Joerg Bonner Photography & Travel Blog: 2012

Kryptonice

We had planned to visit Iceland in June, but due to a few circumstances beyond our control we were forced to postpone our trip to September. In the end this turned out to be a good choice: less tourists and the prospect of viewing the northern lights...

Berserkjahraun

There's a lot more to discover about Iceland than just epic landscapes. But although Iceland well known for its literature I for one did not pay too much attention to icelandic sagas – at least not until we had photographed a lava field called Berserkjahraun.

Calm Before the Storm

After all these posts in the landscape category I think it's about time for a little change. It's not all about mountains, streams and coastlines - so here we go: here's a wildlife image from just little over a year ago.

Stream of Life

It takes some time to accomodate to the sulfurous air, but the smell only adds to the otherworldly experience of a visit to the Hverir high-temperature area, where smoking steam vents and bubbling mud pots are scattered right next do Iceland's Ring Road.

Perpendicular Dream

Today, after my last post's visit to Iceland's icy and well-known shores (check out: "Beached Jewel") I'm going to take you to one of South Africa's secluded gems. Hidden away and well protected by a long and bumpy dirt road lies a unique coastal feature...

Beached Jewel

In my last post "Last Moments of Light" I tried to explain why I prefer shooting at little known locations far away from civilization. That's right, I do strive for a certain amount of uniqueness and adventure in my images but drawing the conclusion that I wouldn't stop for shooting an icon right next to the main road would be completely wrong.

Last Moments of Light

If you're a photographer yourself, you may well have experienced that the most demanding challenges you face are the ones that leave lasting memories. It's the outer circumstances that make those moments, regardless whether they are of success or failure, so special. A picture taken from a car park, no matter how iconeous the scenery or dazzling the light, will never be the same as one that you took one day's march away from civilization.

Tableview

I don't do black & white conversions very often. It's not that I don't like working in monochrome. I rather think that creating a truly shining b&w image is way harder than working in colour. All possible flaws become far more prominent when you reduce a photograph to it's minimum: contrast and texture.

Elusive Hues

There was no time to scout for another composition. I didn't want to miss a second of what was going on on the main stage (more on that in another post). I simply turned around, positioned my tripod, pressed the shutter button twice and turned back.

The Icy Blues

It's a remote, but incredibly beautiful mountain and has a massive, unclimbed east face - that's more or less all I could find out about Cerro San Lorenzo researching the web. What seemed to qualify this peak as a tempting challenge for top-notch mountaineers also looked promising with landscape photography in mind.

A Desert's Sky

In addition to lots of positive feedback (thank you all for your comments!) my image "A Desert's Sky" has also raised lots of questions all around the web. How did you do it? Which settings did you use? What equipment? Here's a little summary of how this image was created.

Scorched Paradise

On 27th of December 2011 a severe case of human ignorance caused a fire in Chile's Parque Nacional Torres del Paine. Within a few days more than 15.000 hectares of native forest, brushland and steppe fell victim to the flames and the inferno put the park's wildlife at serious risk.
Once again irresponsible tourist behaviour had lead to an environmental catastrophe in one of the most beautiful and most vulnerable areas of the world.

The Far Side

It was our third morning out there and we had already been thinking about not even getting out of the car. All that we could see in the west was a thick layer of low lying clouds. A few curtains of rain were hauled around by the wind. After two cloudless sunrises it seemed like this time we wouldn't even get to see the Fitz Roy range at all.

Morning Stroll

We were excited when we jumped into the car at Halali Rest Camp a few minutes before sunrise. It was our second morning in Etosha National Park and we had big hopes. "If you want to see the predators, you have to be out there around sunrise or sunset", was what everybody had told us. But, would it be that easy?

Back from Patagonia

After returning from our first trip to Patagonia I somehow had the feeling that I had to go back. We had seen a lot, but I felt there was so much more. Even the parts that we had already visited had so much to offer, that I was more than tempted to go there once again. And so we went...