When people say that ‘everything has an element of luck’, it always starts a debate. It’s impossible to say whether something that occurs is destiny or coincidence. But sometimes, I do believe that luck plays a role in a lot of things, starting from the family you are born into. Anyhow – the reason I bring this up is because I do believe luck plays a role in things in like photography – sometimes. I can’t say how big or how small of a role it plays, but sometimes it switches a good photo moment to a great photo moment. I’m not saying that a great photo is the result of luck, but a brief of moment of luck does help an amateur photo enthusiast like me.

I thought about this whole luck thing because while driving into Seattle during the last long leg of the road trip, I was a little ticked off that in certain awesome places I didn’t get the conditions I wanted. Great photographers can get a great photo in any condition and I would love to work my way up to that, but for now, I need mother nature’s help for my landscape photos. What I really missed was some clouds in some locations in California, and while driving into Seattle, I was hoping its famous rainy weather would kick in. And it did (only for the drive in, thank goodness). Not the best photograph I’ve taken, but is definitely better with the stormy clouds added in.

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Death Valley is a prime venue for snakes. The heat and the terrain are perfect factors to make them feel very comfortable. There are many different types of snakes in Death Valley, and one of the most ideal places for this is Mesquite Sand Dunes. These dunes are near the Stovepipe Wells Village, and its a short drive from the hotel in the village. It covers a pretty big area, and a lot of people visit, so to get a nice dune with no foot prints, you have to go out pretty far. Unfortunately, walking on the dunes is pretty difficult, especially in the heat, and even more so if you’re not completely in the best shape (as I am not). Given that, most people opt to go in the morning, because the sun is behind them, and makes better pictures. However, morning dawn is party time for sidewinder rattlesnakes.

I used to live in Malaysia, where they have a special 911 for snake problems. Snakes are pretty regularly found in houses and urban areas. When we lived there, we had to deal with a few of them in house. I’ve always had a trauma with snakes, and knowing that they could creep up on me at the Mesquite Sand Dunes did not really sit well with me. Even though many people keep saying that ‘snakes are more afraid of you then you of them’ – there was no way I was going to the dunes, by myself, in the morning, in the dark not being able to walk very fast in the sand. So – I convinced myself that it would be more crowded in the morning anyway, since most people would prefer the morning light and decided to go in the evening. It was hotter, but small price to pay for not encountering any of the slithering serpents…. and as you can see, the light isn’t too bad at all.

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I’ve had some requests to post more pictures of Mono Lake. Who am I to deny my readers?

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Death Valley is something else. From the time you enter to the moment you leave, the scenery is nothing like you’ll find anywhere else. As such, a million photographers go to Death Valley every year, and one of the most popular locations is Zabriskie Point. Zabriskie Point was also the location of a 1970 movie with the same name, and made infamous for being one of the worst movies of all time. However, the location got a lot of exposure, and became very popular thereafter. It’s a favorite because its a very easy location to get to. Its very close to the Furnace Creek Resort, and the location is right off the main street. A few short steps, and you are here.

As with so many of the locations I visited during this road trip, this was daunting as ever to photograph. Part of photographing is trying to be better, and the other part is to be original and create something nobody else has created. Its the dilemma that I faced in this trip many times. At some point I had to abandon this thought process, because it wasn’t any fun. I got to Zabriskie Point on the third morning after being in Death Valley, and I was tired and hot. I had left it for last since it was the easiest to get to, and realized that was the right decision. There is a ton of wind on the top of the viewpoint here at Zabriskie Point, and in the early morning, it actually felt cooler (relatively speaking, of course). So in the cooler wind, while everybody else was photographing the Panamint Mountain Ranges, I decided to turn to the Elephant Feet. There were much less people photographing this frame, and so I got to go down from the viewpoint a little bit and get this shot.

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We had arrived to Death Valley National Park at a time when they were having record breaking temperatures. All of the routes that we wanted to take were closed off, or we were told not to go without at least few days worth of food. We decided to go on a few trips anyway – but thats a different story. This view is on our way out of Death Valley National Park, looking at the Panamint Mountain Ranges – which is the main mountain range that surrounds the Death Valley, and is the reason for the weird geo climatic nature of Death Valley. It was boiling hot, and we were a little relieved to leave, with our next destination being the cool and serene Mono Lake. As you start to drive away from Death Valley, the temperature winds down, and the altitude goes up, and the roads angle up, little by little. As you drive, the view in the rear view mirror starts to shape, and you almost want to turn around and drive back, because the view of the Panamint Ranges from the top is so much more majestic.

When we first started on this road trip, I already had an idea that I would get many frames like this. A wide angle picture of the road conjures up romantic ideas of what a road trip must/will be like, and is the idea I guess most people have in mind. This is a perspective that many movies, films and photographers use, because I think it gets you up close to the road. I later learned that this style of photography with this perspective is called the vanishing point, and it was pioneered in the 1960s by photographers like Winograd, and other travelling photographers, who discovered the open roads of America, and I guess this style appealed to them. Majority of the images I’ve seen of open roads that gloried road trips resembled images like this – so this, in fact, is an homage to all those photographers.

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This was taken at around 5am At the Mono Lake in Mono County, in the Eastern Sierra region of California. This lake is instantly recognizable by its ‘Tufa Towers’; Tufa is essentially common limestone. What is uncommon about this limestone is the way it forms. Typically, underwater springs rich in calcium (the stuff in your bones) mix with lakewater rich in carbonates (the stuff in baking soda). As the calcium comes in contact with carbonates in the lake, a chemical reaction occurs resulting in calcium carbonate–limestone. The calcium carbonate precipitates (settles out of solution as a solid) around the spring, and over the course of decades to centuries, a tufa tower will grow. Tufa towers grow exclusively underwater, and some grow to heights of over 30 feet. The reason visitors see so much tufa around Mono Lake today is because the lake level fell dramatically after water diversions began in 1941.

This lake is an extremely popular tourist attraction, and is highly photographed by photographers. Usually the pictures you will see of the Mono Lake is rich colors and a lot of dynamic contrasts, most times, an HDR. Not wanting to make a cliche photograph decided to give this a b&w treatment. This place is really surreal, and the colors of the lake and the tufa towers gives a feeling that you are not on earth anymore. Giving it a b&w I think seals the deal, and really makes it look like something else outside of our realm.

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Posting here sometimes I feel guilty – like going to a confessional. Father, its been 6 months, 12 days since I last made a post. During the lifetime of this blog, I go on spurts where it gets absolutely no love from me. And then I will post something to kick it off, and then try to revive the blog a little bit. So far, it hasn’t really worked that way, and I haven’t been able to figure out why. This spurt of posting comes and goes, and for whatever reason I just cannot sustain it. I also spend a lot less time in front of the computer these days, and so just haven’t been processing enough images (more on that below). Lets try one more time – I hope you’re still with me…

I have been doing a lot of travelling recently, and the highlight was a cross country road trip for 3 weeks across the United States. Only one thing to say in short: the landspace of this country is gorgeous. I amassed about 8000+ pictures from the trip, and going through it has been a daunting task. I went through it once to just check the pictures, but the thought of going through it with a fine tooth comb has scares me, and I’ve had a mental block. After 6 months, I finally started and decided not to go chronologically, as it felt too restrictive. So here is the first shot, from Portland, Oregon, almost the tail end of the trip.

This is the Japanese Maple Tree at the Portland Japanese Garden. The Portland Japanese garden has been proclaimed the most authentic Japanese Garden outside of Japan, and a short walk around the garden will tell you why. The maple tree has greater symbolism among Japanese culture, embodying grace and serenity, among other things. This maple tree is pretty famous in the US amongst photographers, and is heavily photographed. I told myself before visiting that I wouldn’t make a cliche photograph of the tree, but I couldn’t help admire this famous angle once I saw it. The leaves turn really cool colors in spring, and I imagine the red leaves of the maple tree in the fall (I was lucky to get a few) must be absolutely beautiful. My only regret is that I couldn’t get this shot with my medium format.

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During their lifetime, Churchill and Gandhi, amongst others have stated that: “You can learn a lot about a culture by how it treats its’ old“. When I first heard it, I didn’t really understand what it meant, as I wasn’t around old people much. My parents at the time were young and my aunts and uncle were all very young, and two of my grandparents had passed away before I was born while the other two passed away while I was too young to remember. As my dad passed away, and my mom started getting older, I started to notice that the young (including myself) as a society does not really pay much attention to their elderly. It used to be more apparent in Western cultures, but nowadays it is more existent in eastern cultures as well. More and more old folks homes are popping up, to take away the burden of caring for older loved ones. The elderly often become invisible because they are tucked away out of sight, out of mind. When people grow old in traditional villages in Fiji, family and friends care for them at home until their dying days. In America, the elderly are more typically sent to nursing homes — I understand the demands of a typical workday in the US, and I understand what leads someone to make that choice, but by contrast it appears unfeeling, even cruel. What is really intriguing is that it varies a lot culture by culture, as to how the last generation grows old, and what the younger generation dos to care for them. In Europe and US, older people are much more independent, and there are facilities for them to be independent, so you end up seeing more older people live by themselves, and have a life on their own. Observing this passage of life is very interesting to me, because I feel it is a chapter with a lot of stories. Older people live their lives slower, with majority of their actions based on their life experiences and wisdom earned over the years. One day I would love to do a project, to focus on how the older generation embrace the wonders of aging and deal with its challenges.

It also seems older people like to take the bus a lot.

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This was taken in The Cathedral and former Great Mosque of Córdoba, locally known as Mezquita-Catedral. Originally a temple, it was converted into a Mosque by the Ummayad Moors who occupied that area. They added to it, and eventually became – and still considered by some – to be one of the most impressive Islamic Architectures in the world. After conquering Cordoba in 1236, Ferdinand III king of Castile consecrated the Great Mosque as the city’s cathedral. It was was used as a Church for a long time after that, until the 16th century when the Bishop and Canons of the cathedral proposed the construction of a new cathedral, and proposed to destroy the mosque to build it. Given the attachment the townspeople had to this building, they staged a huge protest, and eventually got the blessing of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, to insert an entire Gothic “chapel” into the very heart of the former Great Mosque. This was an unprecedented decision at the time – some would say even now – and required a lot of planning. The result is nothing short of stunning, as the architects and engineers enacted a church that is so in sync with the mosque, that it is hard to tell where the mosque ends and where the church begins. The walls and floors of the church seamlessly flow into each other, and statues of Christ adorn the pillars that support the Islamic arches. It’s a very peaceful place, and walking there made me forget about all the hate that you get to see these days. It was a perfect example of how two different groups can co-exist, and I wondered why it couldn’t happen elsewhere…

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This was taken in in Ubeda, a small town near Cordoba, in the south of Spain. The town is really small, and at night the smaller streets are lit up using halogen lights, which give it a really orange glow. But its not really lit up in all spaces, and in combination with the smaller streets, sometimes gives a very dramatic feel. If you are familar with Edgar Allan Poe's writings, it gives a very similar vibe (but maybe not so macabre). The high contrast lighting this provides is what I was after, and the shadows of the two people walking completes it.

The Occupy Movement, and protests of that nature did not originate in the US on Wall Street. It was probably one of the more covered by the media, being where it is, but various other nations have been doing it for a while. The first of these, is Spain. The Spanish Indignados movement started sometime in May 2011. By the end of the month, there were hundreds of camps in Madrid and elsewhere. By the time I went to Spain around June, Some of them had begun to die out. In small town like Burgos, the protests were dying down faster than the big cities. The above shot is from the town square, where there is just few camps left, with very few people. This long guy playing the drums are one of few that are actually active in some way, but in the end looks sort of demotivated.

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Scenes like this are common place in Spain, especially in the smaller towns. A midday break to grab a small drink and some tapas are the norm, and most people enjoy this perk. This one stood out to me, as I saw the guy on the left totally stare down the guy on the right reading the newspaper. Its almost like he was thinking ‘dammit – just put the paper down and enjoy the smoke and drink’.

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Aside from the road trip in Spain, one of the major highlights of the trip was David’s (the older brother) communion. Brothers David and Sergio are about 7 years apart and they fight from time to time, but they get along for the most part and have a pretty strong bond.

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This is chacoli being served at the famous Bar Haizea in San Sebastian. If this guy looks familiar, you probably saw him on an episode of No Reservations, when Anthony Bourdain went on a culinary tour around Spain’s Basque region. Chacoli (or Txakoli in Basque) is a sparkling dry wine produced in this region, and is really refeshing in the summer. I remember when I saw the episode that I recognized this guy but couldn’t place him, until I saw this picture. Same as in the episode, this tapas bar has a neighborhood feel, and this guy knows everybody. People come here and hang out of hours, chatting with the bartender and eating all sorts of delicious tapas. He takes pride in his work and his food – something missing in a lot of places these days. Just in case you are in the area, you should visit – this place comes highly recommended by the Arzak family.

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A comedic moment in San Sebastian, where I saw four guys sitting on a bench while the only woman was standing. In this day of equal rights and all, its not such a big deal, but I still thought it was a funny moment in the midst of a busy city.

When I saw the beach at the famous Playa de la Concha in San Sebastian for the first time, immediately a beach scene from 1960s movie came into my head - complete with tanning women with their skulls caps and a lifeguard sitting perched up on the tall white chair. Not sure why this came into my head, but all the buildings/houses around the area seemed to be preserved in that era. Many travel books have written that San Sebatian (Donostia, as it is known in Basque), a summer capital of Spain, is here where the Belle Epoque ( beautiful era ) lives on - very visible from the pictures above. I tried to give the pictures a vintage treatment try to convey this feeling as well.

One of the things I enjoyed was the proximity of a very urban development so close to the beach - there are very few cities like in that in US. Not only is there a close urban development right next to the ocean, but it has the European city feeling as well, with tiny streets full of shops and small bars, where hidden away in the alleys you can stumble upon some of the best tapas(pintxos) in the world. Also along the La Concha Bay is the sculptor Eduardo Chillida's and architect Peña Ganchegui's landmark The Comb of the Winds (El Peine del viento) steel artwork on the rocks.

Another shot in Potes, one of my new favourite villages. Sometimes nature makes you feel very small, and in the greater scheme of things, we are. This planet is huge, and beautiful, and I think once in a while you need to visit a place that will remind of you of this. Standing next to these mountains, and seeing them everyday must be wonderful reminder indeed.

I think this will end up effectively become my last post of 2011, as today I am going back to the country where the village of Potes lives. Have a happy new year, and see you all next year!