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  • Perhaps no other local illustrates the rugged American Southwest better than Monument Valley. This must be exactly how the famous Hollywood director John Ford felt when he first discovered this magical landscape in the mid-thirties, and is the reason why he chose to shoot several of his blockbuster westerns here including, Stagecoach in 1939 and How The West Was Won in 1962. Although it still receives relatively few tourists compared to other parks in the region such as Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona or Zion and Bryce canyons in Utah, most people still find it familiar. This is no doubt due to the countless advertising campaigns that have featured the monuments as the backdrop for marketing their rugged image. Toyota trucks and even the United States Marine Corps have used the scenery, but nobody seems to spend more time here than the Marlboro Man. Yes, that fictional cowboy the Marlboro Man is the reason why most people in the world have seen pictures of Monument Valley, whether they realize it or not. In fact, I have noticed billboards in Kathmandu and posters in Tokyo featuring Monument Valley's vistas and always point out to people, "Hey,that's where I'm from". Actually, the only people that can really claim to be "from" Monument Valley are the people of the Navajo Nation as Monument Valley sits entirely inside the borders of the Navajo Indian Reservation, the largest such reservation in the United States. For centuries the Navajo have been ranching and farming this land and consider many of the monuments to be sacred..Just South of the border with Utah, these are probably the most famous monuments in the valley and together they are known as The Mittens. No matter how many times you go to Monument Valley, they never cease to inspire awe with their shear size and perfectly eroded shapes of a left and right mitten. I chose this composition because I felt the beautifully striated boulders in the foreground not only lead the viewers eyes nicely into the phot
    WarmMittens.tif
  • The amazing colors and landscape of Arizona
    MonumentalCutOut.tif
  • The iconic Southwestern landscape of so many of John Ford's Westerns
    JohnFordPoint.tif
  • A rustic symbol of the old west.
    BrokenWagonWheel.tif
  • Odds are, if someone asked you to name the top five most famous beaches in the world, two names near the top of the list would be Copacabana and Ipanema. Justifiably so. After all, Copacabana is credited as being the birthplace of the bikini and Ipanema, well, who can’t at least hum the chorus to the Jobim/Morais masterpiece, “The Girl From Ipanema" that single-handedly put Bossa Nova on the world map of musical genres? What’s really amazing is that both of these beaches are in the same city! Indeed, this could only occur in the hedonistic beach culture of Rio de Janeiro.<br />
With an estimated population near ten million people, Rio has most of the things that go along with a city of that size anywhere in in the world, i.e. traffic, etc. However, two things that really set Rio apart from any other urban metropolis are it’s stunning geographic beauty and the “Cariocas" (Residents of Rio) belief that leisure time at the beach is a birthright. Wanting to illustrate this uniqueness I headed down to Arpoador, which is the rocky outcropping that separatesIpanema and Copacabana. This turned out to be a good choice because not only did it afford me this beautiful view looking all the way down Ipanema Beach to it’s spectacular mountainous end, it also had plenty of locals engaging in their favorite seaside activities. Whether it was working out to maintain their “body beautiful”, surfing or in the case of these four men, fishing right off the rocks into the ocean. Facing West in the late afternoon gave me the opportunity to silhouette the men, thus turning them into the representative “everyman” and the perfect composition to illustrate the lifestyle of this unique mega-city.
    FishingWithAViewOfIpanema.tif
  • Mt. Humphreys, at 12,633 ft. is the highest point in Arizona
    MountHumphries.tif
  • Nature's artistry
    UpperAntelopeCanyon(B&W).tif
  • The colorful pagodas of Wat Pho
    PagodasAtWatPho.tif
  • Hoan Kiem Lake and it's "Tortoise Tower", home to Hanoi's most famous legend.
    HoanKiemLakeAndThe'ThapRua'Tortoise ...tif
  • The famous crown of Our Lady of Guadalupe church in historical Puerto Vallarta.
    LaCaronaDeLaIglesia.tif
  • This section of The Great Wall of China has been incredibly well maintained and is also less crowded with tourists than the Badaling section which is closer to Beijing.
    TheGreatWallAtMutianyu.tif
  • Temple of the Dawn at dawn!
    WatArunAtDusk.tif
  • Upper Antelope Canyon briefly gives off a rare double beam of sunlight
    Rays.tif
  • The incomparable beauty of Koh Phi Phi
    KhoPhiPhiDon.tif
  • The legend of Spider Rock half framed from above
    201308-CanyondeChelly-094-.tif
  • A Southwestern sunrise
    MorningMittens.tif
  • A couple takes in one of the wonders of the world
    CanyonForTwo.tif
  • 201308-CanyondeChelly-143.tif
  • The largest Buddha statue in Thailand!
    ReclingBuddhaOfWatPho.tif
  • OldSchoolhouseInBryantSD.tif
  • The Bund in Shanghai is a former jewel of the British Empire.
    TheBundAtNight.tif
  • 20140407-UAEAbuDhabiLiwaMoreebSandDu...tif
  • This is an example of an image that I planned for extensively. Having been to this location months prior, I vowed to come back at the perfect time to get this magical shot. That perfect time only occurs around noon in the summertime when a crack in the narrow walls above cast this perfect beam of sunshine on the sandy ground. A tripod and a carefully timed exposure helped capture, what I consider the world's most beautiful and natural sundial.
    BeamMeUp.tif
  • 20140808-SouthAfrica-CapeTown-434.tif
  • This section of The Great Wall of China has been incredibly well maintained and is also less crowded with tourists than the Badaling section which is closer to Beijing.
    TheGreatWallAtMutianyu(Verticle).tif
  • A traditional thoroughfare and market in Thailand
    DamnoenSaduakFloatingMarket.tif
  • Agathla Peak, a.k.a. "El Capitan"
    AgathlaPeak.tif
  • Buddha Statue Near Mae Hong Son, Thailand
    PaintedBuddhaNearMaeHongSongThailand.tif
  • Phuket Sunset.tif
  • Formerly the grandest hotel in Saigon, The Hotel de Ville is now known as The People's Committee Building.
    PeoplesCommitteeBuilding.tif
  • Arizona's amazing Painted Desert
    Stripes.tif
  • Sunset at Saguaro National Monument
    SaguaroNationalMonumentAtDusk.tif
  • One of the best preserved cliff dwellings in North America!
    MontezumasCastle.tif
  • A georgeous chapel built into the beautiful red rocks of Sedona
    ChurchOfTheHolyCross.tif
  • I can vividly remember as a child seeing a photo similar to this in an elementary school geography book and thinking, someday I must see this in person. It is one of my earliest memories of experiencing wanderlust, a diagnosis that would become a driving force throughout my life. Only later as an adult did I come to find out that this is also the birthplace of Bossa Nova, the bikini, and of course, the world’s largest party. It is also home to over seven million Cariocas, as the locals call themselves, a colorful mix of some of the most beautiful people in the world all packed into the most beautiful urban setting on the planet, Rio de Janeiro.<br />
The geography and people of Rio have created a unique urban sprawl, whereby some of the wealthiest people in Brazil live next to or even beneath some of the poorest. The poor have taken to illegally building favelas or shanty towns on any available space that clings to or straddles Rio’s magnificent mountains. The irony of course, is that it’s the people of the favelas that have the most magnificent views of their Cidade Maravilhosa or Marvelous City. Constantly watching over this marvelous city and all who inhabit it is the enormous statue ofCristo Redentor, Christ the Redeemer. Perched on the tip ofCorcovado, or Hunchback mountain at 2,329 feet above the city, it can be seen from just about anywhere and offers a breathtaking view from it’s base.<br />
Even though this image is on postcards all over the city, I wanted to fulfill my childhood vision to see it and photograph it for myself. After experiencing a week of Carnaval and a month in Rio I hadn’t had the opportunity to get my photo on a clear day. Miraculously, on my last morning in Rio I woke up to this heavenly, clear, blue sky. Risking missing my flight, I raced to the helicopter pad and fulfilled my vision.
    ChristTheRedeemerWatchingOverRio.tif
  • An iconic image of the American Southwest
    DeadTreeInMonumentValley.tif
  • A nightime shot of "Uncle Ho's" Mausoleum in Hanoi.
    HoChiMinhsMausoleum.tif
  • The Grand Canyon; Earth's most spectacular example of what happens when you combine the perfect combination of geology, erosion and a whole lot of time. As magnificent as the canyon is, it can be a "grand" challenge for photographers to capture images that provide scale and depth to a wonder filled with superlatives. Of course, we will never be able to to re-create the awe that one is overcome with when standing on the rim and gazing into the vastness of this world wonder but the joy of photographing the canyon is to try and capture a semblance of it's beauty and grandeur on a two dimensional medium. There are different techniques you can use to achieve to this aim and in this photograph I combined two of them. First of all, it is necessary to place something of interest in the foreground to give the image depth. Secondly, I sometimes like to use something in the foreground of the photo that acts as a sort of natural border to create a "frame within the frame". This will draw the viewers eye through the photo from the foreground to the background. Thus, you can not only have a striking image framed beautifully and naturally but you can also achieve a sense of depth at the same time..This all came to mind instantaneously when I came across this dead tree while hiking into the canyon via the South Kaibab Trail. It caught my eye because it's lack of foliage not only lends itself perfectly to the afore mentioned techniques but it's apparent age also makes it the perfect companion to the the canyon and the theme of this photo, time.
    Time.tif
  • The  beauty of the winding dirt track road to Sapa is only matched by the danger.
    DelaysOnTheRoadToSapa.tif
  • The most beautiful road in Vietnam
    TramTonPass.tif
  • A wild mustang in Monument Valley
    CuriousMustang.tif
  • MorningStrollAroundHoanKiemLake.tif
  • There are two distinct types of images in travel photography; those that you plan for, usually in the form of beautiful landscape photographs, and those which come about serendipitously as you wander the streets with your camera and a keen eye. This is a great example of the latter..I made this portrait in the charming town of Hoi An which is draped with the influence of all the seafaring cultures of both Asia and Europe that have been trading here for over four centuries. I was actually walking back to the old French part of town to photograph some of the buildings and architecture I had seen the day before when the lighting wasn't ideal. I took a shortcut through the main market, figuring Asian markets are always a good source of those afore mentioned serendipitous moments. Wait a minute, can you plan for serendipitous moments? Ah yes, the middle path, Buddha would be proud! Anyway, as I came out the other side of the market I saw this old woman walking towards the market on the other side of the street. I knew instantly, I had to take her portrait. I approached her with a smile and my best attempt at hello in Vietnamese. I quickly found out that we weren't going to understand a single syllable of what each other was saying. Given her age in Vietnam, it very likely she actually speaks three or more languages as many of the older generations can speak, French, Chinese or even Russian. Unfortunately, I am no more familiar with those languages than I am with Vietnamese. Fortunately however, I also found out that it really didn't matter. She was one of the sweetest people I met during my two months in Vietnam. We must have had a twenty minute conversation on that sidewalk. A conversation of meaningless words, yet an incredible amount of understanding and laughter. I was definitely intrigued by her. After all, she has lived through several wars, been colonized, seen governments come and go and probably walked to this market everyday for the past sixty or seventy years.
    Two Toothed Grin.tif