Local_Guide photos on Flickr

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Middelburg River, South Africa by Paul Saad

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All Photos Are Copyright To Paul Saad , Unauthorised Use Is Not Allowed Without Prior Permission. © Some rights reserved ©

Princess Petaca by David & Shiela Glatz

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We saw this wild female Puma (Puma concolor) as a cub in 2018. Her mother is called “Sarmiento” - her territory covers the area surrounding Lago Sarmiento, pictured in the background. This cat, called “Petaca” (little one) by local guides, surveys the heights bordering the lake. Apparently her mother has allowed her to hang in the territory, at least for now.

Mythical Beauty by Shravan Sundaram

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Mythical Beauty - With its beautiful coloration & spiral horns, the Blackbuck, is in my opinion one of the most beautiful antelope in the world - looking straight out of a storybook.

Special thanks to my local guide for realizing my dream of seeing the large herds of this species and making this image possible.

IG: @sswildlife

Species: Blackbuck (Antilope cervicapra)

Location: Gujarat, IN

Equipment: Canon EOS R5 + EF 600mm IS II + EF 1.4x III Extender

Settings: 1/3200s, ISO: 400, f/8 @840mm EFL, Handheld w Beanbag Support, Electronic Shutter

The Face of Kenya by Louise Bleakly

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In the past, with every new country i've visited, I try to pick out a portrait I have taken which depicts the soul of a country. Sometimes it is difficult to choose. In this case, it was not.

I took very few pictures of the locals because quite frankly they were tired of people aiming their cameras at them. I also didn't get a chance to visit a Masai village which I have done in Tanzania. If these things had not been obstacles to taking "people pictures" I think I would have still chosen this wonderful man's portrait.

He is one of the guards at Satao Elerai who protects the guests from any animals who might present a danger. Kind and respectful men like him walked me to and from dinner each night and also protected me from myself. I have never been very sure footed and with age this trait has even gotten worse. The pride of the Masai shines through, doesn't it?

The Blue Beauty by Dom Haughton

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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?

Another Sunset at Malabero Beach - Bengkulu by Adriansyah Putera

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Byblos Beach, Lebanon by Paul Saad

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Our Lady Of Lebanon, Woodmead Johannesburg by Paul Saad

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All Photos Are Copyright To Paul Saad , Unauthorised Use Is Not Allowed Without Prior Permission. © Some rights reserved ©

Jouneih And Beirut From Adma, Lebanon by Paul Saad

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Rendezvous at Dusk by Dom Haughton

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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.

Kartaba view, Lebanon by Paul Saad

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Braamfontein, Johannesburg by Paul Saad

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All Photos Are Copyright To Paul Saad , Unauthorised Use Is Not Allowed Without Prior Permission. © Some rights reserved ©

Meroe Pyramids Sudan by Paul Saad

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Sunset Over Beirut, Lebanon by Paul Saad

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The Sahara @ Erg Zaher, Morocco by Avisekh Mukherjee

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By now you probably figured that I love desert landscape. Fact is that; I like all kind of landscapes; but it happed to be the case that in recent past I have visited more desert landscapes than anything else. What fascinates me about desert is that even thought it feels and sounds like a hostile landscape; it is still stunningly beautiful at the right time of the day and it is still capable of sustaining life. In search of another such beautiful location we ended up in Erg Zaher of the southern Moroccan Sahara.

Of course Morocco is more than the desert. It has an extremely versatile landscape and culture. With lash green north, beautiful sea side covering Mediterranean of the north as well as Atlantic of the west, the high Atlas mountain that gets snow in winter and the Sahara at the south. It is impossible to visit Morocco in one trip. So we covered some of the important locations that we felt would be interesting for us on this visit. We will definitely come back to explore what we have missed. But already it was an stunning experience.

Now about this image. As expected; you need to go to the desert and stay in remote locations to capture such images. The desert of Morocco had became extremely popular holiday destination. So mass tourism is definitely something that you need to avoid if you want such locations. So no permanent camps. We did exactly the same. We went out camping in the desert with a local guide who knew the desert very well and took up to spectacular locations with footstep free sand.

As always; I was up early in the morning to capture this image. I wish I could have some objects to show the vastness of the desert; but as it was sunrise; I was alone there and there was no way I would have walked around and break those pristine sand structure. So to isolate the scene I used the 70 200 and zoomed in a bit to get the lines of the dune with the light and shade of the rising sun with the fireball itself come out of the horizon to spready the ray of life over the blue planet.

Click here to experience how I experienced Morocco. This is a short film covering our journey through this beautiful country.

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.

M/V "Sileas"....the eagle hunter by INNES

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The Sileas is a 52 ft ex-admiralty pinnace or harbour launch built in 1940 by James A. Silver Ltd. of Rosneath, Scotland. it's now commanded by Aly, a local Egyptian. Every Wednesday it comes down Loch Shiel to Acharacle jetty from Glenfinnan and does a lunchtime cruise to the Green (ancient burial) Isle. Passengers have a good chance of seeing White tailed sea eagles with an 8 foot wingspan on the one hour voyage (www.highlandcruises.co.uk)

Yesterday my son and daughter in law (with 4 month old) grandson were lucky. They didn't just see ONE sea eagle swoop in close and catch a fish. They had FIVE sea eagles in sight at the same time which I think must be a bit of a record!

Mind you they had a local guide on board, Peter Dale 01967 431 537, who reckons he can take you to any species that interests you: deer, otters, pine martens, seals, sea eagles, golden eagles, greenshanks...........beavers, wild boar, wolves, bears (nah...well yes, but you might have to go a bit further for those)

Antelope Canyon : The Heart . . . by Clement Tang

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This image is included in 4 galleries :- 1) "Mère Nature" curated by Jacques Bonicel, 2) "US South West 3" by try...error, 3) "Spectacular landscapes and seascapes - Volume V" by Foxy Liz and 4) "Fantastic Fantasy" by Philippe Ampe.

Upper Antelope Canyon, about 200m long, is a slot canyon in the American Southwest. It is on Navajo land east of Page, Arizona. Antelope Canyon includes two separate, scenic slot canyon sections, referred to individually as "Upper Antelope Canyon" or "The Crack" Antelope Canyon "or" The Corkscrew ". The Navajo name for Upper Antelope Canyon is Tsé bighánílíní, which means 'the place where water runs through rocks'. Lower Antelope Canyon is Hazdistazí (called "Hasdestwazi" by the Navajo Parks and Recreation Department), or 'spiral rock arches'. Both are in the LeChee Chapter of the Navajo Nation.

Antelope Canyon's winding walls were carved by fast flowing flash flood waters. The floods carried abrasive sand, rocks logs and other debris picked up by the sudden torrents. Over millenia, these floods sculpted natural corridors through the soft sandstone. (sourced from internet)

This is a hand-held HDR. It is called "Heart of the Canyon" according to our local guide Eddie. It is pertinent to dedicate this image to lovers across the world on St. Valentine's Day.

(Not explored)

Senjugahama, Lake Chuzenji by Alfie Goodrich

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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.

White Mesa Arch by Wayne Pinkston

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Website, Instagram, Facebook

White Mesa Arch in Arizona. This is in the Navajo Nation and you should have a local guide to go there. This spot was completely off my radar until it was introduced to me by Quanah Parker who is with Majestic Monument Valley Tours. This trip caused me some embarrassment, lol. You have to climb a sandy hill to get to the arch. We parked down below, and I grabbed my gear and tripod and headed up. I set up the lights (Low Level Lighting) and tripod and reached for the camera, which wasn't there, sigh. It was still in the backseat of the car. You would think that you could at least remember the camera on a photo trip, sigh again... Anyway it was down the hill and back up the hill. The night was a success anyway. The arch is huge, and the view through the arch is wonderful. There is some light pollution form homesteads in the area. Many thanks to the model, Jacinda Wileto!

For more images like this please take a look at Wayne Pinkston Photography .

Thanks for all the kind support over the last year, it is much appreciated! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family!

Dwelling by Larry Darnell

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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.

Inside New College, Oxford, and its Gardens by JR P

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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.

Road To Nowhere {Explore 25-05-2017} by Paul Saad

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[In Explore 25 May 2017]

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A Time to Reflect [Explored 12/2/15] by JMK/Photography

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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.

The Gateway to Iceland by Skarphéðinn Þráinsson

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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.

The refugee camp scene by Igor Sorokin

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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.

Maameltein From Harissa by Paul Saad

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www.tfpd.co.za/experiences/sagole-baobab

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old but standing strong.. by tdwrsa-2

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An old photo of the Sagole Baobab (Adansonia digitata) considered by some the biggest tree in South Africa.

Trunk diameter 10.47 metres, circumference 32.89 metres and about 1200 years old according the carbon dating, but locals believe its over 3000 years old and also believe its home for many ancestors spririts.

A local guide will point out the faces of people like Mandela and John Vorster and others in the trunk and branches.

Fishing Pier at Piscataway Park by F Delventhal

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Frecha da Mizarela - Arouca - N7285 by Vitor Junqueira

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Waimangu Volcanic Rift Valley, North island (New Zealand) by Andrea Guagni 8,3 Million

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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.

Kartaba From Amhez, Lebanon by Paul Saad

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Nature Painting by Paul Saad

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Carawin Sand @ Farafra, Egypt by Avisekh Mukherjee

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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.

The Totem Pole, Monument Valley by Wayne Pinkston

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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!

Spiderweb Arch, Hunts Mesa by Wayne Pinkston

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This is Spiderweb Arch on Hunt's Mesa, Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, Utah and Arizona. this is a relatively little know arch to the general public. predominantly because it is so hard to get to. The drive to Hunt's Mesa is an adventure in itself, with deep sand and rocky poorly defined tracks. In many areas the term "roads" would be an exaggeration. You also need a local guide.

This double arch is huge. It makes Double Arch in Arches National Park look modest in comparison. For scale please look at the small bright light in the right lower area of the photo. You might need to enlarge the photo, but there is a photographer there, Eric Gail, sitting by his tripod on a small ledge taking photos. He is virtually lost within the enormity of the cavernous space.

There is some distortion from trying to capture the inside of a sphere onto a rectangular photo. The two opening at the top are overhead. The roof opening on the right is considerably larger than the one on the left, but I am closer to the one on the left making it look as large. I had to move far left in the arch to include the Milky Way. Iy took longer than expected to figure out just how to include the whole arch within a photo. It would not fit on a 14 mm panorama vertically or horizontally. I finally captured it as a horizontal 12 mm fisheye panorama.

Many thanks to our guide Quanah Parker from Majestic Monument Valley Tours. He is a night photographer himself, and I probably would not have been able to climb the steep 45 degree walls without his help. When we arrived in the dark, it was like "you want me to do what?, lol. He got me up into the arch however, and then it was just a matter of trying to prevent your camera, tripod, and camera bag from sliding down the slope.

If you want to see places like this at night, Google " Majestic Monument Valley Tours, and ask for Quanah Parker.

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

Tucked Away by Wayne Pinkston

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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

Antelope Canyon : Eye of the Dragon . . . by Clement Tang

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This image is included in 5 galleries:- 1) "Antelope Canyon" curated by Daryshoot, 2) "LANDSCAPE VOL 18" by Jean-paul Vancoppenolle, 3) "Memories of Travels" by RD Glamour Photography, 4) "Tutto quanto non rientra nelle altre Gallerie 01" by Stefano Bacci and 5) "Antelope canyon - rw" by erwan 2949.

Upper Antelope Canyon, about 200m long, is a slot canyon in the American Southwest. It is on Navajo land east of Page, Arizona. Antelope Canyon includes two separate, scenic slot canyon sections, referred to individually as "Upper Antelope Canyon" or "The Crack" Antelope Canyon "or" The Corkscrew ". The Navajo name for Upper Antelope Canyon is Tsé bighánílíní, which means 'the place where water runs through rocks'. Lower Antelope Canyon is Hazdistazí (called "Hasdestwazi" by the Navajo Parks and Recreation Department), or 'spiral rock arches'. Both are in the LeChee Chapter of the Navajo Nation.

Antelope Canyon's winding walls were carved by fast flowing flash flood waters. The floods carried abrasive sand, rocks logs and other debris picked up by the sudden torrents. Over millenia, these floods sculpted natural corridors through the soft sandstone.

(sourced from internet)

This is a hand-held HDR. It is called "Eye of the Dragon" according to our local guide Eddie.

Autumn at Kartaba, Lebanon by Paul Saad

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Petaca in Sepia by David & Shiela Glatz

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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.

Bobcat Hunting by Alice Cahill

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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)

Tabarja Long Exposure by Paul Saad

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Ehden at Night, Lebanon by Paul Saad

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Model Andrea by Paul Saad

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