Home is where you are

The concept of a domicile and a permanent abode is a strong fixture for the modern community. It anchors our present-day lives, and with the pandemic moving most work to home, the importance of the place of residence is higher than ever before.

That led me to wonder about the nomadic lives that many communities around the world practice, including the famous Bedouin tribes of Middle East, the Mongol tribes in Mongolia, Saami tribes in Scandinavia and numerous more in Africa and South America. And then there are also the digital nomads who work and live on the move, relying on modern technology to keep connected to society.

The nomadic herders I stayed with in Kyrgyzstan are certainly not digital nomads. Their calendar revolves with the seasons of the year, bring their herds of cattle and horses up to the high altitude meadows (jailoos) in early summer. They move and stay with the herd for half the year, in white yurts that pop up on the green landscape, and only move back down when winter calls and the weather turns harsh. A few of these herders set up additional yurts and welcome tourists to spend a day and experience the nomadic life of these herders. Modern technology has certainly eased some of the challenges and brought more income, but has not changed their lifestyle. I hope this tradition continues to thrive.

Tash Rabat Caravanserai

At Bashy district, Kyrgyzstan

Nostalgia

Every couple of years, I get pangs of nostalgia for India, and the yearning to visit my home town and see family increases. The cold days of winter, when work slows down, serves as an excellent opportunity to go back home, especially with its mild weather and pleasant temperatures.

I also use this time to indulge in the rich history of this country. This has been something I took for granted while growing up as I never had the appreciation for it. Now, my travels over the past decade have wisened my world view, and has provided me a better appreciation for the rich history and cultural heritage.

On one such visit, I got to explore the richly decorated cave complexes of Ajanta and Ellora, a UNESCO world heritage site located in western India. With sculptures and paintings dating to 480 - 1000CE, these cave complexes were an in-depth study of the ancient Indian art forms. I couldn't get enough of this destination, and I hope to go there again when times are better

Ajanta and Ellora Caves

Maharashtra India

The High Atlas

The descent of winter onto the Pacific Northwest brings with it short gloomy days often accompanied by rain. This would have normally been the time to socialize indoors, but it is our duty to be responsible and reduce social interactions to slow down the spread of the pandemic gripping the nation. That, however, does not come without consequences.

To help ease the stress of the dark winters, I use my photography to escape to the furthest places I have photographed. This time around, I relived my memories from driving through the high Atlas mountains of Morocco. While spending a night in the rocky spine of Morocco, I found a vast windswept plain between Lac Islit and Tislit, two surreal bodies of water surrounded by snow-capped peaks.

Life is harsh in this area, and even the arrival of roads, motor vehicles, electricity, and the internet, have only slightly eased the difficulty of living here. Subsistence living with meager livestock still remains the predominant form of sustenance. Two donkeys from one such herd graze on the sparse vegetation in the high Atlas

Imilchil

Morocco

The Wreck of the Iredale

The wreck of the Peter Iredale, a 285ft long steel sailing vessel that plied the Pacific Coast, has laid on the sandy beaches of the Oregon coast for more than a century. The unceasing action of the tides, the sun and the wind have taken its toll, reducing its steel superstructure to nothing more than a skeletal rib. And as time takes its toll, this too shall pass away into the sand.

But for now, it is here. I had heard of this wreck through a friend, and on my first visit here a decade ago, cloudy skies and high tide prevented us from getting close. This time around, low tides coincided with sunset, making for some spectacular photography under ideal conditions. Though with dozens of instragrammers milling around the structure, I had my work cut out.

Fort Stevens State Park

OR USA

The Blissful Coast

The reason the Pacific Northwest is notorious for its grey and gloomy disposition is the winter season, where short days and the inevitable rainy weather leaves many yearning for the summer sunshine. I put up with two months of seasonal depression just for the six glorious months of summer.

And yet, there are some days when a window of clear skies and balmy days open up even in the midst of a cold winter. A couple of years ago, I sought one such window and explored the scenic Olympic coastline. I was fortunate to hit the coast at low tide, which meant miles of glassy beach providing for amazing reflections of the rocky coastline glowing in the late afternoon sun.

Olympic National Park

WA USA

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Calendar of 2021

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With the pandemic restricting travel in general in 2020, I focused my photography on the amazing landscapes in and around my home in the Pacific Northwest. And even when constrained to this rain-drenched corner of the country , I found so much diversity, from rugged mountains of the North Cascades to temperate rain-forests in the Olympic Peninsula, and from dry volcanic terrain at Mt St Helens, to the lush farmlands of the Palouse.

And all of these are public lands preserved under the auspices of the National and State Parks, Wilderness Areas and National Forests that cover vast swaths of the PNW. By limiting my travel to this home range, I have come to realize what a treasure this region has to offer. And I am sure such outdoor destinations all over the country, including the 61 National Parks, have been a welcome respite from the harsh realities of the pandemic.

Having visited 45 of those 61, I have come to realize the vital importance of our National Park system in protecting and preserving nature, culture, wildlife, and landscapes for the future. The National Park Foundation helps safeguard our national heritage, ensuring generations of national park enthusiasts can enjoy the parks we love. Hence, this year, I chose to raise funding for this amazing organization.

Purchase the 2021 Calendar, and support the National Park Foundation

Seattle

WA USA

Cats of Chefchaouen

During the downtime of the winter days, I often go back to clean my archives and find interesting photos from them. In trying to juggle different priorities in the summer, I hardly get time to do this, and hence, I get perennially backlogged, to the point that I am editing photos from more than 3 years ago.

I discovered this group of images of cats in a medina while editing photos from my travels to Morocco. I was wandering around the narrow alleyways that wound through the blue-washed walls of Chefchaouen when I noticed that there were cats everywhere. Having grown up in human presence, they were completely unperturbed by the thronging crowds of the medina, and were hard to photograph. Hence I returned to those locations early in the morning, and found the cats to be far more active and playful. Here are few that caught my attention and became strong memories of my travels to Chefchaouen.

Chefchaouen

Morocco

A Strike on the Galaxy

As part of the work to create my annual photography calendar, whose proceeds this year will go to National Park Foundation, I look through the archive of over 5000 photos I shoot every year. I don't ever get time to comb through every single one; it is a task which I have been failing miserably at. However, occasionally I chance upon gems that I often missed at first glance.

This is one such catch from a trip to the eastern half of the North Cascades in a remote wilderness region, far away from any light pollution. I visted this place early in the summer, far before devastating wildfires impacted visibility in these areas. As I was shooting a timelapse of the Milky Way, a bright meteor streaked the southern half of the sky. I had no idea if the camera had captured it, at least not until I came back and reviewed it on the big screen. I was lucky to catch this bright streak arcing across the band formed by the central disc of the galaxy.

Paseytan Wilderness

WA USA

A Walk in the Woods

For the last 6 years, I have been creating landscape photography calendars with the intent of raising awareness for charities that work in the conservation. My wanderings around the public lands of the Pacific Northwest have made me realize that our public lands and wilderness areas are the true treasure of our country, and it is a bounty that will keep on giving as long as we take the necessary steps to preserve, conserve, and nurture it.

A lot of that burden falls to two departments of the Government (Dept of the Interior and Dept of Agriculture), but they are plenty of shortfalls in funding and work whose gap is filled by organizations such as National Park Foundation. This organization, whose work I am extremely passionate about, are ardent park champions, and work tirelessly to preserve America's best idea. Hence, I am proud to state that I will donate all the proceeds from the sale of this calendar to this amazing organization.

Here is one of those images from the musky rainforests of the Olympics

Olympic National Park

WA USA

Sunrise in Glacier Peak Wilderness

Every year, I create a landscape photography calendar from images taken in that year. Typically it is a mix of imagery from public lands and wilderness areas from all over the country, interspersed with a few from my international travels taken that year. However, this year is not quite like the others. My travel, like those of many others, had been restricted in the first half, and even in the second half, had been careful adventures into public lands around me.

Hence, I chose to focus on the beauty of the Pacific Northwest, and realized that this tiny corner had so much to offer even to the novice explorer. Hence the National parks and wilderness areas of the state of Washington, Oregon and Idaho feature predominantly on the 2021 Calendar. It is still in the works, and this is one of the images that will be featured in the calendar.

Glacier Peak Wilderness

WA USA