Through Steve's Lens

Old Sturbridge Village, Massachusetts

I have not been out to photograph the beautiful New England foliage as much as I would like so I tagged along on a Hunt’s photo walk to Old Sturbridge Village this past Sunday.  I haven’t been there since my wife and I took our young kids at least a dozen years ago.  

The foliage was a little past its prime but the natural light in the quaint old buildings is spectacular.  

Myanmar – Bagan

Bagan is a magnificent ancient city located on a stretch of plains along the Ayeyarwady River.   From the 11th to the 13th centuries, Bagan was the capital as well as the political, cultural, and economic center of the Pagan Empire.   During that period, over 13,000 temples, monasteries, and stupas were erected over an area of only 40 square miles.  Today, only 2,200 of these religious monuments remain but they are still mesmerizing to behold from any elevated vantage point. They are especially impressive at sunrise when river mist drifts up and wraps around the red brick structures that glow in the early morning rays.

Myanmar – Mingun

The Myatheindan Pagoda is a magnificent white pagoda in Mingun on the western bank of the legendary Ayeyarwaddy river.  The pagoda was built to resemble the Buddhist mythological mountain, Mount Meru.  Seven terraces with wave-like railings surround the central stupa.  These seven levels represent the seven mountain ranges leading to Mount Meru.

On the way to the jetty to catch the boat to Mingun, we popped into another local market.  As you can see from a couple of the photos above, I don’t tend to go unnoticed in these markets.  We met an entertaining barista who would pour the coffee from two to three feet above your tiny cup to cool it off before serving it up.  

The boat ride down the Ayeyarwaddy from Mandalay to Mingun took a little more than an hour.  Reclining comfortably in our seats, we could see farmers and fishermen working diligently along the massive river.  

When we arrived in Mingun, our local guide, MM, coaxed a few young monks to run back and forth on the terraces of the Myatheindan Pagoda so we could get some interesting shots of their dark red robes against the bright white background.  After we’d worn them out, we took them on a short walk down to the village where we bought them some ice cream.  Just off the main street is the famous Mingun Bell which weighs 87 metric tons and is over 16 feet wide.  Up until the year 2000, it was the largest functioning bell in the world. Photo 9 above shows our novice monks and their ice cream standing underneath this giant bell.  

Myanmar – Amarapura, Inwa, and Sagaing

Just outside of Mandalay, lie three ancient former capitals - Amarapura, Inwa and Sagaing.  These sites showcase the prominent political and religious power of this northern part of Burma between the 14th and 19th centuries.  

On the road to Amarapura, we stopped at the Mahamuni Temple which is second most revered Buddhist shrine in Myanmar (behind only the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon).  The central chamber contains a spectacular gold Buddha image, Mahamuni, which is believed to have been one of only five likenesses of the Buddha, or Enlightened One, made during his lifetime around 500 BC. This temple also contains six bronze structures that many natives believe possess healing powers.  To heal an aching part of your body, you rub the corresponding body part of one of the statues (as shown in photo 3).  My right elbow was feeling a little sore so I gently stroked one of the statues.  A little later the pain had subsided - go figure...

Next we visited a couple of monasteries.   The first was the Mahagandaryon monastery in Amarapura where we watched the monks line up to receive their rice).  The second was the beautiful, old wooden Bagayar monastery.  To get there we had to travel first by boat to Inwa Island and then by pony cart to the monastery.  A few of the photos above show the monks studying and worshiping there.

From there we took an open-air truck up Sagaing Hill.  We stopped briefly at the U Min Thonze  (30 caves) Pagoda where 45 Buddha statues sit in a crescent-shaped colonnade against the sparkling backdrop of a red and turquoise glass mosaic.   We then proceeded to the Sun U Ponya Shin Pagoda with a terrace offering superb views across the river to Mandalay.

On our way out of Sagaing we stopped at the Zay Yar Theingi Nunnery where we were able to mingle with the nuns and get an intimate glimpse into their daily routines.  Karl engaged with a few of them.  They looked on in earnest as he used a map of the world on his phone to point out where each of us lives.  One of my fellow tour mates shared photos of her family and life in New York.  We could see the wonder in their eyes and feel the warmth of their spirit.  

Myanmar – Mandalay

From Yangon, we flew to Mandalay, which is considered the cultural capital of Myanmar.  

On the way from the airport to our hotel, we stopped at a local village near the ancient town of Pinya. The people in this village are definitely not accustomed to seeing tourists.  Our group split up so as not to overwhelm our hosts with a barrage of cameras all pointing at the same shell-shocked subject.  I meandered down to a small clearing along the river.  There was a lot of activity- people bathing, women washing clothes, and small, narrow, wooden boats transporting villagers and supplies. One of the boats arrived full of bananas.  After they had been unloaded, one of the men stepped back on the boat and motioned to me to come aboard. Against my better judgment, I climbed into the wobbly, wooden craft with all of my camera gear.  The man handed me a paddle and shoved us away from the shore; he manned the stern while I perched feebly in the bow.  It was at this point that I noticed the shallow boat was taking on water through its floorboards.  There was no turning back.  My new shipmate steered us into the rapidly moving current and headed for the opposite shore.  After thrashing vigorously for about 15 minutes, we pulled ashore on the other side of the river and he led me off down a path to who-knows-where.  (None of these people spoke a word of English.) We passed several small homes and after about 10 minutes arrived at a small shop where a young man lay snoozing on a bench behind the counter.   The young man was awakened and summoned to guide me further through the village.  Now separated from the man who had paddled me across the river, and still headed to an unknown destination, I was starting to feel a little apprehension.  Just then my new guide took a turn and headed for a small building on the other side of a partially cleared field.  As we neared, I heard children talking and playing – he had delivered me to the local school!  This is a photographer’s bonanza.  I quickly raised me camera as the kids scrambled for cover.  One shot (shown above) was all I got though before the teacher instructed my escort to take this giant, distracting foreigner out of her classroom.  I gestured apologetically and the teacher and her students waved as I marched back down path. I made it back down to the river where I saw my friendly skipper again.  He had loaded our boat with banana leaves and was bailing out the last of the remaining water from our previous river crossing.  I climbed aboard and again survived the river crossing.  I scrambled out of the boat and headed back to meet up with my fellow photographers before the bus departed without me.  

After lunch we visited the Shwenandaw Monastery, a gorgeous wooden building made of finely carved teak.  The warm light that bounced around inside this building was magnificent.  Above you can see some shots of a couple of young monks by the large teak pillars and intricate wood carvings.  

Myanmar – Yangon/Bago 

Every year I try make at least one trek far away from the comforts of our North American borders. This year I headed to one of the least known and least developed countries in the world – Myanmar.    

Myanmar is a photographer’s paradise - gorgeous and diverse landscape, colorful longyis and headscarves, red-robed monks, gilded pagodas, and teak palaces.  Fifty years of economic stagnation under repressive military rule have left Myanmar in a kind of quirky time warp.  

I visited Myanmar with six other photographers on a Jim Cline Photo Tour led by Karl Grobl.  Karl is an American who now lives in Siem Reap, Cambodia.  He is a very talented humanitarian photojournalist who also leads photo tours through Southern Asia.  If you are ever considering a photo tour to this part of the world, I strongly encourage you to look him up.  We were also accompanied by a fantastic local guide, Mya Min Din, who has lived his whole life in Myanmar. MM, as we called him, provided us with a steady supply of cultural and historic information.

The tour started in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city of almost 6 million.  Even though this is a major city, most of its residents still live a primitive lifestyle.  In the last photo above, you can see blue plastic pipes carrying rainwater down to a washbasin outside the shell of this ancient building that houses families tucked into its many dark and dusty rooms.

From Yangon, we took a two hour drive to Bago, the former Mon and Burmese capital where we visited the Kyakhatwine Monastery. This was our first close-up glimpse into the Buddhist religion that is so prominent in Myanmar.  During the day we also stopped to see two giant reclining Buddhas each between 60 and 70 yards in length - one of which was built over 1000 years ago.  

Along the Bago River, we wandered through a local market.  There was a vibrant sense of community with cheerful, intimate interactions occurring all around us.  We stuck out from the locals, many of whom had probably never seen westerners especially one who is 6’4” tall!  Yet they made us feel welcome with friendly gestures and smiles.

Star Island, Isles of Shoals, New Hampshire

A few days ago, I took a boat ride out to Star Island which is just off the New Hampshire coast. It is one of nine islands in the Isles of Shoals.

It is a great day trip or weekend destination.  Of course, I was looking for photo opportunities and there were plenty of them.  There’s a beautiful harbor with a mix of leisure and fishing boats.  In the 1600s, this island was the busiest fishing port on the East coast.  

The Oceanic Hotel is one of the few remaining Grand hotels in New England.  It was built in the 1800s and was a popular destination for artists, writers, and intellectuals. The cool sea breezes provided a welcome escape from the major cities in the heat of the summer. 

There are several other beautiful old stone buildings that were built in the late 1800s.  The most notable of these is the Gosport Chapel which sits on the highest point on the island.  The island, the hotel, and these old buildings are owned by the non-profit Star Island Corporation with close ties to the Unitarian-Universalism and the United Church.  They hold frequent retreats on the island. At the end of each retreat day, participants gather at the foot of the hill and form a procession up a long winding path carrying candle lanterns to the chapel. Inside, the candle lanterns are hung on the wall, providing the only source of light for the evening service. 

There are more than 200 species of birds that can be seen at various times on the island but the iconic bird of the island is the barn swallow.  These swallows move from place to place in the hundreds.  Its very impressive to see when they all lift off.  Just don’t watch that old  Alfred Hitchcock classic, The Birds, before your visit.  

Acadia National Park, Maine

I haven’t been up to Acadia National Park for 25 years.  I’d forgot just how beautiful and diverse it is.  Bob and Don from New England Photo Workshops led a small group of us all over Mount Desert Island (and even beyond).  We explored rocky beaches, serene gardens, quaint towns, mountain top vistas, quiet ponds, bustling harbors, rugged coastline, and downtown Bar Harbor.  Each change in location, weather and time of day would evoke a different mood -  from quiet reflection to awe and wonderment.

Coastal mist and rain is not uncommon in this area but we were lucky enough to see some really interesting low lying fog from the top of Cadillac Mountain one evening.  It was truly spectacular.  

New Mexico (Bosque Del Apache and the Midwest)

From White Sands, Luke and I headed back north through the midwestern part of the state.  

Our first stop was at a small town called Truth or Consequences.  This is a weird place in the middle of nowhere.  The town was originally named Hot Springs on account of the many hot springs it sits on top of.  It churns about 25 gallons  of hot (110°F) water every second.  In 1950, Ralph Edwards, the host of radio quiz show Truth or Consequences, announced that the show would air an installment from the first town that changed its name to match that of the show’s. The town held a vote and the name change was made official on April Fool’s Day, 1950. This is your first clue that this is not your typical city.  The people here are all quite eccentric but seem very friendly and content.  They’ve created their own motto:  “We’re all here because we’re not all there”.  Photos #5 and #6 were shot while strolling down Main St. 

After Truth or Consequences, we headed out even farther into the wilderness to visit the  National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) Very Large Array (VLA). On the way out, we saw the antelopes in photo #3.  There were quite a few on the vast planes leading to the observatory. The VLA is an array of 28 giant radio telescopes.  Each dish is 82 feet in diameter.  This collection of antennas listens for faint radio waves emitted from space.  The Hubble telescope which also looks into space is often blocked by space clouds and other obstructions.  The VLA has made many important space discoveries. For example, using the VLA, astronomers found a black hole a million times more massive than the Sun in a star-forming dwarf galaxy.  Pretty exciting, right? OK, on to Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. 

New Mexico (White Sands and the Southeast)

From Santa Fe, we headed down to the amazing White Sands.

There is a lot of nothing and tumbleweed on the drive down.  Occasionally, we would drive through an abandoned ghost town, lost in time.  Luke did a Yelp search for restaurants and turned up exactly one diner about half way down.  I took photo #2 just up the street from the diner.  You can see that this isn’t exactly a booming metropolis.  

We hit the full range of weather on the drive down.  We started with bright sunshine followed by friendly clouds and cooler temperatures.   Then it turned ugly.  Heavy charcoal clouds appeared on the horizon.  From many miles away, you could see the storm descending onto the plains.  Our narrow strip of highway pointed right into the heart of it.  It started as heavy rain and then transitioned to rapidly accumulating snow.  Fortunately, we emerged from the other side  just as we were starting  to contemplate an unplanned checkin at the Raceway Motel where they proudly advertised color tv.  

New Mexico (Santa Fe and the North)

A couple of weeks ago, I headed out to New Mexico with my son Luke (who served as a great model in several of my photos).  We’d never been there before and decided to explore different parts of the state.  It’s a very diverse part of the country.  The photos in this post are from the Santa Fe area.  

Santa Fe is a photographers dream.  All of the buildings blend seamlessly together with their distinctive adobe architecture.  The scenery is spectacular.  Santa Fe is tucked into the valley of the Rio Grande (albeit at 7000 ft above sea level) and has vistas of 12,000 ft mountains.  It is also surrounded by over a million acres of national forest.  

We took several short day trips from Santa Fe.  We hiked through the Kasha-Katuwe slot canyon to see the fantastic tent rock formations (photos #1 and #8).  These formations are a product of tremendous volcanic eruptions millions of years ago.  You can see boulder caps precariously perched on many of these tapering hoodoos.   

We also took a trip out to the Bandelier National Monument to climb around inside cliff dwellings that are over 10,000 years old (photo #10).

Antigua (Part 2)

Antigua          

I made the annual pilgrimage down to the Caribbean for a mid-winter break with my wife, Andrea, and two daughters, Lexi and Sammi.   My son, Luke, could not get the week off at college so he stayed back but we were lucky to have have my niece, Casey, take his place.  She has always been like a big sister to my girls and adds a lot of fun.

We pick a different island each year.  We’re up to more than a dozen now.  Each has something unique to offer and Antigua did not disappoint.  It is a good size island - just under 150 square miles.  We always rent a car so that we can explore around.  The driving is always a bit of an adventure in and of itself.  They drive on the other side of the road (when there is another side).  The roads are often quite narrow, often unpaved, and some have pot holes that can swallow a car.  This year was especially challenging as the rental car had virtually no suspension and was programmed entirely in Japanese - even the numbers and letters on the electronic console.  There was a built in sonar collision detection but instead of getting beeps that increase in frequency as the car nears a curb or wall, we had a courteous Japanese woman provide continuous instructions.  She was quite verbose and never seemed to give the same advice twice.  So when the driving got a little tense, we could always count on her to offer up some soothing Japanese wisdom.  

The resorts are always beautiful on the islands but Antigua also had plenty of natural beauty.  The eighth photo above was taken at Devil’s Bridge.  The bridge was created as centuries of waves crashing against the shore wore away soft limestone under the harder surface.  The waves can be quite violent along that shore.  I got soaked by a giant wave while lining up this shot.  The waves also bring in large red and black crabs so you have to watch your step.  There are several legends about how the bridge got its name.  One legend says that if you throw two eggs into the water to boil, the devil (who is said to be down there) would keep one and return the other.  Another popular belief suggests slaves leapt to their death off of the natural arch during the period of slavery and the devil claimed their souls.

There are lots of colorful birds in Antigua.  Although, sadly, as you can see from photo #3, some have a drinking problem 😊.  

There are 365 beaches - one for each day of the year.  The snorkeling in great but keep your eyes open for stingrays.  

The Berkshires          

This region is quintessential rural New England - small historic villages connected by winding country roads and surrounded by the wooded mountains of western Massachusetts.   

Along with several other photographers on a New England Photo Workshop, I stayed in a beautiful old bed and breakfast built in 1774.  The property also hosts the Berkshire Equestrian Center with beautiful shaker barns and lots of open fields.  

Baxter State Park, Maine          

In October, I drove up to Baxter State Park in northern Maine to photograph moose with acclaimed wildlife photographer Mark Picard (photo #2).

Baxter State Park is home to the prominent Mount Katahdin (photo #4).  The top of Mount Katahdin marks the end of the 2200 mile Appalachian Trail that begins in Georgia.  We ran into the three dudes in photo #6 as they were about to begin the final ascent of their seven month trek.  

Provincetown, Massachusetts          

I went on a few different five-day photo trips around New England in the fall.  The first of these was to Provincetown with New England Photo Workshops.  

Provincetown, at the very tip of Cape Cod, is a great place for photography because there is lots of variety - cute town, beautiful beaches and dunes, large pier, and interesting people.

One of the highlights was going for a sail on a gorgeous old schooner, called Hindu, that was built in 1925.  The first photo above shows one of the crew manning the sails.  

Paris          

From Bruges, we took the train to our last stop, the City of Love.