The Joy of Travel – 2024

2024 was another amazing year for us and our travels. For those of you who followed along, thank you. We love hearing from you as we travel, and your comments on our posts mean a lot!

We kicked off our year with almost a month in Northern India. We traveled with Luminous Journeys and David Lazaar who puts together a fantastic photography based travel program. What we particularly like is the varied subject matter and the inclusion of local models to add impact to our photos. In India we captured everything from iconic locations like the Taj Mahal, to the wild tigers of Ranthambore, to the gritty streets of Varanassi, to camels and dancers in the desert outside of Jaisalmer. We finished our trip with a week of birding in the foothills of the Himalayas with Incredible Birding.

I joined Jeff with the addition of a Sony A1 camera. You may recall a story with the new camera on a cold morning in Sattal, India, photographing birds (Am I a Bird Photographer?). With the camera on silent mode, and gloves on to prevent my hand from freezing I couldn’t really feel the button on the camera.  I accidently took over 5600 images in about hour. Oops…  I learned my lesson and have not made that mistake again. As our photography is now focusing more and more on wildlife, it seemed prudent to add another lens to gear bag (a 300mm f2.8). Okay, instead of “prudent” it was desirable.

With record breaking heat the last few summers in Arizona, we planned our 2024 summer escape. At the end of June we headed north for 6 weeks in the Arctic. Starting in Norway we traveled from Oslo, to Tromso and on the northern most part of continental Europe. But that was only the beginning. We spent 2 weeks exploring Svalbard and the pack ice near the north pole,  before visiting Greenland and returning to Iceland for another 2 weeks.

Having now visited both the Arctic and the Antarctic, we are now considered bi-polar. At the ends of the earth the “fun” thing to do, is to prove how crazy you are by jumping in the icy water. Jeff is not really crazy, one mistake was enough for him, but I couldn’t say no to each opportunity and thus, have completed 4 polar plunges.

Taking the plunge in water colder than ice, 28 degrees

Locally, we enjoyed visits to our local Riparian Reserve, the Desert Botanical Gardens, our local Great Horned Owl nest. And a bit beyond to New Mexico. Lake Powell, Aspens. in Colorado

Many of you follow our blogs, but here a few images that I love, but that didn’t make it to a blog post.

Enjoy!

Icelandic Horses

Icelandic Horse

Tsuchinshan-ATLAS Comet from out backyard

Fall Aspens in Eagle, Colorado

A Day on Lake Powell, Utah

High Key Workshop with Lisa Langell

High Key Workshop with Lisa Langell

Dawn at Bernardo Wildlife Area, New Mexico

Blue Hour – White Sands National Park

Sunset at White Sands National Park

Gilbert Water Ranch: Egret fishes patiently

Gilbert Water Ranch – Cormorant catches breakfast!

 

2025 – New Adventures Await

We have an exciting year planned and hope you join us in spirit and through our blog. In less than a month we head south for a 10-day visit to Cuba. We are looking forward to capturing the amazing antique cars, the old architecture and the people.

At the end of April we head to Asia for two weeks to visit the country of Bhutan, nestled between India and China.

For the summer, we are again planning to escape the heat and return to our favorite place, Iceland.

Finally, in September, we head to China for two weeks. It’s not nearly enough time to see such a large and varied country, but hopefully we see the highlights and have an amazing trip.

Wishing you the best and brightest New Year full of health and joy.

Kathryn and Jeff

Kathryn and Jeff at the top of the world, 80+ degrees north.