Camels might look ungainly, but they can sure cover the ground. These were competing at a festival near Bikaner in western Rajasthan in January 2007. The guy second from the left didn't make it to the end of the course — much to the crowd's amusement. It's quite a way to fall, though. Fortunately he wasn't injured, and he had the grace to laugh with them.
Another life at the Karni Mata mandir in Deshnoke, Rajasthan.
He sits just inside the entrance to the Karni Mata mandir — the Rat Temple — at Deshnoke in western Rajasthan. He plays an old, battered harmonium; he sits among the scurrying of rats and the milling of people and the whirring of pigeons' wings, and his voice sounds like singing from heaven.
HDR (High Dynamic Range) seems fashionable, largely thanks to the availability of certain software, I suspect. However, a typical HDR effect (sometimes described as "cartoon-like") actually arises not from the HDR itself but from exaggerated tone-mapping (plenty of examples in this gallery). It seems to suit some subjects, but used inappropriately (as it too often is), the result can be appalling (and sometimes downright scary). This photo isn't an HDR image; it's a similar effect but produced from a single photo processed in Lightroom with minor tweaking in Photoshop. I did it mostly out of curiosity and to be honest, I don't know what to think of it. To me it does seem to capture some of the character of this old shed (subsequently destroyed in last year's storm) up No. 3 Line, but it leaves me feeling uneasy. I'll not be making a habit of it.
I love owls. I think this is a spotted eagle-owl (Bubo africanus). I spotted it (not that that's why it's called spotted) near the airstrip on the Nyika Plateau in northern Malawi, just before dark. I stopped, dialled the ISO to 1600 and managed three photos before heading back to camp (driving after dark is not allowed). I'd been hoping to see a leopard, but this was nice compensation for not seeing the big cat. A little further on, I came across a nightjar sitting on the road, too.
Another photo from Sunday's celebration of the launching of the Fine CD by Ceol Manawatu.
Tony and Yvan at the launch of Fine, the album by Ceol Manawatu at — where else? — the Celtic yesterday.
Mid November 2006; at Urgam, a village high in the Indian Himalaya. This man, I was told, was 65 years old.
Himalayan Goral (sometimes spelled "Ghoral" or "Ghooral"; Naemorhedus goral) belong to the goat-antelopes (subfamily Caprinae). Their closest relatives appear to be serow, chamois and the misnamed Rocky Mountain goat (it's not actually a true goat). This little individual (roughly the size of a domestic goat) seemed happy enough in its enclosure at Naini Tal zoo; at least happy enough to peer at me with what seemed like a degree of curiosity. Perhaps it was just wondering if and when I'd suddenly produce a tasty morsel (not something that would happen, especially since a prominent sign said bluntly, "Teasing or feeding the animals is punishable"). Zoos aren't my preferred habitat for photographing animals, but I never saw these in the wild so instead settled for photographing through the fence.
Yes, it's a bit of a cliché, but they looked so beautiful with the sun coming through. These were just outside Pourangaki hut, in the Ruahine. A lovely spot.
February 2006; leaving Aoraki/Mt Cook. The two barely visible specks in the sky left of centre are kahu (Australasian harriers; Circus approximans); the snow mountains are the eastern end of the Ben Ohau range.
The Pohangina valley (that's the Pohangina river in the background) isn't entirely idyllic. The plants most prominent in the foreground are banana passionfruit (that's the flower), blackberry and cleavers: all weeds, the first two seriously so. And that bug (yes, it's a true bug in the entomological sense) is Nezara viridula (green vegetable bug), a widespread horticultural pest. This is a photo from December 2005.
Just over a month ago we sat in the evening on the goat track above Flounder Bay and watched night coming in, the ocean's heave, time passing. Or did this moment last forever?
New Zealand's endemic tui (Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae) is an endemic honeyeater, one of three resident (and endemic) species (the other two are the korimako or bellbird (Anthornis melanura) and the hihi or stitchbird (Notiomystis cincta)). "Tui" is also the name of a well known beer (also endemic), but let's not go there... This bird was feeding on harakeke (NZ flax) along the driveway in midsummer a few years ago.
A small clearing in southern beech (Nothofagus) forest in the Darran mountains north of Milford Sound. The track from the Hollyford Valley eventually breaks out of this forest into open subalpine country around Lake Adelaide. The surrounding mountains are legendary in the New Zealand climbing world.
Slope Point is the southernmost point of Te Wai Pounamu/the South Island of Aotearoa/New Zealand. I photographed these old stumps on the cliff edge a little further west from what's strictly the furthest point south. When I visited in February 2006 the stumps were roughly central in this google map (zoom out for better orientation). I don't know if they're still there, but they looked as if they still had a few years in them. That's Rakiura/Stewart Island on the horizon.
Another of the wonderful people living at Kileshwar in Gujarat's Barda Hills.
Paul plays the 
Same event, but photographed using flash (strobe), allowing better depth of field but losing that lovely backlight through the spider's legs. Note how some of the strands of the web appear scruffy and tangled — these spiders don't use glue on their webs but instead spin some strands with this peculiar tangled structure, which entraps prey by catching on hairs, bristles and appendages. The spider lives out of sight in a retreat and on detecting prey struggling in the web, rushes out to deal to it.
One predator — a grey house spider (Badumna longinqua) — feeds on another (a robber fly).
Not even a howling gale on the tops above the Pourangaki catchment could wipe the smile off Simon's face as four of us made the long hike in to Pourangaki hut in March 2008. The blur's not photoshop — it's camera shake from the buffeting and the cold. I kind of like it.
This is a typical Ruahine scene — the top of one of the many slips along the headwaters of the Pohangina Valley. The weather — that dark, ominous cloud behind — isn't exactly rare, either. This is a telephoto shot from outside Leon Kinvig hut.
Michael's an astonishing photographer, able to capture particular qualities and moments extraordinarily well. Generally, these are photos that should be approached slowly, allowing time for them to work (some, however, just hit you instantly, like Henri Cartier-Bresson's photos). I swear I've seen shadows move in some of Michael's photos. Go over and have a look at his latest post (open individual photos in a separate tab to see them better) and leave him a comment.
At the border between day and night, anything seems possible.
A wild weather system coming up from the south meant the first couple of days at Flounder Bay weren't exactly tropical. In compensation, we got surf like this — particularly beautiful in the late light towards evening.
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Aotearoa. Myths and histories.
