A Decade In Search Of Truth

In 1999 I began one last project, one that I thought would define my career as a photographer, and nudge forward perhaps my career as a writer. It started off to be my journey, a last journey with cameras in hand. A few years later I was, I thought, embarking down Frost's road less traveled.

Now, a decade later, I found myself looking back to the future. Wild Orphans once again is surfacing as my photographic savior, my sanity check, I need it. As NY Times op-ed columnist Frank Rich, "A decade that began with the “reality” television craze exemplified by “American Idol” and “Survivor” — both blissfully devoid of any reality whatsoever — spiraled into a wholesale flight from truth." As the last hours of 2009 flicker out, I realize I need 2010 to be a flight back to truth.

Appropriately, the decade's last December epitomized our collective disengagement from the truth - Tiger Woods, the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen and the US sending 30,000 more troops to "win" a game that has no finish line, buzzer or top-of-the-ninth - or maybe our decade of delinquent decision-making was exclusively due to “bad intelligence,” (to coin a phrase by Bush administration alumni), that pushed us into these fiascoes. Unfortunately the tigers of truth, print journalists, are as rare as their Asian counterparts, and as the decade comes to a close, we are watch their habitat disappear as well. In Washington DC they opened the Newseum — "a 250,000-square-foot museum of news — offers visitors an experience that blends five centuries of news history with up-to-the-second technology and hands-on exhibits." As the director is quoted on the Newseum's own website, "Visitors will come away with a better understanding of news and the important role it plays in all of our lives,". Frighteningly we don't build museums to the living and vibrant, but to the vanishing and disappeared - is news habitat gone?

Much of 2010 I will be back on the road, exploring this planet, personal and public perambulations. In search of truth I already have some sense of where to look, but know many new roads will appear--filled with excitement and that tingling trepidation when perambulating on a precipice. But the search for truth will be alive, and that's what I crave and that's why so much of life is "blissfully devoid of any reality whatsoever — spiraled into a wholesale flight from truth." it's not alive. It's as if we have become our own avatars. Gleefully cocooning ourselves into our make-believe reality. And most frightening of all... as the climate conference in Copenhagen insanely pointed out - inside that reality we don't need to care.

I care. I have but this solitary existence. I have no guarantee of second chances, no do-overs,no redemption after missing the warning, or as the chorus rings out:

This is it
Make no mistake where you are
your back's to the corner
This is it
Don't be a fool anymore
This is it
the waiting is over

No room to run
No way to hide
No time for wondering why
It's here, the moment is now

So about Frost's road less traveled. I only know roads are man-made, and that any new road is not so much littered with leaves unworn by human footfalls, rather shiny tchotchkes of world blinded by it's own make-believe reality. "Follow them, use them and forget them.... Don't park. [roads] will get you there, but I tell you, don't ever try to arrive. Arrival is the death of inspiration." (Ernst Hass) Truth lives in inspiration.

A poster ad featuring Tiger Woods forebodingly chimes, "tougher than ever to be a Tiger." Paradoxically over the past decade the world has discovered that too, hiding from one lie, while not questioning the other. The caption on another Accenture Woods poster reads "It’s what you do next that counts." True enough for Tiger in 2010, but not just Tiger. Inside the cocoon I think it's easy for life to imitate art because you can never stand back far enough to get a proper perspective.

Nike’s chairman, Phil Knight, told The Sports Business Journal, in perhaps the most prophetic quote of the decade's closing month, that when Woods’s career "is over, you’ll look back on these indiscretions as a minor blip." Decades hence I think we will look back on this first ten year span of the new Millennium and realize there were too many "blips", I hope not too many for us too survive. Those blips, like the make-believe reality TV shows that launched the decade, held no truth.

Tomorrow morning is just another morning, but it begins a departure. I have reconstructed a camera bag - filled with all new Canon gear, three decades Nikon left behind; I have the love of my life that will see me through my days on this Earth; I travel first to India for a friend's wedding, a global wedding in a sense; then to Europe to understand why we are willing to suffering to know the truth about ourselves; and to East Africa in search of where all new roads began.

It's no secret I love animation and the mind of the animators that, "boldly go where no man has gone before", or what ever Capt. Kirk uttered. Well here is another one my friend Jenn's brother Craig just sent over (Craig has the enviable joy of seeing this stuff a lot in his job at Pixar). This one is from the mind and scribbling of animator Alan Becker - a battle of digitally galactic proportions - click on the image above to see the action.

Anna's not convinced of global warming - but definitely climate change

Okay, I'll admit, this is a rant of sorts - but it's keeping me warm, my fingers moving and the blood boiling.

As I sit here doing research for another project, one a world away in terms of importance to the eventual legacy of humankind, I'm shuttling forth and back to the kitchen every half hour to switch out the magic elixir, the sugar water of life for a trio of flying lilliputian. Three Anna's hummingbirds, along with a host of other avians have decided, or perhaps by my maintaining their food supply, been coaxed into staying the winter. This week they may be seriously reconsidering their decision. In a bone-chillingly rare bash of icy windy weather the temps have plummeted into the teens at night and disparately grasp for the 30 degree mark by day - this is far from the norm for Portland. Or am I dillusionary and this is the new norm and I clinging to an old norm out of denial?

This morning on NPR's Morning Edition was a story with climatologist, some would say evangelist, James Hansen:

Scientist: Urgency Needed On Climate Change Action

Just as I was finishing his op-ed in the NY Times, the NPR story began I was clicking on the BBC online news to a story on the same topic:

This decade 'warmest on record'

According to the World Meteorological Organization the first decade of this century is "by far" the warmest since instrumental records began some 160 years ago.

Well, the tiny Anna's hummingbirds sitting at the warm sugar water feeders outside my window would adamantly dispute that fact. They would surely ask - "Where's the heat? Bring it on!"

And that's the issue. I have been saying for years that until people wake up in the morning, put their hand on the door and get burned because it's too hot out (or alternately freeze) then can't leave their homes for days on end, they are never - NEVER - going to get it, climate change.

In reaction to Hansen are other, not all conservatives as you think - like Paul Krugman, in his own piece

Unhelpful Hansen

What is clear to anyone who has traveled this planet for the past quarter century of more - and I'm not just talking about to one frigg'n conference after another - really traveled the back roads, back alleys and forgotten corners - is that we are in deep climate change shit! And the only way to even hope of shifting the course is stop the bullshit conversation about "what ifs" and get on with changing the way we function with our planet. Millions of people, poor people, die everyday on this planet because of the changes we have brought about in the last century, and Mr. Krugman they don't give a damn your thoughts on cap and trade - "What the basic economic analysis says...", or what your magical chart shows - to them it's all "crap and trade offs".

And that is the crux part one - it's climate change - not just warming. A year ago I was in India and farmers were complaining about drought in one part of the country and too much rain in another - in each case the experience was not the norm. This is no longer about economic survival - it is about survival.

Part two - we don't really give a shit. If we really did there would be no doubt where to spend the $700 billion the Obama Administration just got back from the bank bail out - DEVELOPMENT OF NON-CARBON RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES. It's, as Hansen says, about too much carbon being pumped into the atmosphere. And the average person in the developed countries (read - over consuming) and developing countries (read - trying to consume more) has no clue WTF is going on - or cares frankly. This week is the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen, another summit where rich nations will promise to do a little and promise to give just enough to keep poor nations from complaining too much. And the pontificated proclamations on changes regarding the climate? At least Copenhagen will benefit from all the week of hot air - it's just above freezing there this week.

Which brings me back to that possible case of - clinging to an old norm out of denial? Denial: "a state in which a person is faced with a fact that is too uncomfortable to accept and rejects it instead, insisting that it is not true despite what may be overwhelming evidence."

Krugman closes his blog post with:

"Things like this often happen when economists deal with physical scientists; the hard-science guys tend to assume that we’re witch doctors with nothing to tell them, so they can’t be bothered to listen at all to what the economists have to say, and the result is that they end up reinventing old errors in the belief that they’re deep insights. Most of the time not much harm is done. But this time is different.

For here’s the way it is: we have a real chance of getting a serious cap and trade program in place within a year or two. We have no chance of getting a carbon tax for the foreseeable future. It’s just destructive to denounce the program we can actually get — a program that won’t be perfect, won’t be enough, but can be made increasingly effective over time — in favor of something that can’t possibly happen in time to avoid disaster."

In this case I agree with you - sorta. "...this time is different." Neither of you should be professionally in this discussion - it's not about economics or physical science - it's about biology! You should be only in it as living human beings. The only discussion we should be having is about things living and dying. Other wise the dieing will eventually be very tormented and excruciating because we run out of drinkable water, clean air, arable soil, livable space. So, "a program that won’t be perfect, won’t be enough," - sorry, this time is different, we need perfect and we need enough.

And what about real change on the climate - the only real change will be too uncomfortable regardless if we accept it or reject it - hotter hots, wetter wets, drier drys and tomorrow it will be clear and friggi'n cold again here and the Anna's better evolve in a hurry - I'm running out of warm sugar water.

"Quick, quick, quick, like a cat"

(similar post over on my bike blog)
Last night was the Awards for the 2009 Bicycling Northwest.com Bike Photo Contest presented by Pro Photo Supply. Despite a civil war football game distraction we had a nice group of the winners and friends gather at the Lucky Lab NW for a bite, a pint (or two) and a look at all the entries as well as those that carried home the winning swag.

Taking top honors was a great shot by photographer John Rudolff - the crash of cyclist Joe Dengel in last summer's Portland Twilight Criterium. The photo epitomizes the old adage, " luck is opportunity meeting preparedness". Photographically many elements come together quite beautifully in this shot - three in particular that make it work for me. Most critically in my mind, and many of the judges, is the expression on the young girl's face in the upper left corner. Without that this photo doesn't have the same voice. With it, it has what Henri Cartier-Bresson use to refer to as the moment you must go click, "quick, quick, quick, like a cat".

In that sense cycling photography is like wildlife photography and unlike so many other types of sports photography. Planning is crucial, preparadness mandatory, understanding your subjects behavior essential, and then realizing you are at the mercy of the universe to bring all the elements together before your lens... that last bit is the hardest part to be patient and accept. If you have never tried photographing cycling - criteriums are the best starting point. Unlike most other cycling events, they are contained within a set "small" manageable playing field - usually a half dozen blocks of city street. You can move freely around the perimeter of the race and take advantage of multiple photo opportunities.

If you are a wildlife photographer and looking for another challenge - even just to keep your eye and index finger sharp - give crit cycle racing a go.

Congratulations to everyone that entered and all the winners!

We will be putting up all the winning images on Bicycling Northwest.com over the coming week - as well, they will be displayed in large print format at Pro Photo Supply later in spring 2010 when we announce the opening of the next contest (I'll post a note here on the blog).

Thanks to Canon cameras for sponsorship of the prizes.

PS - Joe Dengel, the cyclist, is fine and cycling again - the crash did ring his bell a bit.

Perspectives

Here is another wonderful animation to share. Very different from the Kudan animation I posted a couple months ago. The below work is a captivating perspective on the idea of a book, and words, and an interpretation of moving through a space. The light throughout is wonderfully created - worth watching multiple times.



Discovering this piece comes on the heels of a couple hours scrutinizing the quality of light and reflective surfaces in the latest Pixar film UP. They have become masters down in Emeryville at bring life to two-dimensions through reflective surfaces and indirect lighting. If I were currently teaching photography and/or film-making I would spend half the class immersing students in great animation, both variety and depth.

Predators, Prey and When Nature Turns the Tables

One of my great joys in being in nature, with wild animals, is having the tables turned - everything I thought I knew, tossed on its ear, and I was forced to rethink who I am and what I'm doing on this planet. The following by underwater photographer Paul Nicklen describes his most amazing experience as a National Geographic photographer - coming face-to-face with one of Antarctica's most vicious predators and things not going at all the way he imagined.


PS - just a note, film crew for David Attenborough's Life in the Freezer series on Antarctica had a very similar experience - perhaps we've unjustly named this selective, and sometimes sensitive predator?

"I didn't want a cruel image."

October was the month of extraordinary images if your passion is wildlife and nature photography. This year's winner of the prestigious Veolia Environment Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2009 award was by Jose Luis Rodriguez (photo captured the imaginations of the judges with a picture that he had planned for years, and even sketched out on a piece of paper. "I wanted to capture a photo in which you would see a wolf in an act of hunting - or predation - but without blood," he told BBC News. "I didn't want a cruel image."

A photo I wish I had created

"Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it"

- Hannah Arendt

Last Wednesday evening I a bit of good fortune fell down on me, along with the rain, while strolling about Georgetown (DC). I stumble upon this image by photographer, Monica Szczupider - which has become cyber-viral in the last couple weeks after appearing in the current, November, issue of National Geographic. Fortune measured about 24x36 inches. The print was part of the photo festival DC Foto Week going on across Washington DC this week. To see this image first large was unbelievable serendipity. While the pages of NG would have been fine, seeing it large on a wall in a gallery was perfect - the mind and eyes were in full exercise mode, ready for exposure to new, delighted to be surprised and forced to reconsider. Large - the image gives you space to contemplate it - those faces behind the fence become personal, they etch their expressions deep into your planetary perspective of what it means to be a species. You find yourself stepping slowly face to face, expression to expression.

In my career I have come across few images, maybe two or three, that I wish I had created - this is one. Beautifully done Monica.

More creation of the photo

Clash of the titans filmed at last - and we owe one man

Long before I took my first flight overseas, created that first truly memorable image, saw my first extraordinarily rare creature, or live with some forgotten culture, I watched an amazing exuberant British chap with child-like zeal and curiosity climb breathlessly over mountain tops to reveal fossils, dangle from treetops in the Amazon, and lie nose-to-nose with army ants on the march. That Brit was David Attenborough (not yet a Knighted) and he gave me hope - hope that I too could remain connected to my child-like curiosity and love for the things that go bump in the night, wriggle through a swamp, and soar beyond the clouds. He continues to do so - and I am deeply indebted to him for that gift.

The BBC wildlife film crews have long been know for pushing the envelope to discover, record and share the most amazing events in nature. Much of that must be credited to Sir David Attenborough. While to many he is now just the voice of these great visual works, the fact of the matter is they would quite possibly never found there way to the little screen - or web - had he not years ago doggedly persevered to bring this work to the masses in such groundbreaking works the 1979 TV series Life on Earth: A Natural History by David Attenborough and followed five years later by The Living Planet.

In each of the series then and now teams have fanned out around the planet, often craft methods, tools and techniques never before tried. The results have been breath-taking at the least, and simply jaw-dropping at other times. This sequence of clashing titans from the newest series Life is one such example - as described in the BBC web article (linked via the title below):

"During the first complete sequence of this behaviour ever captured, the male humpbacks swim at high speed behind the female, violently jostling for access.

The collisions between the males can be violent enough to kill.

The footage was recorded for the BBC natural history series Life."

Epic humpback whale battle filmed and scroll down the article for another clip on how they filmed it.

Wild Orphans specific website and blog

A few months ago I started this blog with a posting about my original Wild Orphans baby African elephant project. In that and subsequent blog postings I mentioned that I was exploring a return to Kenya and renew the Wild Orphans journey. The first steps in that journey are now a reality with the launch of a Wild Orphans specific website and a Wild Orphans specific blog. From this point on I will be posting most of the details, plans, thoughts and travels, along with photos and video relating to the Wild Orphans on those sites - please follow me there as well.

WildPhotos - A chance to see beyond your borders

If the UK is on your travel schedule in the coming weeks or you are simply wealthy and free enough to drop what you are doing, tell the world to take a hike and go (assuming you don't live there), then something well worth considering is the WildPhoto 2-day seminar/program in London. Great opportunity to see some inspiring imagery and connected with a international collection of photographers that are focused on seeing the world a bit differently.

From their site: "WildPhotos 2009 offers a wealth of award-winning photographers, including a keynote presentation from Michael ‘Nick’ Nichols, [see my post 'When a Picture becomes a Project'] the world-renowned National Geographic photographer."

When a Picture becomes a Project

This NPR story (Biggest, Tallest Tree Photo Ever) caught my ear for a couple reasons, first, it connects directly to a post I have been working on for this blog called Pictures vs Projects, and second, it sends a wonderful message out there to young photographers (of any age) that the world is still full of things to create great projects around; and if so inclined, involve all kinds of whiz-bang gadgetry and software.

So the deal is longtime Nat Geo photog Nick Nichols (pictured above) set out to take a photograph of a full redwood tree as part of a full story on Pacific Coast redwoods. Here’s the catch, these redwoods are over 300 feet tall and unless one is standing in the middle of a recent clear-cut chances are it's going to be damn difficult to see the whole thing much less back up far enough to photograph it. So the challenge - how to create a "single image" from close enough range to capture the detail of these extraordinary leafy leviathans? Nick's solution: Build a custom gyro-stabilized camera rig to take multiple shots and stitch them together for a composite photo. (See Redwood Photo - At least 1,500 years old, a 300-foot titan in California's Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park has the most complex crown scientists have mapped. This photo, taken by Michael Nichols, is a mosaic composed of 84 images.)

Nichols, with the NG staff, created a system to holding a trio of Canon cameras focused to the left, middle, and right of the tree. The frame includes a gyroscope to keep the cameras steady. By lowering the cameras from the top to the bottom of the redwood they were able to capture 84 pictures to assemble the final shot. The result is featured in the October edition of National Geographic magazine. I’ve included the final picture (via link above) and embedded a video of the rig in action (below).

I'll go into it further in the Picture vs Project post soon, but the bottom line is interesting and unique visions of our world and interactions are all over the place; even more so with new technologies and software like the stitching option employed on the Redwood photos. (More on stitching check out All Things Photography and Luminous Landscape)

100 Photographs for Press Freedom

Over the weekend I received a copy of the latest edition of the Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontieres), or RSF, annual fund-raising publication, Nature: 100 Photographs for Press Freedom. Based in France the non-profit RSF creates a publication each year to help generate revenues to support is global journalistic efforts; this year the focus was nature photojournalism. It's a project that I am extremely proud to have my photographs contribute to supporting.

This is one of those rare publications and projects that speaks to the heart of why I became a photographer. Not about the money (none of us received a dime for our contribution), and not always pretty images, it reflects the passion and commitment behind the lens. I am extremely proud to share this space with fellow photojournalists like Mitsuaki Iwago, Jim Brandenburg, Mark Moffet, and others.

Through my photo agency, Minden Pictures, my photographs contributed 8% of the 100 images that speak to the diversity and struggle of life on our planet, and support the environmental journalists, photographers and film-makers that often times risk personal safety to sound the alarm regarding the ever changing fate of our environment. From Nature, "They go to places few have ever heard of, where even fewer would like to go. Some never come back: nature photojournalists share with war reporters the highest rate of casualties of their profession. Fueled by a singular vision, they return time and time again with glimpses of our planet that challenge and shape our perspective of a fast changing world."

With the approaching 2010 designated by the UN as the International Year of Biodiversity the booklet, Nature: 100 Photographs for Press Freedom may provide a small additional glimpse at the course we are on and the need for rethinking our impact.

My great appreciation to Larry Minden and the staff of Minden Pictures for inclusion of my work in this project. Also a huge thanks to our partner agent in France Joel Halioua for his role in bring my work to RSF and sharing it on these pages with the world.

Below is a slide show of the eight images that support the 2009 edition Nature: 100 Photographs for Press Freedom.

Stepping out of the monocular rut

The Ernst Haas quote I posted a few days ago, "I am not interested in shooting new things - I am interested to see things new.", popped up again today when a friend sent a link to this short film "Kudan". It's a nine minute animated voyage through a different world. Voyages should be like that - journeys, perambulations in lands unfamiliar. I guess that's why I have always been passionate about exploring nature - a different world full of surprise that always awaits. Nature inevitably forces me to step out of my monocular rut. Other artists and art forms can do that as well, and I'm always delighted when I find an artist or work, in any medium, that pricks my perspective.

A quote I use in the early moments of a live presentation I do called, Wanderings on a Wild Planet, reads, "Life is not measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away." I am unapologetically selfishness about those take my breath away moments every day - I'm addicted. Yes, a life on Earth junkie. I can't imagine a more amazing place than this, Earth. Every several hours light spills upon it, magically, miraculously turning everything about me into something new and full of discovery - how frigg'n cool is that! Then, so our eyes don't become dulled, impassive to the magic, the light fades and goes out; left are but the faintest fireflies twinkling in the dimensionless firmament, reminders that the light will return.

Photography is very tricky - it's about seeing, with two eyes, a richly influenced multi-dimensional world, framing it, refining it through a single viewfinder and lens (using just one eye), then creating an image to be viewed once again in multi-dimensions. When done exceptionally well, truly an heroic feat! Mostly we are awash with thoughtless, poorly executed, mountains of mediocrity - which does dull our eyes and makes us impassive to the magic. So it vital to voyage through a different world, to prick our perspective.

The film below, Kudan, is wonderful because it is not what I would have imagined - until now there were no people-headed cows or word tubes in my world. There are fractal clouds, but not imagined in the same way. So, today, Kudan, became part of a Friday afternoon's wonderful voyage.

"I am not interested in shooting new things - I am interested to see things new."
--Ernst Haas

Falling Light

I laid yesterday afternoon and watched the light fall into dusk. That wouldn't be all that unusual for a photographer I suppose except that I was sick, stuck lying on my couch, listening to my partner Jenn read aloud from a book about Cook's voyages in Australia, and soaked in the warm late summer sun as it slowly journeyed to and beyond the horizon through my front window, over the garden and distance west hills. What made it unusual was that it was a journey over four hours.

It was an absolutely gorgeous self-indulging journey and one I would never have made if I had not been sick. For the first time in many years, nearly a decade, since an afternoon on the northern Serengeti, I just watched light. I watched it do that most magical thing - change the world.

It reminded me how impatient we are to not indulge ourselves in such an incredible journey. How for granted we take each daily event of magic. And perhaps why there are so few great photographs, and yet so many cameras.

When I was very young in my to-be-a-photographer journey my friend Ernst Haas had a stuccatoed monologue with me one afternoon, what I wrote down from it later was - "Go for a walk one day with the light, you will come back changed."

If you look at his work - B&W or color - you can see many walks, countless walks, walks with and without people, walks in cities, in countrysides, walks at night, and in the heat of the day, but all these walks have one common companion - Light. I think he took far fewer photos than he did walks with light. Thinking back on my precious time with him I'm certain of it. And that idea has triggered a rebirth in my photography, my need to create photographs, a need for more walks; and an idea for an essay, maybe a book, at the least a way to start re-seeing the world I perambulate - A walk with Light.

"ya gotta be good, but never turn down being lucky"

Every now and again someone sends me a link to a photo or series of photos worth sharing. These support the "ya gotta be good, but never turn down being lucky": http://www.pbase.com/redionne/kingkong

Also, if you just want another touch of visual inspiration check out the daily posting of images from around the world on the BBC Day in Pictures online and MSNBC.com The Week in Pictures.

Water thoughts

Last week rain finally fell on Portland, and my garden, and the roads I ride, but every drop of it was lapped up with joy and welcome - like a friend long absent.

Nearly daily I read articles addressing water issues which 'ping' my thinking about how to approach and communicate the our planet's growing water concern. Like the water problem itself, the solution for me photographically is equally elusive. Most of those stories, like this -Water reform is 'needed in Asia' - on the BBC news online, go unnoticed amidst the global panic over economies, wars, terrorists, etc. Ironically, in the coming years, regardless of how our car companies fare, and what leader is this week threatening his neighbors, water will remain at the core of our economic and security woes, it IS our woe. Yet for now, and likely until the day the tap runs dry in the homes of America and Europe, it's a problem to postpone. In the mean time:

• 1.1 billion people live without clean drinking water
• 3 900 children die every day from water borne diseases
• 2.6 billion people lack adequate sanitation

And the statistics flow faster and with more clarity than the water we need - if you are interested check out the World Water Council and International Water Management Institute to get a broader perspective.

Over on my Japanese gardening blog (diary) I made note of the rain returning here to "my" little planet - it was a very personal reunion - both to my thirsty little green friends and my water bill, which has soared in trying to keep the little green friends alive. And that has made me think and post this blog - water isn't personal enough - "enough". Enough is the key word. How do I create images that tell what "enough" is, means, feels like, to those impacted today, so that those who are not will sit up and say, "hang on, we have a nightmare on our doorstep!" We simply, we the American/Europeans of the world, don't face the problem in a personal way daily or any day usually, we don't walk miles for a gallon or two of "clean" water, we don't have our children dieing agonizing deaths in our arms from ghastly sanitation conditions, so it doesn't really exist as a problem.

Hang on, be right back....

Whew, thanks.

I was really thirsty spouting all that, needed a glass of water, wow, that was easy, just turn on the tap, fill the glass.

Back to the blog....

In search of a solution, both to my creative challenge and, more importantly, to the real challenge, I wonder if it doesn't lie in a garden a top a mountain chain in the Highlands of Paupa New Guinea. There 25 years ago I met the Huli people, the "Wigmen of Papua", the spectacular fellow in the picture above, in their tiny mountain valley high above the world and it's problems. Where the Huli live is near Eden, the Tagali Valley , but off the map, most maps anyway (Google map it - it's a blank spot). The soil is lush, alive, and the rain falls with Swiss-like regularity. Literally, stick anything in the ground and it will grow. And that's what has me thinking. From childhood Hulis are gardeners - every man, woman and child works in the gardens. So pervasive is gardening in the Huli culture that even young men passing through the bachelor cult igari haroli must succeed as gardeners - specifically they must grow an orchid-looking bog iris plant (padume). Durning this period they also learn a series of chants important to their passage into manhood, one of them is the "Water Chant". (Women may likely have similar passages but as a male I was not privvy to them.)

For other, but similar reasons I use to thinnk wouldn't it be incredibly valuable if when entering college every student was handed a small seed or seedling and we said "here, care for this and see it grow, and at graduation, in addition to your 'other' studies, you must present this little plant, alive and flourishing, to graduate." Imagine how that would change our lives? Imagine how that would change the way we view life? Imagine future generations of young people who actually value life?

And now I wonder - Imagine how that would make us view every drop of water we use on this planet?

Searching for new perspectives

Cycling photography has now become one of my new challenges - but cycling photography is and isn't like a lot of sports photography. Most sports are confined by the dimensions of some preordained space - a field, a court, the pitch, or the pool. What ever the imprisonment, it helps get ‘the shot’ for a hungry media, but seriously strains at the coattails of creativity. Let’s face it a lot of daily sports photo coverage is insanely boring – celluloid clichés (alright, now they are digital derivations).

Cycling in most of its incarnations has one enormous photo advantage - it is played out through the villages and countryside of the world – anything with a road or road-like surface is fair game. As a Frenchman once asked me while I was cycling in the French Pyrenees, “don’t you have high mountain roads in your country?” yes, I explained, but we don’t pave a road over every goat trail up there like you do. Photographically this yields a wealth of opportunities. What other sport enables you to cast your actors in an amphitheater of soaring granite and glacial sheets, or against the sun washed stone of a thousand year old Tuscan village. The disadvantage – they never stop moving, never.

The Pros (cycling photographers) have the distinct advantage of a moto” – perched on the rear of a motorcycle with credentials to zoom in and about the peloton (cycling’s big group of riders) as well as venture a field for unique perspectives and return to catch the race action.

As one without benefit of ‘moto’ cycling photography has presented some new and interesting challenges to me. (I’ve also turned to my previous wildlife work for inspiration – there too the ‘game’ is played out in the uncontrollable arena of life.) Fortunately I have no editor sitting anxiously waiting for ‘the shot’ to grace the front page of the sports section or the fleeting lead web story for the day. That freedom gives me the liberty to take some chances – something I just don’t think photographers (regardless your experience) are willing to do – the hell with it, go take a chance, screw up a little, you just might strike gold – accidents are the birthplace of genius.

The Boston Globe posted some of the best photos from the recently completed Tour de France – as you can see, some cycling photo pros are trying to find that new perspective – enjoy.

Over on my cycling website – BicyclingNorthwest.com – I am co-sponsoring a bike photo contest with local Portland shop Pro Photo Supply and Canon cameras. I hope that photographers of all levels and approaches get creative – taking advantage of the millions of opportunities the bike, its infinite habitat and characters, to create some very cool images. Here’s a link to the 2009 Bike Photo Contest.

Canon G10 & 5D get thumbs up on NPR

A previous posting discussed some of my new digital cameras and why I'm working in those directions so I thought it was interesting timing that the folks (NPR's multimedia director Keith Jenkins) on NPR's All Tech Considered thought the same -
How to choose the right camera for you

Little Camera - Big Fun

I don't typically get excited about gear. In fact, I usually have to turn to others to figure out the cameras and stuff needed to accomplish something I have imagined. But last year I traveled to northern Italy to do some cycling in the Dolomites and wanted to photograph the adventure (having missed some of the year before in the French Pyrenees). Having something little in my jersey pocket was flexible, spontaneous and freeing. The other thing is no one thinks you are a professional.

Trying to marry small and control has been the struggle. The first of the "little cameras" I tried a few years ago was a total disappointment - response time toooo slow. After years of "big cameras" with 6-10 frames per sec. - and on film no buffer download time - waiting wasn't going to work. The other issue is lens range. As you can see from many of the examples I post here I love wides, super wides even better!

My newest little camera photographer-friend Joni Kabana turned me on to, it's the Canon G10 - and I love this little thing. It's got enough weight to feel serious. G10 is the first G-series camera to offer wide-angle imaging via a 5x (28mm) zoom with optical Image Stabilizer. The addition of a 14.7 Megapixel sensor and Canon’s new DIGIC 4 image processor ensures exacting image quality. And from a serious creative perspective it has all the critical controls available in traditional top locations - exposure, ISO, shooting mode, and a actual optical viewfinder! as well as a 3.0” PureColor LCD II (461k dots resolution) with wide viewing angle. AND just to really make life fun it packs a sweet little 30fps VGA video. There are reviews all over the web - far better than this non-techie could provide, but from a image-making POV the Canon G10 is really awesome.

I now carry the G10 everywhere - literally! It fits in a pocket, a bag, my cycling pocket. I'm shooting a ton with this "LITTLE" camera - over the coming weeks I'll post some portfolios - still and video. PS - Canon if you are listening (knock, knock!) - make the G11 with a 20mm wide and you have a brilliant camera!

Some things go in cycles - especially on the bike

Well, while the Water Project gets consumed in more research and defining a "feel" and approach - the cameras and eyes are staying very busy (and challenged) with cycling - not the hydro-type, but that of two wheels and a heap of one-handed pedaling. Bicycling - my other passion. In between postings here you can check out my other life over on Gerry's Daily Ride (blog) and BicyclingNorthwest.com website.

The ABCs

Adventure, Bicycling and Cameras - okay that is me on Bicycling Northwest. The project is one of those pure flights of fancy and passion. After a back injury, while filming over a decade ago, my doc recommended (with great seriousness) I no longer practice impact sports or activities if my back and knees were going to support camera packs and roaming about the planet. So, the bike was the low impact solution to exercise when home. Well, one bike led to two and a cross-bike to a road bike and an unknown passion flowered. A decade(ish) later - Bicycling Northwest! Take a look and if you live in the US Pacific NW or plan on visiting - the bike is a brilliant way to perambulate this spectacular part of the planet.

All rivers cut new courses

A bit of silence lately on this blog is going to be followed by a flurry. I'm taking sort of a hiatus from my work with GLOBIO to return to photography and videography and hopefully speak to the global issues of clean water access and need. My goal is to say something about water that brings it alive, makes it living water. What I was able to do through Wild Orphans was personalize conservation and our relationship to wildlife (elephants). The water journey has just started - making me rethink everything from travel to photographic equipt. to the larger issue of what water means emotionally to all living creatures. As that journey moves forward I'll share my thoughts here. One facet I am certain of - kids will be at the heart of the project - and for that twist in direction I thank good friend Dr. Ernie Meloche. And that is where this "hiatus" is tangential - since I have never believed photography was an end in itself, rather a vehicle for messaging, sharing, learning, and in the end, hopefully, a call to action - all that the project creates will run downstream through GLOBIO and to children worldwide. More very soon.

Wanderings Around Gombe Stream

Yes, they are coming - images and thoughts from my perambulations in Gombe Stream - site of Jane Goodall's pioneering work on chimp behavior and glimpses into who "we" are. My work there was from a few years ago but the images still have relevance and shot on film have a quality that only now can I match shooting in digital. More over the next few days as well as new postings on the Wild Orphans elephants.

Wild Orphans Book Available

Yes - the Wild Orphans book is still out there - try here via Amazon for the few book dealers that have a copy. I am discussing reprinting the book with the publisher Welcome Books - I'll post something here when and if that occurs. Thanks to all who have asked.

Natumi - early days

In the beginning she was nearly invisible - not because of her diminutive size but her frail, shy manner. Not that any baby wants to be orphaned, but some you sensed were resigned to make the best of it from the moment they arrived and others, like Natumi, carried for days the feeling that this would all just go away if I don’t accept it. At first so many others were bolder, more precocious, warm, or needy. Natumi was definitely the little girl who I nearly missed entirely – until this photo emerged.

Who is Natumi?
She was born sometime in February 1999 and rescued in April. She was orphaned after falling down a dry well on the Eland Hollow Farm, near Nanyuki, in north-central part of Kenya, East Africa. (Dry wells are often the result of mature elephants digging into the sandy creek or river bottoms in water during periods of drought – in 1999 the number of such well ‘strandings’ became chronic as a period of several years without rain began forcing elephants to dig deeper and deeper in search of water – eventually such deep holes entrap tiny calves.)

Natumi

The reason for starting a blog... hmmm?
Several reasons I suppose, my friends, my staff, kind people who attend my speaking presentations and want to hear more stories, more thoughts - perambulations - about this planet and my journeys over and across it, and more photos and sounds, my snapshots of a life that becomes more amazing as I grow older and realize how lucky, genuinely special and rare it has been.

But its also inspired by a fellow earthling - a creature I share little and everything with - her name is Natumi. She is a African elephant, now going on 10 years old, and living happily in the arid wilds of Kenya's East Tsavo National Park. She was the cover girl of my 2001 book Wild Orphans, the four year story of her and seven other orphaned babies struggle to survive and the amazing effort of the folks at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust outside of Nairobi Kenya to keep these little floppy-eared alive. Over the next few weeks I'll post a collection of previous writings and new thoughts on Natumi and those days and what I think they mean now - a decade later. And to not bore everyone to death I'll post a wealth of photos and video as well.