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Caribbean Photography
Ravine & Rocky Bay, Bequia



Another of my trips off the beaten path here on the small Caribbean island of Bequia. This time though, it was not too far off with a 15 minute relatively easy walk off the road, starting at the old hotel on St Hilaire Point, walking down through the bush and scrub, to arrive at a small holding behind Ravine beach.

The beach is a small sweeping bay with a sandy beach, hemmed in on each side by rocks and hillsides, making it quite secluded, but being on the windward side of the island, is open to the prevailing winds.

The rocky headland between Ravine and Rocky Bay made the perfect lookout point, with sweeping views out across both bays, and the hillsides behind, running up to Mount Pleasant.

Rocky Bay is just that and very aptly named. A smaller bay full of rocks of all shapes and sizes, with a scramble down to the beach itself, down one of the rain gulleys. One adventurous sole is building a new home overlooking the bay up on the cliff.

It seems the hillsides around both bays are home to many goats, with their paths running through the bush, making a great way to scramble around, if you're up for imitating a goat that it.

Bequia:
Off the beaten track



One of things I have wanted to do since arriving on Bequia, is to go walking off the beaten track and visit the extreme corners of the island. I visited the Western end of the island, West Cay, a few weeks ago and this time I walked up to the Northern most point of Bequia, Bequia Head.

This time, I decided to go along with a guided group as there are a few plants on this island which can cause serious damage to skin tissue, if you touch them or rub up against them by accident, so I wanted to learn some bushcraft while also learning the routes and tracks across the Northern part of the island.

I joined up with a group being led by Donnaka who has lived on Bequia for many years and who not only runs regular walking.hiking trips across the island, but also manages the tracks, keeping them clear and free of debris, year round.

The hike was great fun, learning about the dangerous Brasil plants on the way and trying to follow some of the paths up through the thick bush that cover the North/Eastern part of the island. We started out at the Park Bay quarry, up through the bush to the ridge, where we met other tracks coming from Spring Top and up from the bay of L'Anse Chemin. From there, we continued to head out along a much better, wider, clearer and flatter trail along the ridge until we again came to a split in the trail, the right hand one going off towards Smugglers Cover and we took the left hand one, single file, towards Bequia Head.



Along the way we were finding lots to keep us busy, finding new plants, smelling the leaves; finding terminite nests; seeing the various type of plants, climbers, creepers and orchids that grown on the many different types of trees along the route. In addition, Donnaka kept us entertained with the history of the islands. A great trip, one that was very informative as well as being great fun.

On arrival at Bequia Head, the view out across the Bequia Channel towards St Vincent was stunning. Being up on top of a high clifftop, the view down towards the sea was blocked by the bush, trees and growth along the hill and cliffside, but the view out was amazing.

A great trip out to one of the points on Bequia that few get to see, and definitely worth the mornings walking. As we returned to our starting point, the vista out across Park Bay, out towards Industry Bay, opened up in front of us.

Caribbean Photography
Lone Tree



I went this evening out intending to shoot the full moon rise, but as seems to be the norm, there was a band of clouds sitting across the horizon, meaning the moon was not visible until later into the evening.

So instead, I headed up to the 'lone tree' on the very top of the ridge, overlooking the Bequia Channel, with stunning views over the islands. As the moon was still in clouds, I decided to look the other way, and shoot the sunset, which turned out to be rather special.

Caribbean Photography
Princess Margaret Beach, Bequia



I spent the afternoon yesterday down at Princess Margaret beach, also known as Tony Gibbons beach. The beach for many years was quite deserted, with a couple of houses hidden away amongst the palm trees and a broken track down from the main road to the land behind. Nowadays,along with the rest of the island, development has grown up where now there is a beach bar, landing jetty and a few more houses perched on the rocky outcrops overlooking the bay.

The beach however is still glorious and still attracts less souls than some of the other more easily accessible beaches on the island. There are still a couple of local vendors selling t-shirts, drinks and local crafts to the tourists, but the main expanse of beach is unspoilt and great spot to 'lime' away an afternoon.



The beach was originally named after a reclusive fisherman who lived on the beach in a makeshift home, until one day in 1958 when Princess Margaret swam ashore from her yacht. The beach was renamed soon after.

It remains one of the most beautiful of Bequia's beaches with a long sweeping bay, golden sands, lined with palms and lush vegetation, it provides a perfect spot to look out over the yachts moored up in the bay and to as the Spring arrives, to catch the sunset out towards West Cay.

Time Lapse Photography
Over Admiralty Bay, Bequia

Also known as the 'Island of Clouds', this sequence seemed very pertinent.



The sequence was edited and brought together using LRTimelapse which is an excellent piece of software, allowing the editing of key frames throughout the sequence, then bringing a smooth transition between the edited frames, resulting in a smooth video sequence. Well worth trying out and the basic version is free.

For those with a keen eye, you'll notice a dust spot which arrived near the end of the 1172 shots I took for this time lapse. Very annoying when they turn up half way through. I have to go back and re-edit the files to remove it.

I have not mastered the workflow fully yet, and video Codecs are very different to image processing, and this version uses my best attempt so far in getting high definition quality up to YouTube.

I hope you enjoy the time lapse.

Help Support Bequia

I am now working on a long term project, to help promote the small island paradise of Bequia using photography, video and time lapse sequences. This is a project that will take me many months to complete and requires a large amount of time and funding to bring it to completion.

If you would like to help support me in this, please donate any amount using the buttons below. Thank you in advance for your support.

Action Bequia Valentines Ball



The Dinner Dance was held last night, Feb 14th 2013, in aid of Action Bequia and its charitable work on the island. Richard Roxburgh and his team organised the evening to raise funds for the great charitable work done though Action Bequia here on the island.

During the evening of music, dancing and three course supper, a painting by internationally acclaimed artist Heidi Muller, was auctioned in aid of the Bequia Youth Sailors; a local charity that teaches young schoolchildren on the island of Bequia to sail.

A group of over 60 people gathered for the evening of fun and festivities enjoying the cocktails and hors d'ouvres before sitting down to lobster salad, locally caught fish and a rich pudding dessert. All washed down with wine, rum punch or further cocktails from the bar! A great evening.

The auction was a great success, with David and Christine Anderson winning with a very generous bid of US$3,600, which will go to the Bequia Youth Sailors.

All proceeds from the night go to Action Bequia's General Fund to help them with their ongoing work on the island to help improve facilities for locals and visitors alike.

A selection of images from the evening can be seen here in the Action Bequia Valentines Ball Gallery. Images can be downloaded by clicking on the image you wish to view, then using the right-click function on your mouse whilst hovering over the picture.

Caribbean Time Lapse Photography
Admiralty Bay



Like the Star Trails from earlier this week, I have been wanting to have a go at Time Lapse photography too, so recently I went up to one of the best viewpoints overlooking to bay and took a series of images.

The process for shooting the images is very similar to that for the star trails, in that you need a series or sequence of images covering a long period of time. For this daytime Time Lapse sequence, I was shooting one image every 10 seconds for about 90 minutes.

For daytime Time Lapse image sequences, the important factors are as normal, exposure, composition and shutter speed, but as I read more into the topic, the suggestion is for a shutter speed of below 1/100th second, especially if shooting moving clouds. The slower shutter speed helps to smooth out the final video.

This initial sequence of images was shot whilst I was out one afternoon and had some time to kill, and BEFORE I had done my homework, so this set was shot at 1/400th and as a result, the Time Lapse is a bit jerky. I have been working on another more recently with a shutter speed of 1/30th, achieved through the use of neutral density filters.

Shooting the sequence is relatively easy once you have an Intervalometer. My Nikon D7000 has one built in, so this help a lot when doing these kind of projects. I set it to take medium resolution JPEG files (as this was simply a trial) and to take one image every 10 seconds, for 90 minutes (90x6=540 shots). Once is was set up, I set it running and sat down and 'Lime'd' the afternoon away with the locals up on Mount Pleasant.

In post processing, there are a couple of ways to do it. If using QuicktimePro, you can automate any processing in Photoshop and then you must save the images as a sequence, with increasing file numbers e.g. Time lapse_001, Time lapse_002 etc. These can then be loaded in Quicktime and the Time lapse developed from there.

I think the easier route is to once again use Lightroom. Edit the first image in the sequence as you want it to look, sync the settings across all the images in the sequence, and then export the Time Lapse using the Slideshow options.

A third and even better route is to use the software LRTimelapse, which helps create a much smoother video file, by averaging out issues with brightness, changes in light levels etc. Its a free download and well worth looking at if you're serious about Time Lapse processing.

Once created, you may wish to add music, titles, and other bits and pieces to the final video and there are many good and relatively low cost video editing softwares out there. I have been checking out Sony Movie Suite Platinum which seems to be a good starting point.

As ever, have some fun with it all and if you really get into it, there is a whole new world of video, dolly's, trollies, and mechanisms to animate the sequence too.

Star Trails
Post Processing



Following on from my earlier blog on How to Shoot Star Trails, I will now explain the post processing work flow to generate the final image.

I shot a sequence of 100 images in RAW and loaded them onto my pc. I used Lightroom to edit the sequence. Here can you edit the image to suit your own likes and dislikes, but as my images were being affected by the light pollution from the next island, I adjusted the colour balance to cool the image, toned down the saturation and the used levels to balance the image and finally sharpened it. Once I completed a single image, I sync'd the settings across all the images of the sequence. This is a very useful feature for this type of project and save a huge amount of time.

I then saved the metadata of the entire sequence and exported the images to a subfolder, in JPEG format. Once completed I loaded up a nifty piece of software called Startrails.exe.

This application was designed to do 2 things, build a final Startrail image from a sequence of shots and as a bonus, it will also build you a timelapse. You simply open the sequence of images, in my case the entire folders worth of Jpegs, and ask it to Build.

A really nice feature of this software is that it builds the image on screen, in front of you, so you can watch the process unfolding.

Once complete, you can save the file as a BMP, JPEG or TIFF and if this is a serious image you're working on, use TIFF. I then adjusted Levels, checked the final sharpening and voilà, the process was finished.

The post processing probably took me half and hour, but as you get used to the work flow, this will be much quicker. The longest part of this type of photography is the taking of the shots, sitting and waiting for your camera to do its thing. Don't forget that book!

Caribbean Night Photography
How to shoot Star Trails



Star Trails are one of those areas of photography that always seemed a bit gimmicky and not too difficult to get a reasonable result, so this week, with the clear Caribbean skies above me, I decided to have a go and see how I got on.

Technique: The aim was to produce a star trail image, not a time lapse sequence, although this came out of the process. I already knew the basics of the two main techniques from past work, but the most popular and in my mind, the better technique, is to take a series of shots at 30 second intervals and then combine them in software in post processing, which I cover later.

The benefit of this technique is that you can easily take a test image, and if you understand the relationship between ISO, Aperture and Speed, then you wont even have to wait 30 seconds : simply up the ISO for the test shot. Also, by shooting for only 30 seconds rather than 30 minutes, you reduce the noise, can check on the images as they come in and you get less noise pollution.

As you are taking pictures of the sky, you will want to use a wide angle lens and I went for my Sigma 10-20mm lens @ 10mm - as wide as I can get. You will also want the lens reasonable wide open, to allow in lots of light, as even with a sky full of stars, the amount of light is not that great. I used F5.6 for this first series.

Composition is a very personal thing and although you can use all of the standard rules like 1/3rds, its entirely up to you what you have in the frame, but some foreground interest is a good idea.

Location is also key. Its best if you have a location with not too much light pollution, although this can be minimised in post production, its better if you capture the best shots you can upfront. My spot was on top of a ridge, overlooking the channel between Bequia and St Vincent and I was surprised at the amount of background light pollution coming from Kingstown, which had to be 'turned down' in post processing.

I use a Nikon D7000 which has a Intervalometer, allowing me to shoot a series of images automatically, in this case, 30second shots, at an interval of 5 seconds to allow the file to be written to the memory card.If your camera doesn't have this function, you can buy third party Intervalometers quite cheaply.

File format is again a big issue and whilst you can do this with JPEG, I would always recommend shooting in RAW. The amount of flexibility RAW files give you is so much more than a JPEG. Post processing in software like Lightroom, Adobe Camera Raw or Photoshop gives you much more latitude when dealing with RAW files and in Lightroom, you can develop one image, then copy the settings to the remaining sequence, saving huge amounts of time.

So, to setup, I visited the location during the day, got my bearings and found out where North was, as I wanted to have the North Star in my frame, as all the stars rotate around it. It just so happened that it was easy to line up North behind the single tree on the ridge.

Once the tripod was set up sturdily, I focused the lens using hyperfocal focusing, turned it to Manual, F5.6, 30secs and then took a series of test shots at differing ISO's to see which was best. In this case ISO800 was needed to capture the stars well enough. ISO800 did give quite a lot of noise, but this again can be removed in post processing either with Lightroom or with third party products like Noiseware.

Setting up the Intervalometer to take 100 shots, 30seconds a frame with a 5 second interval and then off you go. The you wait..... On this occasion as the location was remote, exposed and windy, I went back to the car and read a book for the next hour, checking on the camera an periods during the shoot. You will need to keep yourself occupied while the camera does its thing, so take a book, kindle etc.

The tree in this shot was very dark and I had already decided to light it during the shots at the end of the sequence using a torch, to bring out some detail in its trunk and leaves. However, after about 45-50mins into the shoot, the heavens opened and the rain poured down - a typical Caribbean storm. I grabbed the camera and ran back to the car.

I will cover the Post processing in another blog post.

Caribbean Photography
Light, Movement and time



Following on from this weeks visit to Hope Beach, I thought it a good idea to use it as a demonstration of slowing down motion in bright lighting conditions.

One of the challenges of shooting in the Caribbean is the very bright light that we all love. When shooting seascapes where you may want to slow down the motion of the crashing waves up the beach, the speed of a shot become very important... and challenging.

To capture the crashing waves on Hope Beach, I wanted to get to a shutter speed of around 1 second. Normally to achieve this Id go out at dusk or dawn and capture the movement more easily due to the lack of light, but in the morning sunshine, its more difficult.

The answer is to use a very strong neutral density filter which drastically reduces the amount of light entering the camera.

A 10 stop filter, also known as an ND110 is what I chose to use. This reduces the shutter speed by 1000 times, so a shutter speed of say 1/500th without the filter becomes 2 seconds with it. There are Iphone apps (NDCalc) to help you calculate this, or charts are regularly printed in photographic magazines.

On the beach, the waves were doing two things that I wanted to capture; they were surging up the beach and then running back into the sea and directly in front of where I was standing, there were a range of rocks, which were catching the water and creating some nice patters as the water returned to the sea.

To see what shutter speed worked best, I took series of shots to capture different speeds; 1,2 and 3 seconds. Each speed gives a slightly different result and its up to personal choice which is preferred. My own preference, the initial shot at the top of this blog, was to blend the 1 & 2 second shots to get good patterns in both the rocks and coverage of the beach.

1 Second


2 seconds


3 seconds

Caribbean Photography
Hope Bay, Bequia



This week I headed off the beaten track and down through the scrub-filled hillside to Hope Bay, on the windward side of the island.

A beautiful sweeping bay, lined with Palm trees and a good sandy beach, with rocks coming out into the sea at either end of the bay... Lots to photograph. Hidden in amongst the palm trees were a couple of small 'shacks', no doubt setup a few years ago by an enterprising local trader to sell what he could find on the beach, which was laden with fan corals.... as well as all the ocean jetsam that gets blown in on the prevailing winds and tides.









As this was my first visit, it was more a reccy trip, finding out what was around so that I can return another time with more colourful lighting conditions.

The winds were blowing and the sea were rolling in, waves crashing across the bay and spray covering the camera and lenses. With the wet, slippery rocky conditions at either end of the bay, it made for challenging mornings shooting. It was a good opportunity to use the strong ten stop filter to slow down the motion of the crashing waves, but I'll cover this in another blog post.





One of the questions I get asked a lot here as the breeze comes down the valley into the main bay, is "does the wind really blow that strong?" I think this tree tells you the answer.

Caribbean Sailing Photography
Perini Navi Luna



Today I continued my long standing love affair with the superyachts, in particular,those from Perini Navi in Italy.

This afternoon I watched a glorious yacht motor into the bay and moor up, raise the yellow customs flag and settle into Caribbean life in Admiralty Bay, Bequia.

I immediately noticed it, with its easily recognisable lines, polished hull with the water reflecting of its hull and its superstructure gleaming in the afternoon sunlight.

This yacht is now called 'Luna' but was originally 'Galaxia' and that's where it gets interesting. A few years ago I visited the Perini shipyard and was shown around three of the yachts being built and refurbished, Galaxia being one of them. I was shown around and on board and to say luxurious doesn't even begin to capture this amazing boat.

A very happy afternoon dreaming ...

Caribbean Photography
The Super Yachts come to Bequia



Following on from the arrival of 'Andromeda' earlier in the day, another large yacht sailed into Bequia just as the sun was setting this evening.

Superyacht 'Athos', a 62m Hoek Design schooner which was only launched in 2010. She arrived as the sun was setting and moored up in Admiralty Bay. Being such a large yacht, she had to moor up way out in the bay so it was difficult to get a great shot of her, but she did provide an interesting foreground for those of us who love sailing.

If nothing else, she stood out for having one of the highest masts in the bay at 201ft!

A very Happy New Year from the Caribbean island of Bequia.



Some of you may know that as well as being a photographer, I am also a qualified Yacht Skipper and ran yachts for a number of years, including one here on the island of Bequia in St Vincent & the Grenadines a few years ago.

As well as being a Skipper, I have had a love affair with some of the larger yachts for many years too, with my own personal dream yacht being one of the Perini Navi yachts from Italy.

So today as I relaxed on the beach down at Lower Bay on Bequia, I watched intensely as a very beautiful yacht cruised into the harbour and moored up just off the beach. It was 'Andromeda La Dea', one of the 47m Perini Navi Superyachts. A great New Years present if there was ever one.

Have a great New Year wherever you spend it, and whoever you spend it with. Here on the island, it is called 'Old Years Night' to celebrate the passing of another year. I'll be raising a rum punch or two to all tomorrow night.

Here's to a fantastic, fun filled and successful 2013.

Caribbean Photography
Playing on the dock



As its the holidays and the schools are out, the young people and children on the island here take to playing in the water and in particular, playing on the many docks around the main bay.

I'm sure you remember the days of younger years when the game was to soak your friends, either by pushing them in, or jumping in yourself and causing such a splash as to get them wet. By the time sunset comes along, everyone is soaked anyway, but they still carry on jumping, swimming, boarding, splashing..... its just great fun.

Shot straight into the sun a half-hour before sunset, the top right is a little burnt out and the tones are golden from the setting sun, but I just liked the scene.

Caribbean Photography
Sunset across Admiralty Bay, Bequia



A wonderful golden and pink sunset last evening as the clouds were forming amazing patterns in the skies above, catching the glow of the sun once it had disappeared below the horizon.

Sitting outside the Whaleboner Bar enjoying a rum punch only added to the wondrous spectacle going on in front of us all.

They say that you know its a great sunset when the locals stop what they are doing and come out and join you to watch, which is what happened last night. We all enjoyed the show.

Caribbean Photography
Sunset over West Cay



It was a golden sunset yesterday, with a thin strip of cloud along the horizon catching the glow.

I was driving around to the far side of the bay here, when I stopped to watch the sunset over the yachts moored up in Admiralty Bay.

If you look closely, you can see a commercial boat which has run aground between the 2 islands at the far end of Bequia, Big Cay & West Cay. It was trying to squeeze through the gap as a short cut, but ran aground and yes yet to be salvaged.

Caribbean Photography
Into the fires of hell



Have recently watched the Pirates of the Caribbean, At Worlds End, with its links to the underworld, green flashes, turning the world upside down etc, it seemed fitting to name this small series 'Into the fires of hell'.

The sunset tonight was awesome, the clouds spread across the sky in such a way as to catch the colours of the setting sun. Once down below the horizon the sky lit up with golds, oranges, pinks and yellows, that went on for about an hour. An amazing show and one Im getting used to out here on Bequia.

The Royal Clipper cruise ship was moored out in the bay, out towards the western end of the island, providing a good point of interest, but with the colour spreading across the entire bay, it was difficult to know where to look and which scene to shoot. It was definitely one of those times when you were spoilt for choice and even the tourists were out with their compacts catching the moment.

A glorious end to the day.

Caribbean Photography
Golden Sunset Strip



It was a colourful sunset last night, but only in a small part of the sky. A thin strip of cloud, of differing types, sat along the horizon and probably up to 10% of the sky above, forming a horizontal band of colour, that progressed from orange, to pink, to the real dark dusky pink, before disappearing all together.

It also lasted quite a while, which was good as I was meeting with friends and kept running out to take a shot or two, but they are already getting used to me here, camera in hand.

All of the shots are taken from the shoreline in Port Elizabeth, Bequia, out across Admiralty Bay and the boats and yachts moored there, out towards West Cay, the western most point of the island.

Caribbean Photography
Sunset over the Old Fort, Bequia



It was a lovely dusky pinky blue sunset here a few days ago and I decided to head over to the Hamilton Old Fort, overlooking the bay and out towards West Cay and the end of the island. Built in the 1770's as one of three forts defending Admiralty Bay, the original fort has long since gone, but French and English cannons, recovered from the waters around Bequia, now adorn the site.

The sun had already set, but the colours were being caught by the clouds across the entire sky. It was a shame there weren't more clouds!

The canons make it an interesting viewpoint, with the guns pointed out across the incoming waters, a great defensive position.