Your Bio

I love to travel into new adventures and I love to take photos. I always have, ever since I got my first Brownie and started consistently cutting everyone’s heads off except for the dog at the bottom of the family snapshot. (Which may be why I still enjoy the oddly composed shot today?)

I am always overwhelmed with gratitude to experience the amazing things I have wandered into in my travels, and I hope my photos reflect the essence of That.


Enjoy and Namaste

Galleries

Botswana & Namibia 2012 - Short Version (sort of) : Amazing adventure, put together in a whirlwind after a quick chnge of mind. Fly-in camping (and one boat-in) in the Kalahari Desert and the Okavango Delta in Botswana; self-drive in the Namib desert, Sossusvlei, Swakopmund and Skeleton Coast in Namibia. We totally had the lucky! Hard to describe it. What it’s like to be immersed in the Bush, reading the mapala (tracks), what to do in the event of the unexpected animal encounter, all the stories…all the new words…. Nothing like seeing lions interacting firsthand. Watching giraffes fight. Watching everybody search for food, shelter and protection. Being charged by an elephant and charging back, twice, until we both decide to back down. Having an elephant sleep beside you, outside – a few yards away from your tent. Hearing his lungs fill up and expire all night long, like a giant bellows. Nothing like waking up in the middle of the night with a storm so strong you can feel the pressure drops, lightning that never lets the light leave the sky, and rain actually swirling in your tent. There’s nothing like waking up just before dawn and hearing lions roar in the distance, then up close. Grabbing a cup of coffee and heading out to find them. Nothing like being alone in the desert and watching the sun set, the silence, the enormity and colors of the dunes. And, there’s nothing like bumping in to your own exuberance. Literally running into Warthogs as you fly out of your tent midday to make sure you to charge your camera batteries. Or contemplating why you chose to go barefoot as you watch a very pissed off Adder run towards your bare foot and open pants leg as you are lying sprawled out in the sand. (trying to get the best shot…and that sand felt really good.) Do it again? Just say when.

Botswana & Namibia 2012 - Short Version (sort of)

Amazing adventure, put together in a whirlwind after a quick chnge of ...

Updated: May 09, 2012 12:56pm PST

Botswana and Namibia 2012 - The Full Monty : ...way too many photos, suggest the Short Version!!!

Botswana and Namibia 2012 - The Full Monty

...way too many photos, suggest the Short Version!!!

Updated: Apr 13, 2012 11:39am PST

Tamil Nadu : Chasing the light in Tamil Nadu. Smiles are everywhere. Generosity is everywhere. Poverty is everywhere. Shakti is everywhere. Amazing history and reverence is everywhere. And, just about everything here seems to be an offering to one thing or another, whether it wants to be, or not. Each new day begins around 4 in the morning with a cackaphony of chants (sometimes soft, sometimes not); roaring palpable vibrations moving across the landscape towards the hazy rising sun. Prakasha vimarsha. Enjoy. On the technical side, I was shooting with a Canon 5d, the Nikon shots of the Rudra Homa were taken by one designated photographer in the Chidumbarum Temple and provided to us, editing only, is mine on those shots. Namaskar

Tamil Nadu

Chasing the light in Tamil Nadu. Smiles are everywhere. Generosity i ...

Updated: Jul 04, 2011 5:02pm PST

Iceland -unfettered and alive : A traveler in the 1600’s titled his journal on Iceland thus: “Iceland, or a short description of the island of Iceland, in which are wild and peculiar things unseen in our own lands, but observed by our own eyes and…..truthfully recorded.” I think he was afraid they wouldn’t believe him. Iceland is amazing! An island the size of Kentucky positioned on the hot spot of the Mid Atlantic Ridge where the North American and European Plates are literally ripping the island apart. Active volcanoes along the vent erupting every 5 to 10 years. Literally being born and ripped apart at the same time every day. Earth quakes and volcano eruptions, geysirs and geothermal vents belching steam into the air. Mountains and valleys formed above and below current and past glacier fields (and resultant land forms). Native trees three inches tall (it’s tough growing in a lava field), over 600 species of moss and lichen and every imaginable form of slimy gooey weirdness. Every color of mountains and minerals. So many kinds of lava fields, so many colors. Rough seas, wild weather, unimaginable food and cool people. Gotta luv it! Gotta go back! Ast.

Iceland -unfettered and alive

A traveler in the 1600’s titled his journal on Iceland thus: “Iceland ...

Updated: Oct 05, 2009 11:32am PST

Cypress Swamp at headwaters of Lake Juniper and the Beaver Pond : July 4th weekend - headed down to Kay and Craig's cabin outside Cheraw for some kayaking, gluten free beer, fireworks, dogs and community. Got to swim in the beaver pond in luxurious quiet solitude (except for swamp critter noises) and the Beav was nice enough not to make an appearance while I was playing in his beautiful silky warm water home. Went kayaking on the cypress swamp at the headwaters of Lake Juniper, thanks to a very nice man who let us put in at a wilderness camp they were upfitting for their church group. Just happened to run into him at the right time and place down a long sandy road where we kind of weren't supposed to be. Worked out great. Very beautiful!

Cypress Swamp at headwaters of Lake Juniper and the Beaver Pond

July 4th weekend - headed down to Kay and Craig's cabin outside Cheraw ...

Updated: Jul 05, 2011 6:24am PST

Cheraw Beaver Pond 2009 : Early Sunday morning, after the storm the night before; it's back to the beaver pond. I emptied the kayak, shooed away the spiders (most of them) and pushed my way through the submerged thicket, climbing over stumps, getting stuck several times until I found the right path. It has become apparent that kayaking in a beaver pond is a contact sport. Although the still water hides all the junk below the surface - roots and leaves, detritus and stumps, I can feel them scraping the bottom of the kayak as I go. I can literally feel and see land and pond slowly manifest and differentiate. My only companions this time were the silent sentries still standing - hollow rotted trees patiently waiting to fall into the water and dissolve. The dam is about 16 feet tall at the deepest spot. There must be a spring down there somewhere. What a rare and beautiful place.

Cheraw Beaver Pond 2009

Early Sunday morning, after the storm the night before; it's back to t ...

Updated: May 12, 2009 3:28pm PST

Panama : images from Bocas Del Toro area in Western Panama on the Carribean side. Also, Chereque Grande, Zappateros Islands, and Panama City

Panama

images from Bocas Del Toro area in Western Panama on the Carribean sid ...

Updated: Jul 24, 2006 4:19pm PST

Costa Rica : images from San Jose, Puerto Jiminez and Bosque del Cabo on the Osa Peninsula

Costa Rica

images from San Jose, Puerto Jiminez and Bosque del Cabo on the Osa Pe ...

Updated: Jul 24, 2006 4:07pm PST

Stone Mountain, NC : Where the ticks live, Stone Mountain, hiking the trout steam coridors, through the beautiful fall grasses, and open woods. Cold nights, crisp mornings with mist lifting off the streams as the sun warms the day. Rocky Mountain Spotted Tick Fever. Sick puppy for a few weeks after, maybe a little DEET wouldn't be so bad next time. Happy to be alive and well.

Stone Mountain, NC

Where the ticks live, Stone Mountain, hiking the trout steam coridors, ...

Updated: Nov 12, 2008 4:02pm PST

mountain butterflies and ashe county cheese curd : popped out on a trail at the top of a mountain near Moses Cone and walked into a frenzy of butterfies, bees and cow pies.

mountain butterflies and ashe county cheese curd

popped out on a trail at the top of a mountain near Moses Cone and wal ...

Updated: Aug 23, 2008 3:42pm PST

St. John VI 2011 :

St. John VI 2011

Updated: Jul 10, 2011 12:49pm PST

St John USVI 2008 : Spent the days hiking and hours upon hours in the ocean, very friendly ocean there with lots of critters. Great hike to the petroglyphs.

St John USVI 2008

Spent the days hiking and hours upon hours in the ocean, very friendly ...

Updated: Aug 23, 2008 2:32pm PST

Tierra de Milagros, Penninsula de OSA : Signed up for a yoga workshop in the jungles of the OSA on a whim one day when I was feeling a little over the top at work and at home; a little too stressed with too little progress to show for it. I had no idea that I was stepping into - something so intense - a current of energy focused so strongly on cracking me wide open. I was tossed freely into the fire. I emerged centered and strong; open and vulnerable; with clear eyes ready to navigate through the fire swamp from a whole new place. I brought my new Canon 5D, but didn’t take many photos. I made a lot of friends, ate a whole lot of veggies, got up every morning before 5 a.m. with the Howlers and spent my days (and nights) in the jungle with Kali, music, and the good company of friends.

Tierra de Milagros, Penninsula de OSA

Signed up for a yoga workshop in the jungles of the OSA on a whim one ...

Updated: Sep 23, 2008 3:32pm PST

Spider Lillies on the Catawba 2009 :

Spider Lillies on the Catawba 2009

Updated: May 26, 2009 3:05pm PST

Tamil Nadu and Yoga Punai :

Tamil Nadu and Yoga Punai

Updated: Jul 10, 2011 5:16pm PST

General Dyestuff : 2459 Wilkinon Blvd. After the machines, before the renovation. Beautiful windows, beautiful building.

General Dyestuff

2459 Wilkinon Blvd. After the machines, before the renovation. Beautif ...

Updated: Aug 23, 2008 12:59pm PST

Mama and Papa's house fire : This was and is a small telescope house that once was the general store run by my great great grandfather. As a child I spent portions of my summers in it, helping with the chickens, washing my hands (too much playing with the cats) and trying not to sit down too hard on the davenport, and trying to avoid the outhouse (until 1964). It burned in 2008, fire started by a careless and unstable tenant.

Mama and Papa's house fire

This was and is a small telescope house that once was the general stor ...

Updated: Aug 23, 2008 5:05pm PST

U.S.V.I. St. John 2007 : vacation with our wild and crazy friends....

U.S.V.I. St. John 2007

vacation with our wild and crazy friends....

Updated: Feb 22, 2007 4:39pm PST

River House Storm, Writing Spider and Pink Muhly Grass : Many of these photos are fuzzy because they were taken in the rain at twilight, no tripod and no editing or color enhancement. 90% of the leaves were gone the next day.

River House Storm, Writing Spider and Pink Muhly Grass

Many of these photos are fuzzy because they were taken in the rain at ...

Updated: Nov 06, 2006 4:33am PST

Cheraw : Improptu weekend trip to Kay and Craig's cabin outside of Cheraw, SC on the weekend of March 24th, 2007. They have three (+) ponds, one or two made by beavers, and a cabin; arabian horses and (fruiting) pine barrens or sand hills and scrappy black jack oak forests. The beaver pond was huge and pollen was thick on the lillies and other aquatic vegetation, since no rain had been had in a long time. I first thought this dusty situiation would not help my photo's, but was happy to see that it made them better by accenting the difference between what we saw as the "physical world" and what we saw as the liquid reflection. We also saw a turkey and an Eagle (and/or an Osprey), but didn't see any beavers; Johnny and Black Dog didn't see the turkey, but they sure saw a lot of other things we didn't see!

Cheraw

Improptu weekend trip to Kay and Craig's cabin outside of Cheraw, SC o ...

Updated: Mar 29, 2007 9:25am PST

Iceland, volume two : This gallery is a compliment gallery to Iceland – unfettered and alive. This gallery has most of the photos taken on the tour with Go Ahead – my first tour group experience, and I have to say I loved it and everyone was so wonderful and so much fun. If they’re all like that I am signing up every chance I get!

Iceland, volume two

This gallery is a compliment gallery to Iceland – unfettered and alive ...

Updated: Oct 03, 2009 2:42pm PST

Family Crab Feast , etc. :

Family Crab Feast , etc.

Updated: Jan 16, 2009 3:21pm PST

Antigua : Antigua, about the island....

Antigua

Antigua, about the island....

Updated: Jul 24, 2006 6:02pm PST

Bend of Ivy and other stuff : Bend of Ivy Yoga Retreat, a few photos playing with mirror imaging and a bee high-5. (most of the yoga photos are taken by Bert :)

Bend of Ivy and other stuff

Bend of Ivy Yoga Retreat, a few photos playing with mirror imaging and ...

Updated: Oct 11, 2012 7:21am PST

2310 Cumberland Ave : 3 bedroom,2.5 bath. 5 minutes from downtown in the Dilworth neighborhood, adjacent to Freedom Park. Large open floor plan. Gourmet Kitchen. Newly remodeled. Two car garage, two parking spaces in front + onstreet parking. Large backyard with patio and nice landscaping, room for entertaining tent.

2310 Cumberland Ave

3 bedroom,2.5 bath. 5 minutes from downtown in the Dilworth neighborh ...

Updated: Feb 16, 2012 6:54am PST