Thirty-two days on the Seabourn Quest, our longest cruise yet.
Our 32 day cruise began in Lisbon, Portugal. The Portuguese say Lisboa. Our cruise itinerary seemed to include every place that ended in “…land.” That would include England, Ireland, Scotland, Iceland, Greenland, many islands and finally Newfoundland. We accomplished our main goal. Get out of the August heat of Idaho. Greenland may have been my favorite.
In the winter of 2023 we went to southern Utah to escape the winter cold and provide me with yet another opportunity to improve my golf game. Neither goal was fully realized. But I did get to experience the surreal beauty of Bryce National Park under a deep cover of fresh snow.
Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise in Banff National Park.
Partly on the advice of my dad, I looked forward to our visit to the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise in the heart of Banff National Park, Alberta Canada. What fun it would be to have a room with a balcony overlooking beautiful Lake Louse and hike in the surrounding mountains.
Green Sweat Bee
My area of focus in photography changed a few years ago toward macro photography. It seemed that photographing bugs and flowers might allow me to escape the crowds and all-too-popular iconic sites of landscape photography. An early step in this process was to build a bug stage allowing for easier placement of the bugs, lights, flashes and my camera.
This lioness may appear to be roaring, but it is an early morning yawn, as flies buzz around her face.
After leaving Uganda our photography safari led us to the Kenya savanna. Seeing the big cats in the wild, up close and personal, was to be a high point, culminating with the wondrous wildebeest crossing of the Mara River. Someone forgot to tell the wildebeest. There was no crossing. None, nada. Continue reading
The Giant Kingfisher of Kenya. I was just as surprised as this poor fish. Yes, he eventually swallowed the fish whole.
From the ugly marabou stork and the very gross hornbills to the beautiful weavers and shiny Guineafowls, Kenya has quite the variety of birds. Taking advantage of my camera which will take up to 20 frames a second, these bird photos will often be shown here as a series of photos. To not lose my audience too quickly, I’ll start off with the attractive African weaver birds before getting into the ugly and gross.
Elephant portrait
The next couple weeks were spent bouncing around Kenya exploring the savanna from the window of a Land Rover. I was the only person in our ten photographer group to not print off the correct travel documents for entry into Kenya from Uganda. Fortunately, we had gotten to the airport in time to correct this oversight. More African travel frustrations. Continue reading
We were told to not stare back at the gorillas, or make direct eye contact with them….
This was our third and final trek to see the gorillas. I’m thinking I should take more movies to record the sights AND sounds. However, I did record them on my phone since some of the sounds were in the dark. After Uganda we fly on to Kenya where we are supposed to see ‘The Great Migration’.
Close enough, time to back away, S-L-O-W-L-Y.
I was fortunate to go on three different gorilla treks and see three different gorilla families in Uganda. These hikes varied in time from twenty minutes to three hours. I have thousands of photos of gorillas with faces hidden by dense leaves and foliage.
Elephant eyes
In July of 2022 I visited Africa for the first time. How could I be considered a world traveler never having visited Africa? My flights to Africa were the most arduous travel I’ve ever experienced. Delayed flights, lost luggage and an unscheduled 18 hour layover in Dubai. Traveling alone added to the angst. I arrived at 3:00am a day late for the safari…