I have to admit that it has been a while since I’ve shared here. The pandemic disrupted my life in many ways but also opened possibilities with other aspirations, like starting a flower farm (more on that later).
But over the last few years, in between learning how tough flower farming can be, I’ve been working on some book projects for National Geographic, one of which was published last month. Being that today is St. Patrick’s Day, I thought I would share with you Always Ireland by Jack Kavanagh.
Full disclosure, I have never been to Ireland in person, but after going through thousands of images of the Emerald isle, I now feel that I have had a complete virtual tour and history! I’ve never worked on a book project that didn’t have its share of challenges. Sometimes it is constantly shifting deadlines, other times it is trying to find photos of rectangular-shaped fish and marine mammals that work visually in a square-shaped book. This project was no different, but in the end, I’m quite pleased with the photographic results.
Ireland has been boosted to the top of my travel list from photo editing for this project, not only because of the gorgeous landscape but because every single Irish person I called or emailed was absolutely lovely…and I’m a sucker for the accent!
Whether you’ve already been won over by this beautiful little country, or if you’re Ireland-curious, pick up a copy of Always Ireland to get travel tips, lessons in history and lore, and even recipes. Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you!
And a big thank you to the team I worked with at National Geographic Books, and especially to author Jack Kavanagh for his wonderful insights into his country and for supporting me to show Ireland’s many facets with photography.
Recently I was hired to make portraits of Heather Wilcox-Nicholls for an NPR All Things Considered story reported by Alina Selyukh. The focus was on women working in retail whose employment has been hit particularly hard by Covid-19.
I connected with Wilcox-Nicholls because neither of us has been immune from economic damage during the pandemic. In a strange twist of irony, my work as a travel photographer has effectively been put on pause by the pandemic, though being home in Oregon allowed this assignment to find me. I’ve always wanted to photograph for NPR so I’m counting this job as a “Covid silver lining”.
Take a look or listen to this story which is part of the series Enough Already: How the Pandemic is Breaking Women. These stories are a powerful look into how the pandemic is exacerbating issues that women have been struggling with for years, from inequalities in the workplace to inequities in the home.
One morning on a faraway beach, I stared into the big, dark eyes of a stranger and fell in love on South Georgia Island.
In this case, those eyes belonged to a southern elephant seal pup who had lumbered up near me, all 250 pounds. The pup, known as a weaner for having been recently weaned from its mother, looked at me with pure innocence and curiosity.
Elephant seal pups loll about in the “baby pool” at Gold Harbor with king penguins for neighbors. This scene is quintessentially South Georgia, except for maybe the existence of sunshine.
Flashback to the summer of 2009, when I was in my office at National Geographic in Washington, DC, working on a story called 50 Places of a Lifetime. My photo editor colleagues and I had drawn straws to divvy up the task of finding images for 50 different places from all over the world. I didn’t know how lucky I was, but South Georgia Island was on my list.
At the time, I had to Google this magical isle to locate it on a map. If you’re picturing somewhere in the state of Georgia, move your mental map much further south to the continent of South America. Picture the rugged spine of the Andes Mountains running all the way to the continent’s southern tip. Now imagine that 50 million years ago, a chunk of land broke off of that tip and swung out into the ocean, landing about 1200 miles to the east. This 102-mile long isle, with its jagged snow-covered mountains, sits in the churning, nutrient-rich waters of the Antarctic convergence and plays host to one of the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet.
At the editing desk, with a location plugged into my mental globe, I pored over images of albatross breeding colonies on rugged mountainsides, beaches where king penguins bounded out of the surf under psychedelic sunrises, and elephant seal weaners looking wide-eyed into lenses. There was no doubt this place was special and I had to make my way there one day.
Last November those efforts became a reality. I followed in the footsteps of Sir Ernest Shackleton on a hike into Stromness, the former whaling station where he arrived in search of aide 16 months after his ship the Endurance was trapped in the Weddell Sea of Antarctica. I toasted “the Boss” at his gravesite in Grytviken and then walked through the ruins of the whaling station there, the rusting tanks and flensing platform vivid reminders of the destructive period when South Georgia was the center of a prolific whaling and sealing industry. In the early twentieth century, this industry brought multiple species to the edge of extinction. According to A Marine Fisheries Review article, over 2.9 million whales were killed worldwide from 1900-1999.
But nature, when left to its own devices, has a remarkable way of bouncing back. That is how I found myself giving my heart away on the beach at St. Andrews Bay, home to the largest king penguin colony and elephant seal beach on the island. I looked out as far as my eye could see past over 100,000 breeding pairs of birds. I’ve been close to animals before (like in Galápagos where animals have no fear) and witnessed some unbelievable wildlife sightings, but nothing could prepare me for the staggering amount of life on that beach. It was a humbling, beautiful moment that brought me to tears and is seared into my memory forever and also happened to be captured on camera (see below).
Now, although I’m back in my office thousands of miles away and unable to travel, I still have South Georgia on my mind. As most of the animal populations of South Georgia have managed to rebound from tragedy, I know that humanity will rebound from the setbacks of the pandemic we are currently grappling with.
The king penguin is hands down my favorite penguin species. I’d happily sit all day staring at the beautiful patterns formed by their vivid hour-glass shaped ear patches.
The colony is massive and busy, as seen in the main photo above, but there were still quiet moments occurring around me like this affectionate pair who wandered up to the edge of a pond. Without anthropomorphizing too much, the tenderness that I saw between king penguin pairs was touching.
Elephant seal weaners are thigmotactic, or contact-loving. If ever there was a more adorable cuddle puddle, I haven’t seen it.
Using the National Geographic Orion’s fleet of inflatable zodiacs, we explored Elsehul, a massive bay which is home to macaroni penguin colonies.
Of course, exploring nature involves seeing both life and death. This giant petrel was washing his bloody face after feasting on a dead Antarctic fur seal.
A massive Southern elephant seal bull hides his giant proboscis in the sand while snoozing. Although we never approached any animals, luckily the males were not aggressive because of breeding during our visit so they were not an impediment to making beach landings.
After making landfall at King Haakon Bay, Sir Ernest Shackleton hiked with two of his men for 36 hours at Stromness in a successful attempt to obtain help to rescue his men left at Elephant Island in Antarctica. We took the easy version of his hike, from Fortuna Bay to Stromness, under much more forgiving circumstances.
From the destruction of the whaling days, most wildlife populations have rebounded on and around South Georgia Island. Now whaling stations, like Grytviken, host living animals amidst their ruins.
Tradition at Shackleton’s grave is to make a toast with whiskey in his memory. I hadn’t realized how many graves were at all of the whaling station, which shows the human toll of the whaling industry as well.
A gorgeous striated piece of glacial ice floated in front of Nordenskjold Glacier.
I loved the beautiful snow petrels resting on an iceberg.
Glacial ice eaten away by the lapping and crashing of waves revealed a beautiful pattern of snow and sediment.
The scale is hard to capture in a grandiose landscape like South Georgia.
If you still haven’t gotten enough of South Georgia Island, visit the gallery on my Photoshelter website. I plan to return in January of 2022, won’t you join me? Watch my page on National Geographic Expeditions for updates.
A few weeks ago I received a package in the mail from National Geographic. I hadn’t been expecting anything, but then it hit me…its the book!
Finally, my very own copy of the 100 Hikes of a Lifetime book, which I photo edited over the course of a year’s time, had arrived. The task of photo editing a book for mass publication is such a long process that by the time my role had ended in August of last year, I clearly had plenty of time to forget about all of the hard work and deadlines. Then the physical book arrived like a long lost surprise; a PDF magically turned into a real-life book!
Working on 100 Hikes of a Lifetime took me virtually around the world to beautiful mountaintops and arid deserts, ironically while I was often yoyo-ing back and forth from home to my next far-flung assignment. There was an intricate dance of multi-tasking going on at many points to keep all of my deadlines and obligations met.
I wanted to thank the author of the book, Kate Siber, for being efficient and endlessly helpful. I didn’t envy her the nearly impossible task of selecting only 100 hikes! Also, thank you to the team at National Geographic Books: Moira Haney, Allyson Johnson, Nicole Miller, Meredith Wilcox, Susan Blair, and Jill Foley.
A side-effect of photo editing travel publications is that I have a never-ending wish list of travel experiences. After virtually experiencing 100 hikes, I can say that at the top of my list are California’s Sierra High Route, Nepal’s Great Himalaya Trail, Egypt’s Sinai Trail, and Italy’s Alta Via Delle Dolomiti 1. Clearly, I’m up for a challenge! And inspired by my work on a previous book in this series, 100 Dives of a Lifetime, I’m finally getting my scuba certification this year and going diving in French Polynesia.
If you’re in need of an adventure or simply want to ogle the beauty of this wild world we live in, pick up a copy of 100 Hikes of a Lifetimehere.
In June I had the opportunity to photograph Whistler, British Columbia, for an online feature for National Geographic Travel and Destination Canada. I spent a busy, beautiful week photographing in Whistler, which was made all the more rewarding by being teamed up with illustrator and animator Rachel Ryleand producer Carmen Kerr of Storm Films. Rachel kept us laughing, Carmen kept us on schedule, and through it all, I kept on clicking. We hiked, biked, zip lined, rode ATVs, soaked up art, dined well, and crisscrossed the region on a jam-packed schedule.
Visit the National Geographic website to see our article and be sure to watch the darling animation created by Rachel that sums up our experience using her illustrations and my photos. It was a treat to work with two creative powerhouses and I’m happy to share the final product, plus a few more of my favorite images below. Enjoy the fruits of our labors and I hope you get inspired to visit Whistler!
Whistler Village is the focal point of the region and the jumping-off point for endless outdoor adventures. The pedestrian-only streets are lined with shops, restaurants, bars, galleries, and museums.
An American family embraces the sports theme at the Olympic Plaza in Whistler Village while playing a game of football.
Whistler is a mountain bikers paradise and I loved seeing people riding up to the outdoor cafes, resting their helmets on the table, and grabbing a beer. Here two couples eat at Fernie’s, or El Furniture Warehouse.
Small plates at Bar Oso in Whistler Village include the fresh charcuterie board (a must!), warm olives with Marcona olives, and blistered shishito peppers.
At Bar Oso, I spotted this attractive young couple and they were happy to let me photograph them. Later they told me that they were grateful I’d provided a little levity during the first meeting of the young woman’s boyfriend with her parents!
The Raven Room, owned by two local couples, is one of my favorite restaurants in Whistler. Not only do they serve inventive cocktails (like this Negroni served over Campari and blood orange gelato), but also because they have a seasonal, local, ethically sourced (and delicious) menu.
I was a bit too busy photographing to be able to partake in the sauna and baths at Scandinave Spa, but on my next visit, I’m dedicating an entire day to enjoy this place!
Most mornings I was up with the summer sun to photograph at one of the many lakes in the Whistler region. Pictured is a relaxing morning on Alta Lake.
Rachel Ryle hikes through the sun-dappled forest on the Cheakamus Lake Trail.
These mountain bikers moved to Whistler to enjoy the abundant trails and the generous community of female riders empowering each other.
I can officially add being able to photograph while ziplining (and screaming with delight) to my resume. We headed out with Superfly Ziplines and spent an afternoon flying above the treetops.
Zipline riders carry their trolleys from line to line on the multi-ride circuit on Rainbow Mountain.
My family sells Polaris ATVs so I felt quite at home hitting the rocky trail on an RZR Tour with the Adventure Group. Though I wasn’t so comfortable being attacked by mosquitoes when I got out to photograph other riders on the route!
The Train Wreck Hike is a short hike leading to graffiti-covered railroad cars.
Rachel Ryle‘s logo is a tiny red heart and she decided that she could “leave her heart” in Whistler by adding her drawing to one of the railroad cars at the Train Wreck Hike.
The Audain Art Museum houses a permanent collection of artwork from British Columbia and is known for its innovative architecture.
The Audain Art Museum holds an impressive collection of First Nations and contemporary artwork.
Vallea Lumina is a night walk through an old-growth forest that tells chapters of a multi-sensory story via illumination and projections. I had been a bit skeptical about what this experience would be like, but it was one of the most magical human-created experiences I’ve ever been to. I have to admit that when I stepped into this scene, which was buzzing with laser lights like fireflies and pulsing with ambient music, I was completely moved.
Dream team calling it a wrap! Thanks for a lovely assignment, Rachel Ryle and Carmen Kerr.
I was first wooed by Asheville, North Carolina when I went to a friend’s wedding there in 2015. A year after, I fully fell for Asheville while on assignment there shooting a feature story for National Geographic Traveler magazine. What had resonated with me the most was the people. Whether they were native North Carolinians, visitors, or recent transplants, everyone loved the gem of a city tucked away in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
When I got a call earlier this year from Explore Asheville, the city’s tourism board, asking me to photograph the area as expressed through the people, it was an irresistible assignment. So in May, I found myself in Asheville and Black Mountain meeting people who were kind and open to a stranger with a camera. Over the course of a few days, I interacted with hundreds of strangers through fun conversations, small world moments, shared smiles, and a mutual appreciation for the area.
As a photographer, I’m continually surprised by the generosity of the people I meet and am forever in their debt for taking the time to be in front of my lens. Thank you to all the shiny happy people I met on this assignment who make Asheville a shiny happy place.
Enjoy this selection of some of my favorite images from my shoot in May.
Hemingway’s Cuba in the Cambria Suites Hotel is one of many rooftop bars downtown that is perfect for watching the sunset. When I saw this woman in a green dress, I knew I wanted to photograph her and it turns out she lives in another favorite city of mine, New Orleans.
Hearty barbeque rib platters at 12 Bones Smokehouse in the River Arts District. I know a restaurant is good when there is a line out the door the entire time I’m photographing there!
Sip sake under colorful lanterns at Ben’s Tune-Up in the South Slope neighborhood and you might even run into a real-life “Ariel” from The Little Mermaid.
The Asheville City Market in downtown serves up local food, drink, and produce and is filled with wonderful folks like these two women I met that morning.
A young family does their early morning shopping at the Asheville City Market.
When photographing for the National Geographic Travelerarticle, I met Josh Copus, the founder of Clayspace Co-op. Although Josh wasn’t around on this visit, I met ceramic artist Tristan Glosby at Clayspace while he was working at the pottery wheel.
Inside many of the studios in the River Arts District, you’ll often run into artists at work. At Riverview Station, painter Galen Frost Bernard works in oils for his contemporary paintings.
These women were exploring the multitude of galleries and artist studios at Riverview Station.
Downtown Asheville is known for buskers of all genres, from musicians and singers to jugglers and poets. Josh Lauth is a multi-talented busker who juggles while balancing on a board with his pet “Space Dog” on his head.
Shannon Monaghan is a poet busker who writes poems on a typewriter for people downtown. She wrote me a poem on travel.
Whether you drum, dance, or simply enjoy, a visit to Asheville is only complete after a visit to the Friday night drum circle. Here a young father dances with his daughter to the beat of the drums.
People from all walks of life come downtown on Fridays to enjoy the drum circle. I couldn’t help but move with the beats while I photographed the musicians and dancers.
These young girls try their hand at drumming with the Asheville Drum Circle.
Asheville is known for its beautiful architecture, including the Neo-Gothic Jackson Building in downtown.
I met this young boy along with his father, brother, and pet dog one afternoon at High Five Coffee in Woodfin. He’d just returned from an outing to a street festival where he’d gotten his face painted with a unicorn.
This was my first visit to the charming little town of Black Mountain, which is less than a half-hour drive from downtown Asheville. I was smitten with the colorful, quaint streets.
Busker Kevin Ali plays guitar and sings outside of Dripolator Coffee.
If I owned a garden shop, it would be like Mellie Mac’s Garden Shack in Black Mountain. Mellie’s is not only a plant nursery but doubles as a wine bar and local hangout.
I met this adorable family outside of the Hop Ice Cream Shop in Black Mountain.
To see more Asheville images, visit my Photoshelter gallery or check out the article on National Geographic’s website.
For all of you lovers of the underwater world, I’m pleased to share that a book I photo edited for National Geographic on the world’s best scuba diving locations is now in bookstores! 100 Dives of a Lifetime is written by Carrie Miller, a friend and colleague I last collaborated with on a project for Tourism New Zealand.
While photo editing over the course of a year on this title, my eyes feasted on imagery from 100 locations around the world, both above and below the surface. At times finding images from these remote destinations was elusive, like digging for underwater treasure. Luckily, with the contributions from the libraries of many talented underwater photographers, the treasures are now on display in the pages of this beautiful book.
Working on a book is a long process that involves extensive collaboration with editorial and design teams and a huge amount of organization. Thank you to author Carrie Miller (who is currently working on another travel book relating to scuba diving!) and Moira Haney, Allyson Johnson, and Sanaa Akkach at National Geographic Books.
After working on this project, I took away an urgency to get myself scuba-certified, a deep appreciation for the art of underwater photography, and an obsession with nudibranchs.
Pick up a copy of 100 Dives of a Lifetimehere. And stay tuned for another book that I’m about to wrap up in National Geographic’s “Of a Lifetime” series, one which won’t require dive fins!
If I’m being honest, I didn’t want to go on this trip. I was deep into a homebody rut after four months at home. And I had other projects in the works that I was hesitant to set aside for two weeks while I didn’t have any internet connection in the jungle.
For me it is typical before every trip, even the ones I’m most excited about, to have a little freakout where I’m mentally kicking and screaming, “I don’t want to go!” But then the bags get packed and the passport comes out. Once I’m on the plane I am forced to set aside all of the things I wanted to get done before I left. Muscle memory kicks in and I transform into a traveler again, ready for another adventure.
This was my second trip to the Peruvian Amazon and although I knew better from my prior experience, I still harbored a fantasy that the rainforest would look like a Ravensburger puzzle where toucans and macaws dripped from tree branches, monkeys and sloths kicked it together, and butterflies flitted over the heads of caimans. The rainforest is indeed a riot of species, so abundant that it pulses with life, but that doesn’t mean all of that life will line up for the perfect photograph.
As the National Geographic Photography Expert, I taught the guests I traveled with how to photograph in extremely challenging photographic situations where deep, dark forests and overcast skies called for drastic changes to exposures from one sighting to the next. And I hopefully instilled the idea that although not every wildlife sighting we had made a good photograph, it was always a worthy experience.
So I shifted my expectations and did my best to just soak up the humid decadence of the rainforest. I looked again to reflections and quiet moments and would ask the skiff drivers to stop or multiple occasions to photograph something subtle like flowers or vines. I reveled in feeling like I was in a Dr. Seussian world when floating past islands of skinny palm trees in a flooded forest or navigating a waterway flanked by giant white-barked ceiba trees. On forest walks, I had the time to appreciate the small species and even discover leaves carved by hungry insects into modern art. I watched blackwater and whitewater rivers converge into a hypnotic, constant stirring of cream into coffee. The staff on board the Delfin II ship spoiled me again with their hospitality, amazing meals, and their patience for my rusty Spanish. And I was able to revisit locals I’d met and photographed the year before and gift them with prints.
And although it turns out we had blips of internet connectivity when we’d pass certain communities, I decided to remain blissfully unconnected and instead tuned into the sounds of downpours, choruses of frogs and birds, and took in the unique experience of plying the swollen tributaries of the mighty Amazon River.
Brown-throated three-toed sloths, with their charismatic half-smile, were delightful to spot, especially in close proximity during forest hikes.
Something as simple as a patch of water lettuce could transform into abstract art with the right background reflections.
The sighting of this white-throated toucan was my favorite encounter of the entire trip. This bird, the largest of the toucans, had eluded our view earlier during a skiff excursion on Magdalena Creek, but on a return visit, we found it roosting in a nearby tree before it then flew into perfect view.
I loved simple, beautiful scenes like these roots and vines hanging from the rainforest canopy. As much as I enjoyed photographing the wildlife in the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve, I think it was moments like this that conveyed the magic of the region.
A naturalist looked for wildlife during a skiff excursion on the Pacaya River. Most of our mornings and afternoons were spent motoring on the glass-like tributaries of the Upper Amazon.
Precise caterpillar holes formed a pattern on a tropical green leaf, turning the leaf into nature’s own artwork.
A tiny saddle-backed tamarin, who is about the size of a squirrel, nibbled on fruit from a tree over Nauta Creek.
Watching the woolly monkeys swing and play from trees was a highlight of each week. Unfortunately, the curiosity we experienced from these animals was caused by some tour operators allowing people to feed and pet these animals.
A group of great egrets gathered in treetops at sunset on El Dorado River.
The graceful tailfeathers of a great egret blew in the wind as it hunted for fish.
Blackwater (colored by tannins) and whitewater (colored by sediment) converged and looked like cream being poured into coffee on the Pacaya River.
During a night walk, we encountered plenty of insects, snakes, spiders, and frogs like this Manaus slender-legged tree frog.
A walk on a suspended bridge at Amazon Natural Park was an interesting change of perspective on the rainforest canopy.
A heliconia butterfly rested on a green leaf to lay tiny white eggs.
I ran into many of the people I’d met last year when I visited the community of San Francisco de Loreto on the Marañon River, including Safira, the girl on the far left. I brought her father prints of the images I’d taken of his family as a gift.
I met this woman, Nora Tapujima Chavez, while I explored the small community of Amazonas. She let me spend time with her while she weaved a basket using the plastic from old rice sacks.
The Delfin II ship never anchored in the vast waterways of the Upper Amazon but instead tied up to familiar trees.
Photographers knew that the bow of the Delfin II was the place to be at sunset on the Ucayali River.
If you are interested in this expedition to the Peruvian Amazon, you can find out more here. And to see more of my images, visit my Photoshelter gallery.
At the end of next month, I’ll be teaching my New World of Travel Photography workshop for the second time at the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops. From June 24th to 29th, we’ll spend five full days exploring the city and surrounding areas of New Mexico while making time for lectures and critiques. I love seeing photographers learn in the workshop format, especially at a place like the Santa Fe Workshops because the learning is intense and inspiration is everywhere.
Last year we ventured down to the historic Plaza to challenge ourselves to capture an iconic place in a new way. We explored Canyon Road and the Farmer’s Market to capture local color. And we even hit the road to capture the landscape and towns nearby which helped to build a fuller picture of the area. Every student came away with a beautiful set of images that captured the unique sense of place in Santa Fe.
Spaces are limited, so be sure to sign up soon if you are interested in exploring this beautiful corner of the Land of Enchantment with me.
It seems there is a photo around every corner in the charming residential neighborhoods near Canyon Road that are filled with adobe homes.
Colorful dancers twirl in the historic Santa Fe Plaza on a sunny afternoon.
The Santa Fe Farmers Market is a wonderful location to photograph the locals, especially those with a unique style.
Summertime brings locals and visitors to the Santa Fe Plaza to enjoy concerts and entertainment.
Chile ristras decorate a colorful building in the funky little town of Madrid (pronounced Mad-rid) near Santa Fe.
The landscape around Abiquiu inspired the famous painter Georgia O’Keeffe.
One of my travel habits is to compare the place I’m visiting to other places I’ve been. Cape Town reminds me a bit of San Francisco and New Orleans. The Oki Islands in Japan are reminiscent of the rugged coastline of Oregon. But when I found myself floating the waters of the Upper Amazon in Peru, I was shocked at where my mind went…..to Disneyland.
Specifically, the sounds of dripping water and calling birds, long sinuous vines, and vegetation that looks like tropical houseplants gone wild reminded me of being on the jungle ride in Disneyland. The allure that the ride hinted at was amplified in person and, to be sure, the humidity and mosquitos made it undeniably real.
During the two weeks I spent cruising the brown, and sometimes black, waters of the headwaters of the Amazon River, I realized that a tropical rainforest is a place of subtle beauty where patience and time are rewarded with sightings of exotic creatures. I saw brief glimpses of the elusive pink river dolphin, was tormented by macaws and toucans who always seemed to keep their distance, reveled in watching wooly monkeys swing from tree to tree, and fell totally in love with sloths, the slow-moving, wiry-haired guardians of the canopy. I learned to appreciate the quiet beauty of the rivers and creeks we explored on daily skiff rides, looking for splashes of color in a riot of green vegetation, staring into reflections as if in a trance, and I secretly loved getting caught in downpours where the rain forced me to do nothing else but enjoy the reason the rainforest gets its name.
As much as I enjoyed the natural beauty of the Amazon, I was absolutely surprised and delighted by our interactions with the local people who live along the river’s edge, the ribereños. The people were generous in giving us a glimpse into their daily lives.
Next year I’m fortunate enough to already be booked on two photography-focused departures in January with National Geographic/Lindblad Expeditions on this itinerary. I’d love to explore the Pacaya Samiria National Reserve with you on board the Delfin II.
On the still waters of the Yanayacu River, I couldn’t get enough of the reflections. Luckily every afternoon seemed to have these gorgeous pile-ups of clouds in the sky.
We were able to spend time photographing groups of curious woolly monkeys as they swung from limb to limb hanging from their tails.
Every time we came across the impressive Victoria amazonica giant water lilies, I had to make pictures. The blooms begin as white buds and then unfold into pink splendor before wilting away in a brief two-day life cycle.
During this expedition, we maneuvered along the river, up creeks, and into flooded forests on skiffs, our reliable metal steeds.
The tropical rainforest can feel like a verdant dream and one quickly learns that a flash of any other color means a wonderful find. Whether that is the spectacle of a toucan or macaw’s bright feathers or the pop of red from a passionflower bloom hidden below the canopy, it is always worth observing.
After night fell on el Río Dorado, we used a high-powered light to spot caimans along the river’s edge by looking for the red reflections of their eyes from afar.
Our local guides took us to a favorite roost of a family of adorable night monkeys.
The hoatzin, or what I refer to as the prehistoric chicken, was one of the many animal species I came across which I’d been unfamiliar with before.
I was entranced by the details of the jungle like the gorgeous curtains of bromeliads that adorned many of the trees along the river.
Most of the sloths we spotted were perched high in the treetops except for this one occasion where we spotted a baby hanging out on a low cecropia tree, snoozing in between nibbles on the leaves.
As much as it felt that we were far away from civilization during our explorations we often passed by small river communities. We were able to take time to visit San Francisco, a typical river village filled with wooden homes with aluminum roofs.
During our visit to the community of San Francisco on the Marañon River, we were welcomed with smiles, waves, and curious looks, especially from children.
I photographed this lovely woman during a dance performance in the community center of San Francisco.
It was common to see local families living with pet monkeys, macaws, and sloths.
I love to photograph people when I’m traveling and I try, as often as possible, to find a way to share the images with the people I photograph. On this trip, I knew emailing images wouldn’t be an option so I brought along a Fujifilm Instax printer from B&H Photo Video which enabled me to print and share photos I’d taken with the locals I’d meet. I won over these young girls who chatted with me and stayed by my side during the entire visit.
In Puerto Miguel, these young boys enjoyed seeing the photos one of the Lindblad guests had taken of them. The boys kept telling him, “otro” and he would humor them by taking another photo and the cycle of giggles and grins would continue.
On Supay Creek we met this young boy who was keeping a coati, which is a member of the raccoon family, as a pet.
Locals all along the river make handicrafts to sell to visitors. Tarantulas and frogs woven out of dyed chambira palm fiber were a popular item.
The Delfin II was a luxurious home away from home while exploring the Upper Amazon of Peru.
To see more images from this expedition on the Peruvian Amazon, visit my Photoshelter gallery.
Krista Rossow Photography 