VENICE CARNEVELE
Venice is a maze of canals, boats, and bridges. During Carnival preceding Lent this romantic atmosphere is punctuated with masked models in amazingly beautiful consumes flowing through the streets. They stop to pose for photographers and chat with one another, mostly in French. The backdrops are Medieval castles, homes, and San Marco square steeped in history. Across the water is the island of Burano cut where rows of starburst color facades rest on the shores of canals. Murano another island is home for the famous Venetian glass.
VIENNA
Vienna is beautifully laid out. The Ringtasse surrounds the city center, a boulevard built to replace the former city wall. This district contains many of Vienna’s most historical buildings. The city bursts with culture. The only surviving apartment in Vienna once inhabited by Mozart is open to the public. The Mozart Ensemble presented a concert in the Mozart house, the oldest concert hall in Vienna where he used to work and play. In the Auersperg Palace Strauss was featured in a concert of Viennese waltzes. Austria has produced some of the best classical musicians in history.
YELLOWSTONE WINTER
Yellowstone in winter reveals a white, crystalized version of the park. Flying into Bozeman, we took the Karst Stage to the hotel in West Yellowstone where the snow was piled ten feet high. From there we moved on to Old Faithful Lodge in snow buggies. It snowed extensively and we escaped being snowed in at the lodge by a day. Trying to stay on the trails without slipping into waist-high snow was a feat. Even snow buggies were going off the road. Nonetheless, we saw bison, coyotes, foxes, a bobcat, otters, swans, a wolf, bighorn sheep, antelope, elk, and a wolf barely visible through the blowing snow.
OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK
Located in Washington state on the Olympic Peninsula, the park sprawls across several different ecosystems—the sub-alpine and wildflower meadow, the temperate forest, and the rugged Pacific shore. Along the Pacific coastline is the park’s rainforest, one of which is the Hoh Rainforest being one of the largest temperate rainforests in the U. S.– always green and almost always wet. Another is the Quinault Rainforest’ which is called the “Valley of the Rain Forest Giants” where record size trees tower above.
PARIS
April in Paris? Cold and rainy. September in Paris? Glorious. It is understandably one of the most visited cities in the world. As a street photographer the city is rampant with subjects—vibrant local residents against historic or rustic backdrops.
People playing boules, eating in sidewalk cafes, dancing in the street, resting in parks, meeting with friends, and having picnics along the Seine. One can walk to the nearest bakery for a croissant and recognize historical names and places along the way. One can view the magnificent “city of lights” with its bridges, the stunning palaces, the endless art and history, and the trendy fashion, Love seems to be everywhere. On top of my morning cappuccino the waiter would write the word “Love” in whipped cream as a reminder.
PANTANAL
The Pantanal is a region that lies primarily in Brazil. The name comes from the Portuguese word plantano meaning wetland. Most of the floodplains are submerged during the rainy season nurturing a diverse collection of aquatic plants and a wide array of animal species. The floodplain shifts between phases of standing water and phases of dry soil.
Many of the flora and fauna are unique to this region. Among the rarest are the marsh deer and the giant river otter. Many other species are endangered, such as the hyacinth macaw. Our sites were on the jaguar (the world’s largest) which come to the Cuiaba River to hunt, mostly the abundant caiman and the capybara.
MONGOLIA
Flying into Ulaanbaatar we landed at the Genghis Khan International airport. Just the image of this man from history classes gave me the chills. The barbaric Mongol captured most of Asia and unified the country. UB is a modern urban city from which we webbed out to the far reaches of Western Mongolia. We traveled to the rugged Alta Mountains to photograph the eagle hunters on horseback in their full fur regalia their eagles perched on their arms. We stayed in ger camps and visited families in their homes. The offered hospitality included tea with yak milk. Not my favorite. The food in camp was delicious. We had our own chefs who cooked familiar foods with a Mongolian twist. We finished the trip by traveling to the vast dunes of the Gobi Desert to the camel herders.
NEWFOUNDLAND
This rabbit-shaped island off the northeast coast of Canada is a land of puffins, whales, icebergs, and lighthouses. St. John’s is colorful port with its row of “jelly bean” houses. Trinity is a charming village of 19th century buildings surrounded by gardens of pink and purple lupines. We discovered a puffin colony in a habitat on the peninsula. The salmon were jumping in the streams near Gros Morne, a glacial fjord. The carnivorous pitcher plant is the national flower. On the tip of the Northern Peninsula is a recently discovered Viking village at L’Anse aux Meadows, maybe predating Columbus.
DUBAI
Dubai, Oman, Jordan
Dubai is a city in the Unites Arab Emirates. Just twenty years in the making it boasts of Burj Khalifa, the highest structure in the world, 160 stories. It has created several artificial islands. Abu Dhabi, the richest city in the world, is on an island. Here the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque is the largest the country. Oman is an Arab country on the Persian Gulf.
Petra, in southern Jordan, is a historical and archaeological city carved in the 3rd century BC by the Nabataeans. Out of sandstone cliffs they carves palaces, tombs, temples, and tombs not discovered until 1812. The evening procession through a candlelit passageis spectacular. It’s like walking through the skyscrapers of Dubai but only of rock.
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