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(Oena capensis)
Maasai Steppes
Tanzânia
The Maasai steppes we visited are another amazing area, and one day, if we go back, I’d love to visit again.
It’s super easy to get there if you land at Kilimanjaro International Airport. When you leave the airport, you turn left towards Mererani. It looks like there are a few places to stay there that meet the basic standards for us Europeans.
The road from the airport already gives many chances to take photos, but our guide, who had his own agenda, suggested we shouldn’t stop because he wanted us to see more “important” (for him) birds further on.
In fact, the whole dirt road, very wide, after Mererani, has endless and repeated chances to photograph birds.
I think, because it’s Maasai land, you probably need to hire a local guide, but our guide (a European expat), in his arrogant way, ignored that. He would regret it two days later in the Maasai Lark Plains.
But here, nobody bothered us, not even a pickup truck with 4 or 5 guys carrying machine guns, but without any military uniforms. We couldn’t understand if they were some militia, if they had permission to use the guns, or what.
They looked at us, drove a bit closer, then turned around and left. I think they were just checking us, but they never even spoke to us.
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All my photos are now organized into sets by the country where they were taken, by taxonomic order, by family, by species (often with just one photo for the rarer ones), and by the date they were taken.
So, you may find:
- All the photos for this trip Tanzânia (2025) (377)
- All the photos for this order COLUMBIFORMES (118)
- All the photos for this family Columbidae (Columbídeos) (119)
- All the photos for this species Oena capensis (5)
- All the photos taken this day 2025/05/01 (36)
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Sorry for not posting here for a week or so. I was up in Tochigi filming a new episode of 'Journeys in Japan' with NHK World. This was the wonderful Senjugahama, at the western end of Chuzenjiko and only accessible by walking or taking the bus into the Senjugahara nature reserve. We were able to drive in with the local guide. Amazing spot.
Show is broadcast on standard NHK o the 25th October and on BS1 on the 26th. It'll also be on the NHKWorld website.
The first evening in the Golden Circle came down to a straight fight between two waterfalls, both of which lay twenty odd miles from our base camp at Flúðir. To the north east lay the dramatic Gullfoss and its ninety degree bend down a narrow canyon. A textbook Icelandic monster with a powerful deep plunge that would surely take the breath away. Meanwhile, to the north west sat Brúarfoss, a subtle blue meltwater beauty quite unlike any other we’d see on this trip. And while Gullfoss would bring the challenge of trying to compose shots surrounded by large numbers of other visitors, we felt sure that it would be quieter at its rather more modest contender. And as long as we didn’t feel overwhelmed by the prospect of a two mile walk in either direction along the riverbank to get there, quieter seemed to be winning out. And of course, Brúarfoss would offer something rather different. Sadly we wouldn’t make it to Gullfoss this time around, but while there are still plenty of places to visit, there are lots of reasons to keep making plans.
Access to the waterfall had been improved relatively recently by the development of a brand new car park with space for around twenty vehicles to pull up right beside the River Brúará, from where it was a case of pulling on the welly boots and beginning the muddy yomp towards the main attraction. It was a walk that would take us past two support acts in the form of the unpronounceable Hlauptungufoss, and the appropriately named Miðfoss, both of which deserved attention in their own right - or at least they would have done if we’d got here earlier. In reminding myself of their names all these months later, I’ve come across a particularly fine shot of Miðfoss by one Pall Jokull Petursson on the page of the online satellite map. Pall is described as a local guide, level five, with eight hundred and forty points, whatever that means. Answers on a postcard please, but no points awarded for working out where he’s from with a name like that. He probably goes there during his lunch hour. Sadly, Pall isn’t a member of our community, but he’s already inspired me to return earlier in the day and have a proper look for myself.
The path was as mucky as you might expect it to be in Iceland in September. Too warm to freeze and turn into treachery, and too damp to make it anything other than a semi swamp, the welly boots proved to be essential on the two mile trail. Sometimes we would be wading through forty or fifty yards of glue like mud, eight inches deep, without any respite at all. But in wellies it was enormous fun, especially when meeting day trippers heading back towards their cars who’d failed to change out of their no longer pristine white trainers. And on this quiet trail through the autumn oranges and yellows of low brown scrub and willowy silver saplings, it was a very pleasant squelching stroll indeed. A space in which to chatter away about nothing in particular as the anticipation continued to build. Somewhere around the halfway point the path branched left towards the riverbank at Hlauptungufoss, from where we hugged the edge of the water all the way to our prize. And what a prize it was. As the bridge came into view, the last party was making their exit. We had the beautiful baby blue waterfall to ourselves.
Compositionally, being limited to the bridge, including on the alcove underneath the western side of it, was challenging. Ideally I’d have liked to have been able to get down closer to the water, and there is supposedly a scramble down to it, but I couldn’t find it. Perhaps it’s become overgrown or been blocked off deliberately to deter over-confident adventurers as it could be all too easy to disappear into that washing machine spin of a blue swirl in an unwary moment. So the bridge it was, which left us with zooming into the falls and zooming out to the bigger picture. Just to add to the challenges, all traces of texture left the sky. And if you’ve read the previous story from here, you’ll know that I was completely unaware of the fact that I’d spent the entire session in jpeg only mode. I won’t relive the sorry tale all over again. Suffice to say I’d love to return with a bit more time to spare, maybe in mid summer when the midnight sun should be hovering in just about the right place.
On the long walk back, we broke out the head torches, posing for phone snaps at Hlauptungufoss before trekking through the mud baths in near darkness. It had been a fun evening, despite the fact that I felt I might have done better. I’d have certainly done better if I’d been shooting in RAW mode. Oops, I wasn’t supposed to moan about that again was I?
My interview on Google Local Guide Connect
All Photos Are Copyright To Paul Saad , Unauthorised Use Is Not Allowed Without Prior Permission. © Some rights reserved ©
As we explored Oxford one gray Sunday afternoon, we passed a very long queue of people waiting to be admitted to its most famous college, Christ Church, with all of its Harry Potter connections. A local guide recommended that we take a look inside New College instead, and we were amazed at its history, quality and tranquility. Unfortunately, photography was not allowed inside the magnificent chapel, dining hall and library, which we highly recommend. (The same person also said that Exeter College was especially worth exploring but we did not have time on this trip.)
New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Its official name, College of St Mary, is the same as that of the older Oriel College; hence, it has been referred to as the "New College of St Mary", and is now almost always called "New College". One of the most famous and academically successful of the Oxford colleges, it stands along Holywell Street and New College Lane (known for Oxford's Bridge of Sighs), next to All Souls College, The Queen's College and St Edmund Hall. It is one of the main choral foundations of the University of Oxford. In 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £143m.[1] In 2006 New College sold some of these assets to provide a substantial salary windfall for its fellows (among other uses).
Despite its name, New College is one of the oldest of the Oxford colleges, having originally been founded in 1379. The second college in Oxford to be dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, it was founded by William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester. It was founded in conjunction with the famous Winchester College, which was envisaged as a feeder to the Oxford college, and the two institutions have striking architectural similarities: both were the work of master mason William Wynford. Both Winchester College and New College were originally established for the education of priests, there being a shortage of properly educated clergy after the Black Death. William of Wykeham also established New College School to provide for the education of 16 choristers for the chapel.
As well as being the first Oxford college for undergraduates and the first to have senior members of the college give tutorials, New College was the first college in Oxford to centre on a main quadrangle, with student rooms, a dining hall, a library, and study rooms within the square ring of buildings and gates. The quadrangle design inspired many of the later colleges, perhaps most recently St Catherine's College, Oxford because Arne Jacobsen was an ardent admirer of "the Oval", or oval-shaped lawn in the old quad. (New College's quadrangle is not the first in Oxford, however, merely the first to contain all of the above elements; the first quadrangle was Merton's Mob Quad. Merton's dining hall, though, is in a connecting building outside the quad, as is its chapel.) At the time of its founding, New College had the grandest collection of buildings for a college in Oxford, a testament to Wykeham's experience in administering both ecclesiastical and civil institutions as the Bishop of Winchester and High Chancellor of England.
The New College grounds are among the largest and most beautiful in Oxford. The Cloisters and the Chapel are of particular note, as is the old City Wall (around which the College is built); much of the mediæval stained glass in the antechapel has recently been restored. The gardens are equally impressive and include the decorative Mound (which originally had steps, but is now smooth with one set of stairs).
The bell tower contains one of the oldest rings of ten bells, which is rung by the Oxford Society of Change Ringers and the Oxford University Society of Change Ringers. The college is also in possession of a respectable collection of silver (including the mediæval silver gilt Founder's Crozier, housed in a display case in the chapel), and two notable "unicorn horns" (in fact narwhal tusks).
In addition to its academic reputation and its impressive set of buildings, New College is internationally renowned for its chapel choir. As part of the original College statutes, William of Wykeham provided for a choral foundation of lay and academical clerks, with boy choristers to sing mass and the daily offices. It is a tradition that continues today with the choral services of evensong and eucharist during term. In addition to its choral duties in the chapel, the choir has established a reputation as one of the finest Anglican choirs in the world through its many recordings and concert tours. The chapel organ was built by the firm of Grant, Degens, and Bradbeer in 1969, in a case designed by George Pace; somewhat revolutionary at the time, the instrument remains no less remarkable and idiosyncratic today.
The College's motto, created by William of Wykeham, is "Manners Makyth Man". The motto was in many respects fairly revolutionary. Firstly, it was written in English, rather than Latin, which makes it very unusual in Oxford, and is especially revolutionary considering the College's age; even St Catherine's College, founded in 1965, has a Latin motto ("Nova et Vetera": "the new and the old").
Secondly, the motto makes a social statement. While it might initially seem to be suggesting that it is beneficial to have good manners, this does not really capture its full scope. What it really means is that it is not by birth, money, or property that an individual is defined, but by how he (or she) behaves towards other people.
A shot from one of many "Ice Cave Adventure Photo Tours" in Iceland. This ice cave is in Vatnajökull ice cap, southern Iceland. Vatnajökull is the largest ice cap in Europe, around 3,100 km³. It´s pretty hard to capture the real depth of the ice walls in the caves, but the scenery is like an endless 3d depth of blue tones. This is shot soon after a snowstorm, so the cave had some new snow on the walls along with ash from the erupting volcano in Grímsvötn in 2011. The guy at the Gateway happens to be me.
For available photo tours in Iceland, check out www.skarpi.is
For safety reasons I'll not recomment anyone to travel into the glaciers without local guiding. We have a recent tragic accident where a photographer died while exploring the glaciers. Never hike alone into the glaciers.
More images from Iceland at www.skarpi.is
Contact me at: skarpi@skarpi.is regarding publication requests.
All rights reserved - Copyright © Skarphéðinn Þráinsson
The Wave, Coyote Buttes North
I recently posted a shot of the Wave taken in January when the famous rock formation was half covered in snow. When I posted that shot, I noted that good friend Kevin Benedict and I were headed back to the Southwest for five days of shooting in early November. Our first priority for this trip was to obtain another permit to shoot the Wave sans snow. Of course, there was no guarantee that we would be able to obtain a permit as only 10 are given out each day via a daily walk-in lottery (another 10 are given out via an online lottery months in advance).
Since Coyote Buttes is only a couple of hours from Zion, we decided that shooting in and around Zion (and specifically the Subway and the Narrows) would be "Plan B." The problem, however, was that we could not attend the daily lottery in Kanab, Arizona and also shoot many of the locations in Zion (for example, both the Subway and Narrows are full day hikes). To solve this logistical problem, we hired one of the local guide companies (National Park Tourz - yes, with a "z") to attend the daily lottery on our behalf.
After having no luck the first four days of the trip, our hopes of shooting the Wave had pretty much faded. Fortunately, we had better luck in Zion and obtained a permit to shoot the Subway our second to last day of shooting. Our last day shooting was not intended to be too strenuous - a good thing since the round trip hike to the Subway consisted of 9 brutal miles of climbing over boulders, fallen trees and other debris, countless creek crossings, and one incredibly steep 400 foot climb to get out of the canyon and back to the car. As we made our final climb out of the canyon, we both heard our phones beep alerting us to incoming texts/emails after obtaining cell service for a fleeting moment. Kevin pulled out his phone and there it was - a text from National Park Tourz informing us that we had obtained a permit to hike the Wave (approximately 6 miles round trip) the next day - our last.
Perhaps this would be no big deal to someone in better shape than myself : ) but the Subway and the Wave back to back was tough - particularly hiking back from the Wave at the end of the day. Nevertheless, it was worth every painful second. When we reached the Wave, rather than snow, we were greeted with a large pool of water sitting at the bottom of the formation. The water provided fantastic reflections of the striated rock formation and offered another opportunity to capture less common compositions of such an iconic location (I, of course, also took several obligatory "money" shots, one of which will undoubtedly make its way into a future post). This one, though, is far and away my favorite.
I hope you enjoy this picture as much as I do. Thanks for taking a look.
My interview on Google Local Guide Connect
All Photos Are Copyright To Paul Saad , Unauthorised Use Is Not Allowed Without Prior Permission. © Some rights reserved ©
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My interview on Google Local Guide Connect
All Photos Are Copyright To Paul Saad , Unauthorised Use Is Not Allowed Without Prior Permission. © Some rights reserved ©
My interview on Google Local Guide Connect
All Photos Are Copyright To Paul Saad , Unauthorised Use Is Not Allowed Without Prior Permission. © Some rights reserved ©
Canon EOS R5
Canon RF 100-500MM F4.5-7.1 L IS USM
PolarPro Circular Polarizer
I just realized that this was the first time I am uploading an image using 100 500. And also uploading an image after a long time. Anyway; now about the image.
Egypt has a place with massive sand dunes. That is called the Great Sand Sea. That place was accessible when I went to this region first time way back in 2010. However; after that the revolution happened and now that region is managed by Egyptian armed forces. So it is strictly off limit for civilians. So I was a bit sad and asked our local guide how to get some sand dunes. So he suggested this place. This is like the last part of the great sand sea. Initially I was not sure what to expect. But when I saw it; wow; it was beautiful.
Fact is; you don't really needs 100s of kilometres of sand to enjoy a desert or capture a beautiful image.
I was eying this composition from the start. In fact the search was for the sunrise. But then I observed my wife was waring this white dress and there was some wind. So I asked her to go on and walk for me a bit as otherwise during normal day the place looked a but less contrasty and the scale of it was not getting clear.
At the end I was happy with the result so thought of sharing with you all.
I have also captured a pretty detailed video of our visit to this less visited location of Egypt with all details needed to visit this place. You can find that here.
Please have a look at my website www.avisekhphotography.com for all my recent works.
Have a nice weekend.
Hope you will enjoy the picture.
Any suggestions or criticisms are always welcome.
Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world, located at 3812 meters above sea level. Its shores and small islands are home to the Aymara and Quechua who come from ancient cultures that lived in this area long before the Incas dominate.
There we could explore traditional villages where Spanish is the second language and where ancient myths and beliefs persist even today. One of the peculiarities of Lake Titicaca are the small floating islands inhabited by a tribe called the Uros. In these small islands visitors are welcomed and can even ride in one of the famous reed boats.
They picked us up by a confy bus in front of a church in La Paz at 7:00 a.m. We were driven with a professional private guide, Alvaro Monrroy Rivera to Copacabana, enjoying natural landscapes. Arrive at Copacabana cute village for a great luch at the . We tour and visit the sanctuary and the Virgen Morena. You will have the chance to meet small regional artisans and learn about some local culture.Then we will make our way to the Isla del Sol on a private boat with a local guide. We will walk through the "Inca Grand Staircase" and also see the Sacred Fountain, whose groundwater, it's said, would give youth and eternal happiness! After this we will have lunch at the local archaeological restaurant and then visit the small handicraft market and ancestral places to learn about the customs that still remain from the ancestors.On our return enjoy the scenery of the lake and painting the colors of nature at sunset.
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Sun Island (Isla del Sol):
Whirlwind half-day tours to Isla del Sol are strictly for the been-there-done-that crowd as the island definitely merits a night or two. That said, the majority of the ruins and associated sights are located on the island's northern half, which is off-limits to tourists. In the limited area you're allowed to roam you'll find a few small ruins, lookouts and walking trails, but most visitors simply kick back and enjoy the view.
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Easily the highlight of any Lake Titicaca excursion, Isla del Sol is a large island with several traditional communities, decent tourist infrastructure such as hotels and restaurants, a few worthwhile pre-Columbian ruins, amazing views, great hikes through terraced hills and, well, lots of sun.
The island’s permanent residents – a mix of indigenous peoples and émigrés – are distributed between the main settlements of Cha’llapampa, near the island’s northern end; Cha’lla, which backs onto a lovely sandy beach on the central east coast; and Yumani, which straddles the ridge above Escalera del Inca in the south and is the biggest town on the island. Unfortunately, due to a conflict between island communities, it is only possible to visit Yumani.
Extensive networks of walking tracks make exploration fairly easy, though the altitude and sun may take their toll: carry lunch and ample water. The sun was born here and is still going strong.
If Looks Could Kill - Indian Eagle-Owl surveys its territory from a rocky cliff. Check out those burning red eyes! This species was formerly considered a subspecies of the Eurasian Eagle-Owl. It is widespread throughout the Indian subcontinent and tends to favor cliffs for roosting & nesting. This was a dream species for me and I was very fortunate to be able to see several individuals including juveniles during the trip. Reminded me a lot of the related Great-horned Owls back home!
Special thanks to Kartik Patel and a local guide for their knowledge of this species and their whereabouts. They are so well camouflaged & far out, they look like tiny boulders!
IG: @sswildlife
Species: Indian Eagle-Owl (Bubo bengalensis)
Location: Rajasthan, IN
Date: Jan 2024
Equipment: Canon EOS R5 + EF 600mm IS II + EF 1.4x III Extender
Settings: 1/1250s, ISO: 1000, f/6.3 @840mm, Handheld, Electronic Shutter
Spotted Queen - Leopards are the most adaptable big cats and are found throughout varied habitats in Africa and Asia. It was a treat to observe & photograph wild leopards for the first time in the rock caves of Jawai. This particular female is known as Jivda by the locals and she is the mother of 3 cubs, one of whom we were fortunate to observe playing with her (stay tuned for a future post!). We were lucky to get very good looks at Jivda as she crossed the rocky outcrops. I especially loved this frame as it shows the intricate side patterns as well as the classic felid paw raise.
Special thanks to Kartik Patel and a local guide for their expertise tracking and anticipating the whereabouts of the leopards. This image would not be possible without them. Their passion, knowledge, and regional experience were truly inspiring and it was a humbling experience to learn more about how this species thrives in this region from them.
IG: @sswildlife
Species: Indian Leopard (Panthera pardus fusca)
Location: Jawai, Rajasthan, IN
Equipment: Canon EOS R5 + EF 600mm f/4 IS II + EF 1.4x III Extender
Settings: 1/1600s, ISO: 4000, f/6.3 @840mm, Electronic Shutter, Handheld w Beanbag Support
The Totem Pole in Monument Valley. You need a local guide to visit Monument Valley at night. I can recommend Majestic Monument Valley tours if you are interested.
I am planning something different and new that I hope will be a lot of fun. I am planning Fantasy Nightscape Workshops during the July new moon. There will be 2 three day workshops, in July 2018, July 8 through 10, and July 11 through 13. Photographer Eric Gail will also be an instructor.
The workshop will be in the New Mexico Badlands. This area has multiple “Otherworldly” locations. This area gives us multiple sites that will be suitable for photographing fantasy scenes.
This workshop will be different in that we will compose the photos with Fantasy Figures. It will be like Comic Com under the Milky Way. We will first capture the composition in a standard fashion without a person and then with one or more fantasy figures in the photo. We will provide costumes including an Astronaut (full spacesuit), Alien, Predator, Lord of the Rings (Aragorn-Strider), Conquistador, Star Wars (including Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Obi Wan Kanobee, Jango Fett), Witches, and Wizards, Steampunk, and Medeival figures, Conquistador, etc.
If that is not imaginative enough you can bring your own fantasy outfit! We will be shooting in an Otherworldly setting so costumes or figures that fit the setting would be best. Suggestions are welcomed!
There will be lectures in the late afternoons for about 2 hours depending on group interest. We will cover and practice Landscape Astrophotography, Low Level Lighting, and Composition, in addition to planning, and scouting for Astrophotography. Additionally we will cover using smartphone apps such as TPE, Photopills, True DoF (Depth of Field) and Gaia GPS, and Google Earth, etc. These are instrumental in my planning and scouting.
If you are interested please mail me here at Flickr.
Thanks for all the kind support over the last year, it is much appreciated! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family!
Last Month I traveled to Point Reyes National Seashore with my photo friend Lisa. We hired a local guide - Daniel Dietrich - who helped us have a number of phenomenal wildlife experiences. His knowledge of bobcat behavior allowed us to follow this beautiful bobcat for 1 1/2 hours as it hunted. Our patience paid off! When the bobcat became very tense with one paw raised, we knew he was about to go for his gopher prey. And he did. Daniel told us to just stay on the the bobcat because after he made his catch he would turn an look at us. That is exactly what he did! I stood perfectly still and in awe of what I had just witnessed. The bobcat seemed very relaxed, squinted his eyes and then strolled off with his prize. I had my prize too - the gift of time observing this magnificent wild animal in its environment. (and some great photos too)
Panorama, Nikon 810A, 14-24mm lens, 14mm, f 2.8, ISO 8,000, 30 sec., 8 vertical images
This is a small Ancient Puebloan-Anasazi-Cliffdweller Alcove in the Four Corners Region of the SW USA near Monument Valley. This lies in the Navajo Nation, and to visit this area you need a local guide. These ruins are some of the harder challenges to photograph. Generally you have a broad area you want to include in the image and very little space to work with or to move around in. Another issue in these images is focusing. You want to capture very close objects as well as the MW. Typically I use the hyper focus technique to get everything in one image. I originally tried this with a 14 mm lens horizontally, then a 12 mm fisheye lens, both of which had too much distortion in the cramped space. I then resorted to a pano with a 14 mm lens vertically, which worked out OK.
If you are interested in doing night photography around Monument Valley contact Majestic Monument Valley Tours and ask for Quanah.
For more images like this please take a look at Wayne Pinkston Photography .
Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. It's a pleasure to post here. Cheers, Wayne
My interview on Google Local Guide Connect
All Photos Are Copyright To Paul Saad , Unauthorised Use Is Not Allowed Without Prior Permission. © Some rights reserved ©
If you make it larger, you'll see. Canyon de Chelly Az
People who sleep walk needed to be wary-i've never heard archeologists suggest the Anastazi succumbed to falling deaths, but I suppose they've looked at the bottom of the cliff to see if there were piles of bones.
You need to have a local guide to access the valley floor and half a day or more to do it.
My interview on Google Local Guide Connect
All Photos Are Copyright To Paul Saad , Unauthorised Use Is Not Allowed Without Prior Permission. © Some rights reserved ©
Wild female Puma (Puma concolor), named "Petaca" by local guides, moves silently through the tall grass. Loosely translated, her name means "little one" or "little thing" - she was the smallest cat in her litter and the only female.
My interview on Google Local Guide Connect
All Photos Are Copyright To Paul Saad , Unauthorised Use Is Not Allowed Without Prior Permission. © Some rights reserved ©
By now we were pretty much running on fumes. A long drive, four full days of intensive togging in the Peak District, followed by a hefty hop to the west and two blustery afternoons around the Mersey and Dee estuaries, and we were about done. It had been a very productive few days, but there was no denying that the collective spirit had sagged after so much adventuring. It’s not exactly as if we’re a bunch of young whippersnappers you know. By now, just one target remained, and we’d made arrangements to meet an esteemed local photographer, just to say hello and catch a few photographs together. Once again, the real magic of Flickr was amongst us, bringing like minded crazies together at the coast in the gathering darkness on a foul evening in this shared passion to photograph the hell out of the landscape. Our party arrived at the waterfront first. The night before, we’d agreed to postpone the rendezvous as a hellish cloudburst erupted over Merseyside and kept everyone indoors, and even now conditions remained challenging. For a while the three of us waited in the car, hiding from the terrible weather outside. I stepped out to breathe in the evening rain and inspect a billboard at the edge of the car park. Tribute acts galore. The Spicey Girls I wasn’t sure about. Bootleg Blondie looked rather more like it though. From the promotional picture, “Debbie Harry” looked almost exactly like Debbie Harry, which made for a far better photograph than any I was likely to take tonight. After a while we decided to brave it and explore the beach. Identifying us wasn't going to be that difficult for our local guide. Apart from anything else, we were the only people on the beach at all.
If Rebecca was shocked by the appearance of the group of ragged men she met by the walls of the fort at New Brighton, she covered it well. So did H for that matter. You know H - they’re an inseparable pair. And while H performed parkour (I checked the spelling to make sure I was still down with the kids) on the walls of the breakwater, we chatted to his mother about all matters landscape photography related and our adventures of the last few days. In fact Rebecca had been extremely generous with the local intel, sharing a number of additional locations as well as recommending which chippy we might want to try in West Kirby if we ever arrived there hungry. We were always hungry. With just two weary days here we barely had enough time for the locations we’d come to shoot, but you only have to look at her photos to see that there’s so much more in these parts. We shall return.
Ironic I suppose that we were here for that famous lighthouse, and I’m sharing a picture of Liverpool Docks instead. I was standing far too close to Perch Rock this evening, although I didn’t realise quite how skewed everything would look until I visited the editing suite much later. Even after a degree of faffing about in Lightroom it looks as if it’s about to topple backwards into the Irish Sea, and we don’t want that. Fortunately we returned the following morning with just enough time to take some more shots before heading home to Cornwall - but that’s another story. We’ll be back for that one soon enough. It was later, as we made yet another wholesale retreat from the advancing tide that the deep blues of the evening sky offset the reds of the huge cranes across the water on the dockside in Liverpool. Blues and reds in Liverpool - usually that means something else in these parts.
It’s not often that I’m attracted to what’s been put on the landscape by the human hand. Well apart from when it’s a lighthouse or an old tin mine for example. Or those statues on Crosby Beach where we’d been a little over twenty-four hours earlier. Generally speaking I prefer the natural world alone, but there’s something quite iconic about this view. My brother did his fine art degree somewhere across there many moons ago. It was the first time he’d ever been back this way. He’s a lifelong red. He’s quite enjoying life at the moment. I digress.
By now our friends had departed and we’d said our farewells - after all, tomorrow was another normal day for the rest of the world, while we remained at large with nowhere to go apart from a long way back to Cornwall. I did a quick roll call in my head the other day - that’s eleven of you I’ve met this year, and that excludes Dave and Lee who don’t count. It’s impressive how this place in the clouds brings us all together. Six days earlier we’d started the adventure in very much the same way as we were finishing here, making friends with fellow togs. And tomorrow I’ll be catching up with one of the famous eleven again. I’m sure another story is waiting to be told. Watch this space.
Bukit Daun is a nature conservation surrounded by mountains on all sides. It is home to endangered species such as, honey bear, the world’s largest flower Rafflesia arnoldii, and the world’s tallest flower Amorphophallus titanium (locally known as bunga Kibut). Bukit Daun also offers some great do-it-yourself trekking opportunities and stunning sunsets.
Location: Taba Penanjung, Bengkulu province - Indonesia
Find out more about Bukit Daun nature conservation at my blog virtualadrian.blogspot.com/2013/06/natural-beauty-of-buki...
#LetsGuide
My interview on Google Local Guide Connect
All Photos Are Copyright To Paul Saad , Unauthorised Use Is Not Allowed Without Prior Permission. © Some rights reserved ©
West Bank, Israel
We were traveling in Israel and planned to see all the beautiful things there (which we obviously did not because of the time limitations) including territories where Israelis prefer not to go. We wanted to see Mar Saba monastery in West Bank and Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. So we hired a local guide (a wonderful guy) who showed us around including the refugee camp. We've heard a lot about it but did not plan to visit. And we are glad we did. It is not so much about seeing beautiful things - the camp is a very distressed and poor place - but seeing how people actually live.
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The Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building or Tochō (都庁) for short. The main building (right) at 48 stories (242.9 meters) is the headquarters for the Tokyo Metropolitan Government with jurisdiction over one of the globe’s biggest cities.
Designed by Kenzo Tange and completed in 1990 at cost of around 1 bil US the complex takes up a whole city block. The exterior, with strong Gothic elements was designed to resemble an integrated circuit board. There are free access public viewing galleries at the top of each tower of the main building - check local guides for opening times. Staff in the building are just awesome :-)
This frame is taken from the courtyard between the Assembly Building and Main Building No.1, Building No.2 is in the centre of the frame. Was looking for the Fritz Lang vibe...
Fuji X-H1, Samyang 12/2 NCS, 60 secs at f/9, ISO 100
Breakthrough Photography 10 Stop ND filter.
A curious diversion: bit.ly/unfurly2
A big Thank You to all who view, fave and comment on my work :-)
exp20200319#133
Lead Me to the Sea: A small stream leads to the ocean on the Great Barrier Island, New Zealand. The Great Barrier Island is one of a few Dark Sky Sanctuaries that exist. There is no municipal electricity. Electricity is mainly from generators or solar cells, and there is minimal light pollution after bedtime at night. If you want an excellent local guide there contact Carol @darkskysanctuary . Stacked Image, 14 light frames, 1 dark frame, 14-24 mms lens, 24 mm, f/2.8, 15 sec., ISO 12,800.
The Waimangu Volcanic Rift Valley is the hydrothermal system created on 10 June 1886 by the volcanic eruption of Mount Tarawera, on the North Island of New Zealand. It encompasses Lake Rotomahana, the site of the Pink and White Terraces, as well as the location of the Waimangu Geyser, which was active from 1900 to 1904. The area has been increasingly accessible as a tourist attraction and contains Frying Pan Lake, which is the largest hot spring in the world, and the steaming and usually pale blue Inferno Crater Lake, the largest geyser-like feature in the world although the geyser itself cannot be seen since it plays at the bottom of the lake.
Waimangu is a Māori-language word meaning "black water". This name comes from the water that was thrown up by the Waimangu Geyser, which was black with mud and rocks.
From the 1890s onwards, the valley has gradually been re-populated naturally by plants ranging from hot water-loving algae and bacteria to mosses and many species of native ferns, shrubs and trees. These in turn support native birdlife including kererū, tūī, shining cuckoo, fantail, bellbird, and pūkeko, as well as introduced bird species such as mynah, magpie, finch and sparrow. A population of black swan thrives in the lower parts of the valley and on Lake Rotomahana. According to local guides, these have been introduced to the region from Western Australia by George Edward Grey in the 19th century along with wallaby.
As a rare eco-system completely naturally re-established following a volcanic eruption, Waimangu is protected as a Scenic Reserve, administered by the Department of Conservation NZ. The developing local native forest is the only current New Zealand instance of vegetation re-establishing from complete devastation without any human influence such as planting. Many of Waimangu's geothermal features are ranked as Category A – extremely important, of international significance.
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My interview on Google Local Guide Connect
All Photos Are Copyright To Paul Saad , Unauthorised Use Is Not Allowed Without Prior Permission. © Some rights reserved ©
My interview on Google Local Guide Connect
All Photos Are Copyright To Paul Saad , Unauthorised Use Is Not Allowed Without Prior Permission. © Some rights reserved ©
A resident of the charming, 1000 year-old Altit Village which has been beautifully restored and rehabilitated. In the Hunza region of Northern Pakistan, near Karimabad. You can only visit this village with a local guide. (In this area I met men and women over 100 years old, they have an excellent diet and an active life)
My interview on Google Local Guide Connect
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My interview on Google Local Guide Connect
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I have written about the experience of driving around the Faroe Islands in a previous post, but I really need to write about the experience of hiking in the Faroe Islands. However, I feel I have way more to say than is short enough for a single post here. So I am going to break it up a bit over a few images.
If pressed I am not sure which is the better method to see the Faroe Islands: driving or hiking. There are very compelling points for both. Certainly hiking around the Faroes seems like the obvious answer and honestly it is an amazing way to see the land. If driving the Faroe Islands comes with a surprising sense of solitude, hiking then can often leave you completely isolated and to your own thoughts while traversing one incredible landscape after another.
Hiking here is an adventure. There are a few things to be aware of. The first is that no two trails in the Faroes are the same. The conditions you find at one will likely be quite different from the next. By this I am thinking specifically of the logistics of finding and following the trail itself. During my stay in the Faroe Islands I hiked trails that were composed in parts of gravel spread down clearly and easily. Then there were trails of wide packed dirt. These were also easy to follow. I hiked single track dirt trails too that meandered here and there. There were also several trails that were barely discernible boot tracks. And finally there were hikes with no trails at all. This latter category generally had markers of some type or another. One trail had posts with green tips. Another had stones. A third had cairns. In these cases you always had to be on the lookout for the next marker and mentally map out how you were going to get to it. These trails were often climbing or descending hills. Sometimes there were small marshes of soggy ground to squelch through. Almost all the time slippery muddiness was involved. I came back caked in mud up to my knees almost every day and slipped on more than one occasion. One hike I got lost in a field in thick fog on this very mountain (but not this particular hiking of it). I wandered around for ten minutes up a slope before retracing my steps and eventually picking the trail markers back up. The logistics of navigating the trails in the Faroes can range wildly from very simple and straightforward to complicate and requiring careful attention. In addition to that many of the trails involve lots of elevation and I soon discovered that the Faroese system of rating trail difficulty took for granted a certain amount of effort that I did not. There "moderate" trails were often what I would have called difficult and their "difficult" were extremely strenuous. There was a class above that even but I did not attempt any of those. Those trails are highly recommended to be left alone unless accompanied by a local guide.
In general I averaged about 10 miles a day with thousands of feet of elevation change spread out over those miles while I was in the Faroes. Of the hikes I did, all stood out but some of my favorites included Drangarnir (more on that in a later post), Hvíthamar (the best hike for the least effort), Trælanípa and then Klakkur, from which this image is made.
I did the Klakkur hike twice, two days in a row. The mountain sits above the city of Klaksvík, so it was very accessible while I was staying on the eastern side of the archipelago. The locals often walk up it all the way from the beginning, but it is possible to drive to an upper trailhead to shave off a couple miles (and a couple thousand feet of climbing). The hike is known for taking you out to a mountainous point that grants a stunning panoramic view of the surrounding inlets and islands but in truth the whole trek is characterized by stunning views, like this one looking back down toward the trailhead that I made on my return during the second day of hiking up here. This is a trail that also had it all in terms of conditions. Some parts were packed dirt, some gravel, some were no trail at all and cairn stones to mark the way. There was grassy meadows to cross and muddy hillsides and even snow. It is almost constant climbing the whole way until you reach the top of the ridge that runs to the viewpoint. It was exposed to the constant Faroese wind as well. But the views... I still think I preferred the view from Hvíthamar but Klakkur was a very close second.
Pentax 67
Kodak Portra 160
My interview on Google Local Guide Connect
All Photos Are Copyright To Paul Saad , Unauthorised Use Is Not Allowed Without Prior Permission. © Some rights reserved ©
[In Explore 05 December 2021]
My interview on Google Local Guide Connect
All Photos Are Copyright To Paul Saad , Unauthorised Use Is Not Allowed Without Prior Permission. © Some rights reserved ©
My interview on Google Local Guide Connect
All Photos Are Copyright To Paul Saad , Unauthorised Use Is Not Allowed Without Prior Permission. © Some rights reserved ©
My interview on Google Local Guide Connect
All Photos Are Copyright To Paul Saad , Unauthorised Use Is Not Allowed Without Prior Permission. © Some rights reserved ©
My interview on Google Local Guide Connect
All Photos Are Copyright To Paul Saad , Unauthorised Use Is Not Allowed Without Prior Permission. © Some rights reserved ©
While in Pakistan, I wanted to visit a truck repair yard to see them painting the colourful intricate designs on the vehicles. I researched one on the outskirts of Peshawar, and the local guide knew its location. And tour leader, Bernd Seiler is always happy to detour from the itinerary if he thinks it might result in good pictures.
We arrived, everyone was extremely welcoming, the mechanics, the truck artists and the racing pigeon fanciers too in their shacks above the buildings - reached by rickety ladders.
If the opportunity arises, I’d like to go back and give them copies of the photos.
Peshawar, Pakistan December 2021.