149,043,219.....

149,043,219 is a unique personal benchmark statistic that understandably is of no value to many of you. Except for the 149,043,218 of you that visited Yellowstone National Park before me. Given its distinctively beautiful and often times dangerous geothermal features its that one place off the beaten path that you go to, to stay closely along the pathway as evidenced in the photographs. 

149,043,219 (contd.)

149,043,219

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The Hunter

On a balmy evening in the Ngorongoro, a Black-shouldered Kite caught its prey...

...ripped it open...

...pulled out a choice morsel...

...ate it...

...and preened for my camera!!!

So it goes in the wild I suppose...!

Wire - Less - 2

Wire - Less - 1

 

Lady Diana

The Diana F+ is a plastic toy camera - a replica of an old Russian-made camera from the 1960s. It is made of plastic, has a plastic lens (frequently with irregularities), no ability to zoom, questionable focus and only four aperture settings (sunny, partly cloudy, cloudy or pinhole). It uses 120 format film. There is little control over the images - light leakage on the film is common, shaking is inevitable even when mounted on a tripod, and in these days of instant digital gratification, one has to manually drop the film at specialized film labs with 120 film processing capability, and wait 24-90 hours to see the results.

...oh, and it takes absolutely breathtaking pictures!

One

These pictures were taken on a frigid morning drive through Yellowstone's Hayden Valley. The previous evening had brought an unexpected snowstorm, and since we hit the road before the sun came out, the snow was still on the ground. A herd of bison was moving through the valley toward lower regions and we were lucky enough to encounter them.

The title of the post alludes to the U2 song, one of the videos for which features similar images of bison. The sight of the animals reminded us immediately of the video, and Stuti successfully captured the images. Anytime you can even partially recreate the work of Mark Pellington or Anton Corbijn, it counts as a success!

Ocean Silhouette

I really have never understood the appeal of the beach on a sunny summer day (read: rotting washed-up seaweed, hordes of fishermen, dodging sandcastles, dodging volleyballs/beachballs/baseballs/frisbees, crazy children and crazy dogs, joggers and cyclists who don't like people in their way, parking-spot wars, elaborate cleanup rituals, sandy cars and sticky clothes). Besides, the water is southern California is cold!

Fortunately, the hordes leave en-masse after sunset, leaving the beach to the locals. This is convenient, because this is when the ocean tends to be at its most evocative. While I believe that both sunsets and silhouettes are somewhat cliched photography subjects, I am constantly struck by the touch of poignancy they add to any picture, especially when in combination.

Below is a series taken during a recent late-evening walk on La Jolla Shores beach. There is nothing overtly conceptual about these images. They're just...pretty.

...and sometimes, pretty is all you need!