Backpacking The Galapagos Islands – My Top Pictures

Since getting back from a week in the Galapagos Islands I’ve spent hours trawling through my photos, hours filled with editing and occasionally blind panic when a compact flash card decided to randomly format itself! For a traveller the Galapagos is a definite for the bucket list, but as a photographer it’s pure pornography! You can’t help but spend your days looking through a lens – everywhere you turn is a postcard perfect photo.

I’m not a wildlife photographer but I’m uber glad that I took along my 50-500mm surf lens for the journey! Couple that alongside my trusty GoPro and a newly acquired Olmypus Tough and you get a hard drive full of tasty treats!

So here’s my Top 12 Shots. It was meant to be a Top 10 post, but to be honest it was hard enough getting it down to 12!

This marine iguana was chilling in the mangroves of Tortuga Bay – they’ll surprisingly happy to let you wander up and snap shots of them, unless you get too close and they snort salt at you…how pleasant!

The landscape of the Galapagos is full of Cacti – and heaps of different varieties too. I just like the contrast throughout the place of green vegetation against deep blue, clear skies.

And talking about deep blue skies, the sunset on the islands were gorgeous, especially when you enjoy them with an ice cold cocktail gently bobbing up and down on a boat in the harbour!

I like this shot purely because it seems this giant tortoise has a cheeky little grin – he’s loving life!

I had to make sure I saw heaps of boobies on my trip – of the feathered kind of course. Those of you that are clued up or simply logical will know this is the blue footed one – he was resting after a fishing trip off Kicker Rock.

My fellow intern and Galapagos tripper Leah has now decided I’m the human version of a sea lion – I sleep all day and when I’m not napping I’m playing in the sea! This content little guy was grabbing 40 winks on the harbour when we docked up for the day.

I’ve travelled to a lot of beaches during my time – but never have I come across such crazy looking crabs. The black volcanic rock shore line was dotted with flashes of red scurrying around in the rock pools.

During a walk on my last day on Santa Cruz island I came across a little local fish market. A whole horde of wild sea lions, frigates, pelicans and even a marine iguana had also made this discovery and were pestering the fisherman for the scraps – one sea lion was even cheeky enough to steal half a tuna!

I’m not very patient with my photography but I wanted this shot so bad I lay down in the sand for nearly 10 minutes for him to pop his head out, a testament to the fact I can put the effort in when I try!

The shapes and patterns of the cacti on the islands were amazing and I was stoked when I got this shot – the depth of field gives it a weird almost micro biology look.

There were heaps of huge sea turtles everywhere I snorkelled during my week and with crystal clear waters it was perfect for shooting pics of them. This guy let me swim alongside him for a while and I was stoked with the results of my underwater point and shoot.

I can’t say I’m the master of bird photography by any stretch of the imagination – but this shot is possibly my favourite from the islands. I managed to snap this image in a single shutter from a moving boat as he was fishing nearby!