To The South

How do I even begin to explain a place like this?  It wasn’t cold, not really, but ice and snow layered everything.  How clear and peaceful, the end of the world was; how sharp and dark, her islands.  As desolate as all the tales of the southern continent are, they fail completely to describe her summers: she teems with life.  Birds abound; seals porpoise all about, and whale spouts dot the horizon.  I walked with hundreds of thousands of king penguins; I hiked mountains; I watched humpbacks lunge-feeding; I communed with the albatross.  It would take a colder soul than mine to not be moved by my journey.  I don’t know how my path changed, but I know that it has.  I’m going back.  A phrase oft quoted on the ship: “Antarctica is like a classical mistress; once she has you in her grasp, she’ll never let you go.”  I happily clasp her frozen fingers.

2012-01-11

1/50 sec, f 10.0, ISO 200, 25 mm

Icy Return

A half-birthday and another half-turn of the planet. This turn has sent me both to the skies and to Terra Australis. I flew as a bird with canvas and aluminum wings, and hope to gain my own pair someday. I traveled to my fifth continent, the great Southern mystery, and a land my father has told me stories of my entire life. I hoped to follow in some of his footsteps: to swim in Deception Island, to smell the foul colonies of Emperors, to see no night. I hope that I feel happiness this day, that I can appreciate that I am balancing on the cusp of so many unbelievable experiences, that I could lose myself in just being alive. Everyday is the beginning of a fantastic adventure, whether a person is fifteen or fifty. Embrace it. Embrace every second of it.

2011-09-03

1/100 sec, f 8.0, ISO 100, 18 mm

Angels and Angles

I have a big thing for stairways and archways. I could create a book from either through my fixated journeys, but here I found one most unique and pleasing. The Clementino Museum has a play on perspective, a teasing of domes. I like the coloring and the combination of patterns; it’s utterly classic and poignantly marble. Darkly beautiful, I am so mixed by religious monuments. I think I should ignore the locale, focus on the mathematical pleasure of such a sight. Sometimes we must forget ideology in order to simply enjoy a beauty, to let ourselves be purely aesthetic.

2009-07-12

1/30 sec, f 3.5, ISO 200, 18 mm

The Oldest Elephant in the Forest

His eyes have seen, and now he wanders the crater, passing his last days on the world. Elephants never die from old age; they die from starvation. It is a tragedy of biology that an elephant can only survive as long as his teeth. He receives five sets during a lifetime; each lasting around ten years. After that, he can no longer properly chew the fronds and leaves he requires, and thus cannot digest his needed nourishment. I can imagine that the end is slow and agonizing, utterly unfair for a creature nearly as intelligent as humans. This lone bull has had decades of experiences; it’s a shame to see those disappear for nought.

2008-01-05

1/180 sec, f 6.3, ISO 200, 250 mm

Christmas Tree Iguana

Merry Christmas! (And a happy Chanukah as well). Here is a biological anomaly. The Galapagos has a variety of iguanas that actually swim in the ocean. But here’s the magic: an iguana’s coat is determined by its diet, and on these few magical isles, red and green algae are the staple. The result: scales of a myriad of greens, reds and blacks, playfully nicknamed the “Christmas Tree Iguana,” and it was one of the many wondrous sights the Galapagos has to offer.

2010-08-28

1/250 sec, f 6.3, ISO 100, 250 mm