Landscapes

The High Seat of the Connemara

From high atop the Connemara, the vast Irish landscape opened up. Bays and inlets dotted with quaint villages and rustic farmhouses punctuated rolling landscape of heather and bog which were turning orange in this late autumn day. Just an hour earlier, I had driven through those picturesque villages past whitewashed cottages and grazing lands divided up by moss-covered stone walls still dripping the morning dew. After stopping at a cafe drawn in by the strong scent of Earl Grey and the sweet aromas of scones, I decided to tackle one of the highest spot on the land around, hoping to see the lay of the land.

The cheerful volunteer at the visitor center prodded me on to climb up the nearby hill, and promised me, after seeing my camera, that it will be worth carrying it up. With caffeine in my veins and the curiosity to seek a new vista on my minds, I started my ascent. And in a few short minutes, the vast landscape opened up, helped by the complete lack of trees anywhere. A muddy path winding through rolling grassy hills soon turned into a steep ascent on a rocky mountain trail, but I pushed on, with views getting better with every step. Eventually, I summited the high seat of the Connemara which presented a panoramic view of the vast lands lit up by the soft light of an autumnal day.

Such were the wonderful memories of my short trip to Ireland, where I got to savor a sampling of the rich Gaelic culture and traditions, and enjoy the vast landscape that inspired Yeats and Joyce

Connemara National Park
County Galway, Ireland

The Three Faces of Badlands

Badlands might seem like a non-descript National Park marked in the middle of the map of the US. But enter it, and you are in a wonderland of strange formations with layers of yellow, brown and green and vast carpets of wildflowers punctuated by shiprock structures where wildlife roams. If anything, this place was the opposite of badlands.

I only had time for one night there and I could never get enough of the innumerable trails winding through the colorful canyons. I do hope I can return back once again and witness the march of the puffy white clouds across this strange and vast landscape in the middle of the country.

Badlands National Park

SD, USA

The Lone Monument

The landscape around me was a grand spectacle, towering red sandstone cliffs with a little dusting of snow rising from the dry desert landscape. Yet what the photo doesn't capture the communal culture of rural Morocco. Apart from the Bedouin herders, the villages and towns surrounded by a palm fringed desert are perhaps the only places of respite in the harsh landscape. And in these oases, you can find solace in the airy riads with a glass of ice-cold mint tea, and meet the community in the farmers markets that attract crowds for miles.

But the vast desert doesn't really give that away.

Dades Gorge
Morocco

The Kyrgyz Outlands

The vast outlands of Kyrgyztan look like no man's land, where vast summer meadows stretch to the horizon, demarcated by rugged snow-capped peaks in every direction. This tiny landlocked country at the confluence of 158 mountain ranges, has many such vast high altitude regions that ought to be devoid of human
life, and yet it thrives here. Every few miles on the freshly paved tarmac, one can encounter a tiny nomadic village in the summer, replete with a few yurts, dozens of heads of cattle, the free-spirited Kyrgyz horses, and a beaten up pickup or two.

These nomadic herders move with the season, leading their cattle to their favored grazing grounds across the vast hinterlands of this Central Asian nation, seemingly oblivious of the natural beauty of this timeless landscape and slice of humanity that the photographer in my finds endearing. It is this juxtaposition of the fragile human life against the harshness of the outlands that draws me to come back again to this beautiful country.

Chatyr Kol
Naryn Province, Kyrgyzstan

Highway to the Danger Zone

I was revving up the engine of the tiny Hyundai up the inner edge of a sharp hair-pin bend, struggling to time the gear change just right so that I wouldn't lose momentum and stall on the steep ascent. This was my first solo road trip in a foriegn country with chaotic traffic in a car with manual transmission (aka a stick shift), and this location which looked intimidating from the air, was a place where I was pushed to the limits of my driving skills.

I had spotted this sinuous segment of tarmac years ago while scouting Google Earth for strange places on the planet. I had parked this location in my mind, not giving it a second thought until I was planning a trip to the very location, the Dades Gorge. The drive up to it had been fairly smooth, and apart from dealing with the unpredictable traffic, with pedestrians and animals using the road as their personal highway, wasn't too challenging.

But once the vertical walls of the canyon closed in, leaving no room for the road to straddle the fast flowing river, it was forced to climb up the red sandstone to higher grounds. And that was where I found myself on that fateful day. Thankfully, I pulled through, praying that my path downhill wouldn't be so nerve wracking.

When I did reach the top, I turned back to capture the scale of this deep scar on the earths surface, with the tiny remnant of human civilization winding through it.

Dades Gorge
Morocco

The Women of my Life

The women of my life.jpg

There have been many incredible women who have been part of my life, women who have struggled and succeeded against many odds. But perhaps one person I continue to admire every single day is my partner, whether it be her zest for life, her curiosity to travel, her openness to new adventures, or her passion for social causes. Every single day, I get to learn new stories about her past, and the challenges she has faced in getting to where she is today.

This is dedicated to her tenacity to see and set the world right, and to the other women who have endeavored to do so in their own way.

White Sands National Park
NM USA

Hoodoos of Cappadocia

The sandstone formations of the Cappadocia region are as unique as they are varied. Hoodoos of assorted shapes and sizes dominate the landscape, with each river valley characterized by varied formations of different color. This has led to various imaginative names such as the Love Valley, Pigeon Valley, Rose Valley, Red Valley, Monks Valley, and many more.

This particular group is from the Rose Valley, though the rose color was nowhere to be found in the mid-day sun.

Cappadocia
Nevsehir Turkey

Pillars of Winter

The winter leaves precious few opportunities to get out into the wilderness, especially during the severe winter storms which kicks avalanche dangers up a notch. This frozen lake is probably one of the few that are still accessible. But when I set out to this frozen lake under overcast conditions and gloomy skies, I wasn't expecting much. But nature can sometimes through a surprise.

The frozen lake was a white winter wonderland. Fresh snowfall had layered all the trees with a thick coating of wet snow, which were now drooping down with this new weight. And even though the granite peaks that normally tower over the frozen lake were obscured by a thick layer of clouds that absorbed all the color from the sky, the snowscape was pristine. And just as I was ready to turn around and head back, the low clouds slowly lifted, revealing the three pillars of rock so characteristic of this place.

Mt Baker Snoqualmie National Forest
WA USA

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