In an alpine landscape, I normally strive to shoot reflections of the mountains catching the first light of the day. But sometimes, it pays to look in the opposite direction as well.
These were taken minutes apart at the same lake in the pre-dawn light.
Inyo National Forest
CA USA
After a mere 4 hours of sleep, I thought I was seeing things when the eastern horizon started glowing in a pale shade of orange. But I wasn't, and dawn in Joshua Tree National Park was shaping up to be very colorful. The small gap on the horizon meant that it wouldn't last too long, and as soon as I got a chance, I pulled over to capture a silhouette of the classic Joshua Tree landscape. The pale orange slowly changed to a deep shade of pink that framed the spiny shape of the desert cacti. The moment didn't last long, but for those few moments, the scene was sublime.
Life is full of such fleeting moments that you have got to seek out, else they don't wait for you. And this is never more truer than it is for a photographer, where you have to be at the right place at the right time. After all, the object of art is to make eternal the desperately fleeting moment.
Joshua Tree National Park
CA USA
The weekend is here. After a hectic week, I am hoping to find a moment of peace and sanity in the beautiful wilderness of the Pacific Northwest.
How about you? How do you get to your moment of zen?
Sawtooth Wilderness
ID USA
I awaited in eerie darkness in the high desert on the border between Arizona and Utah. All around, I could sense the monolithic rock formations that dot this desert, but I could never really see them. The faint dawn light slowly crept across the sky westward, and added structure to the sensation.
As the darkness eased, I could see the nearest butte, looking like a marching elephant trundling westward. More time passed, and I could make out the details of the buttes further away. Nameless rock formations towered above the folds of desert landscape, and acquired a pink glow from the morning light. The land grew richer in detail until the first light of day struck the tips of these buttes.
This visit to the tribal park of the Navajo Nation was perhaps one my most memorable ones. I will never forget the vast Jon Waynesque landscapes I got to experience. And right now, the population of the Navajo nation are facing two major challenges: both the impact of lower tourism, and the high number of cases amongst the populate. It will be a while before normalcy returns to this sacred land
Monument Valley Tribal Park
UT USA
In just a few more hours, we are going to seen the finish line to a clusterf**k of an year. Physically, nothing changes. One day ends and another begins, just as it has been doing since time immemorial, but the end of 2020 will represent to many an end to a rollercoaster of an year marred by multiple globe-spanning events, including the innumerable trade wars, Brexit, the impeachment of the US president, and US elections and its chaotic aftermath, the oil price fluctuations, tensions in the Middle east, Climactic disruptions, the killing of George Floyd and the subsequent protests, the murder of Samuel Paty, the projection of Chinese superpower, and last but not the least, the economy disrupting Covid pandemic.
I for one, can't wait to ring in the new year, and hope that the silver linings for the dark clouds that was 2020 do come to fruition.
Here is to new beginnings and new adventures.
Happy New Year
Feliz año nuevo
Bonne année
Felice anno nuovo
Frohes neues Jahr
புத்தாண்டு வாழ்த்துக்கள்
Cappadocia
Turkey
As a photographer, I crave sunrises. The appeal of this short window of time is the game of chance one plays in being at the right light and color. There are occasions where you are at the right place but the light isn't there, and then there are others when the light is amazing and you are stuck staring at it from a bedroom window. When both come together, it can create a unforgettable yet fleeting moment.
And every sunrise is unique; it can range all the way from the clouds on the eastern horizon taking on an deep pink tinge that slowly creeps across the sky, to beautiful alpenglows in mountain country, to something as simple as this: a gradation of different hues of a pre-dawn sky reflecting on the still waters of a lake
See a few more different sunrises in my 2021 calendar created in support of the National Park Foundation, available here: https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/sathish-jothikumar/2021-photography-calendar/paperback/product-gpj74q.html
St Ignace
MI USA
I am sitting on the edge of the seat waiting for the results of the election to finalize. The nervousness is palpable, impacting my every awake moment. I try to distract my mind, but the effort is futile.
During times like these, I jump into my archives of photos to find my happy moments, recollecting those blissful scenes that make me feel elevated, and perhaps a little less edgy. This is one such morning scene from Mt Rainier, and it is scenes like these that are my escape from the hard-edged reality we are in right now.
Mt Rainier National Park
WA USA
When I arrived at the summit, it was still dark, with a faint tinge of orange on the eastern sky. I could barely make out the dark silhouette of the horizon. I wondered what the morning sun would bring.
As I waited through the cold and still dawn, the layers of mountains slowly became visible, stretching endlessly into the horizon with one range overlapping the next until they all coalesced into the boundary between the earth and the sky. Soon, the low angle of the autumnal rising sun cast sharp lines of shadow and light that lit up the fog lying low in the deep valleys.
After standing in that freezing winds for what seemed like eternity, I welcomed the glorious rays of the morning sun. Apart from lighting the vast vistas in front of me, it warmed up heart and soul.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
NC USA
The tulip festival in Skagit certainly seems to have underestimated its popularity. Over the last few weekends, crowds have thronged the handful of accessible tulip farms of Skagit Valley, turning the highways into accident-prone death traps and access roads into immobile parking lots on weekends. Driving just a span of 15 miles on the way back, I encountered at least 3 accidents stalling traffic for miles.
As the season winds to a close, I hearken back to the start of the season, where a early morning trip to Skagit to see the early blooms proved far more memorable. I made my way at dawn along bucolic farmlands and sleepy homesteads mired in mist carried by the nearby Skagit river, and witnessed a beautiful sunrise by the blooming daffodils with the company of just a few photographers.
Skagit Valley
WA USA
The journey from the highest point in Death Valley to its lowest point spans ~11,300ft or ~3,450m. That journey takes one from the freezing snow-capped peak of the Panamint range to through rocky canyons down through the alluvial fans onto the lowest point in the lower 48 states - 250ft below sea level. And being able to witness this gradual transition of altitude, terrain, and climate, in one single glance is not possible anywhere else except at Dante's View in Death Valley National Park
I had arrived at the 5,500ft summit of Dante's view at sunrise, hoping to witness the first light on the mighty spine of the Panamint range. And after a colorful sunrise, pockets of warm light began to shine on the dynamic terrain of the Badwater basin and the stunning landscape all around. This was one such view capturing a well-lit alluvial fan that drained the Panamint range behind a hardy shrub that survives the harsh climate of Death Valley.
Death Valley National Park
CA USA
