I was lucky to be asked up to visit the late summer harvest at a farm near Davis. They were in the midst of collecting melons and tomatoes for delivery around the country and were busy running the operation. The workers and hosts were kind enought to stop in the middle of their busy schedules to give our group an insight into the logistics, visit the different operations, let us wander around the farm equipment and enjoy the process. It was a relatively cool day, nowhere near the normal 100+ degrees you would expect at this time of year, but even so this is hard, hard work and all of us ought to think about this when we dine on the wonderful fruits and vegetables that are produced in California.

Below is an image of the honeydew melon harvest operation, a coordination between planting, order requirements, packaging and ripeness. To get the honeydews into your house at the right time takes a knowledgable and experienced farm owner, that’s why the imports from Hondorous and South America that we are faced with in the Winter are tasteless, they have to travel large distances and consequently are not picked at the peek of ripeness. But last weekend I was able to taste the fruit stright from the field, hand selected – these are the best melons I’ll even be lucky enough to enjoy.

Since it was an old family farm you can bet there were all kinds of old equipment, tools and machinery lying around. Here’s a photo of an old Catapillar tractor that was sitting around. The whole place was loaded with potential and I’ll be posting a few more images from here in the near future.

In the heart of Copenhagen, a few steps from Nyhaven is the wonderful shopping street of Strøget – a pedestrian walk way typical of Europe with lots of side streets to wander down and many places to explore. During the Christmas season the whole area is a blaze of decorations and lights. We passed by the Illums store many times and the display while we were visiting was quite eye catching with changing lights colors and the remarkable amount of decoration involved. The days were short and dark, making the light shows look amazing all day long – it doesn’t even get to “dawn” much before 8:30am in deep winter and it’s dark by about 4pm (and usually cold all day long). I spent a lot of time wandering the streets before most people were even stirring and the shops were shut tight. We were lucky enoguh to be staying Nyhaven right on the central canal there and got to see the best of Copenhagen. Quite a wonderful city and very pedestrian (and bicycle for that matter) friendly, I wish cities in the US could figure it out rather than catering to the gas guzzling automobiles that clutter our streets, it’s so nice to wander on foot without traffic to deal with.

This old boat sits beached at the edge of Point Reyes National Seashore in Tomales Bay, a short drive north of San Francisco. I was driving by one day and noticed that I could walk right out to it. The clouds looked great and there were some nice reflections going on with what water remained from the outgoing tide. The boat is called the Point Reyes and is like a welcoming sign to the National Seashore. Tomales Bay is the ending path of the San Andreas fault, which runs most of the length of California, it’s here where the fault continues out to sea. The bay is also a birthing ground for great white sharks and is famous for its oysters.

This is a head shot of a gaudy Nembrotha nudibranch taken in the Philippines. This species is fairly common in certain areas where there is abundant growth of the bryozoans and hydroids that they feed on. I’ve seen them in Bali, Komodo and N. Sulawesi as well as severl places in the Philippines. It’s always exciting to see this colorful species as you explore the reef, a reward for taking the time to move slowly, searching for interesting critters on the reef face.

Taken with a Nikon D200, Nikon 105mm plus T3, in an Ikelite housing with a flat port and DS-125 strobes.
Processed with Photoshop CS5.

Early morning in Paris is very quiet, suprisingly so for a city that is so densly populated – there is almost no one around on the streets until the cafes start to open. I was out one morning wandering along the river and around the Louvre when I took this image . The Seine was very slowly moving along, making it’s long journey out the North. As I passed by on the bank opposite the Musee D’Orsay the sun was peeking through some high clouds brightening the sandstone bricks of the building. As I was considering the reflections of the museum the wind dropped giving me a chance to take a couple of shots of the new home of the Impressionists. This museum is where you can view a wide range of Impressionist paintings from the likes of Monet, Manet, van Gough, Renoir, Gauguin, Degas and Cezanne (to name a few) – an exhilarating experience for any serious photographer or artist. I know, I know, technically the artists I name may not all be Impressionists (van Gough, Gauguin carry the Post-Impressionist label), I don’t care. I’m making a generalization here not writing a critical review of the painting style, influences and heritage. Just go there if you ever get the chance – you’ll be blown away seeing the original works that have appeared in so many books, posters and cards over the past century.

Here’s my offering – an impressionist style photograph of the museum that holds so many masterful works – in tribute to a group of artists who dared to see and show the world in new way.

Taken with a Nikon D200, Nikon 17-55mm, f11, 1/15s.

The last time we visited Los Islotes in Baja California’s Sea of Cortez we had a great day photographing sea lions and moving through the clouds of sardines that were hugging the island. The school of fish extended about 400m around the inside of the island and were very shallow, mostly in the 10 – 25 fsw range. The sealions were not feeding that day mostly playing around and protecting their turf. It’s exhilarating to see the big bulls swimming by, barking and calling out. If they think you are too close to the harem they let you know with a few warning swim-bys, followed by barking and finally a charge (that’s the time to leave, they will bite you).

I like watching the sardine clouds slowly move away as predators and divers approach them. Below is an image were I was trying to show the ballooning of the school as a snapper moved slowly into the school. There’s a certain distance that they allow things to approach. Hope you get the idea from the photo.

The second, lower image is fairly shallow showing sardines flowing under the surface with the island in the background.

We were on the Solmar V out of Cabo San Lucas and enjoyed the experience. I have some other images from the same trip here showing some of the creatures we got to interact with. All our dives here were quite shallow so we were able to stay underwater for a long time, we logged almost 6hrs for the one day through 4 dives.

Taken with a Nikon D200, Tokina 10-17mm in an Ikelite housing with 8″ dome and DS-125 strobes.
Processed with Photoshop CS5.

I always enjoying spending time with turtles and I marvel at their ability to survive in the modern world where so much is set up to drive them to extinction. I photographed this green turtle (Chelonia mydas) in the Philippines, he’s an example of their ability to adapt. We could find him feeding on a patch of sea grass most afternoons. Sitting in the middle of small harbor this was one of the only places in the area he could feed and he had learnt to avoid the boats, lines and other debris that had be tossed into the water. My wife and I spent about 75 minutes following him around the area while he created his own sand-storm as he moved across the seagrass. In this image we are in about 12ft of water. Green turtles are listed by CITES as endangered and are protected in most countries but even so they are under huge pressure as their nesting beaches are destroyed, their eggs are harvested and the oceans become more polluted. I hope that future generations are able to see and enjoy the company of these ocean travelers.

© Jon Bertsch

Taken with a Nikon D200, Tokina 10-17mm in an Ikelite housing with 8″ dome and DS-125 strobes.
Processed with Photoshop CS5.

I have posted a short review of the new Nikon 70-200 ED VRII 2.8G zoom lens with some impresssions and images.

This image of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris was taken with the Nikon 70-200mm lens.