Wild China & Cities of Ice

0 | November 25th, 2008 | Posted in Science & Nature

We haven’t had TV reception at home - by choice - for about 3 years now and don’t miss it at all, especially since the BBC iPlayer gives us access to nearly everything we might want to see and there’s not too much of that ;) (Although ‘im indoors might disagree during the footie season!)

Right now, I’m following the repeat broadcasts of a 6-part series called “Wild China”. This Wikipedia entry has a bit more background detail than the BBC’s own page but I am stunned to jaw-dropping by what I’m watching. If you haven’t already seen it (it was originally broadcast in the UK in May/June this year) and if you have the slightest interest in the natural world or curiosity about other countries, do yourselves a favour and try and catch it! If you’re in the UK, Episode 4 is available until Sunday 30th November and I, for one, can’t wait to see Episodes 5 and 6. The DVD has gone straight on my Amazon wish-list :D

What made me put finger to keyboard today was the segment at the end of Ep.4 about Harbin’s Ice Festival. I’d never even heard of this before and it was such an amazing contrast to the footage which had preceded it as well as being spectacular in its own right. It’s a magical few minutes (even though, as I was watching it, a little voice inside my head reminded me that I wouldn’t manage to stay vertical for more than a minute at a time if I was there!).

I occasionally despair of even good old Auntie Beeb these days (dumbed-down news, reality TV shows and so on) but they still make some astoundingly good nature & science programmes - anything by David Attenborough for starters. I can even forgive Bernard Hill’s narration a la King Theoden on Wild China because the visuals are so fascinating and the commentary informative.

Harbin Ice Festival from “Wild China”

Some people are way too touchy

3 | November 3rd, 2008 | Posted in Current Affairs, Grumping, Photography

Earlier tonight I came across a link to a photographer’s site where he’s displaying an amazing 17 gigapixel panorama of Yosemite. “Wow” I thought “I know a lot of the regulars on a photography forum I frequent would like to see that.”

So today happens to be the day before the Election in the USA, and the photographer happens to be a supporter of one of the candidates. When you go to his site, there are two short splash screens - a few seconds each - before the main page, image and links display. The first says “Stand for change”, the second “Obama 08″. Political, yes, but compared to so much else I’ve seen during this campaign, practically neutral. Now, I’m not entirely without tact (shut up at the back) & am well aware that there are some pretty heated and extremely partisan views held in some quarters so when I posted a link to the site, I “warned” that these two screens would come up. I also posted a link direct to the image but that page omits links to information and other images which would also be of interest to many viewers.

It appears I wasn’t tactful enough. I was bringing politics to the forum. Bad Gill. Talk about heated over reaction :( I don’t get it. I simply don’t get it. Everywhere you turn right now, even in the UK, all you can see is “USA Election” on TV, in the newspapers, on the net. I can only imagine that in the States the saturation is a bazillion times worse. So do people get this heated every time they see a sign, or an advert for the candidate they don’t support? Or do they do what sensible people would people do which is to look past it, blank it out, if they don’t like it? (I’m talking about simple banner statements, like the one on this photographer’s site.) Do people really get this agitated about someone exercising his right to endorse his candidate of choice? And doing so in a perfectly straightforward and simple manner, no outrageous statements or claims. *scratches head in bewilderment*

What if I’d linked to a pertinent article on, say, a magazine’s site and that page was displaying a paid-for advert for one of the candidates? Betcha eyes would have skimmed over that without even noticing (well, maybe noticing long enough to grit teeth briefly but that’s all …).

Anyway, back to the important thing - the image.

For those who want to see the main page which includes links to information and other images, look here.

For those of a delicate political constitution (!) the image alone is here

Mexico!

2 | October 19th, 2008 | Posted in Photography

We were lucky enough to spend nearly 3 weeks in Mexico - the Yucatan Peninsula - this year and I gave my camera a bit of a workout! Just a few words about each of the following galleries which I’ve just added:

Birds and flora
Many of the bird shots were taken in the hotel grounds, as were a number of the flowers. The orchid photographs were taken at Xcaret. There are two dragonfly shots in here: the first dragon very nicely landed right in front of me at Chichen Itza, the second presented itself the following day at Tulum and on both occasions I luckily had a long lens on the camera.

Chichen Itza
This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and an absolute must-see. We were lucky that there weren’t too many other tourists there that day (no doubt an advantage of visiting in the ‘quiet’ i.e. hurricane, season!) However, it was incredibly hot (I don’t think I’ve ever drunk as much water in one day as I did in the time we spent here) and exhaustion got the better of us, to the extent that only when we were leaving did we realise that we hadn’t seen the whole site. Oh well, what a good excuse to pay a return visit ;)

Tulum
Tulum is probably the second-best-known Mayan ruins site. Much smaller than Chichen Itza, it’s the most beautiful cliff-edge location and despite being the place where we both acquired more insect bites than I would have thought possible, is also on the “must return” list! The first 7 photos are taken near the ruins site, outside a great little restaurant/hotel called Zamas, where the food is just wonderful.

Xcaret
A totally wonderful nature park! Sadly, my photography was cut short by rain the day we visited. Oh dear, another reason to have to go back to the Mayan Riviera, what a pity ;) Yes, there are a lot of pics of monkeys, but they are two separate groups! The last two photos are young turtles in fairly shallow outdoor pools (the park has a breeding programme) which is probably why they look almost unreal.

Iguanas! (and a few other little lizards)
What can I say? I completely fell in love with these creatures (and I’m sure that the fact they tended to remain static and thus made it relatively easy to take photos of them is totally irrelevant ;)) By the end of the holiday my obsession with taking yet another iggy pic was a standing joke.

And, finally, the Hotel and few sunrises.
The gallery starts with the sunrise we saw our first morning (we’d arrived after dark) and concludes with the sunrise we saw on our last full day. I did actually manage to drag myself to the beach before sunrise for some shots: taught me that I really, really need to get more familiar with adjusting the camera controls by touch alone ;) A few pics here were taken in Playa del Carmen (just before the photos taken in our room). Yes, there are a LOT of images in this gallery, but this one is as much for me and John - to remember a superb hotel and wonderful holiday - as it is for anyone else :)

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