Friday Photos from 2014 

12.19.2014. I love shots of birds on top of mammals. Notice the two oxpeckers on the white rhino ... one inside a nostril and one on the side of his face. This is one of the first white rhinos I ever saw in the wild, which was in South Africa ... so amazing to see so close. This guy is getting a lot of exposure here ... I did actually post him once already way back in my South Africa trip (the trip that started this blog, incidentally). And he's getting included again in an upcoming post to support #JustOneRhino. But I'm really feeling friendly toward this fella and am letting him take the spotlight for this week's Friday Photo as well. Since his first appearance on SKJ Travel, though, I've gotten some imaging software (a few months ago). And he's one of the first pics that I went back and re-processed with the new software, which is really good at selecting shadowed areas and lightening them, something I couldn't do very adeptly otherwise. It's so cool! So I think his portrait has improved since his first appearance here. Originally you couldn't pick out much detail on the left side of his face without completely blowing out the right side with too much white/gray. He's a bit more balanced now. Stunning creature. But while his individual portrait may have improved, his chances for survival have plummeted with the crisis in rhino poaching in South Africa. Yes, we must end on a sad note ... it's really the only note there is for rhinos in South Africa right now.   

12.12.2014. Meow. Cheetahs are my favorite of the African large cats. I just love the black stripes on their faces coming from their black-ringed, blazing orange eyes. And I feel a kindred spirit for them because of their speed (I love experiencing speed!), and baby cheetahs are just something else in their cuteness ... little fuzz balls. They are also relatively gentle in their demeanor toward people, are often the closest and friendliest cats that people see on safaris. One of my favorite nature show scenes of all time is from Big Cat Diaries when a cheetah jumps on the roof of Jonathon Scott's vehicle, squats over the open sun roof and takes a poop into the car. You can right-click on this fella to see the pic a bit bigger. Namibia. 

11.28.2014. It's kind of intimidating when a bataleur eagle suddenly looks right at you! Scrolling through my pictures, I have a bunch of him in profile, standing in the road, and then suddenly this one pops onto the screen, it almost made me jump back a little. Etosha National Park, Namiba.

11.21.2014. Portrait of a woman at the Ju/'Hoansi-San Living Museum in Namibia. What I love best about this particular woman is her hands. These super friendly people of the San bushmen preserve and share their tribal traditions for tourists. Usually I think of a living museum as something more like the Colonial Williamsburg complex in Virginia, demonstrating ways of life that are far removed from us in history and completely impractical in contemporary Williamsburg. The San people, though, are on the cusp where their traditions are still relevant to some of their current lives. Some bushmen, of course, have moved to urban centers, but their incredibly ancient ways of survival and culture aren't yet relegated to tomes of history. They're still used and useful in pockets of Namibia and adjacent countries. The majority of the existing San population lives in Botswana, and they're embroiled in legal battles with diamond companies to maintain (actually, regain) unrestricted access to their ancestral lands. Anyway, those associated with the Ju/'Hoansi-San "museum" collect revenue from tourists, and it's really a special experience to spend some time with them. They are incredibly warm and welcoming people. My next blog post about Namibia will be all about my experience with them. 

11.14.2014. From Dang Jia Shan village in China. This morning I was out in the blowing snow putting the garbage can out at the end of the driveway and thinking about how all the stairs need to be shoveled ... there are a lot at my house. Chores. Coming back inside, I realized I hadn't thought about a post for today's Friday Photo. But now I had chores on my mind, so the first place I looked was my store of photos from the peasant village, where every day begins at dawn with a set of chores I can hardly fathom. (for example, some of the ones outlined in my essay, The Earthen Heart) I've always liked this capture. I like the donkey and his cart of grass, and I like that the villagers always stopped to talk with us when we asked to take their picture. The vast majority of my people pics from the village show folks purposefully posing and smiling because Anrong always encouraged this ... and that's fine -- some great smiles in those photos -- but I also like the occasional more casual capture, as in this fellow mid-sentence. 

11.07.2014. This photo comes from a grotto at Villa D'Este in Tivoli, Italy. An amazing villa with over 500 water "features" ... fountains, pools, etc. Mostly fountains. It's a UNESCO World Heritage site and well worth a day trip from Rome. (you can read a little ditty I wrote about it for Unesco Geek if you like) I never understand what makes people like one photo over another, it often doesn't make sense to me. I guess it's the simple adage beauty is in the eye of the beholder. A lot of times my favorite ones seem to appeal primarily only to me. And on the flip side, ones that I imagine will receive a lukewarm reception are sometimes very well liked. Always a mystery. I guess that's part of what makes photography interesting (at least to an amateur who isn't trying to make a living!) Anyway, I like this one, but it's not a full-on favorite or anything. But for whatever reason, a lot of other people have taken a special liking to it. Perhaps more to this photo than any other I've displayed if I am to judge by comments spoken to me. Maybe some of you will like it, too. :)

10.31.2014. Not too much to elaborate upon with this photo. Taken in Sienna, Italy. I just like the whimsicality of it ... pigeons drinking from a fountain. Somehow the one waiting in line to drink looks very impatient, like, "Come on, come on already!" If you've ever seen the cartoon, Animaniacs, I can't help but think of the little gang of Mafia pigeons. 

10.24.2014. I like this photo for the back-lighting ... somehow the yellow dust at the elephant's feet and behind him is enchanting to me. The sunset light in Etosha NP, Namibia, was amazing. Photographers often call that time of day "the golden hour" because the low, angled lighting enhances the subject, but the hue and intensity of the gold in Etosha was something special. And one evening it was pink rather than gold. I like that the sunlit dust is like a halo on the ground around the elephant ... the rocks otherwise are gray/white, even kind of bluish. And then this almost ethereal halo around one of nature's most phenomenal creatures. 

10.17.2014. Somehow this photo seems to suggest a story. I don't know exactly what that story is ... maybe it's more accurate to say this photo sparks a lot of questions. A bicycle abandoned on a neighborhood roadside through the ghost town of Gilman, Colorado. Who rode it? Where did they ride it to and from? What adventures did they have on it? How many times did they crash it (surely at least once)? The golden autumn leaves littering the ground around the rusted bicycle seem to add some sort of wistfulness to the pondering of its former owner. And somehow the bike seems lonelier among the pile of leaves than on a barren roadside. I just find this image somehow poetic.

10.10.2014. Here's another texture photo. From Gilman. I imagine I have some photographer to thank for the nice positioning of that rusted can on that bench, and his/her photo is probably better than mine ... nonetheless, I like the bi-color starkness of the picture and the texture of the peeling paint, which is different between the bench and the wall, coming off in splinters on the bench and big globs on the wall. Plus I always like the texture of rust. 

10.03.2014. There are a couple reasons why I like this one. One is the fact it's a product of patience and determination. Erik has always expressed admiration for how dogged I was to get a decent photo of this butterfly on this flower bush. I followed it flitting around for ages until it stayed still in one place long enough for me to get my camera close enough to it to use the macro focus. I wasn't sure at the time whether he was bemused or annoyed as he sat on the park bench around the Back Lakes in Beijing, China, while I chased this silly butterfly. Secondly, I like the obvious simple title, "A Butterfly in China ..." I like it because the ellipsis refers to the "butterfly effect" in chaos theory, a concept I'm rather enamored with. It's the iconic expression of the theoretical meteorological phenomenon wherein a butterfly flapping its wings in China could cause a tornado in, say, Turkey. No one says something this drastic has ever happened, but according to chaos theory, such a complex and dramatic cascade of consequences could actually create such an event. This makes me think carefully about everything I do everywhere I go. Who knows what seemingly innocuous thing I do in China might ripple outward until it affects me somehow half way across the world. And lastly, I just like the vibrant colors in this shot.   

09.26.2014. I love giraffes and I like this shot I captured in Namibia simply because of their respective poses ... the iconic side profile and the iconic front portrait, right next to each other. Plus little critters next to bigger critters are always cute. As with all my photos from Etosha NP, the gray-blue sky comes from the smoke of a nearby brush fire. 

09.19.2014. I like this photo for the texture. An old, rusted keyhole in an old, splintered door. Perhaps not the most fascinating subject or framing, but the texture of life is somehow there ... which is fascinating to me -- the years, the weather, a key somewhere that locked and unlocked this door perhaps hundreds, perhaps thousands, of times. From an abandoned Berber village (a ksar) in Tunisia. 

09.12.2014. From Etosha NP in Namibia, male impala locking some horns. It was fascinating to watch them ... I saw a lot of sparring matches in Namibia (one night they came practically right through our camp!) and the maniacal look in their eye as they run toward each other, head lowered, at full speed, is so intimidating ... like bezerk Vikings. It quite amuses me. But I think mostly I chose this photo today simply because I feel just like this -- one of those impala is me and the other is Winter ... there is snow on the ground this morning and I'm quite upset over it, and wish to fight winter off and send it running away to some other neck of the woods. 

09.05.2014. Today's photo comes to you from what seems like the top of the world ... the summit of Haleakala volcano on Maui, Hawaii. The views from here are akin to looking out an airplane window -- the clouds are far below you. I think the alternating layers of clouds and peaks are neat, as if the land and clouds are being shuffled together like cards. I also like the contrast of the red crater and the blue sky. (you can right click on image to open in a new tab to see at larger size)

08.15.2014. Erik is the master of digital photo collages ... he's responsible for some truly astounding creations. I tried my hand at it once. It came out better than I expected it would when I first sat down. I wasn't trying to make a masterpiece or anything, just having fun with Photoshop ... you know, one of those days you just crank up some tunes, keep a nice cold beer on your desk and play away. But I ran across it the other day searching for something else in my China folder. It was like when a fond memory pops into your head after a long time. It was a nice memory of my second trip to China kind of summarized in this one piece, but also a nice memory just of that process of playing with a software program just for the hoots of it. Makes me want to try my hand at it again some day when I have nothing else to do. Anyway, please click on the image to see it larger, at 1200 pix wide, so you can pick out some of the detail. (in my browser, I have to click right and choose "open image in new tab" then look at it in the new tab)

08.08.2014. From the Dale Chihuly exhibit currently at the Denver Botanical Gardens. These days a trip to Denver feels like a big field trip to me, as I so seldom come down from my mountain in Nederland. The other day Erik and I trekked to Denver and saw this glass sculpture exhibit everyone has been raving about, where these very organic blown glass forms are placed throughout the gardens. I don't know that there is anything to point out about the photographs themselves that I like, simply the amazing display itself. In the first photo, the glass forms are like graceful birds in the water, and I loved all the water lilies on the ponds. The second one has such a whimsical nature, like something out of a Dr. Seuss book.

07.25.2014. A young Himba woman in Namibia. I had permission to take a number of photos of this family. Many of the women were far more elaborately dressed than she; I kind of like her relative simplicity. But I think what really draws me to this photo personally is that it makes me wonder what she is thinking about -- a universal thought that all young women might have? or a thought capable of being formed only from inside her culture? 

07.18.2014. Today is Mandela Day, a day for honoring Nelson Mandela and his life's work by pledging acts --big, large, small, or tiny -- that will change the world for the better. I was perusing some Mandela quotes last night. There are many worthy phrases and ideas that fell from his lips. But one of them struck me ... it's nothing dramatic about fighting injustice or changing the world, not to do with struggles nor commentaries on society. A very simple sentence that really hit home because yesterday I was out in the forest behind my house ... I was searching for a fawn but I never found him. But I had my camera with me (in case I did see him), and when I came into a field of wild blue columbine flowers, I had to stop and take some pictures. Even though I have hundreds of photos of columbines, I continue to photograph them every year. I think I must have already gotten them from every angle and light, yet every year I go photograph more. Every year come columbine season, I'm a different person. A whole year's worth of experiences, insights, successes, failures, joys, trials, thoughts, stuff I've learned or read ... a whole new layer of me is now holding the camera. The quote is this: "There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered." In the past I know I've taken pictures of the columbines in this same field in the forest behind my house because I wanted to produce a pretty picture, I wanted something I could maybe print and frame or make a card from ... something to show other people. Last night I had my camera with me for a different reason, but when I came to the flowers, I photographed them because if I didn't, it would be like walking past a fountain of dark chocolate and not dipping my finger in it for a taste, even though I've eaten pounds of dark chocolate already in my life. I think a couple of the photos turned out nicely, so I'm sharing them with you today even though their purpose inside my camera wasn't originally conceived as one to do with sharing. But with them, I acknowledge that the field of wildflowers remains the same each year, but I come as a very different photographer each time. 

07.11.2014. Member of the San tribe in Namibia showing us how to start a fire the really old-fashioned way, using friction created with a hand drill. He has just created a spark in the middle of this pile of kindling and he is now blowing gently on it to coax it into flame. What I like about the photo is the way the smoke curls down over his fingers and billows up behind. The lighting could have been better for it. I have one that's really trippy with the smoke but sadly the man is out of focus in it. But I still like this one for the sense of motion and ancient creation that I feel from it. The San tribe are also known as the "bushmen." The San is the tribe portrayed in the classic movie, "The Gods Must Be Crazy." 

07.04.2014. It's the 4th of July in America -- my second-favorite holiday, which I love because of the fireworks. But I'm posting pics of Namibia. :) However, in honor of our holiday, the first photo was chosen for its 4th-of-July theme colors of red, white and blue. This is the "dead vlei" in Sossusvlei, Namibia -- an area of desert so dry that the trees that once lived here, in days of wetter climate, died and couldn't even decompose in such dryness as currently exists. So they are hundreds of years old, still standing strong and straight in death. The colors weren't manipulated, by the way; with a polarizer on the camera lens, the sky was really that blue, and the sand dunes were really that red. In the early morning light, they appear even redder. The white earth is a deposit of clay. I can't help myself from posting the second photo as well, as it looks like this elephant is dancing in celebration. Being a summer holiday, 4th of July is also a particularly good party holiday ... and this elephant looks like he's happily partying it up. Maybe doing the Hokey-Pokey ... putting his left leg in and putting his left leg out.... Taken at Etosha National Park. (you can see he has bathed himself in similarly white clay as found in the dead vlei)

06.20.2014. OK, triple whammy ... as this is the only Friday I'm home in June. All from Namibia. (1) Leopard ... it's silly, but I just like his tongue. Thinkin' about some vittles. (2) Himba family ... I find this a very tender scene -- mother quietly nursing a newborn infant inside her small hut while an older child sits patiently beside her. I also dig the mother's necklace. And of course her elaborate hairdo rocks. (I'll explain more about the hair when I get a post up about the Himba.) (3) I think the child on the left is simply gorgeous ... her big eyes and little dimples, so poised and elegant for a child; the kid on the right is so playful, and she was always worming herself into the background, often with goofy faces, of the pictures I took of a set of children in a small village I walked through. 

05.30.2014. The bazaar in Isfahan, Iran. We visited it every day for 4 days. Here it's empty during afternoon siesta. I love the architecture -- the succession of arches in the ceiling, the patterns of the bricks, and the colorful items on the sides. You can see here also the spots of sunlight coming in from the skylights.I think it's my favorite of the many photos I took in the bazaars throughout Iran and I think for some reason it's owing to the lack of people, even though normally people in a bazaar are appropriate!

*05.30.2014*

 

05.23.2014. I like lampposts. Simple as that. This one almost gets lost in the colored background, but stands out just enough. The fact that it is a completely different color from the busy-colored tile work behind it somehow appeals to me. Sort of completes the rainbow. :) Oh yeah, it's from Golestan Palace, in Tehran. (forgot to mention that earlier)

05.16.2014. Though I'm still in Iran in my mind and writing and photos ... still a few blog posts to put up ... I am also starting to think ahead just a wee bit, as I'm leaving in exactly two weeks for Namibia. Thoughts of elephants and all those glorious African animals are drifting into my head (I know because I dreamed about them last night). Here's one I like from Uganda. I told Erik I bought the full insurance on the camera lens I'm renting for Namibia so that even if I lose it altogether, it's covered. In case, you know, an elephant reaches its trunk into my vehicle and wrests it away from me. If that happened, truth is, I wouldn't even be upset .. the story would be too good! ha ha

05.02.2014. Another preview for upcoming posts from Iran. This one may surprise you a bit that it’s the interior of a Christian church in Isfahan. There is an Armenian quarter in Isfahan and this vibrantly painted church stands together with a museum about the Armenian genocide in which many fled to Iran to escape persecution by the Turks. We encountered extra crowds because the church had been closed to the public the previous two days for Easter. So now bus loads of tourists milled around us (because we were leaving Isfahan that day, it was our last chance to see it). I was pleased to fire off a shot without a bunch of heads filling the bottom of the frame … only just the crown of one; that was a pretty good feat. You can click on the photo to enlarge it a little bit. 

*05.02.2014*

04.25.2014. A place known as the red village in Iran. We saw so many sights of well-maintained architecture, the beautiful tilework and such, and also places of antiquity in rubble ruins, but I liked this place for being in the middle ... an old village in the process of decay. You can still see the evidence of its former decorative elements. Parts of this remote village are still kept up mostly for the benefit of tourists to see and there is a hotel and a restaurant, and elderly locals sell handicrafts and food, while most of the young generation has moved away. It would have been so quaint in its heyday, and it's sad to see it fall apart, but I'm happy to have glimpsed it before it might fall away completely. I think this photo adequately sparks the imagination to envision what it looked like in the past. 

*04.25.2014*

04.18.2014. More from Iran in advance of the accompanying post on Shiraz, Iran. Shiraz is a delightful city with so many beautiful sights. This is from a sweet little mosque. At the time it was the smallest we had seen but the architecture was splendid ... almost accentuated because of the smaller scale. 

*04.18.2014*

04.11.2014. Nothing special about this photo except it's the first I'm posting from Iran. A taste of the colors soon to come. And I do like how a solar flare dot managed to end up smack in the middle of the stairwell. 

04.04.2014. Early spring on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. This was taken in the Hatley Gardens. It was a colder and bleaker day than it looks like in the photo. I remember what I was wearing that day all bundled up, and it seems incongruous with the impression this photo gives of the temperature. We often use the term "warm" to describe the richness and tone of color. In processing this photo, I boosted the black levels, as the original image was very washed-out and not very colorful. As I increased the black input, color flooded into the picture, and subsequently the actual physical climate seemed warmer. It amused me to see that "warming" the colors gave a warmer impression of the actual temperature of the landscape in the photo. 

*04.04.2014*

03.28.2014. When I recently ran across this photo of Onapa from the UWEC in Uganda, I instantly fell in love with it. It just seems to me that he is on the verge of hatching some pretty profound thoughts, sitting there grasping his stick ... like maybe he's contemplating what he could do with that stick, how he could use it to one day rule the world! The world of the chimp island, anyway. I half expect him to stand up and use it like a staff; then he walks off slowly and wisely into the jungle. You can read more about Onapa, my favorite boy, HERE, or see him play with a skirt HERE.

*03.28.2014*

03.21.2014. Today I'm thinking about rice. These are the Longji ("dragon's backbone") rice terraces outside of Yangshuo, in China. They're a pretty big tourist attraction and deservedly so; I'd recommend it to anyone. Construction of these began around 1300 AD and now cover 65 square kilometers. It's one of the most verdant landscapes I've been in, and you're surrounded by the sound of water cascading down from one terrace to another through carefully engineered troughs. So beautiful. I think I like this photo because you can see the rice plants close up in the foreground, some well-articulated terraces in the middle-ground, and the background showing the rolling topography of the hilly region. (Perhaps my photo selection today has something to do with the fact I just bought a 50-pound bag of rice at Costco. That's right, 50 pounds of rice. Because it was jasmine rice ... my favorite kind which is normally quite expensive in the grocery store.)

03.14.2014. Earlier this week on one of the Twitter chats I often participate in, the theme was architecture, and one of the questions was to share an example of architecture that had an emotional impact on you. My answer was the Pilgrim's Way at Labrang in China (you can read about it HERE). But then somebody else answered that seeing the home where her parents had lived in another country was emotional. Several other people chimed in with similar notes. And it made me think back to when I sought out the farmstead where my dad grew up in Nebraska. My dad had taken me by there several times when I was younger, but we never stopped, just drove past. I only remember with any clarity one time how we went into the fields up the road and my brother thought he could just grab the mane of a random horse in the field and pull himself up on it ... didn't quite work out that way. So a couple summers ago, Erik and I followed my mom's directions (my dad has passed on) to visit there. The house had burned down, there was one wall standing. Other people had lived in it until the fire which had happened recently, so the barn and outbuildings were still in relatively good order. I've been regaled with plenty of stories about my dad and his brothers growing up and farming there, but I could never really picture them in my head -- I had no architectural context. A lot of the stories took place in or around the barn which I had no solid vision of. So when Erik and I visited it, it was like a revelation in my imagination ... so many things snapped into place into this setting. Definitely had an emotional impact. I've been thinking about that all the rest of this week, so I thought I'd just share some photos I took from there, from this humble place that held and shaped my dad who then cradled and shaped me.