BuggslifePhotography, Homebrew, Canoe, Travel, Nature…

Just added Indonesia photos to the Travel section at Buggslife Photography.

See them here.

Last weekend I celebrated my 30th Birthday with my closest friends in a barn in Swale Dale, in the Yorkshire Dales (North Yorks).

Here are a couple of snaps taken during the walk into the hills of Upper Swaledale on the Saturday:

Rain Storm - Swaledale

Walkers take a break

There is a small Lead Smelting ruin above Healaugh by a brook (according to the sign the hills contain rich veins of lead ore):

I’ll add the storm and this last one to the weather and landscape galleries.

The barn was Low Row bunkhouse (camping barn) partly run by YHA – a great option for a heavy session over 2 nights.

On the way there we passed through a beautiful plateau with a fantastic viaduct – I think it’s called Ribbleshead Viaduct – with low cloud all over the hills the scene looked great:

Ribbleshead Viaduct

Note for tecchies: the post processing on the 2nd photo was simple using Lightroom 3: used ND grad tool and desaturated lower section, desaturate rest of picture slightly then up individual colour channels for red, magenta etc to bring out the heather colours…geeky yet simple.

Took a few shots at a mate’s gig last night at Zanzibar, Liverpool.

Here’s one, the rest are up on buggslife.com – click the photo:

Secret Garden Gathering gig - Zanzibar, 31st July 2010.

I have just managed to assign music to a slideshow for the first time! If you load this gig slideshow it should start up with a track from the band that they only recorded in the studio 8 days ago!

I like it when modern technology works like this.

For any tecchies – I am building my photo galleries using SlideshowPro for Lightroom along with Director, which uses an SQL database (hosted on my host server) to store and manage the images.

I have put a lot of work into building the site now coding it all from pretty much scratch in html and css, it would have been a much quicker job if not for IE6!

Anyway, the new system to host galleries and to populate them with photos is now up and running (using slideshowpro plug-in for lightroom 3 & SSP director) and I have designed a new gateway page to access them here.

From now on the photo slideshows will just keep growing and increasing in number as I update them from the past several years worth of shots.
Enjoy.

Caught a great wildlife moment cycling home from work last Friday.

A stoat was taking out a big rat…the screeching from the rat caught my attention and I managed to get one rushed shot:

Stoat attacking Rat

I then lay by a wall waiting for the stoat to return and finish it as the rat was still breathing but could hardly move and, sure enough, he did pop out to inspect my bike, dance around and disappear again once he spotted me. Unfortunately at that moment I had my camera set up facing the rat!

After much filtering and editing (in Lightroom 2 and Lightroom 3 Beta) I have finally completed my gallery of travel photos from one month travelling a few corners of Bali and Java.

Enjoy the whole set at:Indonesia travel photo gallery.

View from Sanur beach at sunrise - Mt. Agung

The main areas in Bali are Sanur, Ubud, Mount Batukaru and Bukit including monkeys and surfers at Uluwatu. It was during the Balinese Hindu New Year – Nyepi – and features heavily on its festivities. One of my favourite moments – particularly in a photographic sense – was Melasti on the beaches of Sanur at dusk and dawn.

In Ubud you’ll see many shots from the Ogoh-ogoh parades as well as a sense of tranquility on Nyepi itself.

The other shots were from 3 weeks on Java – about 10 days of which were in the south western tip (Ujung Kulon in Bahasa Indonesia) in the remote and wild national park of coastal rainforest, mangrove swamps and idyllic islands, beaches (storm worn yet untouched by man) and tropical seas including superb coral reefs.

Ujung Kulon National Park

Rice paddy terraces in Bali on hills of Gunung Batukaru

Enjoy.

I randomly came across some Sanskrit text which got me curious and I started to scratch the surface of a culture / religion / world that I know nothing about. After visiting Bali this year I caught my first tastes, smells and sights of Hindu culture having experienced the Balinese Hindu New Year – Nyepi and all of its associated festivities…notably Melasti (or Mekiyis / Melis ) and the Ogoh-Ogoh parades (part of Tawur Kesanga on New Year’s eve), both of which feature heavily in my Bali gallery. There is a nice summary of the festivals on indo.com here. Nyepi itself is a wonderful day of serenity, where people are forbidden to leave their homes and to make noise.

So my mind started wondering toward these things and, being a huge fan many years back, thought of some Kula Shaker lyrics such as:

• “Tattva, acintya bheda bheda Tattva …”
• GOVINDA JAYA JAYA
  GOPALA JAYA JAYA
  RADHA-RAMANAHARI
  GOVINDA JAYA JAYA
  NRSINGADEVA JAYA
  NRSINGADEVA

The latter praising Krsna (or Krishna) and the former meaning something along the lines of:

Slightly more eloquently would be:

“simultaneous oneness and difference”

Which, according to one source is about:
“Though we come in various forms and though we are all individuals, we all come from the same source, we are made of the same material/substance, but we are very much different from each other physically. The same is true for everything in nature.

As for “Tattva”, tattva means reality, principle, and truth. It can be thought of as an awakening, when one realizes that there is more to life than what he sees through his eyes.”

I just thought that was great!

I have been working on a few aspects of my Buggslife.com website which is now online but still in early development stages. The main focus of the site is the photo galleries.

At the moment I have 3 sample galleries up:

• Travel Photos from Bali – taken March 2010




• Wedding shots from the Grand Portuguese Wedding


and


• a large general gallery showing the range of my photographic interests

The latter covers almost everything from weddings to music gigs, macro insects to panoramic landscapes, sunrise, sunset, street graffiti and everything inbetween. A lot of focus will be on nature including wildlife and countryside with a slant toward travel photo journalism.

I intend to add more and more galleries throughout this summer so keep checking back and enjoy.

What an event…a setting…day…just been best man (o padrihno) at a big wedding at the main catholic cathedral in central Lisbon, a Se, and enjoyed a treat of a special occasion.

Will put the photos in a gallery soon…everything just clicked into place…here’s the bride taken over the shoulder of the father of the groom:

Wedding Bride

The idea of this blog is to write about anything and everything that I get up to or ponder – usually accompanied by a related photo. I spent the past bank holiday weekend with the missus and friends camping on the island of Anglesey, Wales in glorious sunshine…albeit in a chilly northerly breeze.

Porth Wen - secluded cove in north Anglesey, Wales.

All previous entries were accounts of my wanderings around South America from March 2006 to March 2007 – a travel blog. Life has become much more ‘normal’ since then and from now on the entries will be based around photography, day-today life as well as adventures on holidays or random short trips…limited, of course, by work’s annual leave and ca$h.

Still, hopefully I will find plenty of wilderness and fun sides of life to be writing about…just with fewer aches and pains from the straps of my backpack!

What stand out as some of my favourite moments, on a very personal level:

The moments…”where” – “what”

In Argentina:

• “La Bombonera, Boca Juniors’ stadium, Buenos Aires” – “…a period of confusion, the Boca keeper had come off his line, the River striker saw his chance and curled off a floaty shot towards the goal. As it was heading to cross the line from my angle I decided it was definitely going in, and, being well impressed with the shot I flung my fist into the air. In a tense situation surrounded by manic supporters who all appeared ready to kill for their club, the following period of time – which must have been about half a second – seemed to pass by over a couple of hours as thoughts, worries and emotions all cannoned through my mind instantaneously. I was sure that I was the only one celebrating this inevitable goal and unsure whether I was about to be majorly embarrassed, slightly strange looking or soon to be pummelled. Anyone in a rational calm state of mind would not have had this moment of, pretty much, panic and everyone would have appeared to react in a routine synchronised way. As the milli-seconds ticked by I was joined by many thousands of fellow River fans and the stand completely erupted with more force than I have ever known of any fans or for any group of humans doing anything…”
• “Iguazu Falls, Argentinan Side” – “arriving at the top of the edge of The Devil’s Throat – the concentrated part of the huge falls – after a long day exploring the falls and park. The utterly immense natural power hit me hard, not literally luckily, as I watched individual drops and flows take their course down the fall and disappear among the mass of misty spray.”

In Chile:

• “Portillo Ski Resort” – “Snowboarding down untouched areas of big sweet soft snow and even throwing in some little girlie jumps off rock mounds; the view of the surrounding mountains and lake at the bottom helped.”

In Paraguay:

• “River Paraguay” – “the 3 day passenger & cargo boat trip up the river on the Brazil border including the week spent stranded in Bahia Negra; a great adventure period with great people (fellow travellers – Irish, English, French and Spanish, locals and military officers) – just a great crack.”

Hitch-hiking (actually in Brazil here) with the others from Paraguay

In Bolivia:

• “National Park Noel Kempff Mercado” – “floating on my back swimming slowly backwards across the lagoon created by the magnificent waterfall ‘El Encanto’ – my only view in front of me and my ears underwater so completely silent and in my own solitude”
• “National Park Noel Kempff Mercado” – “drifting along in a dug-out canoe before sunset in a totally serene but wild river and having our first big caiman suddenly leap out of nowhere from the reeds next to us. That was after spending time fascinating a troop of monkeys and having no effect whatsoever on a pair of capybara taking an afternoon snack on a bank.”

In Peru:

• “A cliff trail near Chachapoyas, Northern Peru” – “being led by some local small children (without asking any help at all, just because they were so joyful and assume with little better to do) to the site of several ancient sarcophagi – like ritually painted coffins – stood scattered across a seemingly inaccessible cliff face. For me the sarcophagi were one of the most amazing historic artefacts I have seen”
• “Gocta Waterfall, near Chachapoyas, Northern Peru” – “after a good hike, edging closer to the world’s 3rd tallest waterfall via a few roughly-made tree branch ladders and some slippery and thick mud trails. The others including the guide were happy with how close we had made it but, of course, I needed to edge those 15 metres closer and standing in the shocking force of the spray coming off the falls was one of a few truly life-refreshing experiences”
• “Machu Picchu, Peru” – “Early in the morning whilst the site was still really quite empty we were exploring a set of terracing off in one corner. I, of course, had to go down the terracing as far as I possibly could just to see how far they went on. Doing that though I found a classic perch to sit, on the edge of the Inca wall, with a magnificent drop into the beautiful gaping valley in front to my left and a bit of an unusual view of Mach Picchu ahead that included terracing and other features leading all the way down a slope that – if you didn’t come round to this corner of the site – you wouldn’t even see. Sitting there with the breeze from the gorge, swallows hunting ahead and a tranquil scene of one of the most magical historic sites I’ve been to, was one hell of a moment.”

In Ecuador:

• “In the jungle of river Shiripuno” – “Marching through the forest on a round of ‘the traps’ and our local colleague-come-guide doesn’t just stop in his tracks but bolts backwards a couple of metres. We then stood and watched an incredible Boa Constrictor – unbelievably thick and about 5m long with such beautiful patterns over its scales with red towards the tail. That was enough to make it into my most memorable moments but to add to the scene a few Monk Saki monkeys (lovely shaggy monkeys that I did not see again; at least not with certainty) came down to low branches completely in view wondering why we were stood in silence below them. Sweet as.”
• “Isla Isabela, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador” – “It’s tough to pick just one out from our time on this island. Free-diving with a turtle? Watching sharks swim by? Watching rays swim by within a metre if you? Sharing a beach with no one but 50 marine Iguanas? Nope. What sticks out more is when there was some major activity in the sea on the long beach at low tide with birds and sealions feasting. We were strolling along and, getting closer, we saw that birds would suddenly dive underwater having been floating on the surface. They looked like penguins but surely not. Besides, we never see penguins in groups of more than 15 resting and 3 hunting. This was a group of maybe 40 odd! Must be some other common sea bird. As we arrived to where they were fishing I could see for sure they were penguins and not far out at sea. Excited like the child I so often proved I am over the 12 months away, I used a sharp rocky outcrop that led out into the sea to get closer and was able to stand in the sea and watch loads of penguins pass right by me 1 or 2 at a time as they changed hunting sites. It was so cool.”

In Venezuela:

• “Roraima, La Gran Sabana, Venezuela” – “Sitting by (not quite on as it was one hell of a scary drop) the edge of one of Roraima’s faces doing much contemplation and enjoying a stunning view of the savanna below and beyond.”

As well as all this there were so many other highlights that stick out in my mind but to try and list too many is pointless. Many of you will undoubtedly hear about plenty of the others over many years to come and often over many a pint I’d imagine.

My top top personal highlights – the elite of the cream of the crop – things that stand out in my mind:

The places…

In Argentina:

• 1. The region of Santa Cruz, Patagonia – Lake Posadas, Cave of Hands, town of Perito Moreno and La Casa Amarilla, Patagonian countryside, tranquility, wildlife.

Wrapping up warm in the south

• 2.Puente del Inca (Inca bridge) – natural bridge of beautiful colours from minerals in the mountains; surrounded by deep snow when I stayed there in a mountaineers hut.

In Chile:

• 3. The Carretera Austral region – lush temperate rainforest, mountains, fjords/lakes, rivers, autumnal colours, cute villages.

View from window over a fjord in the Carreterra Austral region

In Bolivia:

• 4. National Park Noel Kempff Mercado – remote and rarely visited huge park of jungle/rainforest, pampas and floodlands full of amazing wildlife and natural beauty.

In Peru:

• 5. Region around Chachapoyas, North Peru – rivers, canyons, remote pre-inca ruins and the world’s 3rd tallest waterfall.
• 6. Huayna Picchu; the tall peak looming over Machu Picchu – a good, fairly quick hike up the mountain which itself has cool Inca ruins, awesome views of the surrounding mountains and valleys and a bird’s eye view of the Machu Picchu ancient city.

In Ecuador:

• 7. The river Shiripuno and its surrounding rainforest – wild, absolutely full of life, beautiful, peaceful and challenging.
• 8. Isla Isabela, Galapagos Islands – from the relatively tiny corner of the island that we saw it is in a fantastically unspoiled state and literally alive with wildlife with idyllic beaches.

In Colombia:

• 9. National Park Tayrona – a tropical paradise but also very wild with untamed seas and forests and scenery that makes you want to just stay put.

In Venezuela:

• 10. Roraima – the Tepuy (table-top mountain) with unique vegetation and even animals, awesome views and one of the strongest and strangest mystical atmospheres I’ve experienced.

Just came across this quote about the big national park I was impressed with in Rio de Janeiro…

“The Atlantic Rain Forest The Tijuca National Park is the largest urban natural reservation area in the world, covering an area of 3.200hec. and sheltering an enormous variety of birds and butterflies as well as “prego” and “sagui” monkeys. It is also home to hundreds of species of wildlife and plants, nowadays only found in the Atlantic Rainforest, many of them threatened by extinction.”

I can believe it’s the biggest urban reserve.

We saw both those species of monkeys there! The sagui is actually a marmoset (apparently the same as a tamarin but not certain) and it was the only time in the year that we saw ‘monkeys’ of that kind.

Days I spent in each country:

• Florida, USA: 12 + 5 = 17

• Argentina: 41 + 18 + 1 = 60

• Chile: = 44

• Paraguay: = 20

• Brazil: 4 + 16 + 3 + 1 = 24

• Bolivia: 33 + 1 = 34

• Peru: = 29

• Ecuador: = 80

• Colombia: = 25

• Venezuela: = 32

TOTAL = 365

1 year, 10 countries

So, I’m back home now but I’ll throw in one more travel entry as I don’t expect life’s going to be quite so interesting for a while now…

I went on a great 6 day trek up Roraima, a large table-top mountain renowned for its many endemic plants – including loads of carnivorous plants – and animals such as a hummingbird and frog.

Here are the clouds rolling over the edge from up top:

The 2 days we spent on top were fantastic, getting to know the unusual landscape, the quartz crystal ‘rivers’, freezing cold but stunning natural pools, the little animals including a scorpion and a rare big oilbird, almost blind, that relies on echo-location like a bat and lives in Venezuelan caves.

This is the group I was with and Roraima is the mountain on the right dominating the horizon.

Next up was Rio de Janeiro after a 3 flights in 1 job from near the Venezuelan border, across the amazon jungle, change in Sao Paulo and we’re there. Two manic weeks that flew by during the carnival: masses in the streets, beer everywhere, samba drums, plenty of energy and a great atmosphere.

Clare’s polishing off tangy home-made caipirinha in the flat before heading out…

Twas cool to have one place to stay put for 2 weeks. The flat was in a proper residencial block where the locals chuck rubbish bags out of the window into a mass rubbish bin courtyard below…nice. By normal terms it was a scummy kind of place, well more the block than the flat itself, but it was really quality compared to the standards of the majority of people that I’d been seeing since leaving Argentina and heading through Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela.

So, along with a nocturnal lifestyle that had gone from:

Roraima Trek
WAKE UP: SUNRISE
BED: WITHIN AN HOUR OF SUNSET

to:

Rio
WAKE UP: 1PM – 4PM
BED: 4AM – 8AM

we also managed to check out some of the absolutely shockingly well preserved national parks right in or around the city. In them we even saw monkeys, hummingbirds, loads of butterflies, iguanas, a squirrel and other lizards. Really surprised me being on the edge of such a city.

I also had to swallow my pride on the last night. Clare and I had spyed a cool looking little seafood restaurant and planned to pop in to celebrate 7 whole years together; however, that day Clare found out this little restaurant appeared in the ‘ever so Lonely Planet’ which quoted it as being “the best seafood restaurant in Rio de Janeiro”. My pride was swallowed along with a couple of cans of beer and we still went there and, I hate to say it, but the book may have been right. It was at least the best meal out we had had in the past year.

So, lots of indulgence in Rio meant lots of cash spent which, in turn, meant the question “Can we still afford to do our final little excursion and ride 23 hours across Brazil (and another 23 hours back) to Iguazu Falls???”. The true answer is really “no, we can’t afford it” but we went anyway…

…and it was worth the effort.

There’s the beauty of the sets of falls; the amazing force of them; lush forest around and even treats of seeing some cool animals I hadn’t expected to see such as more monkeys, coatis, agoutis, toucans, (wild) guinea pigs, a river turtle and even a caiman (see left below)!

As for Brazil, I only spent a short time in 3 of its many many corners (Pantanal, Iguazu and Boa Vista up near Venezuela) plus enough time in Rio. There’s obviously loads to see in South America’s biggest country (and the 5th biggest in the world) – its own trip perhaps?

“Vamos a ver.”