A giant stingray
(Saturday, November 21st, 2009)
So, scuba divers, did you dive on a stingray as beautiful as this one already?
YouTube link
(Saturday, November 21st, 2009)
So, scuba divers, did you dive on a stingray as beautiful as this one already?
(Monday, November 9th, 2009)
Back from a few days of photo trip to Nepal, I feel it is time to share with you some of this astonishing experience organized by Amawanda and guided by Alain Pons.
I am more or less a wildlife photographer attracted to the African wide-open spaces. But I had been attracted mostly by the presence of a seasoned pro photographer (Alain Pons) assisted by a very serious organization (I had been able to appreciate them in a previous trip to Kenya in 2008). I had also noticed that costs were relatively moderate (taking into account that this is a wildlife trip – which is often very expensive) including -we could check this later on location- a significant share reserved for local actions for development and nature protection in full coordination with the local structures and the local wildlife organizations.
A summary of the program:
The flight to Kathmandu was without surprise on Qatar, despite the long night stop in Doha airport where the only Duty Free shop cannot be considered as a commendable tourist spot (but they have a nice stock of alcohol or cigarettes for those who prefer to prepare themselves for later needs).
The Kathmandu-Bardia journey requires about 20 hours of bus or car. The stops provided in the program are a good way to break the inevitable monotony. A faster plane journey would be possible (it is included on the way back) but it would be a pity to avoid the view in the valleys and from the mountain roads out of Pokhara.
All along this journey, I will try to make a few recommendations about what a photographer might find more interesting to stop for.
(Monday, October 19th, 2009)
The Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) is a bird of prey found in North America that is most recognizable as the national bird and symbol of the United States of America.
You can buy an original print at RedBubble.
(Tuesday, October 6th, 2009)
(Wednesday, September 30th, 2009 by Yves)
I couldn’t resist and I bring you this image I found on an automobile-oriented blog (autoblog).

(Monday, September 21st, 2009)
Met in the forest of Rambouillet (near Paris, but more precisely in the fern land at the end of the Espace Rambouillet of Office National des Forêts), two roe deers that were stuck in the sights of two camouflaged wildlife photographers.
(Friday, August 7th, 2009)
No! This is not the title of Hollywood next horror flick. This is a sad reality around Japan. According to National Geographic, for reasons that are not entirely understood giant jellyfish like the ones photographed below are observed in great quantities.

They need to be harvested by boat…

(Wednesday, July 29th, 2009)
I’m just out of eBay where I bought a second-hand Minolta 1.4x lens converter to extend a little my tele-lenses when I put them on my Sony Alpha 700 and the old faithful Konica-Minolta Dynax Maxxum 7D.

I think it is going to support me when I go to Nepal (Bardia National Park) in next October. With Alain Pons and Amawanda.
(Sunday, July 26th, 2009)
A friend of mine recently bought a copy of a Japanese wood engraving. While reading this article from BibliOdyssey, about the wood engravings of Kitagawa Utamaro, I thought I should share some of the pictures of this artist.
(Monday, June 29th, 2009)
If you want to know more, you can even buy those horse legs.
(Thursday, June 25th, 2009)
…but I couldn’t fly.
Jose Luis Ortiz has changed it all. He installed a small video camera on one of his royal eagles.
And now, you and me can fly, really fly. Breath-taking! Boarding a plane became so down-to-Earth. I now want to have wings, I want to fly like an eagle…
(Saturday, June 20th, 2009)
I have been publishing some photos from my travel to Kenya last October, but it became apparent to me that I had forgotten to present the photos I took during a short encounter with a serval (Leptailurus serval, previously Felis serval, pronounced /ˈsÉœrvÉ™l/) which is a relatively large-size African wild cat. Amazingly beautiful, it is quite difficult to observe by day. Actually, it’s Alain Pons (our guide and famous wildlife photographer) who called “Stop!” after seeing a pair of ears just a couple of inches above the grass of the Masai Mara. Even, after braking hard, it took us some time to find it again.
| Click on the image to enlarge thumbnails | |
On the last picture, you can notice the black and white pattern of the back of the serval ears. They are considered as a beacon to help kittens follow their mother, giving them very visible indicators that stay invisible from the point of view of their preys.
(Wednesday, April 8th, 2009)

Masque
An advanced civilisation if there was one, Aztecs lived in Central America from IXth Century to XVth Century (when their decline was essentially precipitated by their encounter with the Spanish conquistadores). Many facets of this civilisation stay unknown principally because they were wiped out wy the first European colonizers.
But one aspect stayed deep in the minds because it was an immediate shock to those who were meeting it for the first time: Aztecs practiced extensive human sacrifice when Cortés arrived in America. Rare are the Europeans who observed it first-hand, because it stopped quickly then, but many traces are left for the historian.
Generally, religious reasons (”gods are asking for peace brought to them through human bloodshed in their honor”) are shown as the main driving factor. I found a group of articles quite intersting because they discuss the vertus and weaknesses of another theory: That Aztecs needed to enrich their meals with meat that could only be obtained from cannibalism.
I can’t guarantee the quality of the scientific arguments by myself, but -for the reader with a strong heart- the LatinAmericanStudies.org web site contains historical data about the Aztecs grouped in a quite enthralling scientific package.
Additional references:
(Wednesday, April 1st, 2009)
…up to the point of creating a chocolate-inspired video?
…or up to the point of sacrificing chocolate for the sake of pure art?
No fish for 1st of April!
These are bunnies.
(Sunday, March 22nd, 2009)
Those are the best links I found recently. I could not write a full post about them, but they are worth visiting:
The news as you make it:
Your attention does not stop to 1 post only:
(Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009)
If you want to meet dinosaurs, not only paintings or sculptures, go to the USA, fly to Los Angeles, California. There, in the Los Angeles Natural History Museum, there are free-roaming dinosaurs in the corridors. Not only are these automatons sized impressively, but they intereact with people and kids around them.
Woah! Stunning!
Copyright (c) 1999-2009 - Yves Roumazeilles (all rights reserved)
Latest update: 8-sep-09