My wonderful wife found this section of the stream about a 100 meters down-stream from where I was shooting. Â As there was no cellular service here, she hiked over to where I was get my attention with something along the lines of, “I think you should come see (and photograph) this.” Â I know by now that when she, or my kids, come get me for a photo opportunity, it’s gonna be good. Â What a pretty view of Mt. Lassen it was and a great place for a picnic next time we’re there!
I know I said the other day that I love Paris, and I do, but a REALLY love Venice! Who doesn’t? And of all the photographs I shot there, this is probably my favorite. The first time I post-processed this, quite some time ago, I had been pretty heavy handed with the saturation. I think like this version far better, though I know many people had really liked my original version, over on flickr (which I had never posted on any of my blogs), as well. What do you all think? Better like this, or better like that?
Kenya is chock full of DLTs (that would be deer-lke things), and one of my favorites is the water-buck, pictured here. Usually you’ll find these roaming around grassy plains and such, but I had never encountered one near or on the water. This fella was about knee deep in Lake Naivasha, where we also came across LOTS of hippos. What with the name water-buck and fact that he is actually hanging out in the lake, this has to be my favorite “environmental portrait” shots of one of these magnificent creatures. We were in a long-boat when I shot this with the D700 and Nikkor 70-200 2.8 VR set to 180mm. Sure was cool to get so close to this guy and have him look up at me in time for the shot, though the boat was also moving (slowly) when I shot this.
One thing you see a lot of in Kenya are a bunch of ragged old trucks still winding their way along the dirt roads and highways of the country, long past their prime. Here is one we found just inside the Samburu National Reserve. I’m pretty sure this one ain’t goin’ nowhere real soon!
This afternoon, my daughter and I took the dog down to this frozen lake for a walk. I sure was glad that I had tucked my small Leica D-Lux 5 camera into my pocket, because what we beheld there was heavenly. The colorful sky, the cotton-candy like clouds, the mist surrounding us… pure beauty …pure peace. I knew that I needed a special song playing to process this image, so I chose the beautiful mix by U.N.K.L.E. (featuring Moby) called God Moving Over the Face of the Water / A State. Take a listen, won’t you, while you look at this photograph and maybe you’ll be able to get a sense of the feeling I had at the frozen lake shore. If you want to see the lyrics for the song you can find them here. I’ve pasted my favorite part of the lyrics under the photograph.
Fronted by solitude without decadence or a…
Single material thing to prostitute and elevate you to a spiritual plane
Where I felt the presence of God
Now, there’s the God they taught me about at school
And there is the God that’s hidden… by what surrounds us in this civilization
That’s the God I meant
~ Sung by UNKLE
By the way, the above lyrics originally appeared in the movie Alive (1993), the amazing story about the survivors of Uruguayan Air Flight 571. That film was based upon the 1974 book Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors, by British author Piers Paul Reed. It was one of my favorite books when I was a wee lad.
