Maine Again, At Last

It has been a two year stretch since I last traveled to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park, one of my favorite national parks in this country. Acadia was originally the summer home of John D. Rockefeller, who later gifted the park to the US Park Service, a donation of incredible generosity. While we have many billionaires in the country today, Rockefeller was a billionaire when $10,000 was a hefty annual salary. The scope of his wealth probably eclipses anything that can be conceived of today. But the park now belongs to all of us and I could not be more grateful to Rockefeller for providing me with one of my favorite places anywhere. I have, however, watched prices for room and food escalate dramatically over the years (I first visited Acadia when my son was one year old-he is now 51!), but it is still a paradise to be enjoyed. And the photography is always wonderful during October, when the leaves change color and light up the landscape.

This year’s journey to Acadia initially went well. As usual, I stopped in Camden, Maine, the first night to break up the drive from Portland to Bar Harbor. Camden Hills State Park always provides me with soe clues as to how far along the color change has progressed. This year, Camden Hills was quite beautiful, though not as far along as some previous years. I have found however, that the second week in October is usually a good choice. If I am a bit early, by the end of my stay, the leaves are perfect. If I am a little late, the leaves are still close enough to peak for some good photography. But I have usually counted on relatively quiet weather. During many prior years, overcast skies, light wind, and little rain marked the typical forecast, allowing me many hours out making images. This year, however, I was not as lucky.

The first days were filled with cloudless skies and bright sunshine, not ideal for leaf photography. Before my arrival in Bar Harbor, the weather forecasts were indicating cloudy skies and occasional rain, with little wind. After those first two sun-filled days, the winds picked up to the point where setting up my tripod was potentially hazardous to both me and my Nikon Z8. Although I did venture out, it was literally impossible to capture anything of value. The subsequent few days were filled with winds that were less forceful, but now rain entered the picture and complicated photography even more. The remainder of my trip became an endless challenge of avoiding wind and raindrops and jumping our of my car from time to time to make an image. It was a tough go, fitting the pattern that has plagued me much of this year, where the weather was continually suboptimal and photos were definitely harder to come by than usual on all of my trips. I was glad, however, to be back in Bar Harbor and the restaurants were better than ever, always one of the joys in this part of New England. Love those lobster rolls!

Stark Tree, Sieur de Monts Section, Acadia NP

The Tetons, Banff, and British Columbia

I have been traveling a good deal this past year, though my photographic efforts have disappointed me somewhat. Part of the reason for that has been weather-related, always one of the key confounding variables for the landscape photographer. Rain and cloudy weather have been the biggest culprits, dulling the imagery or washing it out entirely on some days. Nevertheless, persistence pays off as it commonly does, and in between the suboptimal weather and the raindrops, I made some decent images.

One image in particular was quite special to me. I went out after dinner while in Jackson Hole to photograph a herd of bison not too far outside the city They were resting fairly close to their fence enclosure earlier in the day, so I thought some close-ups of value could be made. When I arrived at the location, however, the bison had moved further away, making any kind of interesting image very unlikely, another photo disappointment! On the other hand, a herd of wild horses had arrived across the road, right in front of the Teton mountains, which are an exceptional range of dramatic peaks and an incredible backdrop for photos. Initially, the horses were scattered and simply grazing in small groups, none of which made for an interesting image. I thought that this would turn out to be a bust as well, since the sun was now setting and soon all my light would be gone. No light = no photo! Just as I was about to leave the area, however, I noticed one golden horse separating itself from the others and slowly moving to position itself directly in front of the Tetons. Almost at the moment of last light, he turned sideways, the sun dipped behind the mountains, but a golden light, nicely matched to the horse’s color bathed the scene. I took a quick series of photos, and then, almost as suddenly as the image appeared to me, it was gone, the horse turning and trotting back to rejoin his grazing herd. For that image, the conditions might have been perfect for 30 seconds at best. But I did get what I wanted, and it is perhaps my favorite image so far from this year’s efforts.

Golden Wild Horse and the Tetons at Sunset, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming 2024

Recent Trips 2024

I have been very deficient the past several months in updating my blog. To some extent, I fell into the laziness trap when I did not travel much for photography during the final months of 2023. So I just let my blog page wither, feeling as if I had accomplished nothing at all. In reality, I was always thinking about photography and planning what to do come 2024. Finally, I just got my act together and started planning some trips, which will keep me busy for some time.

My first trip was to California. At first, I had decided to travel around the state, but then I settled on Carmel as a nice location for a base, exploring that area, where I had not photographed much previously. It worked out well for me and I made a number of images that I was quite pleased with, since they were different from work that I had done before. Also, it gave me a chance to visit some of Carmel’s wonderful galleries, which I had not seen for some time, as well as the beautiful Point Lobos, which I had not been to for many years. Point Lobos was battered apparently from last years horrific storms in California and much of it was cordoned off and inaccessible. It may take some time for Point Lobos to recover, but it inevitably will. Mother Earth takes good care of things like this in general. It is only when man interferes that things tend to fall apart.

My second trip was in April to another old favorite of mine, Moab, Utah. I returned to some of my previosuly explored sites in Canyonlands National Park, Deadhorse Point State Park, and Arches National Park, which I first visited more than 40 years ago! I also added a few new stops. When I first weent to Arches, again in April 1982, I was basically the only person in the park! Times have changed greatly, however, and Arches is now mobbed and requires a visitor pass betrween 7 AM and 5 PM, which I was not aware of. Since I usually am up for sunrise, this was not an issue for me. The land forms were basically the same, so I felt home to a great extent, but Moab itself has greatly expanded. Again, I was fortunate in finding some scenes that were different from images that I have made in the past.

Below are some images from each of these trips.

Canyon Walls Along the Colorado River, Moab, Utah 2024

Sunset, Garrapata Beach, California 2024

Oregon Coast 2023

I combined a photo workshop with John Paul and Arduina Caponigro in Oregon with a trip to Redwood National Park, which was previously posted. The workshop concentrated on the beautiful imagery of the Oregon Coast, which it seems I can never get enough of. If I lived there, I might forget to eat—a real sacrifice for me—because I would be hanging out on the coast photographing all day as the light changed. It is simply one of the most beautiful areas of the country. As light washes over the sea stacks, the beaches, and the rock walls, the images beg to be made and always seem to become more than just a pretty picture. I will continue to add to this collection as I process nore of the photos. please enjoy the photos/

Sea Stacks at Sunset, Gold Beach, Oregon 2023

Redwoods and Rhododendrons

For many years, my trips to Redwood National Park awakened me to the extraordinary beauty of the massive, towering redwood trees. I noticed in a number of the images that I made there, however, that there were numerous rhododendron bushes in close proximity to the redwoods, but I never found them in bloom, usually arriving in the mid- to late summer period, after the flowers had fallen. I vowed that one day, I would return and find those rhododendrons in full bloom. Finally, this year I timed it exactly right and made a series of images that seem to have a special story — the merging of the power of the redwoods and the delicate beauty of the flowering rhododendrons. These images are fresh and still emerging as I process them, but I am delighted by what I feel to be a wonderful expression of the power of photographic images to convey many emotions. I hope that the viewer enjoys them as well.

Antarctica 2023

I returned to Antarctica in February, after having my scheduled trip postponed in 2021 and 2022 due to Covid-19 concerns. As will be seen, Covid was still a concern and even more, a reality for me in 2023. As is usual, the trip to Antarctica was a fairly arduous one, requiring you to fly first to Santiago, Chile, and then on to Punta Arenas, at the tip of South America. From Punta Arenas, after a day of rest, we fly on to the Antarctic Peninsula, for total in flight time of about 14 hours total. We flew to Punta Arenas on LATAM Airline, a surprisingly good experience. In Antarctica, we boarded our ship, the ice-breaker Ocean Nova for what should have been 8 days. During our days of sailing around Antarctica, we would go out in Zodiac boats twice a day for a total of about 6 hours, from which we did the bulk of our photography.

While the trip was a fantastic one, it was evident to those of us who had been to Antarctica previously, that there were significant, noticeable differences from past trips. The ice was simply not as dramatic in many ways, with many fewer major ice arches and less dramatic ice forms. Antarctica, however, is incredibly beautiful and those in our group who were first-timers thought it stunning, which it was. But it was not as dramatic for sure. As an example, I counted my images in 2019 compared to this trip in 2023: 2019 - 11000 images, 2023 - 7500 images.I don’t think that was simply due to this being a follow-up trip compared to an initial trip. There were a number of problematic reasons: it was rainier and windier, the overall weather wa not as conducive to photo-making, and a variety of other lesser factors. Bt mainly, we just did not see as interesting a collection of ice to photograph. But I did come away with many very satisfying pictures, many of which I will post on this site.

Travel back home was also fraught with complications. The plane that was scheduled to pick us up could not land because the gravel runway was too icy (imagine, ice in Antarctica!). A a result, we wound up sailing the Drake Passage back to Chile, with its 35 foot swells. Fortunately, I did not suffer any seasickness, though a number of people in our group disappeared for two days into their cabins. Secondly, several of us also contracted Covid-19, though we were unaware of that fact until we returned home, a few days later. I was mildly ill, with a sore throat, cough, and stuffy nose, but no fever. I was also very fatigued and weak, all of which took several weeks to fully resolve. One only wonders how many people I might have infected, since I did not realize I had it until I was home for two days. But I am well now and fully recovered.

As I noted, in spite of some disappointment at the shape of the ice in Antarctica, I did make many satisfying images, which will be posted on my website. One of my favorites is seen below, a sunset with amazing colors that was simply wonderful. Wili I return to Antarctica, I am not sure? If you had asked me in the week immediately following my return, I would have said never again. But looking back now, I am not so certain, given my satisfaction with my images and my improved post-processing. Maybe I have one more trip left in me, we shall see.

Sunset Antarctica 2023

Return To Wynwood

It has been quite a few years since I first ventured down to the Wynwood section of Miami. I think that I first went there in 2015 and was shocked by what I found. I has first started photographing graffiti in Philadelphia in the late 1980’s. At the time, working as a neonatologist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, it was harder for me to travel, as I was intent at building my medical career, so I began looking around for things to photograph nearer to home, especially on a quiet weekend morning. While many people looked at the street graffiti in the city as a horrible urban blight, I was impressed that there was a distinct beauty to these scrawls. Many of the graffiti writers not only wanted to see their work or their name on a wall, but they were also interested in presenting their writing with a real flair or sense of beauty, and it was this element that first attracted me to the walls in Philadelphia. Much of the street art was found in the impoverished areas of the city, or in the school yards. Inspired in part by the work of Aaron Siskind, I began experimenting by photographing the wall art close up, finding that upon enlarging these photos, they resembled abstract modern art, most closely the work of the Abstract Expressionists of the 50’s and 60’s. This work appealed to me a great deal, and I persisted in doing it to the present time. I even had a couple of group shows that exhibited some of my photo abstract work while we lived in that region.

When we moved to Florida, I had thought that my graffiti days were probably over, but a Google search revealed an area of Miami, Wynwood, in which many of the buildings actually had street artists invited to decorate the buildings, many of which at the time were abandoned warehouses. I took a ride down there one Sunday and it was pretty much of a ghost town, but the walls were absolutely spectacular. There was not only graffiti scrawls, but some of the most beautiful street art that I had ever seen. I have now been back to Wynwood several dozen times. I had to take a break during the recent Covid epidemic, but finally made it back there this past weekend. Since I first went there, Wynwood has been “discovered,” and the place has changed quite a bit. The abandoned warehouses have been replaced by highrises, restaurants, and shops, which have changed the environment quite a bit, but the street art has grown dramatically and is even more beautiful and interesting than was originally the case. In photographing the other day, I was most attracted to a few walls of pure abstraction, rather than the dramatic objective art, and my photos reflect that. A couple walls especially occupied most of my time there, and I made dozens of photos, several of which appeal to me a great deal. I will be back there again sometime soon to make more images, since all the art has changed in the two and a half years that I was away. But it is great to have Wynwood relatively nearby as a source for some of my non-landscape work.

Another Beautiful Autumn in Maine

For the past several years, with time off because of Covid (not me, I have somehow managed to escape its clutches), I have gone to Bar Harbor, Maine, during the second week of October to photograph one of nature’s greatest displays—the changing color of the leaves, hoping that I get there at the right time. I have learned after much trial and error that the second week is usually quite perfect. If there is an early color change, I catch the peak during the early part of that week. If the change occurs later, I get the earlier part of the color change, but still get enough to keep me happy. Usually, I go alone, but this year my wife decided that she wanted to go with me. I therefore hoped that the color change would be a good one, since she had never seen it before. It turned out to be absolutely incredible. I had thought that the color change last year was one of the best that I had ever seen, but this year beat it hands down. Now usually, when Elaine is with me, I cannot do the crazy kinds of things that I do when I am photographing by myself. She actually likes to eat and sleep normally, whereas when I am by myself, I run around like an insane man, often ignoring eating until I no longer have good light for photography. So that having Elaine with me is much more civil, I get far more rest, and I eat much better. I never go to any quality restaurants by myself, just quick eateries. Elaine being with me is much more enjoyable, then, but it has one big downside—there is less time for photography. So I expected that I would not be as productive this year as in previous years. But boy, was I wrong!

This year’s color change was so magical that the photos almost took themselves. It was really incredible and I came away with a treasure trove of photos that I was very happy with. The maples were truly exceptional and the reds of the trees just blazed through many of my images. In some past years, the reds were not terribly notable, and I made the best of yellows and oranges. In future years, I might find myself very disappointed when the color change, for a variety of reasons, turns out to be much less than what I experienced this year. But that is something that I can worry about at another time. This year’s crop of photos was richly rewarding and very exciting. I came away very pleased with my effort this year, and it was a pleasure having my wife with me for a change.

Lichenified Tree and Fog Bank, Duck Brook Pond, Bar Harbor, ME 2022

Upper Hadlock Pond, Mt. Desert, Maine 2022

The International Peace Park

We had a wonderful time traveling out West to the amazing International Peace Park, Glacier NP in the USA and Waterton Lakes NP in Canada. The beauty of both of these places is extraordinary, though it was somewhat marred this summer by forest fires in many areas, sending smoke and haze well beyond the areas of the fires. It was the only thing that interfered at all with our enjoyment of these wonderful parks, mostly because it made the photography less than ideal on certain days. Nevertheless, it was good to be traveling and out in nature once more.

I still feel that I don’t have my traveling planned that well as yet, and too many issues seem to surface along the way, interfering with plans. I guess so long as COVID remains an issue, these challenges will continue to disrupt well-laid plans. I suspect, however, tat within a year or so, COVID will become just another respiratory ailment that people deal with on a regular basis. Given my advancing years, trip postponements are not something that makes me terribly happy, to say the least. I lost a good two years to COVID, and that is more than enough.

Stream, Sunlit Hillside, and Clouds, Waterton Lakes NP, Alberta, Canada 2022

Return to Serious Travel

For many months, it seemed as if I would never be able to really get back to traveling and photographing, but that now seems to have changed for the better with the use of COVID vaccines. I have been able to travel extensively to both South Africa and Maine during the past 2 months and it has allowed me to make many new images that I am quite pleased with. These new photos can be found on the two new pages that I have added to my website. Simply click on the appropriate images to open those sections of new work,.

Africa was once again a life-altering experience, the likes of which cannot be adequately described in words. Africa must be experienced in person, and I hope that the access to my photos from my recent trip, as well as the trip in 2019, serves to inspire people to pack their duffels and head to Africa. You will never be disappointed having made this decision. Furthermore, Africa appears to be taking the COVID epidemic with a degree of seriousness and resolve that seem to be missing in the USA. People realize that Vaccination is key to returning to a “normal” state of affairs and have pursued their immunizations as aggressively as possible. We felt much safer there than we did in Florida during the preceding months. In addition, on this trip we had Ian Michler, one of the foremost African guides, join us for the last half of our trip. his talents were extraordinary. His knowledge of Africa, its problems, the animals that we saw and their behaviors was simply incredible. We hope to work with Ian in the months ahead to raise awareness and funds for African charities of critical importance. You will be hearing more about some of these efforts in the days ahead.

Almost as soon as we returned from Africa, I turned around and headed on a long-deferred trip to photograph Fall color in Maine. Maine was absolutely spectacular this year, with colors blazing beyond belief. The region was so extraordinarily beautiful that it was almost impossible to take a bad photo (though, as usual, I managed to squeeze a few of them in!). I hit the peak of Fall color exactly perfectly this year, though it also seemed as if the intensity of the color change this October made it unique in my experience. It was simply beautiful and I think that some of my images capture the special nature of this year’s colors.

My immediate goal is to produce simple, inexpensive paperback photo books from both Maine and Africa from my trips there over the past 5 years. When these are ready, I will announce them on the web site.

I am very grateful and thankful to be back out photographing, I found myself to be only a little rusty, and i am already looking forward to trips in the coming year. Hopefully, COVID will wind down further and the world will open up even more.

Roadside Fall Colors, Bar Harbor, Maine 2021

Giraffe Feeding, Timbavati, South Africa 2021

COVID Marches On

For a brief while, it appeared as if the Covid pandemic might be dwindling to a close, but it was sadly not to be. After a brief respite, thanks in great part to Trump stupidity and the profound ignorance of his followers and much of the Republican Party, it blossomed again in a terrifying outburst of death and disease. The failure of many people to get one of the approved vaccines made for a population that was undervaccinated and ready to spread the infection while, in many cases, dying themselves. So travel, which appeared to be loosening up, became more problematic again and, as a result, my own travels were kept to a minimum. Now, fully vaccinated, my wife and I have decided to venture out once again. A repeat trip to Africa, planned shortly after we returned in 2019 from one of the greatest trips ever to that part of the world, will hopefully take place in 2 weeks.

It is not, however, as if we travel unconcerned. Being on a plane for 14 hours remains a risk, we have to be tested several times along the way, and while our vaccine status most likely restricts the severity of our illness, we can still turn positive and require quarantining somewhere along the way, which would demolish this trip. Hopefully, we will be sufficiently cautious to remain well and Covid negative.

In the meantime, my photography has once again ground to a minimal level. My posts on Instagram are often repostings of prior images, though there have been some new efforts, but it has mostly been biding time until we got up the courage to resume travel. The image here is one of the few that I took during our trip to Minnesota a couple months ago. We had tried to get to the West Coast, but no accommodations were available, as we were booking last minute. We then decided to go somewhere that we had never traveled to previously, and wound up arbitrarily picking Minnesota. We did have a lovely time, though the good images were few and far between. This sunset, however, was quite lovely and made our day. Now, tentatively on to Africa!

Sunset, International Falls, Minnesota

Time Marches On

It has been several months since I last revised my blog, primarily because I, like everyone else, was sitting home and waiting for a chance to travel once again. After being fully vaccinated, I finally decided to bite the bullet and hop on a plane to one of my favorite places, Moab, Utah. Moab, tucked between Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, must surely be one of the most beautiful places anywhere. It felt wonderful to be traveling again. Although I have now been coming to Moab for 30 years and have visited there perhaps 12-15 times, driving into Moab never fails to fill me with a sense of wonderment that is always so inspiring. If one drives down from Salt Lake City, the usual route, there is about 200 miles of very little to see. Suddenly, it is as if the ground literally erupts on either side of you about 10 miles north of Moab, as Arches National Park begins to surround you. I can still vividly recall the first time that I made that drive, it was mind-boggling. At that time, in 1981, Moab was an abandoned uranium mining town with almost nothing going on. There were only 2 or 3 motels, a few restaurants that were little more than greasy spoons, but surrounded by all this astonishing beauty. The invention of the mountain bike, however, changed all that, and by 1991, the town had become the mountain bike capital of the world and Mob literally exploded in many ways. But it is still incredibly beautiful and should be visited by everyone at least once (although it is already getting quite crowded!).

My trip was completely uneventful, a good thing during these stressful days. I had some concerns about my photo skills before I went, but these proved to be a non-problem, and the images that I was able to make on this trip were well beyond my expectations. In particular, one sunrise in Canyonlands was especially dramatic and rewarding, as can be seen in the attached photo. I wish that I could have spent more time there, quite frankly, as the image-making was going so well. Hopefully, I will be able to get back on the road very soon. I think it is now possible, thanks to vaccination, to travel with much reduced fear.

Sunrise Over the White Rim, Canyonlands National Park, Utah April 2021

The Beginning of the End?

I realized that I had not written anything here for many months, primarily because I have not been traveling or making many new photographs. So recently, I decided to see what was around me in Florida that I had not really explored much at all. At the same time, the release of COVID vaccines has seemed to open a door to the possibility of traveling again in the not-too-distant future. Elaine and I got our first Pfizer shot this past Sunday, and we are due to return in 3 weeks for our second shot. We both tolerated the immunization just fine and hope that this marks the start of something better this year.

In the meantime, I have found a number of “natural areas” down here in South Florida that are strikingly beautiful. If we had found them for hiking on one of our trips, we would have been quite excited, as they have great trails and beautiful scenery for making images. Two of them, Yamato Scrub and Winding Waters, have really captured my interest and I am looking forward to the right conditions to explore them more fully. The landscapes in these sites are striking and I think some fine photographs can be made at them. One of the recent images is shown below. But I need to get into them more fully with my Nikons, which is something that I am really looking forward to. For the first time in quite a few months, I feel my creative photo juices are again flowing and I am excited to be getting out thee once more.

Reflections, Yamato Scrub Area, Boca Raton, Florida

More Time in Lockdown, But...

It has been several months since I last wrote in this blog, because very little has been happening of late. I have canceled several photo trips, including some big ones to the Rocky Mountains and Patagonia. My annual trip to Redwood National Park has also gone by the wayside this year, sadly. My wife and I recently got brave, primarily because she was having a major grandchild deficiency, and we drove up to Connecticut (where we saw my sister), and New Jersey. Normally, we visit with our children and grandchildren every 6-8 weeks, but we had not seen them in person now since November. While FaceTime and Zoom were very helpful, it is just not the same as being with them in person. So we packed my car and risked taking this drive, which actually turned out to not be all that risky, assuming a high level of caution (masks, hand washing and sanitizing, and social distancing). On the way up, we stayed at a wonderful hotel in North Carolina, the Umstead, for two nights, since we were trying to avoid a hurricane along the way. While we managed to stay out of the storm, my sister, renting a summer home in CT, did not and she lost all power for more than a week, naturally just when we were arriving there. We made do, however, and it actually was not that bad. We then headed to River Vale to see my two daughters and their families, followed by several days at the Jersey Shore in Point Pleasant, where my son had bought a new home. My younger daughter had also just found a new home in River Vale, to which she will be moving next month. In spite of the coronavirus pandemic, life does go on.

I had been feeling quite lousy lately because of a bad bike crash in which I injured my knee and my neck. The knee had needed to be drained and I followed up with a course of steroids and anti-inflammatories, neither of which I like to take very much because of their inherent side effects. As I write this, my knee has recovered pretty much, but my neck remains very stiff and sore. I am trying to get off all meds for these ailments, but it is not that easy, since I am so uncomfortable. I am seeing progress, however, so we will keep our fingers crossed that we will get over the worst pretty soon.

Because of my problems, although I took my Nikon with me, I didn’t take it out of the camera bag. I just did not feel sufficiently well to make photos. I did take a few photos with my iPhone, however, one of which I like quite a bit, showing some big oak trees in the squares in downtown Savannah, where we stopped on the way back to Florida. This image will serve as my post for now. I do hope to start traveling a bit in a couple months, to Bar Harbor, Maine, for my usual Fall color photography.

Oak Trees, Chippewa Square, Savannah, Ga.

Covid-19 Pandemic Lock-Down

It has now been about 3 months since we voluntarily went into lock-down to try to avoid contracting this horrible virus. At this point, more than 115,000 Americans have died in this pandemic, in great part because our leaders denied that this was a problem. Who knows how different things might have been with better leadership, but I guess that we will never know. So far, Elaine and I have avoided the disease, but it has been very difficult being in the house almost non-stop. I do get out nearly every morning to ride my bike for about 20-30 miles, but that is pretty much the extent of my outside experience. We have not seen our grandchildren in person since February and we miss them terribly. Thank goodness for FaceTime and Zoom, else we might have slashed our wrists in this regard. And I still dread the possibility of contracting Coronavirus, since those over 65 with some of the health problems that I have seem to be at the greatest risk of death from the disease.

Photography has been virtually non-existent, though I have taken a few photos now and then, but serious travel is out of the question. We had a wonderful 50th anniversary celebration scheduled for the Aspen Wine and Food Festival this month and that was canceled weeks ago. Our glorious celebration may turn out to be ordering a pizza for delivery that night. In addition to this, I have developed a series of medical problems that are not major, but need to be taken care of and are simply difficult to deal with under the circumstances. This year will go down as a total loss, I’m afraid, especially photographically. Since I don’t have all that many years of truly active life ahead of me, losing any time is truly painful. But all one can do is keep hanging in there and hope for the best.

Everglades Sunrise, Parkland, Florida 2020

The Grand Canyon

One of the most disconcerting issues with living in Florida is how many children, grandchildren, relatives, and friends find their way to your home each winter. Who can blame them? the weather here is great, even in the depth of the winter months and, if you are trying to escape the cold and the snow, why not head south for a few days or weeks? Besides, we love seeing all these people and welcoming them to our home, though it does tend to get a bit tiring after many visitors show up. You sometimes begin to feel like a cruise ship activity director, planning new activities each day. But there are certainly worse fates in this world than having a lot of visitors and enjoying them being around for a while.

But after months of visitors, the need to simply have some down time grows and, if possible, a trip to somewhere beautiful for some photography seems like a great plan. Where to go this year? Well, the Grand Canyon slipped into my mind and I couldn’t shake it. I have never been to the Canyon in the Winter months, but the attraction of few people, the ability to drive anywhere, and decent weather (though freezing cold mornings!!) was overwhelming and really pulled me in. So I made my plans, packed my gear, and off I went. Elaine was happy since she could now golf and dine with her friends and not feel guilty at all. So she also had her own little vacation.

As with Death Valley, I wanted to get more color into my images by being out during sunrise and sunset. The nice aspect of the Grand Canyon is that there was reasonably good and much less expensive places to stay right outside the park, with internet and phone services, something that the Canyon itself lacked. The National Park System is having a really hard time coming to grips with cell phones and the Internet, trying to pretend that these are not essential components of modern life that simply cannot be ignored. But my lodging was fine, and I was only 2 miles outside the South entrance to the park. The drive to any of the viewpoints was quite easy and I could be at one of the major viewpoints within about 15 minutes. Perfect!

I had not visited the Grand Canyon for about 6 years prior to this trip. Once again, as soon as I saw the Canyon, it was a mind-boggling experience. You know what it looks like, having witnessed it in person and seen it in so many images, yet it never fails to take your breath away. You know how it was formed, you’ve read the story many times, but actually seeing the eons of erosion and the geological layers makes it almost incomprehensible that something like this could actually happen, give or take a few hundred million years or so! The Canyon itself is simply frying your brain in disbelief, yet the beauty and majesty of what you are seeing makes you immediately reach for your camera to take a picture of almost anything. It takes a while for you to actually calm down a bit and begin to focus your feelings upon creating some images that will speak to other people who are not standing there next to you. But no photos really do justice to the Grand Canyon. Capturing a small section, even with a beautiful sunrise or dramatic sunset, are wonderful, but represent just a sliver of the majesty of this wonder of the world. But I tried my best, and for the next week, took several thousand images of the Grand Canyon that made me totally forget the stresses of Florida visitors. It was a marvelous trip.

Death Valley 2020

After finalizing my book of photos for 2019, which came out quite well, I decided that I needed to do some new photography to start the year. It seems unlikely that I will put together another year like 2019, but one never knows. When 2019 started, I had no idea that I would have so many photos that I was pleased with that I could create a very satisfactory book of 50 (actually, 51) images. I have received many very kind comments about the book and it has provided a great deal of satisfaction to me so far. So, at this point in time, we will see what 2020 brings and perhaps another book of photos will be in the offing at the end of the year.

To begin 2020, I decided that a trip to Death Valley National Park would be perfect. I did decide, though, that I would really try to concentrate on sunrises and sunsets, maximizing the color in my images, since Death Valley, in general, is pretty devoid of color, except in a few spots. This approach actually worked quite well, and I did produce several images that were ablaze with color. Overall, though, the trip felt like a letdown to me, primarily because the dunes were such a mess. No matter where I went, there were footprints all over the place. I even tried a few entrances to the dunes that I had never used before in the hope that I could find some virgin territory with no marks, but it was just not to be. I finally eked out a few images that had few footprints so that I could remove them, but these were pretty raren. Normally, I find some wonderful areas in the dunes to photograph, but not this time and I think it left me with a sense of being unfulfilled. I look back at some of the images that I did get from Badwater, Zabriskie, and other sites in the park, though, and I think they’re very satisfactory, but my dunes failure left me kind of down. Well, that’s the fate of the landscape photographer at times, close but no cigar.

In any event, this photo of the badlands at Zabriskie Point was one that I did like a lot, and it has continued to grow on me in the days since I returned home. So it was a less than optimal trip, it left me a bit blue, but I will be out in Grand Canyon very soon to try my hand there.

My Book

I have not posted now for over a month’s time, but for a reason that will become evident very shortly. Also, I have not been traveling much, probably because i am pretty traveled out for this year, though in a very good way. This year, 2019, was a very remarkable one for me, as I really expanded my horizons quite a bit, making this year my greatest travel year ever. Certainly, that was one of my intentions when I retired from Medical practice—to put down the stethoscope and replace it with my camera full-time. I had always carried my camera with me as I traveled the world for medical practice and teaching, lecturing, being a visiting professor, etc. But I really wanted a period of life to do nothing but photography, at least for a few years until age caught up with me. I did not want to be one of those individuals so common in medicine who seem completely unable to divorce themselves and their identities from their involvement in medicine. Then, when they finally do retire, it is often caused by age or illness and there is little or no time at all to enjoy the rewards of a compassionate life well-lived. Although I always made sure to practice the art of medicine as intensely as possible, with many, many nights spent in the hospital to prove that point, medicine was never as meaningful to me as producing a memorable photograph. That may sound a bit callous, since as a neonatologist, few aspects of my role were more critical than saving the life of a sick newborn infant. But it was just what I did, and I did it as creatively and as well as anyone ever has. I think my former colleagues would immediately testify to that. But it was just not as personally enriching to me as creating art with my camera. One could argue that I was a very unfeeling individual to believe those words, but I don’t think that that was the case. I was very passionate and dedicated to my patients and their families, as well as my job, and I never for a moment gave anything but my very best. My very best, though, while rewarding to the patient and my students, was always less than emotionally rewarding to me.

So I retired in 2015, having just won the Fanaroff National Education Award from the Neonatal-Perinatal Section of the AAP, with plans to photograph full-time. I was very lucky, though, in that I did not have to make a living from photography. My medical career had been more than adequate to provide sufficient funds for Elaine and I to enjoy retirement. And in the 4 plus years since I did end my career, I have accumulated about $2 million more from my investments than I had in September 2015, even while taking monthly payouts from my 401K and living off our savings. Those words still amaze me, and I pray it will continue. But it has completely freed me to travel as I wish in my pursuit of fine photos. We already have trips planned to Patagonia this Fall and back to Africa the summer after.

2019, therefore, was an incredible travel year: between February and October, I traveled to Antarctica, Northern California (Redwoods NP) and Southern Oregon, Montana and Glacier National Park, Africa (Botswana, Zimbabwe, and South Africa) , and Maine (Acadia NP). I must have exposed more than 65,000 images during that period, with some of those images being great favorites of mine. It seemed very appropriate, therefore, to gather a group of those pictures and collect them in a book, which is precisely what I have done. Chasing the Light 2019, a Year in Photography (see photo—book available at Blurb.com), is the title of that book, with 50 of my best photos (actually 51 if you include the image on the back cover). I am very pleased with how it turned out, and I hope to do it again next year. Certainly, the trip to Patagonia will make for a highlight, but I already have Death Valley on the books in three weeks. Without question, this is a life that I had always dreamed about and I’m so glad that I retired when I did to at least enjoy a few years when my health is okay, I can travel widely, and use my Nikon D850 and iPhone to the max!

After Africa

I have not posted for some time now, surprisingly, since the trip to Africa was so inspiring. I think that some time had to pass, however, so that I could fully digest and appreciate the significance of the trip in my own mind. As I had indicated in my last entry, I wasn’t exactly excited to be going on this trip. It was a long plane flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg, then numerous small plane flights around Africa to the various camps, photographing would involve primarily wildlife and my primary interest has always been landscape, and I really had no idea what to expect. When I don’t know what will be forthcoming, I have never done all that well. My anxiety level is high, which triggers a whole host of emotions for me, some real, some imaginary, which in turn set off a variety of physical problems that I then need to deal with, many of which are also imaginary. Ultimately, all seems to work out well, but living through the anxiety for a while is never easy for me. This sequence has happened so often already that you think I might be used to it and just deal with the issues, but it is never as easy for me as I think it should be. And this trip was no exception.

Except that the trip turned out to be marvelous, one of the best of all time. Watching wild animals in their unmanaged, native state, in which you are a grateful spectator, was simply incredible. Experiencing the terror and subsequent relief of having a lion come right up to you, looking intently at you with every stride, then simply laying down and going to sleep because he wanted the shade of our vehicle, is quite difficult to put into words. Seeing a leopard drag her kill up into a tree to protect it from hyena theft, watching those same hyenas gather at a watering hole in the early morning, observing a big bull elephant thrashing through the vegetation along the water’s edge to feed, having an elephant herd march up to feed and drink, and many other similar experiences will stay with me forever. They are quite literally burned into my brain. I wondered for years why my sister, Iva, was so enthralled with Africa; now it is abundantly clear to me. She helped put this trip together and she could not have done a better job in planning. It was perfect from beginning to end and truly opened my eyes to the wonder of Africa. We only traveled to South Africa, Botswana, and Zimbabwe, so there is much more for us to experience in the future, and we hope to go back the year after next, if all goes well. But this trip was simply amazing, something that I probably should have done years ago.

Off to Africa

For years now, my sister has been urging us to accompany her to southern Africa, a place that she has been traveling to for more than 25 years. She has visited there more than 40 times and is about as expert on the region as anyone could possibly be who does not live there full-time. I could never really get excited myself, however, about visiting the area, mostly because I see it as a wildlife photo adventure, and my primary photographic interest has always been landscape. And while I knew that there was probably good landscape to photograph there as well, safari adventures will always tend to focus on the animals, which is the reason why most people travel such a long way. Nowhere else can you find the wealth of wild animals in one region the way that you can in southern Africa, and the safari tours that have developed are superb for that purpose. I have yet to meet anyone who has returned from Africa and said that they didn’t enjoy it. It is a near unanimous thumbs up from everyone. But it does mean quite a long journey, and I guess that I always saw it as weeks away from the possibility of landscape work. But my sister and my wife persisted, and I begrudgingly gave in, so long as they planned the trip and I didn’t have to think about it. They agreed, so here I now sit, about 3 days away from the journey.

I have had little wildlife photo experience with a few exceptions. At the polar regions, I enjoyed trying to photograph whales, penguins, and polar bears, and in each instance, I had a few photos that I really felt captured those animals quite well. Here in Florida, I have often gone to some of the wetland areas—the Everglades and Wakadohatchee Wetlands—and shot (photographically) the large wading birds, most often during breeding season. Capturing the mating rituals and the resulting newborn chicks has been fascinating and made for some amazing photos. In one instance, I had a wood stork peering at her egg in the nest as I arrived at the wetlands. When I returned about 15 minutes later, her tiny bald little chick had hatched. It made for a phenomenal image. Watching the chicks grow over the next couple months was also amazing and fascinating. But beyond that, I didn’t have much to show for wildlife photos, and I had not taken any bird images for nearly 6 months now.

So, feeling that my wildlife skills were somewhat deficient, and having my grandson here with us for the week, I thought that a photo trip to the zoo would perhaps help hone my skills a bit in preparation for my trip. Although I was aware of it, however, the heat down here in the summer was a killer, and my ability to do much was fairly limited. But I did get some good bird photos, with one of a bald eagle being especially spectacular. It is almost a formal portrait of the animal and quite striking (see accompanying image). I also got some fine flamingo and lorikeet photos as well. I wish that it was not so hot that day so we could have spent more time there, but I think I updated my skills a bit and am ready to go. We will see what I come back with in a couple weeks.

Bald Eagle, Palm Beach Zoo, Florida