The Photography of Dr. Jeffrey P. Harper

I have three weeks off for Christmas/New Years holiday every year.  Neither of us had ever been to South America, so why not this year.  There are many issues and complications for my wife to get visas in many South American countries, but Argentina was most amenable . . . and number one on my list of places to see was Tierra del Fuego and the high dessert passes of the Andes mountain range . . . Argentina had both!  So we set off from Aberdeen International Airport one cold December morning bound for Buenos Aires, via Frankfurt, Germany! 23 hours later we landed in Argentina!

Our trip plan was to spend equal amounts of time exploring the city of Buenos Aires, experiencing adventures in nature around the Patagonian town of Ushuaia, and the wine producing area around Mendoza, which also served as a gateway to the high Andes.

 

We arrived late in Buenos Aires and made our way to our boutique hotel in the Palermo district.  It was wonderfully warm in the evening, as Argentina was in their summer months.

 

The next day was a Sunday, so we took the underground to the famous Sunday Street market.  I loved the street art in Buenos Aires.

 

Buenos Aires is a very colorful city.  Now I know why the police wear the bright orange vests - urban camouflage!

 

There were many street performers out, like this puppeteer.

 

The street market was in a part of town that had many antique and knick-knack shops.

 

This [embossing?] machine was just waiting for a collector.

 

We spent the next three days exploring the vast city by foot . . . and shopping. I discovered this sculpture 'grave yard' for old statuary . . . and perhaps some new ones.  Very photogenic.  I took many, many photos in Buenos Aires and will, in the near future post the rest of the good ones here.  BE PATIENT!

 

Ushuaia - The End of The World!

From the lovely warmth of Buenos Aires, we arrived back in the cold again in Ushuaia - fin del mundo.

 

The views of the southern Andes were breathtaking.

 

Ushuaia harbour, where cruise ships stop for supplies, and specialized ships depart for Antarctica.  The city of Ushuaia is the furthest south of any city on earth.

 

The sunsets from our hotel room in Ushuaia were magnificent.

 

We had several meals of Patagonian King Crab.  Extraordinarily yummy!

 

It was mid-summer in Ushuaia and the flowers were all in bloom.

 

The poppies were especially beautiful.

 

Unfortunately, all the small over night cruise ships to the local glaciers were booked even before we decided to go to Patagonia (we tried to book in September), however, good guide books suggested hiring a taxi for the day in front of the ship passenger terminal, which we did one day.  We went out to the Tierra del Fuego National Park which is adjacent to Ushuaia.  We saw a lot there, and I will post more photos soon.  This is a beaver dam.

 

One of our days in Ushuaia was wet, so we took a half-day bus tour north up into the southern Andes.  Marvelous views all the way.  We stopped often at all the points of interest.  We were glad we took the tour . . . we saw so much beauty.

 

We had an excellent and informative bus tour guide.

 

The bus tour went as far north as Fagnano Lake.

 

It was hard to believe that this was a lake!  Lake Fagnano is fed by high Andean glaciers which give it the distinctive green color.

 

We drove back to Ushuaia through the high pass of the south Andes.

 

The following day we took another tour, this time to a science center that finds and preserves whale bones for display in museums around the world . . . whales that have dies a natural death.  The tour also would take us to see PENGUINS!

 

It was summer in Patagonia and the place was alive with flowers.  Our penguin expedition  left from an old homestead.

 

It was a grey and damp day when we headed off to see the penguins.

 

We took an inflatable boat out to an island  . . . .

 

The island was full of hundreds of penguins . . . of different varieties.

 

Our eco guides taught us how to act and react to penguins (move slowly and do not reach out to them or give them anything).

 

There were penguins everywhere!

 

Penguins are not shy.  I guess they thought we were just really tall penguins.

 

There were many pairs of penguins.

 

Because penguins are not shy, I could go right up to them and take close-up photographs.  Fantastic!

 

A mother penguin protecting her little gosling.

 

We returned to Ushuaia after a quick stop at this vintage Patagonian out house.

 

Patagonia was wonderful, but we said good-bye . . . and flew off to Mendoza in the far airid northwest of Argentina.

 

MENDOZA

Our time in Mendoza was split in three (3) parts, with a return to the city each evening. 1) The desert road and winding dirt road up the mountains on Argentina Highway 52; 2) The Uco Valley wine growing region an hour out of the city (and a surprise!); and 3) The drive up Argentina Highway 7 to the Chilean boarder through the magnificent high Andes arid pass.

Central Mendoza was a tree-lined and charming old provincial town.

 

The city is built around Independence Park, where people congregate in the evenings.

 

As Highway 52 left the city of Mendoza, the houses became older and made of adobe.

 

A cactus in the sky.

 

As is often the case in a desert environment, there are different zones created by differences in elevation, moisture, and soil . . each with its own unique flora and fauna:  I passed through a zone of cacti.

 

Driving through the high desert scrub brush towards the Andes on Highway 52 . . . one of my favorite things to do is drive on small desert roads with the horizon far off at the end of a ribbon . .  and the windows all open with the radio loud.  I hadn't done that in a long tome.  Too long.

 

Such a lovely place!

 

A white Catholic altar . . . in the middle of nowhere . . . made it somewhere.

 

The weather alternated between cloudy with a light sprinkle and bright sunshine.

 

As I neared the base of the Andean foothills, I came upon a zone inhabited by Alpacas, a relative of the Llama.

 

The group of Alpacas stopped to check me out.  They are ridiculous with cuteness!

 

This is what I had come to see . . .

 

. .  the secret valleys up along the twisting gravel mountain road.  Astonishing!  This is my favorite topology and geography. 

 

And by 'Twisty Road' I mean very twisty road!

 

Just me, my rent-a-car, and a winding mountain track.  I loved driving up into the hills on this road.

 

I ran out of time before I ran out of wonder - I didn't want to drive back in the dark.  The view from the top was vast.

 

I had to chuckle at this sign . . . . talk about understatement!

 

I saw one other Alpaca high up on the mountain side.

 

I got out of the car and took a short walk to a promontory overlooking the big plain, the Pampas, of Argentina.  There were beautiful plants in bloom . . . and hungry wasps.

 

I took in one last grand view and drove back down the mountain to Mendoza. The next day, New Years Day, we would go to the Uco Valley vineyards.

 

We got up early, even though we had celebrated New Years Eve at a fun party with a bunch of vacationing Brazilians at the Hilton the night before.  The Uco Valley also had beautiful old adobe vineyard structures.

 

I love the character, like a face, of old doors and windows,  I was in photographers' heaven with these examples.

 

Old doors . . . what is the enticement for me?

 

It was a beautiful day for a drive around the vineyards of Uco Valley.  If you have ever had Argentine wine it probibly came from this valley.

 

We found a gourmet restaurant out in the vineyards and had a fabulous lunch.  The owner made some nice art with his empty wine bottles.

 

This old wall, something out of the 19th century, gave me the feeling of an era gone by.

 

We saw many of these roadside shrines along the hilly road back to Mendoza from the Uco Vally.  They were either 'Lets hope the Virgin Mary can assure good brakes' shrines, or were shrines to someone who lost their life on the highway nearby.  I stopped at a couple of them.  The next day my wonderful wife booked a surprise!!!

 

The surprise was a day spent at a mountain hot springs spa!  Win Win!

 

A natural hot spring has fed the spa for over a hundred years.

 

A little cold glacial water from the river is added to each pool so that they become progressively less hot the further down you go.  You start at the bottom and work your way up until you arrive at the pool that is cooking you.  I got cooked . . . turned lobster red and had to be told to get out and get in the cooling shed!  We spent a wonderfully relaxing day at the spa.  The price included a "buffet lunch" . . . which turned out to be a feast of every kind of food know to mankind . . . from Japanese to Indian, to health food, to Argentine delicacies, all of it delicious.  We stuffed ourselves!

 More to come!

 

 

THE YELLOWSTONE LOOP ROAD

Yellowstone National Park beckons: we weren't the only ones beckoned.  But . . . I am not complaining . . . the facilities and organization of the park was so good that it could have easily swallowed up twice as many tourists.  We were told that the number of tourists this summer was "very low" in comparison to previous years.  The recession and high gasoline prices kept many away.  It's a pity, really, because Yellowstone is such a fantastically beautiful place.

 

Park policy is to leave Yellowstone as natural as possible.  As a result, they let wild fires burn out, rather than intervene.  Here we have evidence of a fire from several years ago and the regrowth that has occurred since.

 

We checked into our comfortable lodge room at mid day and set out on one of the park "loop" roads for Old Faithful Geyser.  The park roads have many "turn-outs" that give access to beautiful scenes, like this Alpine lily pond, and . . .

 

. . . . broad vistas of the park forests and lakes.

 

The road into Yellowstone follows the beautiful  Yellowstone River.

 

We stopped many times to marvel at the natural beauty of the Yellowstone River.

 

We stopped many, many times to marvel at the beauty of the Yellowstone River scenery.

 

We reached the vast parking lots of the Old Faithful Lodge about ten minutes too late to see the geyser erupt.  Fortunately, they don't call it Old Faithful for nothing:  the next eruption would be in 73 minutes!

 

The area around Old Faithful Geyser is very beautiful.  There were also shops nearby selling everything in the universe with "Old Faithful" either embossed, embroidered, or printed on it. I bought a t-shirt while we waited.  I also had a hot dog that didn't have Old Faithful printed on it.

 

As the moment of eruption neared, a small crowd appeared.  The seating around the geyser was only half full.

 

Old Faithful erupting right on time.  Too bad the light wasn't any better for photography.

 

The eruption is really spectacular . . . a video clip can be found here.

 

We went back to the lodge for the night after Old Faithful, but not before exploring a bit around Yellowstone Lake.

 

Ah, Wilderness!

 

Here and there around Yellowstone Lake are areas of active geology, such as colorful mineral hot springs, geysers, and bubbling mud and slimy ooze, my favorite things.

 

Effervescent green mineral springs and slimy pink gunky hot springs side-by-side.

 

This little geyser was spitting an occasional thick, hot white paste globule.  Very creepy, really.

 

Other than volcanoes and earthquakes, we do not normally think of the earth itself as active . . .

 

There were lots of elderly couples riding very large motorcycles (sometimes puling a trailer full of camping gear) on the road and in the lodges.  By elderly, I mean 85 years old, like this "young couple" from Alabama.  Good on them!  I love seeing old folks out in the  world enjoying life.

 

There was a touring service employing antique busses available for tourists.  Very cool.

 

We followed the Loop Road counterclockwise along the shore of Yellowstone Lake.

 

We pulled off the Loop Road often for short walks in the beautiful nature.

 

Yellowstone River.

 

Yellowstone River rocks covered with moss and lichens.

 

We saw some trees showing signs of Elk rubbing the velvet off their young antlers.

 

The giant Elk was grazing not ten feet from the roadside . . . with 30 cars and campers and 50 people all clicking away with their cameras!  The Elk remained nonchalant.

 

The weather remained threatening all day.  The geological activity of Yellowstone is a reminder that we were sitting on top of an ancient Super Volcano.

 

The views of the bubbling mud were endless.

 

A bubbling mud caldera.  Do not swim in these.

 

A hot, bubbling mineral lake.  Beautiful.

 

Although it was a cloudy day, the mountain glades were beautiful in their wild flowers.

 

A field of Yellowstone wild flowers.

 

We at last came to the end of Yellowstone Lake.

 

The lake emptied back into the Yellowstone River . . . and then into the "Grand Canyon of Yellowstone."

 

THE GRAND CANYON OF YELLOWSTONE

Upper Falls, Yellowstone River.

 

The Yellowstone River goes over a series of falls.

 

Middle Falls, Yellowstone River.

 

Near the Lower Falls.

 

The Lower Falls: WOW!

 

The "Grand Canyon of Yellowstone" begins at the Lower Falls.

 

The Yellowstone River carved a deep canyon through, what else, yellow stone.

 

The light was not good for this kind of photography . . . but I tried to be patient.

 

If you look at the top of the foreground pinnacle you will see an osprey's nest  with chicks.  Of course I only had my 24-105mm lens with me . . . .

 

We eventually had to leave the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone because this big rain (above) moved in . . . and was beautiful.

 

We left the high river and canyon region and arrived at open meadows with bison serenely grazing.

 

We were able to get surprisingly close to the bison.

 

I guess if you are exposed to over a million tourists, you get used to it.  These are magnificent animals.

 

This big fellow was walking beside the road without a care in the  world.  He stopped for this posed photo-op.

 

Wild flowers were in abundance as it was still Spring in July at this altitude of over 8000 feet.

 

On our second day we decided to drive the entire Loop Road . . . to see the bubbling mineral springs and cascades.

 

There is no shortage of grand views in Yellowstone:  Here a recent burn left a sad and desolate landscape.

 

All day long we chased, and were chased by, dark mountain storms.

 

The Loop Road takes you up and outside of the main caldera and into some beautiful rolling high country.

 

YELLOWSTONE HOT MINERAL SPRINGS

The highlight of the second day in Yellowstone, if not the entire vacation, was the discovery of the hot mineral springs.  This is Canary Springs.

 

The mineral hot springs were a flow of scalding hot water, mineral formations, and an abundance of waterborne life in the form of thermophilic microbes.

 

The combination of time, flowing hot mineral water, and simple thermophilic life forms created the most marvelous patterns.

 

OK, name this planet.  If you guessed Earth, you'd be right, although the small round mineral balls are reminiscent of the "blueberries" found on Mars by the rovers.

 

I could not get enough of these wild abstract algae creations in mineral substance.

 

A colorful hot algeal mineralscape.

 

Mineralscape detail.  Amazing beauty and complexity.  These were very difficult to photograph on this cloudy day: most of what you see in this photo was moving around, wafting back and forth in the current of hot mineral spring water.

 

A scene of life that has adapted to a hostile environment.  If this livng stuff can live on Earth, then it can live ANYWHERE!

 

Oh!  The colors!

 

Everything in this photo is a life form . . . swaying in the current of a hot spring!

 

More "Martian" blueberries.

 

Colorful layers of minerals and algae forms.

 

Steaming hot spring.

 

Hot spring patterns.

 

At the mineral springs.

 

In some of the hot pools it would be the minerals that had crystallized into patterns.

 

The variation of color and pattern in the hot mineral springs was endless.

 

A cropped photo of a hot algae pool. Extraterrestrial, no?

 

The hot vulcanism of our planet must be very close to the surface here.

 

As we drove the Loop Road the natural wonders just kept on coming!

 

After seeing these formations I understood more of how the Mars Rovers went about their business: some mineral formations only occur in the presence of water.

 

These mineral formations are not ancient, as the protruding trees attest.  Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA.

 

Again: Name the planet!

 

Another roadside Point of Interest, and another amazing mineral formation.

 

This hot spring was very active: loudly bubbling and steaming.

 

Hot, bright white liquid poured down the hillside.

 

Fabulous Nature!

 

Active geology, no?

 

Beautiful . . . . and there was more to come . . . much more.  I LOVE Yellowstone.

 

A cascade of color, minerals, algae, bacteria, and hot water.

 

Orange Spring Mound near Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone.  Bacteria and algae create the streaks of color.

 

Orange Spring Mound, Yellowstone, late afternoon, July 17, 2012.

 

We headed back out onto the Yellowstone Loop Road back to our cabin, the light was becoming as magical as the landscape.

 

Afternoon light in the Wyoming High Country.

 

A clearing in between the afternoon showers left the earth wet and dark.

 

A Yellowstone afternoon; Elk grazing in the distance.

 

High country afternoon sky, meadow, trees, and hill.

 

While driving around in that beautiful afternoon magic golden hour light I spotted a roadside forest lake and pulled over.

 

The timing couldn't have been better:  fantastic light and shadow . . . and  . . .

 

. . . reflection!

 

Incredible reflection.  What a special afternoon it was.

 

Further on down the road: deer grazing.

 

A tranquil and serene sight.

 

Who in the Hell drives a SmartCar from Florida to Yellowstone?  The Buffalo was larger than the car . . .

 

The Bison is a magnifiscent animal.

 

In mid-July, the sun sets very late at these northern latitudes, unlike Bangkok, my home town.

 

There was a colorful sunset brewing . . .

 

. . . and even though the sun was setting, we continued to explore the various geothermal sights.  You can see steam rising everywhere.

 

The National Park Service does a very good job of making it easy for visitors to make the most of their Yellowstone holiday.  This is the Subaru we rented.  A very good car for this kind of trip, although I would have liked to have had about 500 more horsepower.  Oh well.

 

There weree still beautiful photographs to take in the last of the light:  this stream meandering through the green marsh grass and purple sage, for example.

 

A geyser erupting at night is spectacular, not so much for the visuals, but the auditory experience: the ground rumbles, then the hot seam gurgles and hisses loudly as it is ejected from the hot depths of the Earth.

 

We called it a day to remember and headed back to the lodge for a meal of farm-raised trout.  Yummy.

LEAVING YELLOWSTONE: MORE ROADSIDE GEOLOGICAL ATTRACTIONS

We woke early on our last day and drove out of Yellowstone . . . but not without stopping a number of times to take in more amazing geological phenomena.

 

The Yellowstone Park Serice provided very informative and educational signage at every stop.

 

Black Sands Basin was especially beautiful  with the turquoise geyser pools.

 

Although not as high as Old Faithful, this geyser at Black Sands Basin was more dramatic because it was continuously erupting.

 

I do not want to leave the impression through my photographs that we were alone in the park.  There were other tourists wherever we went, but never in large numbers . . . and they were always well behaved, lulled, as it were, into as stupor of total wonder!

 

The weather was perfect in the clear, cold morning: no pesky thunder clouds.

 

Just look at how this algae and bacteria have organized themselves into organic shapes of many kinds (pods!!!).  Looking at these I can understand evolution fully:  give a life form a few billion years and it will morph, evolve into some pretty interesting shapes . . . like you and me.

 

An astonishing color to find in nature! . . . and those cloud reflections!

 

The Yellowstone Park Service provided safe elevated boardwalks to access these amazing hot mineral pools to minimize the impact of so many tourists.  Thanks.

 

I am running out of superlatives that I haven't used a hundred times already.  How about 'wonderous'!!

 

These mineral flows are very recent . . . the colors were otherworldly.

 

Unspoiled natural beauty wherever you looked.  I will always remember this day at Yellowstone.  The sky was so dark blue, and the pools were so vividly turquoise.  Unfathomable beauty.

 

But . . . "we ain't seen nuttin' yet" as the old saying goes . . .

 

As we ascended the steps and boardwalks of Giant Pool, we suspected we were in for a treat.

 

We were not disappointed: an array of color the likes of which I had never seen in nature.  Simply fantastic.  And that sky . . . . .

 

The valley was a continuous plane of geological wonder all the way up to the mountains . . . .

 

. . . and looking in both directions.  On the boardwalk we were surrounded by 360 degrees of flowing hot water covered mineral formations in a wide array of hues and colors.

 

The walk up to the main pool was out of this world: orange algae streaks and water so blue it's steam was also blue.  Simply incredible!

 

Orange, yellow, blue, green . . . and bubbling!

 

I have never seen anything quite so beautiful in my entire life, and I am not likely to see something this beautiful again.

 

The bluest blue I have ever seen.

 

With the bright blue pool behind me the view was also fantastic.

 

The orange algae flow continued under the boardwalk.

 

I did not want to leave Yellowstone . . . and this spot in particular.

 

I would love to come back here in the winter and see this place on a brightcold day with snow all around . . . .

 

This hot deep pool was nearby . . . .

 

. . . it was bubbling viciously from the center.

 

It was a windy day and as a result there were many hats blown into the turquoise realm.  These are tropical beach colors that come as a surprise in the mountains.

 

We had to say good-bye to Yellowstone and hit the road to Butte, Montana for the night.  We were on a road trip, after all, and had to make some miles.