Palau Jam Clouds 3

During my trip to the Misool Ecoresort in Raja Ampat, Indonesia, I put most of my effort into underwater photography, but also photographed landscape images whenever a boat was available. Numerous islands beckoned to be photographed, but I was especially intrigued by a series of small, rocky islands that I could see on the northern horizon.  From a distance, the Palau Jam group appeared to barely be above water and crowned by only a few coconut trees. After staring at these islands for almost 2 weeks, I had an opportunity to borrow a boat for the 45 minute journey. I invited the resort’s other guests on all of my forays, and on this afternoon Thomas & Nigel from the UK decided to join me. As we approached the islands, I noticed that the largest had a magnificent sandy beach which made the turquoise water glow in the afternoon light. I composed this scene to the best of my abilities given the stormy conditions while standing in the shallow water. I tried to photograph the sunlight refraction patterns, but it was too windy to see them. However, billowing storm clouds added the required layer of drama and made this my favorite landscape photo from my trip. I created this image using my Canon 5DmkII, Carl Zeiss 28mm f2 ZE lens, and Singh-Ray LB Warming Polarizer. This image required minimal processing using Aperture 3 and Photoshop CS5.

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Also, check out my HD video on YouTube that I created with my iPhone!