2017
The biggest draw in Southern Croatia is the extraordinary walled city of Dubrovnik, with a remarkable history stretching back well over 1,000 years. Walls up to 80′ high, complete with fortresses and towers, with an ancient footpath along the 2 mile-long wall encircling the stone-built, red-roofed city, offer incredible views of the clearest blue-green waters of the Adriatic. The streets are paved with time-polished pale marble.
The town’s harmony owes much to the 17th century rebuilding program following the Great Earthquake in 1667.
2017
Croatia includes more than 1,200 islands, rocks and reefs off its east coast, facing Italy 100 miles across the Adriatic sea. Only 48 of the islands are inhabited.
Split, Croatia’s second largest city, is situated on the Dalmatian Coast; just off its shoreline is Croatia’s fourth largest island, Hvar, situated at the center of the Adriatic sailing routes.
Hvar has always been an important base for commanding trade up and down the Adriatic, west across to Italy, and throughout the wider Mediterranean to the south. Inhabited since prehistoric times, initially by a Neolithic people whose distinctive pottery gave name to the Hvar culture, and later by the Illyrians. The ancient Greeks founded the colony of Pharos in 384 BC on Hvar’s Stari Grad, making it one of the oldest towns in Europe. They were also responsible for setting out the agricultural field divisions of the Stari Grad Plain, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
In medieval times Hvar city rose to importance within the Venetian Empire as a major naval base. Prosperity brought culture and the arts, with one of the first public theaters in Europe, nobles’ palaces, and many fine communal buildings.
The 16th century was an unsettled time, with the Hvar Rebellion, coastal raids by pirates and the Ottoman army invading from the mainland. After a brief time under Napoleonic rule, the island became part of the Austrian Empire, a more peaceful and prosperous period.
About 1900, construction of accommodations for visitors began to grow. Since then, the island’s growth has developed into an almost continual expansion of hotels, apartments, restaurants, marinas, museums, galleries and cafes. Today, Hvar is a popular destination, consistently listed in the ‘top 10 Islands’ by Conde Nast Traveler magazine.
With classic Mediterranean weather and ancient architecture, the islands off Split are beautiful, and so very interesting.
2017
Zagreb is Croatia’s Capital and largest city, with a population of just over 800,000. Split is Croatia’s second largest city, and at 300,000 population the largest city within the Dalmatian region. Situated on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea, the city is spread out along a central peninsula.
Home to Diocletian’s Palace, built for the Roman emperor in AD 305, Split was founded as the Greek colony of Aspalathos in the 3rd or 2nd century BC. It became a prominent settlement around 650 AD when it succeeded the ancient capital of the Roman province, Solana.
Split became a Byzantine city, while later gradually drifting into the sphere of the Republic of Venice and the kingdom of Croatia. For much of the High and Middle ages, Split enjoyed autonomy as a free city, caught in the middle of a struggle between Venice and the King of Hungary for control over the Dalmatian cities.
Venice eventually prevailed and during the early modern period Split remained a Venetian city — a heavily fortified outpost surrounded by Ottoman territory. Its hinterland was won from the Ottomans in the Morean War of 1699; in 1797, as Venice fell to Napoleon in the Treaty of Campo Formio, Split went to the Hapsburg Monarchy. In 1805, the Peace of Pressburg added Split to the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy, becoming part of the Illyrian Provinces in 1809. After being occupied in 1813, it was eventually granted to the Austrian Empire following the Congress of Vienna; the city remained a part of the Austrian Kingdom of Dalmatia until the fall of Austria-Hungary in 1918. Reoccupied by Germany in WWII, Split was part of the puppet State of Croatia. It was liberated again by partisans in 1944 and became part of post-war Socialist Yugoslavia. In 1991, Croatia seceded from Yugoslavia during the Croatian War of Independence.
Centrally situated along the Dalmatian Coast, over the last five years Split has become very much the center of Croatia’s rapidly-growing tourism trade, with its proximity to Italy, miles of Adriatic shore line and countless close and lovely Croatian islands. And its weather is classically Mediterranean!
2017
The Adriatic Sea, roughly 100 miles wide, begins at the Mediterranean Sea and runs northwest about 800 miles to where Italy, Slovenia and Croatia come together at its northern terminus, while The Adriatic Sea separates Italy from the eastern Balkan Peninsula for its entire length.
Along the eastern side of the Adriatic Sea, the eastern Balkan Peninsula (North-to-South), includes Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, and Greece. Beginning at Croatia’s north end, the Dalmatian Coast extends south-southeast.
The Dalmation Coast’s high limestone elevations offer wonderful views of its own coast line, its many just off-shore islands, tropical Mediterranean weather and sea, as well as occasional glimpses of Italy’s distant coast.
2017
The Adriatic Sea, roughly 100 miles wide, begins at the Mediterranean Sea and runs northwest about 800 miles to where Italy, Slovenia and Croatia come together at its northern terminus. The Adriatic Sea separates Italy from the eastern Balkan Peninsula for its entire length.
Along the eastern side of the Adriatic Sea, the eastern Balkan Peninsula (North-to-South), includes Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, and Greece.
From its northern end, at Slovenia, Croatia’s Dalmatian Coast extends south-southeast, opposite Italy, all the way southeast to just beyond Dubrovnik, at its border with Montenegro.
The Dalmatian Coast’s strong Italian influence stretches back to Italy’s occupation of the Coast by the Romans in 12 AD, which lasted, off and on, for nearly 400 years.
2014
From northern NM high country to South Carolina tidal lowlands amounts to an 8,000’ transformation in elevation.
Water, water and more water, as the tidewater fishing fleet courses amongst the lowlands, always followed by wonderful skimming pelicans…
2014
Antarctica – the most extreme place on Earth!
Colder and windier than anywhere else on our planet, nothing has melted there in 40 million years; drier than anywhere else on Earth, though covered with 90% of Earth’s fresh water (as ice); the fifth largest continent on Earth has the highest average elevation as it is covered with 5,000 feet of ice.
Situated at the bottom of the Earth, beginning 500 miles south of the southern tip of South America, it spans the South Pole, where it is completely surrounded on all sides by some of Earth’s most treacherous oceans.
The only warm-blooded creatures that can live there year-round, are penguins, plus a few scientists.
As global warming continues, glaciers larger than small countries along both it’s southwestern and eastern edges, have now begun calving. not if, but when just half of this calving ice melts completely over the next 50 years, Earth’s sea level will rise more than 25 feet!
Uninhabitable as the Antarctic continent is, it is so very beautiful: white ice and snow covers the entire continent (except where the rock is so vertical that ice can not cling to it) against its backdrop of roiling oceans filled with thousands of smaller chunks of ice. When the weather is clear, the light is piercingly bright, casting long shadows against the surrounding ocean.
2014
The fossil records of both Albatrosses and Petrels go back nearly 60M years; both are pelagic, since they only return to land to breed. Dominant in the Southern Oceans, albatrosses and giant petrels are convergent, so while not closely related, they have independently evolved similar traits as a result of having to adapt to similar environments.
Albatrosses comprise a group of 22 species of large to very large birds, and are among the largest flying birds. Both albatrosses and petrels are tube-nosed seabirds with strong and sharp-edged bills, with their upper mandible terminating in a large hook. Along each side of their bill are tubes (long nostrils) that enable albatrosses and petrels to measure their exact airspeed during flight – analogous to the pilot tubes in modern aircraft – and thus are highly efficient in the air. With their ability to use dynamic soaring and slope soaring, they are able to cover great distances with minimal exertion.
In addition to wingspans of at least 8-10 feet, albatrosses’ wings are stiff and cambered, with thickened streamlined leading edges. They travel huge distances using two techniques common to any long-winged seabird: dynamic soaring and slope soaring. Dynamic soaring involves repeatedly rising into the wind and descending downwind, thus gaining energy from the vertical wind gradient, with effort only expended in turns at the top and bottom of each loop. This maneuver enables them to cover about 600 miles a day without flapping their wings. Slope soaring uses the rising air on the windward side of large waves. Albatrosses’ very high glide ratios of 22:1 means that they can travel forward a distance 22 times the drop. Further, they are aided in soaring by a shoulder-lock, a sheet of tendon that locks the wing when fully extended, allowing the wing to be outstretched without any muscle expenditure, a morphological adaptation they share with the giant petrels.
All albatrosses are listed to be at some level of endangerment as a result of the serious decline in fish stock, from overfishing, and from being hooked by longline fishing gear. Both feed on squid, fish and krill, by either scavenging, surface seizing, or diving. And their breeding season can take over a year from laying to fledging with a single egg laid in each breeding attempt.
Combining their soaring techniques with their use of predictable weather systems, Albatrosses in the Southern Hemisphere flying north will take a clockwise route, while those flying south will fly counterclockwise. So well adapted to this lifestyle, their heart rates while flying are close to the basal heart rate when resting. Their flying intensity is such that the most energetically demanding aspect of a foraging trip is not the distance covered, but the landings, take-offs and hunting undertaken to find a food source.
Albatrosses live much longer than other birds; they delay breeding far longer and invest more effort into fewer young. Most species survive upwards of 50 years.
Capturing Albatrosses and Petrels in flight by camera, from a moving, bouncing ship in high seas is an exciting and exhausting challenge. With their habit of closely following ships for what might possibly be discharged, plus their natural tendency to glide within the ship’s draft, they definitely try to see just how close they can fly to the ship before having to veer off…
2014
Fur Seals and Whales are widely distributed in the Southern Ocean within the Antarctic Convergence – the zone of water between the frigid waters of the true Antarctic and more temperate waters to the north. Most of the Fur Seal population breeds on South Georgia Island, and other nearby sub-Antarctic islands.
Fur Seals average 6-7 feet in length and weigh 200-250 pounds, and up to 400 lb. for the males. Their diet includes krill, squid and fish. The males tend to live about 15 years, while females live to 25 years on average. Antarctic Fur Seals are an example of seals that can walk on land, because of their ability to turn their rear flippers forward, converting them into useful “feet”.
Generally Fur Seals are a solo act outside of mating season although they will congregate in vast numbers on beaches near good feeding grounds in the autumn and early winter, often near penguin colonies. Breeding season begins in late October through December. Males fight extremely aggressively, with some encounters resulting in death, for the right to rule harems of up to 20 females (who wouldn’t?). Once they’ve established a harem, males are unwilling to leave them unprotected and will stay on land for up to 2 months without feeding. When the females arrive they are already pregnant from the previous year’s season, and give birth in November and December. The females mate about a week after giving birth. The pups are nursed by their mothers for about 4 months. Once they have learned to swim they usually stay at sea a number of years until they reach sexual maturity, at which point they return to land to join the others during the mating season.
Fur Seals’ natural predators are Sharks and Killer Whales, while the pups are vulnerable to Leopard Seals.
Whales most commonly found in the Southern Ocean are Humpback, Fin, with lesser numbers of Blue Whales. They are after the tremendous schools of high-protein krill.
Though I didn’t get to witness this, Orcas are known to hunt in packs, seeking out Fur Seals on small icebergs. Surrounding the iceberg, they repeatedly swim under it in unison, until the iceberg either tips, or breaks up as a result of the vibration created by the Orcas, at which point they grab the Fur Seal.
Fur Seals, when on shore, are readily visible; they often hang out near penguin colonies. Whales, on the other hand, are generally visible only at greater distances, or occasionally when they happen to surface very close.
2014
Nothing has melted on Antarctica over the last 40 million years! The Earth’s fifth largest continent, including the South Pole, is its coldest, windiest, and driest continent. Since nothing melts on Antarctica, today it contains 90% of all of the Earth’s ice. Over these millions of years, the ice sheet has accumulated to more than a mile in height, making Antarctica the earth’s highest continent, with an average elevation greater than 5,000′.
Because of such minimal precipitation, however — only 2″ per year in the interior — Antarctica is considered desert. While its coastal regions receive 8″ of falling moisture annually, unlike most desert regions, frozen moisture can’t soak into the ground, so it too, adds to the ice sheet.
Stretching diagonally northwest-to-southeast nearly 2,000 miles across Antarctica, the Transantarctic Mountain Range (Mt. Kirpatrick, 14,856′ elev.) separates the continent’s east and west regions. Two thirds of Antarctica, lying east of this mountain range, is the size of Australia, while the western third includes a series of frozen islands comprising the Antarctic peninsula – which originally was a continuation of the Andes Mountain Range.
The ice sheets covering Antarctica slowly migrate: glaciers inch across the continent, cracking and breaking. As ice sheets crack along the coast, ice shelves and glaciers break off into the sea as icebergs.
2014
Drake Passage is the 500 mile wide body of water separating South America’s southern tip, Cape Horn, from Antarctica. It connects the southwestern part of the Atlantic Ocean (Scotia Sea) to the southeastern part of the Pacific Ocean and extends into the Southern Ocean. Named for the 16th-century English privateer, Sir Francis Drake, whose last remaining ship, after having passed through the Straight of Magellan, was blown far south in 1578, revealing an open connection between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
Chemical studies of fish teeth found in oceanic sedimentary rock confirm that Drake Passage was closed until about 40 million years ago. The separation of the two continents, created the Antarctic Circumpolar Current carrying a volume of water 600 times the flow of the Amazon River through Drake Passage, and around the Antarctic continent. And because this stretch of ocean circumvents the Earth without encountering any significant land masses, winds and waves can, and do build to incredible heights and force.
Before this passage opened some 40 million years ago, the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans were entirely separate, with Antarctica being much warmer and having no ice cap. The joining of these two great oceans created the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, cooling the Antarctic Continent significantly.
Since nothing has melted in Antarctica in millions of years, today the Antarctic continent contains 90% of the entire Earth’s ice.
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2014
A year and a half ago, I spent two weeks along Antarctica’s northwest coast.
Flying to Buenos Aires and further south to Ushuaia, the ‘southernmost city in the world’ (Latitude 55 degrees S) which sits on the north bank of the Beagle Channel, the interior passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Named for Darwin’s ship that sailed this passage in 1831, the Beagle Channel separates Argentina’s very southern tip, the Tierra del Fuego archipelago, from Chile’s islands to the south.
Upon exiting the eastern end of Beagle Channel beyond Picton Island, Chile — a passage can then be set to cross the famed and feared 500 mile wide Drake Passage that separates South America from the ‘ice continent’.
Along the north side of Beagle Channel are lovely snow-covered mountains descending down to the water’s edge. Although this passage provides an inland route across Cape Horn, it is too narrow for sizeable ships to navigate its notoriously harsh and unpredictable weather.
2012
Arriving from Seattle, we flew into Sitka, Alaska in mid-August, about midpoint up the Alexander Archipelago that separates the mainland from the Pacific Ocean. Southeast Alaska’s 1,000 forested islands, 10,000 miles of shoreline, and 50+ major glaciers, have changed little in the past 1,000 years, except for the addition of slightly more than 70,000 residents. A temperate, hospitable land, the rain forest provides a cool environment most of the year. Transportation among the islands is still by water, though access to Alaska’s capitol in Juneau is essentially only by air.
Two days later we embarked on an 8-day cruise through the northern Inner Passage, aboard a 150′ vessel with 50 passengers plus crew. Exiting past the beautiful Mt. Edgecomb volcanic island, we rounded the northern end of Baranoff Island, then headed southeast out Peril Strait where we turned northeast up Chatham Strait.
It was so exciting to finally be cruising Alaska’s storied Inside Passage up to Glacier Bay!
2013
Kauai is the fourth largest of the main islands in the Hawaiian archipelago; it is also the oldest and most northern. Just over one hundred miles across the Kauai Channel northwest of O’ahu, its 562 square miles has a population of 67,000.
From the spectacular Na Pali shoreline, along Kauai’s north end, looking in all directions is classic Kauai. Rarely without wind, the white surf rims the incredible blue ocean as its shoreline bends east and west.
Known as the “Garden Isle”, the Na Pali coast receives more rain than nearly any other place in the world. The contrast of its vivid greens interspersed with rust red earth and shadows from the usual voluminous cloud cover makes for one of the most stunning landscapes I’ve ever seen.
How can I resist overlaying all this with a vivid sense of the passage of time?
2013
Like the other Hawaiian islands, Kauai is the top of an enormous volcano rising from the ocean floor. Kauai’s formation began nearly 6 million years ago as the Pacific plate passed over the Hawaii hotspot causing lava to begin to flow. The 5,243′ Kawaikini is the highest peak on this mountainous island. Near the center of this island is Kauai’s second highest peak, 5,148′ Wai’ale’ale; to its northeast, 460″ of annual rainfall has eroded deep valleys in the central mountains, carving out canyons with many incredibly scenic waterfalls.
Much of Kauai’s southwest coast is lined with high bluffs and cliffs, along with beaches, interspersed with fields of sugar cane and coffee plantations. Most of the island has bright red soil resulting from millions of years of weathering of the original black basalt that comprises most of the island. The incredible greens, contrasted against the island’s bright reds, marks its signature landscape.
2013
Kauai is the fourth largest of the main islands in the Hawaiian archipelago; it is also the oldest and most northern. Just over one hundred miles across the Kauai Channel northwest of O’ahu, its 562 square miles has a population of 67,000.
From the spectacular Na Pali shoreline, along Kauai’s north end, looking in all directions is classic Kauai. Rarely without wind, the white surf rims the incredible blue ocean as its shoreline bends east and west.
Known as the “Garden Isle”, the Na Pali coast receives more rain than nearly any other place in the world. The contrast of its vivid greens interspersed with rust red earth and shadows from the usual voluminous cloud cover makes for one of the most stunning landscapes I’ve ever seen.
How can I resist overlaying all this with a vivid sense of the passage of time?
My first attempts at infusing the feeling of motion into my photographic images originated with my shooting moving objects – cars, trains, people walking or running. (more…)
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2007
Pacific NW Coast III
This is my third series captured during my 2010 roadtrip along the northern California and Oregon coasts. Though rarely blessed with optimal light, I was able to take the time for moments of sun to break through. From the cliffs along the Lost Coast in northern California, to the many rivers flowing into the Pacific, to the wonderfully wide and empty Oregon beaches, to tidal Netarts Bay just north of Cape Lookout contained by a five-mile stretch of beach, the Pacific NW coast is rugged and varied.
The south-flowing Pacific current along the NW coast and the weather, both constantly in motion, offer the perfect foil for overlaying my images with a sense of the passage of time.
2007
Pacific NW Coast II
Sea stacks — offshore monoliths, also known as haystack rocks — are either the result of portions of headlands splintering off, or from under sea lava flows, or from lava flowing into the sea. Cooling lava became hardened basalt over time; this heavy basalt remained buried under marine sediments for millions of years. As the climate shifted and the sea level receded, the rocks were revealed be either attached to the shoreline or off shore. Their dark shadows cast on the water further accentuate their interesting shapes.
Primarily images of haystacks, I captured this series along the Oregon coast under varied lighting conditions that invariably depended on the degree of cloud cover.
2007
Pacific NW coast
In 2010 I made an extensive roadtrip beginning south of the California-Oregon border traveling north along the rugged and beautiful Pacific NW coast to Astoria, overlooking the Columbia River and the Washington border.
Along this coast are intermittent capes protruding into the Pacific that offer expansive cliff views, interspersed with stretches of very wide beaches, sand dunes, and hundreds of haystacks just offshore, plus the many rivers draining the Coastal mountains, this nearly 500 mile stretch of the northwest coast is simply breathtaking. This series plus the next two comprise my October “capture” of this stretch of the Pacific Northwest coast.
