the expedition we also photographed stunning Arctic landscapes as well as other Arctic wildlife including Walrus, Arctic Fox, Reindeer, and more. It was our intention to capture and share the experience of what it is actually like to travel on a dedicated photographic expedition with a small group of passionate photographers. I am now thrilled to release the short movie of our experiences – Kingdom of the Ice Bear. Be sure to dim the lights, crank up the volume and enjoy. My sincere thank you to Untitled Film Works and all of those participants who partook in this extraodinary expedition – thank you. Just click on the image below to play the movie.
If you are interested in travelling to the Arctic to Photograph Polar Bears in their natural environment I will be leading two expeditions in 2016 (Sold Out) and 2017. Please email me for additional information or to register your interest.
ViewBug Wanderer Photo Contest – A Judges Thought Process
Media, News and Updates, VideoI recently judged the Wanderer Photo contest for ViewBug website and was subsequently interviewed a few days ago by Laurie Rubin on my thoughts on what makes a winning photograph and what I look for when judging photography competitions. The interview is now online and can be viewed HERE or by clicking on the image below. Enjoy.
Lightroom Creative Cloud New Features Worth Noting
Equipment, Landscape Photographs, News and Updates, Photographs, Uncategorized, VideoUnless you have been living on an iceberg you already know that Lightroom 6 / Creative Cloud was released today by Adobe systems. Amid the buzz and hype of the option to purchase Lightroom outright or move to the subscription “Cloud” option (If you are already a full suite subscriber such as myself its a free download to add Lightroom Creative Cloud) and the somewhat spurious facial recognition and HDR offerings (and did we really need ‘Pet eye correction?’) there are actually a couple of pretty cool new features – One of which I have been wanting for a very long time.
As a landscape and Nature photographer one of the tools I find myself frequently using in Lightroom is the graduated filter. I still use graduated neutral density filters extensively in the field as I prefer to do as much as possible in camera, but I also frequently find a need to use the Lightroom offering as well. The problem up until now has been its been difficult to darken a sky for example without darkening the peaks of a mountain that rise up into the sky.
Take the photograph above as an example. If I apply a gradient filter to this sky in Lightroom 5.x and pull it down over the mountains it very quickly destroys the image as the tops of the mountain peaks are darkened along with the sky. This creates a very unnatural effect. Up until now you had to accept the darkened peaks and then create a local adjustment and paint back in exposure compensation where the peaks had been darkened – it was a real pain. Now in Lightroom 6 / Creative Cloud Adobe has given us the option to paint out areas of the graduated filter and solve this problem of unnaturally darkened peaks without a kludgy work around. Landscape photographers rejoice. Our workflows just got simpler. The technique is quite well illustrated in the video below that outlines some of the new features in Lightroom 6 / CC.
The other new feature I am very pleased to see relates to performance. Lightroom 5.x was notoriously sluggish. Even my 8-core Mac Pro with 64 gig of RAM and a super fast SSD didn’t set any speed records for image processing. In this new release Adobe has finally enabled GPU processing in the develop module which means if your GPU is compatible you should see a fairly significant boost in the responsiveness of the develop module adjustments. Details of how to check this feature are also in the video above.
South Georgia Antarctica Experience Video 2014
Antarctica, News and Updates, South Georgia, Travel Photography, Video, Workshops and ExpeditionsMy good friend and fellow photographer Antony Watson has just finished a video of our experiences last year in the Falkland Islands, South Georgia Island and Antarctica and you can now watch the video online (Click to Read the Trip Report). Just click on the image below to watch the video – Enjoy.
If you are interested in travelling to South Georgia Island and the Weddell Sea Antarctica I have an expedition this November to South Georgia Island and to Antarctica in February next year. Places are now extremely limited on both expeditions. There is now only one remaining place on South Georgia Island expedition before it will be sold out.
I am heading out of Reykjavik later today up to the very north (and very wild and remote) western tip of Iceland on an expedition to Photograph Arctic Foxes for an ongoing project. See you back in Reykjavik in a week or so – weather permitting a timely return.
Baby Elephant Seal Play Time in South Georgia
Antarctica, News and Updates, Photographs, South Georgia, Travel Photography, Video, Wildlife PhotographsOne of the most fantastic experiences you can have during a Nature photography expedition is getting close to wildlife. Close encounters with wild animals are always special and can yield wonderful photographs. During the recent twenty one day expedition I lead to South Georgia Island and Antarctica we were fortunate to have some wonderful close encounters with wildlife. One of the most memorable was with a baby Elephant Seal at Grytviken Harbour in South Georgia. This very curious and inquisitive baby seal decided it would be good fun to play in the shallows and kiss the underwater camera. Just click on the image below to play the video.
It is important to note that this seal approached us on its own and was in no way stressed or harmed – it was merely curious. In fact, during our time in Antarctica we had several participants who even had curious baby seals approach them and try to climb up onto them whilst they were lying down and taking photographs. Baby seals are often very curious and its quite common for them to not only approach well within five metres but also to touch, push and play with people. We always respect wildlife and boundaries to the wildlife and enjoy these special moments when the wildlife decides to come to us and investigate.
The underwater housing featured in this short video and that was used to make this photograph is an Aquatech Delphin 1DX housing with underwater dome port.
Nature’s Best Photography Highly Honoured – Polar Experience Video
Arctic, Media, News and Updates, Travel Photography, Video2015 has arrived with a bang and I am very excited to announce that the short film – A Polar Photography Expedition Experience, that I produced last year with Untitled Film Works has been Highly Honoured as a finalist in the most recent Nature’s Best Photography Awards. Video is a new category for the Nature’s Best Photography Awards and it is a fantastic thrill to have been highly honoured as a first time entrant into this new category. Untitled Film Works will be joining me again this year on my Kingdom of the Ice Bear expedition to produce a new video of our experiences as we photograph the king of the Arctic – the Polar Bear. Look for the new video toward the end of this year. You can watch the highly honoured Polar Photography Expedition Experience video by clicking on the image below.
Untitled Film Works to Film Kingdom of the Ice Bear Expedition
Arctic, Media, News and Updates, Photographs, Video, Wildlife Photographs, Workshops and ExpeditionsLast year I commissioned Untitled Film Works to travel with me to the Arctic to create a short movie of what it was like to be on a photographic expedition in Greenland and Svalbard with a group of dedicated and passionate photographers (In case you missed it you can watch it HERE). The resulting movie was released early this year and spread quickly across the internet. It was a huge amount of fun and we received a large amount of email corresponedence complimenting us on the video. Ultimately, it achieved what I hoped it would – it gave an insight into what it was like to travel on a dedicated polar photography expedition in the Arctic.
Now, I am very excited to announce and share that Untitled Film Works have been commissioned for a second movie and will accompany myself, Daniel Bergmann and ten keen and passionate photographers on our Kingdom of the Ice Bear Expedition north of Svalbard in August next year. During this expedition we plan to photograph and film wild Polar Bears living and hunting in their natural environment on the permanent pack ice under the spectacular midnight sun. We also hope to film many other Arctic species including Walrus, Arctic Fox, Whales and more. We will produce a second short movie and then release it toward the end of next year. The movie will be made freely available as before.
The movie will be shot on a combination of a 6K RED Epic Dragon Cinema Camera as well as several Canon EOS 1DC Cinema cameras. It is my hope that this movie will help raise awareness for not only global warming, but also more specificially, the plight of the Polar Bear as the sea ice continues to thin under its feet. 
Our Kingdom of the Ice Bear Expedition is now almost sold out (only one place remaining). If you are interested in joining us or have any questions about the expedition please just drop me an email.
Holko's Test 