Asides
-
Death Valley – A Heat Tourist Destination
During my recent January visit to Death Valley I observed to a local that very few visitors were in the park and that I found this surprising given the moderate winter temperatures (daytime in the 60’s and 70’s). I ventured that summer would be a terrible time to visit because of the well-known record high…
-
Eastern Sierras
Here’s a little quiz for you geography geeks….where is the highest and lowest point in the continental United States? Well amazingly, they’re within 100 miles of each other in eastern California. Mt. Whitney is the tallest mountain in the lower 48 states and of course, Death Valley is the lowest spot in the U.S. In…
-
Firenze
As the capital city of Tuscany, Florence was the center of medieval European trade and finance and is generally considered the birthplace of the Renaissance. Many of the world’s towering artistic giants walked Florentine streets and the city remains a magnet for art lovers the world over. The names are legendary…Michaelangelo, Leonardo, Dante, Lorenzo di Medici, Botticelli,…
-
The Maasai
The Maasai are a semi-nomadic people inhabiting portions of southern Kenya and northern Tanzania. During my recent photographic trip to Kenya I visited several Maasai villages and had the opportunity to photograph traditional Maasai ceremonies as well as make candid portraits of these regal people. Maasai tradition call for boys to be circumcised at ages 12-13…
-
Amboseli
“But perhaps the most important lesson I learned is that there are no walls between humans and the elephants except those that we put up ourselves, and that until we allow not only elephants, but all living creatures their place in the sun, we can never be whole ourselves.” ― Lawrence Anthony, The Elephant Whisperer…
-
Amalfi Coast
“The day of judgment, for the Amalfi people who will go to heaven, will be a day like any other.” – Renato Fucini – The Amalfi Coast consists of 13 small towns along a rocky peninsula jutting out into the Mediterranean Sea just south of Naples, Italy. Most of these towns are situated in ravines formed…
-
Tuscany
“Italy, and the spring and first love all together should suffice to make the gloomiest person happy.” —Bertrand Russell – Italy…..a land of spectacular contrasts!……the Alps and the rolling hills of Tuscany; the Borgia’s 30 year reign of murder, debauchery and treason and the legendary artistic talent of Michelangelo, Leonardo, Dante and Cher (just wanted…
-
Canadian Rockies
On the way back from the Yukon our photography troupe stopped in Calgary and spent three days in the Canadian Rockies which have some of the most majestic scenery anywhere in the world. Fortunately for the tourists and locals the weather was beautiful…mild and sunny with nary a cloud in the sky for three days. And of…
-
Yukon Gold 3
65,000 moose roam the Yukon, an area roughly 2 1/2 times the size of New England. This is about twice the human population of the territory. With the capital of Whitehorse having a population of 23,000, the arithmetic says that the human population of the territory outside of Whitehorse is about 9,000….wow, talk about scarcely populated areas!!…
-
Yukon Gold 2
Formerly an important summer gathering spot and base for moose-hunting in the Klondike Valley as well as a camp for the First Nations’ community in the area, Dawson City rose to prominence as the center of the Klondike Gold Rush. It began in 1896 and changed the First Nations camp into a thriving city of 40,000 by 1898.…
-
Yukon Gold
My friend Doug emailed me and asked whether I’d be interested in going on a photography trip to the Tombstone Mountains. I thought wow, “the town too tough to die” had mountains? I watched the movie but I didn’t recall seeing Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday chasing Ike and Billy Clanton through the mountains, only…
-
Lights, Camera…Action!
A few weeks ago I attended a lighting class in New York City sponsored by Nikon and Popular Photography magazine. Over the years I gained lots of experience shooting landscape and wildlife images, but had virtually no experience using speedlights or other lighting mechanisms in producing images. The class was led by three world-class photographers…
-
4th of July
Our country turned 237 two weeks ago and no city celebrates our collective birthday with as much verve as Boston. The 4th of July concert at the Charles River Hatch Shell has been an institution in the city since Arthur Fiedler began them in 1930. Over the years, the fireworks display over the Charles River…
-
A Horse is a Horse… of Course of Course
I can always tell which is the front end of a horse, but beyond that, my art is not above the ordinary. Mark Twain Like Twain, my acquaintance with horses and all things equine is slim to none so it’s ironic that two of my strongest early memories are horse related. In our family’s early…
Chasing the Light 