Mikumi National Park: favorite photos

Dec. 7. 2017

At last, a chance to post some more photos! Taking pictures in Tanzania has been challenging for me. I had aspirations to take National Geographic style portraits, but I haven't for a couple reasons (besides the obvious, I'm not a NG-caliber photographer). First, it's culturally inappropriate to take unsolicited pictures of Tanzanians, and second, I'm too shy to ask (and probably pay) to do so, which also ruins the candidness of it. However, here we are in Mikumi National Park, where animals don't care!

Two of the stranger animals in the park

Mikumi is a large preserve near Morogoro, where our Pioneer Bible Translators branch is based. We had an opportunity to join some friends on a safari after our branch meeting a couple months ago, and we were blessed with a perfect overcast day, so the animals weren't all hiding from the sun. So we had some amazing views. I've posted my favorite photos below, but here is a link to the full set. A few of the full set are atrociously out of focus (I have some more learning to do on my new camera), so they aren't here in my favorites, but I still included them because of the cool subjects they captured.

There were eight of us riding up in the back of a rugged safari-truck in the open air, but for a tarp-like covering to protect us from sun. The open format gave us great panoramic views without being confined to windows. By the way, safari is simply the Swahili word for 'trip' or 'journey', but as you know, English has adopted it to mean a specific kind of trip.

Without further ado, the photos, and as a bonus, learn some swahili animal terms!

Aw, cute little warthog (ngiri) babies!

Impala is swala

pundamilia literally means something like 'striped donkey'

Tembo na mtoto wao (Elephants and their baby)

See the full set (link above) for closer pics of this simba, as well as a cub hiding in a bush. The focus was wrong on those. You don't see lions (especially cubs) every visit to the park, so we were pretty grateful.

The lion above was wounded, and this lone wildebeest (nyumbu) seemed to be standing sentry, eyeing the lion yonder. We wonder what had happened.

I don't know what kind of ndege (bird) this is, but I like his eyes

one kiboko, many viboko

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Bryce National Park: Top 10 Photos

September 5, 2016:

I'm in Minnesota visiting my sister and her family.  The other day we saw the latest Imax national parks movie, in which Bryce Canyon was one of the parks featured (none of the Washington parks were even mentioned: dissed!).  I now am inspired to finally post the Bryce Canyon pictures that I took when we visited there this April!  It's always a challenge to narrow it down, but here are my favorite 10 of those photos.  For the rest, visit the Flickr album here.

Bryce Canyon National Park reaches 9000 feet elevation, and there was still some snow in April

Jenneka, of course, took this photo

The trails were pretty busy, but I liked capturing some activity here, especially the horses.

That's me.  My nephew Ender asked how I climbed this cliff.  Admittedly, I didn't.  It doesn't look like a good idea.

Back at our KOA cabin.  We like KOA cabins.

And a bonus photo.  Horseshoe Bend isn't in Bryce National Park, but I was super excited to finally see it.  It wasn't the right conditions to get a good photo, and I should be using a lens hood to prevent the flare, but it's a stitched panorama of Horseshoe Bend!  I have to share it.

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Old Way Round motorcycle trip: Top 10 photos

Feb. 27, 2013

Here are my ten favorite photos from my 2011 Old West themed motorcycle trip with my chum Ben, in no particular order.  Ben's blog about the trip, Old Way Round, has the story.  I have the rest of the photos from the trip posted here.

It was beautiful riding in Montana.

Hole in the Wall Canyon, WY, was gorgeous.  We camped out here.  I like the shadows in this photo.

This photo from my sleeping back still chokes me up.

The focus here is far from sharp, but I don't care. It seems to add to the mood and I do love this photo of Ben.

We're riding out from Hole in the Wall. A great windy, dusty road through the bluffs.

Okay, I just get a kick out of this one (no pun intended). What happens when I bust down this door in St Elmo, CO? Ben took this pic. 

Who isn't a sucker for a ghost town in sepia tone?

Such interesting geography in Utah

The lightning, cloud edge, and campfire glow make this one of my favorites.

Ben and I at the Bullock Hotel in Deadwood, SD. I like the composition of this photo, not to mention how bad-ass we look.

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Alaska road trip: Top 10 photos

Feb. 14, 2013

In May 2012, Nate and Gunnhild Bremer and I hit the road from Langley, BC, on a three-week trip to Alaska and back.  We camped out the whole way, including a backpacking trip in Denali National Park.  Here are my 10 favorite photos from that trip.  I posted the whole set here.

A willow in the Yukon.  I was enjoying my new Canon EF L-lens.

Some peaks in the St Elias range in the Yukon.

Some windsurfers at Turnagain Arm off the Kenai peninsula.

The willow ptarmigan is Alaska's state bird.  I like how the wings turned out in the photo.

One of our camps in Denali National Park

A shrike looking cute in hopes of getting some food.

This black bear was the best, swaying 30 feet in the air eating buds off the cedar trees.

Aww, a baby mountain goat in Jasper, Alberta.

Encountering this big-horned sheep in Alberta was a treat.

This isn't my favorite photograph, but seeing these two grizzlies playing in Jasper was an amazing experience.

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