The Eve of Spring

The winter in Pacific Northwest can get a bit moody, and the weather a bit harsh. This often leaves me homebound, where I sit and wait out for the change of seasons to spring, for when the snow slowly disappears, the icy lakes thaw , and the plants get ready to grow and regenerate again.

This scene from Sabrina Lake Basin in the Eastern Sierras of California captures just such a time during the change of seasons. In this early spring scene, a late afternoon thunderstorm paid a visit to the mountains still recovering from winter.

Inyo National Forest

CA USA

Of Goals and Accomplishments

As a year rings to a close, I often takes the time to look at my accomplishments and goals that were achieved. This year though, has been a strange one. The goals I took this year have been put on standby, where they will remain waiting to be accomplished in the next.
As I pondered over what the significance of this delay is, I realized that, in the grand scheme of things, it is but a trifling compared to the changes and adaptations one has had to make to get through. It is more important to manage the present than to worry about the future.

Just as goals were put on hold, so were travel plans. The places, like the real-life Disney Castle pictured here that one seeks to visit. will remain, just as the goals that are waiting to be accomplished.

Schloss Neuschwanstein
Schwangau Germany

Season's Greetings

Season's Greetings
Happy Holidays
Merry Christmas
Feliz Navidad
Buon Natale
Joyeux Noël
Fröhliche Weihnachten
God Jul
கிறிஸ்துமஸ் வாழ்த்துக்கள்

This has been a tough year for many, so I hope that wherever you are, you are all staying safe and sane. And may the new year bring new tidings and a sense of normalcy.

Into the Winter Wonderland

A brief respite in the gloomy weather allowed me to step outside into the winter wonderland. I found myself in a winter landscape replete with fresh snow gently glowing in the soft winter light. While the numerous lakes in the alpine terrain had frozen over, a few creeks were still flowing, adding a bit of contrast to the uniformity of the snow.

Who else is looking forward to escaping into such magical places to get away from the doldrums of the dark winter?

Mt Baker Wilderness

WA USA

Winter Lights

The Pacific Northwest, though known for its amazing landscape and inspiring outdoors, is a tough place to live in in the winter. As we approach the winter solstice, the prolonged conditions of short days that last only 8 hours, and the ubiquitous grey and gloomy skies can put anyone in a dank mood. This double whammy has been exacerbated this year by the pandemic restrictions on travel and socializing, and poor economic and social outlook. Many people have lost their loved ones or their livelihood.

But there is hope around the corner. The vaccines are coming, and after tomorrow, the days will slowly get longer. Our lives will slowly achieve a sense of normalcy, and we can soon look forward to traveling and experiencing the delights of the world we live in. Like this display of the aurora borealis from Iceland.

Bordeyri

Iceland

The High Peak

There is a reason Mt Shuksan, the High One, is named as so. Even though it is not the tallest peak out there, it does tower over the snow-covered rocky landscape of the North Cascades. From this vantage point, one can spy the numerous blue glaciers descending its rocky slopes, and is one of the last peaks to catch the light of the setting sun.

Normally, a clear day like this usually ends with a beautiful alpenglow on the summits of the highest peaks of the Cascades. With that expectation, I waited out an entire day in the freezing cold hoping to catch alpenglow on this peak, but my luck ran out a few minutes after this shot was taken. And after I took a few moments to enjoy the last light, I had to rush back to the car (an hour of snowshoeing) before the early darkness set in.

Mt Baker Wilderness

WA USA

Life on the Dunes

The sand dunes of the Sahara desert represented a clash in anachronism: ancient nomadic Bedouin lifestyles adapted to modern living, the ship of the desert ferrying people alongside 4x4 zooming across the dunes, berber desert camps nestled side by side with modern hotels replete with pools and air-conditioning. It was, therefore, hard to capture the true essence of the desert that I had come to seek here. This scene was one such attempt at capturing that figment of a nomadic life.

Erg Chebbi

Morocco

Portals

The darvaza, or a doorway, signifies many things in many cultures, ranging from the metaphysical separation of the death from life, to the more mundane indoors from the outdoors. As a photographer, perhaps the appeal lies in its ability to frame the organic shapes and colors of the outdoor with a well-defined man-made structure.

I collated three such doorways from different parts of the world: the doorway of an outer portico for the Taj Mahal-inspired Bibi ka Maqbara in India, an arched window in the kasbah in Chefchaouen in Morocco, and the stone-hewed entrance of an old caravanserai on the Silk Road in Kyrgyzstan. Each are different, and yet, they share the intrinsic property that is common for a darvaza.

Fleeting Time

During the dark days of winter, I often sit down introspecting my life that year, and get to question the ephemerality of time. This year has been a little different undoubtedly, and the pandemic has played a major role in it. Time seems to have flown a bit too quickly without much to show far, and yet the time spent in social isolation has gone far more slowly that I would have preferred. As much as I tried not to, my daily rhythm has certainly been disrupted.

This image was taken during a fall road trip two years in New England. And while I clearly remember the time I spent driving around the backroads of Vermont, I can't recollect even an ounce of what I had done during the indoor days at the start of the pandemic restrictions. Thankfully, I preserved some of the most memorable moments in my 2021 calendar created in support of the National Park foundation; you can buy it here: https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/sathish-jothikumar/2021-photography-calendar/paperback/product-gpj74q.html

There is light at the end of the tunnel, and it can't come soon enough.

Woodstock

VT USA

Grade of Light

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