At an open-air animal market, this woman exuded an aura of confidence and dignity for which the close-knit Otvalenos indigenous people of Ecuador’s northern highlands are known.

Ecuador, 2010

Cloaked in the shadows of the jungle for over eight centuries, this edifice has witnessed the heights of the ancient Khmer civilization and the depths of barbarity of the Khmer Rouge.

(A mass grave of victims of the Khmer Rouge, as well as signs warning of land mines marred the serenity of the jungle not far from the stone face.)

Cambodia, 2005

"This is indeed India... the one land that all men desire to see, and having seen once, by even a glimpse, would not give that glimpse for all the shows of all the rest of the world combined." – Mark Twain

Early morning bathers mix with clothes washers on ancient "ghats" or stepped embankments along the River Ganges in the nearly four thousand year old city of Varanasi.

Uttar Pradesh, India, 1998

*Image available in special order poster or print format.

With the bearing of a paladin, this eagle hunter peered out over the terrain of Bayan-Olgii, Mongolia in October of 2022.

“Sayat,” hunting with eagles, is a deeply rooted, ancient tradition, passed down through generations among the Kazakhs of western Mongolia. Marco Polo wrote of it.

Somewhere around 300 Burkitshi - Kazakh for “eagle hunter(s)” - pursue the practice today. During the course of a hunt, a hood is placed over the eagle’s eyes, and once removed, the eagle sharply scans the terrain, while waiting for a command from its owner.

On that command, the great bird immediately flies out, quickly spots, then kills small game such as rabbits, foxes and marmots.

Possessing wingspans reaching over six feet, coupled with the ability to dive and snatch up prey at over 100 MPH, the magnificent Golden Eagles are a formidable weapon.

Taken from nests as eaglets, the birds - which can live to about thirty years of age - are generally released back into the wild after eight to ten years.

"You won't find your answers in a book; you have to go there." - Somerset Maugham

Precariously balanced on the end of his canoe, this fisherman searches the clear waters of Inle Lake under early morning light. 

At times, using his leg to row his small vessel, the fisherman spots a catch and lowers the conical net over floating vegetation to scare out the fish within.

Burma/Myanmar, 1995

Cutting a marked contrast with the parched colors of the Tibetan plateau, this Tsang woman proudly displays her turquoise jewelry and ornaments.

Western Tibet, 1996

Clinging to an airy cliffside just above 10,000 feet, Paro Taktsang or "The Tiger's Nest," as it is popularly known, is a marvelous and revered Buddhist monastery; an unlikely but charming place seemingly picked from the pages of some enchanting storybook and set down in the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan.

Every bit as exotic as it is impressively situated, Paro Taktsang (dating from 1692) is undeniably the most prominent cultural icon of Bhutan.

- January, 2017

Though many of them are not able to read or write, camel drivers such as this make up for it in pure grit.

In search of favorable prices, this driver was part of an outfit that had taken a large herd of camels for twenty-seven days over some of the harshest terrain on the planet all the way from Libya to a desert market west of Khartoum.

Sudan, 2018

 Along a muddy road between Belon'i Tsiribihina and Marondava in western Madagascar, these majestic Baobabs, bathed in the amber light of a late afternoon sun, seem to soar to the sky.

Nearly a thousand years old, they once stood in a dense, tropical forest, the sort of which once thrived throughout the island country.

Today, though respected by the locals and given something of a protected status by the government, these world treasures are not in a national park, and are still threatened by frequent bush fires in the vicinity.

Madagascar, 2013

*Image available in special order poster or print format.

“You know you are truly alive when you are living among lions.” — Karen Blixen

After searching since early morning for lion in Botswana’s vast Moremi Game Reserve, we had pretty much given up on finding any by the late afternoon. However, on the way back to our campsite, we were amply rewarded for our efforts when we came across this rather regal looking fellow.

— Moremi, Botswana (January, 2025)

"For walk where we will, we tread upon some story."  - Cicero             

While laboriously weaving palm mats alongside a dirt road in the middle of nowhere, a hard, stoic look covered this woman’s face. When she picked up her son, though, she immediately lit up.

After tumultuous years of brutal civil war, flooding of biblical proportions, followed by long stretches of drought, set against an ever-present backdrop of grinding poverty (per capita income less than $1,000 a year), Mozambique offered her son a very hard road ahead.

2006

Much of mountainous eastern Myanmar is not controlled by the national government, but by separate militias like the Karenni National People's Liberation Front, a communist guerrilla group whose solders were manning a checkpoint in the photo here. The aim of these various political factions is to gain outright independence from Myanmar or to at least achieve increased autonomy.

With a putative ceasefire in effect at the time this photo was taken, and things at a stalemate, there wasn’t too much for the KNPLF insurgents to do except hang around at rural checkpoints such as this and get high on betel nut, which accounts for this soldier's glassy eyes and red lips. 

Myanmar - 2018

Machu Picchu - "Lost City of the Incas" 

Tracing its origins to around 1,450 A.D., the wondrous Inca city of Machu Picchu was never discovered by the Spanish conquistadors, and remained hidden far back in the Andes until the early 20th Century.

Bravely rooted, seemingly in the clouds, on a heart-stirring site above the Urubamba River, it retains a certain mystical quality.

 Peru, 2002

*Image available in poster or print format.

"From the rock as if by magic grown...eternal, silent, beautiful, alone." Although poet John William Burgon only visited Petra through colored lithographs, he captured its romantic essence in 1840 when he further described it as "A rose-red city half as old as time."

As you emerge from the spectacular, mile long siq leading to this colossal view of "The Treasury" at Petra, you can literally feel the hair on the back of your neck stand up.

Carved into sandstone in the 1st Century B.C., al-Khazneh ("The Treasury" in Arabic) is generally thought to have been a Nabataean royal tomb or temple. Its popular name derives from the Bedouin belief that pirates hid ancient Egyptian treasures in the giant urn at the center of the upper level. And, in fact, the (solid stone) urn is marked by hundreds of gunshots, as Bedouins in times past attempted to break it, releasing the supposed riches within.

Jordan, 2014

Part of a troop movement east of Irkutsk, these two Russian soldiers share a cigarette along with a palpable air of resignation regarding what the future holds for them in this bleak, somewhat depressing part of the world.

Along the route of the Trans-Siberian Express, 1993

Stone edifices, or “Moai,” such as this are thought to be the deified faces of aristocratic ancestors and chiefs of the Rapa Nui people of Easter Island.

Serene, stoic, ever present, these sentinels watch over the landscape of the island.

Worshipped by the Rapa Nui, and carved between 1100 AD and 1500 AD, they range in size from only a few feet to well over thirty feet in height.

Easter Island, Chile, 2024.

With momma and daddy preoccupied with eating bamboo stalks, and occasionally looking on impassively nearby, this baby mountain gorilla - only weeks old - tumbled across a densely forested lava slope playfully hiding from its strange cousin with a camera.

Sharing 98% of our DNA, mountain gorillas are the world's most endangered ape, with only about 900 of them surviving in the wild today.

Virunga Massif, Rwanda - 2018

Even at about forty feet, the crystal clear waters of the Dutch Antilles let plenty of light down to reveal the intoxicatingly vibrant colors and teeming, mind-boggling life of this Caribbean reef.

Bonaire, 2011

Emblematic of the Galapagos, giant tortoises such as this were once ubiquitous in the islands.

However, primarily during the 19th Century, sailing ships (including H.M.S. Beagle) used them as a source of fresh meat, thereby very seriously depleting their ranks. (Incredibly, on long voyages, these creatures could live up to a year in the holds of ships without food or water.)

Isla Santa Maria (Floreana), 2010

 Living in a desert encampment in Oman, this Bedouin woman took great pride in her chador, dyed in indigo and then covered in a gold dust.

Dating from the 6th century B.C. during the rule of Cyrus the Great in Persia, the "chador" is actually a Hindi word meaning "square of cloth." Maintaining the ideal of female seclusion, chadors of varying degrees are employed through much of the Middle-East, Asia, and parts of the Indian sub-continent. 

Oman, 1997

*(Permission to take this photograph had to be obtained from the woman's husband; primarily through a quid pro quo involving buying a few items, utterly useless to me, but which gained his acquiescence.)

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes." - Marcel Proust

Directly beside the Atlantic Ocean in western Namibia lies a sea of another sort; a 19,000 square mile sea of sand with the oldest and some of the highest dunes in the world, a rugged, arid place, but one of majestic beauty.

With the rising of the sun, the immense dune pictured above literally cut its own boundary between the coming light and the departing darkness.

The Namib Desert, 2006

White, silent, majestic...almost hallucinatory in its beauty, Cerro Fitzroy rises above the Patagonian pampas amidst a pulse quickening landscape so seemingly surreal you somehow wouldn't be too surprised to see dinosaurs roaming about.

As I filled my water bottle in the stream in the foreground, the peak was hidden by clouds. Then, sudden strong winds cleared the sky, revealing Fitzroy's (named after the captain of the HMS Beagle) towering spires under a magnificent light.

Argentina, 1994

*Image available in poster or print format.

 Casting a curious - somehow irritated - eye at my telephoto lens, this Bengali laborer was not quite certain whether I was taking his photo or one of the burning brick kilns in the background.

 In an especially poor part of a desperately poor country, laborers such as this, worked grinding hours in the hot sun for about a dollar or two a day.

Bangladesh, 1995

 Bali is a land of extravagant tropical birds, as the almost abstract colors of this Wreathed Hornbill illustrate.

Usually found in the forests of Southeast Asia and as far north as Bhutan and India, this Wreathed Hornbill was quite used to more southerly climes, as well as humans, and was hanging out at an old temple complex in the island's interior.

Bali, 2015

"Nothing but breathing the air of Africa, and actually walking through it, can communicate its indescribable sensations."  - William Burchell, 19th Century British Explorer

Amidst an astonishingly constant rhapsody of elegiac calls, interrupted by occasional wild roars in the distance, an ethereal evening light created this mirror-like scene in the vast wetlands of the Okavango Delta.

Botswana, 2006

 Eschewing the pleadings of missionaries not to go topless, Himba women maintain an admirable independence in the face of an ever encroaching modern world.

The Himba people of northwest Namibia and southern Angola maintain an equally independent lifestyle, moving up to ten times a year in search of better grazing land for their cattle. 

* (As always with close-ups, permission was obtained prior to taking this photograph.)

Kaokoland, 2006

Sumatran fishermen on the tip of Aceh just off the Malacca Strait take a leisurely break from the mid-afternoon heat before getting their boats set for a pre-dawn start the next day.

Indonesia, 2015

Dating from the first century B.C., and holding 153 Buddha statues, the five temple caves at Dambulla are among the most sacred sites in the Buddhist world.

Central Sri Lanka, 2012

Sometimes religious ascetics, sometimes simply beggars, Sādhus often make members of the Manson Family look like sedate Midwesterners by comparison.

Wandering all over India and Nepal, they exhibit feats of self-mortification (such as never cutting one’s hair) in search of spiritual enlightenment and rupees.

Pashupatinath, Nepal, 2001

*For more background, and a rather amusing anecdote, see this photo on Facebook.

Perhaps realizing that it enjoys a sacred status in Thailand, this giant python (generally a nocturnal creature) feels secure enough to venture out for a morning swim.

1995

In a sun-baked, unforgiving land, with no roads or settlements nearby, this group of about thirty Bisharin nomads busily drew water from a desert well. 

Waiting pensively to hook up a line to his donkey, this boy would work throughout the day to draw bladders of water from the deep well in order to feed the clan's livestock.

The Bisharin number around 50,000, and live in remote, off the beaten path areas of the Nubian Desert in Sudan and southern Egypt, relying on animal husbandry - primarily raising camels, goats and sheep - for their livelihood. While using some Sudanese Arabic as a second language, they primarily speak the Beja language.

Sudan - 2018

"As we walked along a black sand beach composed of glacially crushed volcanic rock, rushing waves erased our bootprints while the unrelenting beauty around us fixed itself in our memories.

Slowly melting on this coal black strip were thousands of variously sized icebergs stranded by the extreme Alaskan tides. Less than a mile across a frigid expanse opposite the glistening shore was a jagged two hundred foot high wall of solid, blue ice calving with growling sounds of thunder amid gigantic splashes of white spray." 

Alaska, 1990

-- Excerpt from article by Scott Shelton on sea kayaking published by Alaska Outdoors magazine.

Racing through the streets of Paris on a somewhat drizzly day, sprinters in the final stage of the 2005 Tour de France take extra care on this section of slick cobblestone.

Initially started in 1903 as a publicity stunt for a French magazine, the Tour is today (though tainted by drug scandals) still a true cultural classic.

Paris, 2005

"We saw on our weather bow this notorious promontory...veiled in a mist, its dim outline surrounded by a storm of wind and water..." So wrote Charles Darwin in "The Voyage of the Beagle" on Rounding the Horn in 1832.

A treeless island hillock in southern Chile, but the stuff of legend; The Horn (named after the city of Hoorn in the Netherlands) marks the northern boundary of the Drake Passage separating Antarctica and South America.

Steeped in a nearly palpable mystical aura, the Horn for centuries was a major sailing milestone due not only to the fact that it separates the Atlantic and Pacific, but also because it was such a difficult passage, owing to enormous waves, gale-force winds and treacherous currents.

Chile, 2012

As she read a book while waiting for her bus to depart, I trained my telephoto lens through the open window from about twenty feet away and caught this shot at just the moment she looked out.

Mekong Delta, 1995

Dating from 1533, Cartagena boasts many colorful, narrow streets which are among the most enduringly appealing of any South American city.

Colombia, 2009

As sunlight cut through a thick morning mist and glistened upon the water, this Indian family silently rowed to the middle of the sacred river to spread the ashes of a loved one.

India, 1998

This rickshaw driver literally beams with pride for his son.

(In two subsequent trips to Kathmandu, I carried a duplicate of this photo in hopes of giving it to the father, but I had no luck finding him.)

Kathmandu, 1989

"This is Burma and it will be quite unlike any land you know about," wrote Rudyard Kipling in "Letters from the East," 1898.

Burmese cross Taungthaman Lake on rickety U-Bein's Bridge, a charming, soul-soothing stretch of the legs near Mandalay.

Dating to about 1850, and made completely out of teakwood, it is named for the local mayor who built it.

Near Mandalay, Myanmar, 1995

Looking like he could talk, this White-Lipped Bright-Eyed Tree Frog sat pensively at night on a branch in a rainforest in eastern Madagascar. Seemingly more curious than scared, and probably preoccupied with perhaps gobbling up a few insects of which there were plenty around, he didn't bother to move even after the camera flash.

Growing up to nearly six inches in size, and endemic to Madagascar, the White Lipped Bright-Eyed Tree Frog (Boophis albilabris) is the largest of the tree frogs.

(Note: None...at least as of yet, have actually been known to talk.)

Madagascar, 2013

Some things are as magically beautiful as your nighttime dreams...

Having ridden horseback alone under starlight in the desert sands surrounding the Great Pyramids well into the night, I sat at a distance thoroughly immersed in the still darkness and grandeur of this special place. - Finally, the sun's warming rays crept over the horizon as the faint early morning sounds of nearby Cairo coming to life drifted across the timeless scene.

Egypt, January of 1998

*See an account of the experience accompanying this photo on Facebook.

"He who does not travel does not know the value of men." - Moorish proverb

Though he couldn’t speak any English, nor I any Bengali, the smile on this dock worker’s face communicated to me that this was a thoroughly good man.

Dhaka, 1995

Standing precariously on a spindly cross bar on a wooden pole planted firmly in the coral reef, the stilt fishermen of southern Sri Lanka patiently harvest primarily mackerel and herring.

The inventive and rather unique tradition is practiced by several hundred fishing families in the southwestern most Sri Lankan district of Galle.

Weligama, 2012

Taking a morning break from grazing on a lush savanna in Moremi in the wildlife rich Okavango Delta, these two zebra indulge in a little social grooming while keeping an ever vigilant eye out for lion.

Botswana, 2006

Along a lonely stretch of rolling hills in southwestern Madagascar, this mile wide, miles-long swarm of locusts moved across the land with an ominous presence.

Locusts typically live as individuals, but once their population density passes a tipping point, they undergo a behavioral change. They then move en mass, with one wave flying forward over another, in search of new food sources, consuming their own weight of vegetation and crops daily.

The UN has warned that the locusts problem in Madagascar is so severe that it could turn into a plague, seriously endangering the lives of millions of people.

January, 2013

A gold leafed roof, part of the Grand Palace complex of the Thai monarchy, glistens in the late morning sun.

Bangkok, 2005

"Do anything, but let it produce joy." - Walt Whitman

Paragliding in the Alps offers an incomparably joyful perspective on this magnificent, snow capped mountain range.

(Photo nearly lost along with camera and telephoto lens as I fumbled about to get the shot from an identical rig about 100 yards behind.)

Switzerland, 2000

Constructed entirely of cement and iron reinforcements, and easily weighing around 20 to 30 tons, this enormous dome from a destroyed mosque near Banda Aceh, was picked up like a toy by the unimaginable power of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami - which killed around 150,000 people in the area - and left about a mile away in the middle of this rice field.

Indonesia, 2015

The San Blas (Guna Yala) archipelago is a seductive natural masterpiece comprised of 378 palm shaded, white sand islands strewn out like so many pearls against the exquisite turquoise-blue waters of Panama's Caribbean coast.

2016

The hard life of the Montagnards (Mountain People) of Viet Nam shows on the face of this field worker. 

Ashau Valley, 1995

The 16th Century onion domes of St. Basil's have the look of "a box of crystallized fruits," (as one traveler from the last century called it) on the south end of Red Square.

Moscow, 1993

"One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things." - Henry Miller

Children search for shells along the shores of the Gulf of Oman as the sun sets behind them.

Muscat, 1997

Among mist shrouded, emerald hills set against towering volcanos in the distance, Borobudur stands serenely as the largest Buddhist temple in the world.

Dating from the 9th century, and abandoned over 400 years later following the Javanese conversion to Islam, it was "rediscovered" under thick jungle growth and volcanic ash around 1814 by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles (the founder of Singapore), who was told of its existence by native Indonesians.

It was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991.

Indonesia, 2015

"East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet."

         - Rudyard Kipling, 1889

With the occasional rat skittering across my feet, I watched as temple priests laid out food for the rats to eat. According to Hindu tradition, the venerated rats in the Temple of Karni Mata are sacred incarnations of human spirits.

"Looking on, I grimaced slightly as an old woman in a flowing sari ate a bit of food from one of the feeding pans."

"Please, Sir," a red-turbaned Hindu ascetic behind me said; "To partake of the rats' food is to bring good fortune." He laughed heartily when with a wry smile, I rather too quickly held up my hand to decline the opportunity."

(See, the "Temple of Karni Mata" in the Articles section.)

Bikaner, India, 1997

The visually striking "Golden Temple of the Sikhs," Sri Durbar Sahib (The Abode of God), is the holiest place of worship in Sikhism.

Sikhism is a universalist faith, refreshingly open and accepting of virtually all other religions. The Golden Temple was begun in 1588 and completed sixteen years later to provide a place for men and women of all walks of life to worship God on an equal basis.

Each day, well over 100,000 people visit the golden shrine, many of them enjoying the free open kitchen - easily the largest community food kitchen in the world - which the Sikhs generously provide.

Amritsar, The Punjab, India - 2017

Under a lofty shoulder of Vincent Pyramid in the Italian Alps, thunder clouds slowly swirl in a formidable interplay of light and shadow over the quaint village of Gressoney-la-Trinite far below.

August, 2012

Preparing for a match in a raucous, smoke filled arena in downtown Bangkok.

1995

"You know more of a road by having traveled it than by all the conjectures and descriptions in the world."   William Hazlitt - writer, painter, philosopher.

Wild camels (let loose by gold prospectors in the early 1900's), wombats, and "Roos" are prevalent enough in the Australian outback to be traffic hazards.

(*Photo taken during a solo Trans-Australia bicycle trip - Perth to Sydney.)

Western Australia, East of Norseman, 1989

 The sapphire-blue waters of 12,500 foot high Lake Titicaca straddle the border between Peru and Bolivia.

Bolivia, 2002

Contrary to the impression held by many, Cape Agulhas, not the Cape of Good Hope, is the southernmost tip of the African continent.

It is a rocky, windswept point where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet; As indicated by a solitary survey marker, on the left side of the photo are waves of the Indian Ocean, and to the right, waves of the Atlantic.

Although this photo was taken in the summer (January) on a relatively calm day, the waters off the Cape are notorious among sailors for incredibly violent winter storms with tremendous rogue waves which can sometimes reach 90 feet in height.

South Africa, 2013

"People travel to faraway places to watch, in fascination, the kind of people they ignore at home." - Dagobert D. Runes

Bengali dock workers, toiling for less than a dollar a day, unload a ship full of grain in a grimy port in Bangladesh.

1995

This elderly Batwa woman reveled in a traditional tribal dance in a village on the fringes of the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in southwest Uganda.

The hunter-gatherer Batwa are commonly referred to as "the pygmy people," in this part of Africa, and are indigenous to the densely forested mountains of Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda.  Today, they are essentially conservation refugees, evicted from their ancestral lands in order to protect mountain gorilla habitats.

Uganda - 2018

*See Facebook for a video of this tribal dance.

Vendors donning traditional bamboo hats sell cigarettes, fruits and cloth, along with a quite varied assortment of household goods in this backstreet market in Hanoi.

Viet Nam, 1997

Wreathed in intense sunlight shining down through the canopy, this Red-Bellied Lemur tightly grips a tree branch as it looks with curiosity at the camera in a thick eastern Madagascan rainforest.

(*"Tagona" is one of several Malagasy tribal names for the Red-Bellied Lemur.)

Ranomafana, Madagascar - 2013

“Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.” — Matsuo Basho, Edo Period Japanese poet.

Buffeted by strong winds, these Torii Gates just above 12,000 feet on the crater rim of Mt. Fuji symbolize the transition from the earthly to the heavenly.

Evidently, judging from notes and small flags left at the gates, they also serve as something of a makeshift memorial to those who have died on the slopes of Mt. Fuji. (Although the mountain is more of a steep hike than a climb, it claimed 25 lives in 2012, mainly from altitude related factors.)
Japan, 2013

"A walk around Paris will provide lessons in history, beauty and in the point of life." - Thomas Jefferson

Very late on an icy December night, a still silence echoed down this Parisian backstreet.

2010

Through an early morning fog, this road in the Kathmandu Valley took on something of a mystical quality as though leading to an airy mythological abode.

Nepal, 1989

Herodotus to Huxley, ancient to modern; all, along with an eclectic mix of paintings and prints, can be found among the stacks of Geneva's Librairie Ancienne Antiquities.

2012

"It is not down on a map; true places never are" – Herman Melville

Sparkling in the sun, alluring turquoise waters lapping against a sugar and cinnamon beach comprise (along with several cervezas) an intoxicating earthly paradise beside a palm-shaded fishing village on Mexico's Caribbean coast.

2005

Guanacos (Lama guanicoe) range from Tierra del Fuego to the central Andes at elevations from sea level to over 13,000 feet.

These two were among a herd on the plains of the Parque Nacional Torres del Paine.

Chile, 1994

An almost palpable aura of romance and adventure pervades the imposing walls of Rajasthan’s Amber Fort.

At first impression appearing to be a magnificent illusion, the forbidding walls of the fort belie an inner sanctum of opulence where Mughals and Maharajahs walked amidst exquisitely manicured gardens.

Jaipur, 1997

Newly minted Chinese bicycles await buyers at a streetside shop on the outskirts of Beijing.

China, 1993

With no electricity, running water or nearby roads, this isolated medieval looking village high in the Himalayas above the Kali Gandaki River valley had changed little in the last few hundred years.

At the time this photo was taken, this was as close as one could get to the forbidden province of Mustang and Lo Monthang.

Nepal, 1989

The skyline of Bander Seri Begawan, the capital of Brunei, reflects the strong Islamic influence in the small sovereign state of just over 400,000 citizens located along the north coast of Borneo.

(In fact, over the last few years, Sharia law has been implemented throughout the country following a 2013 announcement to that effect by the venerated Sultan of Brunei, His Majesty Paduka Seri Baginda Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu'izzaddin Waddaulah.)

- 2017

In a raw, fast paced display of strength and valor, enveloped by dust and the roar of a good natured but raucous crowd, two Nubian wrestlers on the outskirts of Khartoum, first lock eyes, then lock arms beginning a spirited match with the aim of upending and slamming their opponent to the ground.

Steeped in tradition and dating from the time of the black pharaohs of Upper Egypt, Nubian wrestling is a traditional sport quite popular in Sudan.

2018

Known for weaving extremely strong webs, sometimes seven feet or more across, Madagascar's Golden Orb spiders are nearly completely blind but are able to feel vibrations in their web and quickly track down tangled prey.

Although females, like the one photographed here, are considerably larger than males, reaching around five inches in size, neither sex poses a threat to humans.

2013

Amid the buzz of mosquitoes and the smell of chickens and camels, inhabitants of this Indian village along a centuries old trading route in the Thar Desert enjoy the relative coolness of the late afternoon.

India, 1997

As she walked through the labyrinthine streets of the remote fortress of Jaisalmer in the Thar Desert near the Pakistani/Indian border, this woman's dress fit right in with this exotic locale.

Rajasthan, 1997

Before Scottish explorer David Livingstone named it Victoria Falls in 1855, this cascading spectacle was called Mosi-oa-tunya in the Kololo language, translating loosely to "The Smoke That Thunders."

Over a mile wide, dropping nearly 400 feet, and sending up spray that can be seen from 30 miles away, these magnificent falls on the Zambezi River are considered to be one of the seven natural wonders of the world.
Zimbabwe, 2006

Utterly submerged on a steamy afternoon in South Africa, this elephant ups periscope while taking a refreshing swim.

Addo, 2013

Although not able to speak English or Burmese, this Padaung woman exhibited graciousness and generosity in her simple thatched hut, even offering up her jug of corn mash, a rather potent concoction which burnt the back of my throat going down.

The practice of Padaung women in wrapping brass coils around their necks starts at age five and continues progressively throughout their lives. The rings are worn for aesthetic reasons and also signify status and position within the tribal community; This woman had twenty-seven of the seldom removed rings.

Kayah State, Myanmar - 2018

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” — Helen Keller

After hanging out with an underwater camera in a shark cage off of South Africa, thoroughly frustrated by plankton fogging things up too much to get a decent shot, this rather large Great White silently brushed by, then circled around and out of nowhere rammed the cage. (A fellow I was in the cage with found it “particularly disconcerting,” shall we say. Frankly, I would have too, if not for the confidence I had in the sturdy steel bars. Sometime, afterward back in the States, I saw on TV where a Great White had rammed a similar cage, bent the bars and gotten in. = Geez Louise.)

2013

 "What do you expect will satisfy the soul, except to walk free?" - Walt Whitman

 Surrounded by a rare sheath of green following late summer rains, the 300 foot high Totem Pole, as it has come to be known, stands majestically under a deep blue sky.

Utah/Arizona Border, 2007

Rising above a frozen sea of crevassed glaciers, and composed of three tremendous buttresses, the Piz Palu is one of the most striking peaks in the Alps.

Here, climbing amidst freshly fallen snow during a traverse of the mountain, Alois Viehover negotiates the rocky western ridge of this ruggedly beautiful massif in southeastern Switzerland.

August, 2006

Reaching as much as 10 feet in length, and inhabiting a handful of Indonesia's Lesser Sunda Islands, Komodo Dragons, as they have popularly come to be known, are the largest species of lizard in the world.

Relying on stealth, a Komodo will lie perfectly still and camouflaged against forest growth for hours, waiting for animals such as wild boar, deer, and water buffalo to wander within its grasp, until suddenly, it strikes.

When a Komodo can't take down prey with its large serrated teeth, these evil looking predators will patiently follow a wounded animal for days after an initial attack, letting a lethal mixture of venom and septic bacteria do its work. (Not especially fastidious creatures, they will eat virtually any sort of meat; even one another, and occasionally, human corpses, causing villagers on the islands the lizards inhabit to pile heavy rocks on top of graves.)

Rinca Island, 2015

Seemingly oblivious to the stark impoverishment communism has brought to Cuba, Castro's image is ever-present throughout the island nation.

Just north of the Bay of Pigs, 2000

 This herder takes a ladleful of goat's milk to start the day.

Bangladesh, 1995

Kilimanjaro means "Shining Mountain" in Swahili, and today snow and ice still surround the summit.

However, due to the combined effects of global warming, as well as thermal activity within the mountain, glaciers such as this thirty foot high behemoth at 18,700 feet in the crater rim may disappear completely within a few decades, and Mount Kilimanjaro will shine no more.

Tanzania, 2007

While crossing a cold, 17,000 foot high mountain pass, the nomads in this photo showed an amazing cheerfulness and positive demeanor in the face of an incredibly harsh, demanding life.

Living in four-sided Yak-hair tents, the nomads of Tibet travel with their herds of sheep and yaks in search of good grazing areas.

Western Tibet, 1996

*See an account of this journey accompanying this photo on Facebook

In Balinese cockfighting, the razor sharp steel spur affixed to one leg of a gamecock is called a Taji; According to tradition in Bali, to maintain its purity, a Taji should not be looked upon by menstrating women and cannot be sharpened under a full moon.

Although the blood sport is quite inhumane and against Indonesian law, cockfighting remains as an incredibly integral part of the island's culture.

Central Bali, 2015

*See an account of the cockfight on Facebook under this photo.

This Burmese mother clearly exhibits the inexpressible parental pride in children which crosses virtually all borders and cultural lines.

(On the child's face are remnants of a sun block concoction which many Burmese use.)

North of Mandalay, 1995

“Without flaw or blemish, exquisite, irresistible, impossible to criticize, incapable of improvement, the most perfect structure in the world.” - Lord Curzon, Viceroy of India 1899-1905

Resplendent in its architectural glory, the iconic Taj Mahal has poignantly been called "a teardrop on the face of time." Completed in 1653 by the Moghul emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his beloved wife, Mumtaz, who died in childbirth, it is the most extravagant monument ever built for love.

Agra, 2000

Swinging from tree to tree by using giant vines and sliding down branches, this male orangutan moved through a thick rainforest canopy on Borneo with truly amazing speed and agility.

Sharing about 97% of their DNA with humans, the Bornean orangutan is highly intelligent and is the largest tree dwelling animal in the world today.

According to a March, 2018 article in The Economist, "A study published in Current Biology found that the number of orangutans on Borneo declined by some 148,000 between 1999 and 2015, leaving fewer than 100,000 today." These tragic numbers were primarily caused by loss of habitat for palm-oil tree planting, coupled with hunting.

 Sarawak, Borneo - 2017

With its eyes of Buddha looking out on four sides over the religious center of Kathmandu's rather large population of Tibetan refugees, the Bodhnath Stupa is one of the largest in the world.

Stupas, steeped in religious symbolism in nearly every facet of their design, are built to house Buddhist religious artifacts. It is believed that the Bodhnath Stupa dates from the 14th century. (Unfortunately, it was quite seriously damaged in the tragic 2015 earthquake, but has now been completely restored.)

Nepal, 1997

*Image available in poster or print format.

Graffiti and thrown paint illustrate the disdain with which Palestinians view the wall the Israelis have constructed along and into the West Bank.

Israelis call the wall "The Security Fence," or the "Anti-Terrorist Fence." Palestinians refer to it as "The Racial Segregation Wall," or "Apartheid Wall."

2014

Emerging from a thick stand of trees on a narrow road meandering through the highlands of East Timor, this amiable cutter of light firewood carried a somewhat enviable sense of solitude with him, along with his pipe and machete, as he worked alone in the forest.

East Timor, 2015

At a campsite along the Kunene River, separating Namibia from Angola, the setting sun created an amazingly beautiful light show to close out the day.

Kunene River, 2006

Resting on her port side about 75 feet down, this Lebanese freighter in the Red Sea's Gulf of Aqaba draws hundreds of fish species including moray eels and lobsters.

*Shortly after this photo was taken, good sense in not diving alone, was clearly illustrated when an O-ring on my tank suddenly malfunctioned, cutting off my oxygen; Fortunately, I had hired the proprietor of a one man dive shop in Aqaba as my guide, and was able to use the auxiliary mouthpiece on his tank to safely rise to the surface.

2014

Enjoyed by Jack Nicholson's character in, "The Bucket List," and selling for $100 a cup in fashionable gourmet coffee shops in places like New York, Paris, and Rome, Kopi Luwak or civet coffee consists of beans that have been eaten, then passed through the digestive system of the Asian palm civet, an animal frequently referred to as a "weasel cat" due to its resemblance to both animals.

Frankly, although having had a cup offered by a gracious Javanese coffee grower (who, by the way, had a beautifully sleek civet as a contented and playful house pet), I didn't like it for two reasons; despite the obvious novelty of it, it simply didn't taste very good, and although there are some ethical suppliers, like my aforementioned host, who hand gather civet droppings in the wild, thousands of these normally free-ranging animals are cruelly kept in cramped cages in order to meet world demand.

Indonesia, 2015

Along riverfront steps (Ghats) on the sacred Ganges at Varanasi, this Hindu devotee lights a lamp in preparation for an evening ritual in celebration of Shiva, the transcendent who creates, transforms and protects the universe.

2019