Landscapes

Desert Silhouettes

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

Coral Dreams

Coral Dreams.jpg

When I first stepped on cobblestone shoreline, I was greeted by an amalgam of blue beach stones. But as I kept walking down the shore, I spotted a few white ones in the mix: a composite of different types of wave-smoothened coral rocks. It took me a while to realize the scale of this: a vast beach littered with thousands of these corals, and that meant I was seeing the remains of a rich coral reef ecosystem that over the years had slowly died off.

It made me realize the fragility of this ecosystem, which, over the last few years has slowly died off due to the direct and indirect effect of human activities. While snorkeling in different parts of the Virgin Islands, all I encountered were dead and dying reefs, and except for a few stragglers, the ocean floor was fairly barren, and sad. Seeing this all over the island, I wondered if this region would ever recover.

Virgin Islands National Park

USVI

Caribbean Paradise

After going through multiple days of cold winter weather, including what has been the snowiest day in over 30 years, I cannot wait for the days to get longer and warmer. And even though the winter isn't yet over, the signs of spring are just beginning to blossom everywhere. Pretty soon, we will witness colorful blooms, meadows of fresh grass, carpets of wildflowers and more.

But until that occurs, I keep myself hopeful with my travel memories accumulated over the years, including this one from the beautiful tropical beaches of Virgin Islands National Park. Here, the azure blue waters dotted with catamarans and sailboats meet the white sands of a palm-fringed beach that anchors this part of the mountainous island. I delighted in driving around the island, seeing these blissful vistas, and creating soul-enriching imprints that I would treasure for a lifetime.

Virgin Islands National Park
USVI

Spirit of the Lake

Have you been to Mt St Helens National Monument, and visited the remnants of a volcano that exploded under 40 years ago, a mere blink of an eye on the geological timescale?

The explosion downed trees on the slopes for miles, and on Spirit Lake, which was formed when the explosion dammed the outlet of the old lake, vast treemats formed of those downed trees still remain. Every time I visit this remarkable monument, I learn something new about this volcano, and I hope my future visits will be no less educational.

Mt St Helens

WA USA

Of Sandstorms and Windy sunsets

One of the country's newest National Parks has something going for it that no other place on this planet can lay a claim on - the largest gypsum sand basin. And that lends this place a surrealism like no other. While most visitors only spend the daylight hours here, the time for photography in this place when the sun crests below the San Andres mountains, and the predawn hours when everything lays still.

At sunset, in the shadow of the mountains, the white sands take on an unnatural blue hue, which, combined with strong winds at dusk, lend an ethereal soft glow to the undulating striations on the dunes. And on those rare occasions, all these happen with a sky lighting up for sunset, like in this scene above.

This park holds within it many such unique photographic opportunities, and I really do hope I can get back there, if only to spend one more night at this amazing National Park

White Sands National Park
NM USA

The Heart of the Pacific Northwest

Windswept snowscapes, cowering ice-rimed trees, undulating banks of snow, frozen lakes and gurgling streams, and in the distance, snow-capped volcanoes and ice-covered peaks jutting out of the craggy landscape of the cascades. Out in the hinterlands of the North Cascades, covering a vast swath of the Pacific Northwest, there lies hundreds of square miles of such undisturbed terrain, far out of the reach of many an explorer.

On a day like this, it is a landscape that evokes feelings of grandeur and majesty, like this scene from the far more accessible part of this rugged region. If even the fringes of such a place can evoke such emotion, I can only imagine what the rest can inspire.

Mt Baker Wilderness
WA USA

Winter Sunstar

I sat in the soft snow, powder up to my knees, watching the slow dance of sunrise. At first, it was the distant eastern horizon taking on a pale orange, its vibrancy kicking up a notch every minute. The silhouettes of the horizon were slowly coming to form, and I started to make out the jagged edges of the snow-capped Cascades.

The color started inching its way across the sky, reflecting first in the wispy Cirrus cloud formations. By then, the eastern horizon took on a vibrant yellow hue. The next few moments, I realized, would be the most crucial in what I had intended to capture: a sunstar

The sun finally broke through the hroizon, its light reflecting on the smooth bank of snow in front. Millions of tiny crystals of ice glistened, breathing in the first light of day. I bathed in the quiet stillness of this sunrise, a fleeting moment I froze in time.

Mount Rainier National Park
WA USA

Frozen Northwest

Winter in the PNW is rarely the stuff of dreams, unless one is a fan of cold dark dreariness alternated with miserable downpours and brief interludes of sun. But then again, there are brief intervals of time where sunlight meets the quiet still winter morning. And to be outside on a day, wandering amidsts snow-capped giants and snow-covered angels, is a moment to be treasured.

Tahoma State Forest

WA USAWinter in the PNW is rarely the stuff of dreams, unless one is a fan of cold dark dreariness alternated with miserable downpours and brief interludes of sun. But then again, there are brief intervals of time where sunlight meets the quiet still winter morning. And to be outside on a day, wandering amidsts snow-capped giants and snow-covered angels, is a moment to be treasured.

Tahoma State Forest
WA USA

Winter Sunrise

I always wondered what sunrise at Rainier looked like in winter. Photographing this famous peak at sunrise required three factors: a clear sunrise, a measurable amount of fresh snow dusting the foreground, and the right location that can be visited at sunrise. And one fortuitous day, I got to be at the right place at the right time when all these three came together.

And even though I wake to views of Rainier every day, this particular sunrise was still an awe-inspiring sight.

Mt Rainier National Park
WA USA