After South Africa, our next destination in Southern Africa was Namibia – a parched country on the Western coast of Africa.  We had an amazing time in Namibia and I would unhesitatingly return in a heartbeat.  We found the people to be friendly and the country easy to travel in but the reason we traveled there was because of the desert.

The desert in Namibia is a sight to be seen and the apex of that experience is the Sossusvlei pan in the Namib-Naukluft National Park.  Here the Orange dunes lurch out from the desert floor.

We arrived before sunrise – as the general custom is to enter the park and watch the sun rise above the dunes.  We raced through the park as the sun came up over the horizon stopping along the way to photograph the scenery.  Some of the dunes attract hikers looking to summit just as the sun comes over the surrounding dunes and mountains.

This photograph captures one of those climbers on his way up (a little late for the rising sun).

Even within a short time of entering the park, I was taken with the scale of the surrounds.  I wanted to capture the diminutive size of the person compared to the scenery.  There are a few aspects of this photo that I think help capture that feeling.  First, I wanted the tree to draw in the eye as the immediate subject.  This immediately puts the figure as a lesser character.  Second, framing the image with the dune taking up the majority of photo and the person squeezed into the top of the frame helps convey the overwhelming feeling of the space.  Finally, the lighting, with the distant dunes (just visible behind the person) a darker shade helps establish depth, and the sense that the dune being climbed is not among the larger dunes in the park.

Overall, I was pretty happy with the photos I took in Sossusvlei even though I wasn’t thrilled with the overcast lighting that day.

After our desert adventure, our next African stop was Victoria Falls and it couldn’t have been more of a contrast.  We were there during the height of the Zambezi river flow and after spending more than a week in the desert it was quite a thing to see so much water.

This photograph was taken as the sun was lowering in the sky (in fact, we were among the last visitors to the falls that evening exiting just after the sun dipped below the horizon).  I like the way the light – though not obviously coming from the side at first, highlights the water to give it a sense of depth.  The mist from the falls was quite amazing as evidinced in other photos from that day but in this image, it didn’t effect the contrast too much.

I took several photos, but I liked the closeups the most, even though they might not convey the full breadth of the falls.  These closeups are not as successful as others I’ve taken at Yoesmite, but that’s a post for another day.

One of the first entries I made on this site was from this road trip I took across California and Nevada.  That was a great trip; rather spur of the moment.  Webb called me up saying he was going to be in Las Vegas so I hopped in the car and drove out to meet him.  I took the scenic route there and back, stopping by in Death Valley on the way home.

I really love the East side of the Sierra Nevada – both the mountains and the desert.  Death Valley is perfectly situated so that you can get interesting views of both.

This photo was taken on one of the many dunes that form around the park.  I was up early and hiking around when I came across these tracks.  The desert is really alive though you’d be fooled if you only looked from a distance.  When you get up close you see all sorts of little creatures making a successful living.

I really like how this image captures the different ways that nature makes its mark on the landscape – and in this case, in very fleeting ways.  Within an hour (or more, depending on the wind) this view would be quite different.  Already the rabbit tracks are starting to fade back into the sand.

Despite the lack of color, this is a color slide image, taken with my old Nikon.  I like that there’s just a hint of color in the photo – it adds to the texture of the sand.

It’s been a long time now since I’ve been to the desert.  I am way overdue for another excursion.  It looks like this spring won’t happen but perhaps I’ll make it back in the fall.  I can’t wait.

In the fall of 2001 I tried in vain to get a reservation for the Pear Lake Ski Hut in Sequoia National Park.  It turns out to be a very popular hut to reserve (evidenced by the fact that I’ve yet to be able to secure the hut for another weekend).

In late December I called to see if any changes had occurred in the availability of the hut – and I was in luck.  There was a cancellation for the first weekend in January.

A group of us made the trek out to the Sequoia Kings Canyon Park where we started our ski.  The hut was wonderful and the skiing fantastic.

This photo was taken with my Mamiya 35mm camera while out skiing runs on a bright sunny Saturday.  The weather was perfect and the snow conditions were great.  It’s always a challenge to decide whether to take the big SLR on trips like these.  The weight is really a pain but the photos are usually worth it.

In this image, I like the contrast of the silhouetted skiers up on the horizon, the wispy clouds behind them and the sun illuminating the single patch of snow up by the horizon.  To me this photo really captures the uphill part of a backcountry ski trip – the long slogs up the mountain required to enjoy the awesome downhills.

Since this trip I’ve gotten a lot better at taking the ‘action’ downhill shots – and I’ve had opportunities to shoot those photos on a few good trips.  But on this trip, I felt like I really captured the switch-backing uphills.

It’s that time of year again, and I’m looking forward to more weekends of fun in the snow.

This photograph is from a 2003 road trip I took down to Las Vegas from San Francisco.  I was driving across the Nevada and California deserts when I came upon these large dunes.  I stopped and walked around the dunes and surrounding area for a while with my Nikon 35mm SLR, most likely an N80 model.  I shot this on slide film, probably Fuji Provia 100.  I really was not good enough to be shooting slide film (the exposure requirements are much stricter with slides) but I butchered my way through it.

These dunes are not protected so they are a popular recreation spot for those in the neighborhood with 4-wheelers and such.  While I was visiting there were a few tooling around and you can see some tracks in the sand.

I was really struck with how they stood out from the surrounding desert – which does not have the same pure sandy floor.  These dunes just rise out and stand in the middle of the flat surrounding terrain.

This photo reminds me of some of the images that you see out of Namibia, though that sand is much more orange – which makes me think of my upcoming trip to Africa.  I am really excited to be adventuring to someplace new, and on our itinerary is a visit to Namibia and the Skeleton Coast which is one of the driest regions in the world.  We’ll be spending a few days in the desert checking out the sites and some of the dunes there.