Death Valley

Photo by Larry Schectman

In December I participated in a photo workshop in Death Valley given by Brenda Tharp.  (That's her on the left in the photo above. I'm on the right.)

This was a wonderful experience.  Brenda is a natural born teacher and the half dozen other participants were intelligent and interesting. They were also darned good photographers.  I was stretched and challenged to look at things a new way.

At the end of the workshop, I made a list of 9 specific new things I learned.  Since I have been taking photographs since 1947, it's either that I'm stupid or Brenda's a good teacher.  I prefer to think the latter.

You can see a small portfolio of my work here.

Galápagos

We are back from ten days in the Galápagos Islands with our children and grandchildren.  It was an ideal trip that captivated the interest of all of us, particularly the grandchildren.  We snorkeled, we hiked, we cruised on zodiak boats, and we canoed.  We were busy every minute and never bored.  Combining the fact that our family likes to be together with all the interesting experiences, it was an ideal trip.

A few impressions:  The non-inhabited islands are pristine.  We never saw as much as a scrap of paper. The beaches were clear of any footprints when we landed.  The Ecuadorian government is doing an excellent job of preserving the islands.  They put our National Park system to shame.

Like Antarctica, humans never inhabited these islands.  The animals have no fear of them.  Lizards, sea lions, birds, every living thing ignores us.  This came home when a dozen of us were looking at a male land iguana from about 6 feet away.  He ignored us.  Then he suddenly bristled and made threatening noises when he saw another male iguana approaching about 30 feet away.

You can view my nature photos here.

Toronto

In 1833, my great great grandfather John Moule had a small imported goods store in York, Canada on King Street at the corner of Bay.  At that time, York (now Toronto) had a population of about 9,000.  I do not know what John's store looked like then.  The population of Toronto now is 2.7 million and John's store location is occupied by a 27 story high skyscraper seen in the above photo.

Katherine and her two sisters had their annual reunion in Toronto at the end of June.  We had a particularly good meal at George on Queen Street a short walk from the city center.  It was worth the Walk!  The food was outstanding and that's saying a lot since we had just arrived from a week of dining in Paris, France.  We had the 5 course tasting menu with wine pairing.  Hands down, this was the most brilliant and exciting wine pairing we have ever experienced.  All in all I would say that George is comparable to and equal to Eleven Madison Park in New York City and one of the best five restaurants in North America.

Paris Restaurant Reviews

We returned to Paris to celebrate our 55th anniversary and stayed at our favorite little hotel (L' Hotel) in the 6th arrondissement. (Photo of the entrance above.)

As you might expect, we went to a few restaurants:

Benoit  This is a traditional traditional bistrot now under the tender loving care of Alain Ducasse.  The food is wonderful.  The froglegs were fresh and the second best we have ever had.  (The best were served in a small, nondescript, restaurant in Chartres in 1970.)  The service is attentive and polite.  The ambiance is very typical.  That's the good news.  The bad news is that if you are an American you will sit in the front room with all the other Americans.

Ze Kitchen Gallery  Their specialty is small plates of very creative and unexpected combinations.  We loved it when we ate there two years ago. This time the food seemed somewhat less imaginative and more filling. Still good, but not sparkling.

L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon Etoile  For really exciting food, this restaurant stood head and shoulders above the rest. We had small plates of unusual combinations, many of which were labor intensive.  We sat the bar looking at the kitchen.  

Le Restaurant This is the restaurant in L'Hotel.  It has one Michelin star and half of the clientele are locals, not hotel guests.  A very reliable and comfortable place.

Brasserie Lipp  To begin with, Lipp serves heavy, traditional, Alsatian food with emphasis on charcuterie. One senses that the menu has not changed since 1912. The decor probably has not changed since then either.  The servers are efficient and brusque. You don't go to Lipp for the food.  You go because more than any other place you feel that you are in Paris.  You can find restaurants in the US and Canada comparable to the others we visited.  I doubt that you could find anything in America comparable to Brasserie Lipp.

Le Meurice We saved the most elegant restaurant for last and dined there on our 55th anniversary. Meurice is one of the few remaining examples of the grand Paris restaurant offering the finest in food, ambiance, and service.  The word elegance applies. I won't attempt to describe the plethora of little amuse bouches along the way.  Cepes were a specialty that night and Katherine and I both had them for a first course.   For a second course, Katherine had Langoustine.  I had Bresse chicken with champagne sauce.  Then there was a cheese course and we finished with a rhubarb tart.  The meal was preceded by a glass or two of Sancerre and accompanied by a 2005 Gevry-Chambertin.  This all took three and a half hours.

On a Tiger Photo Safari in India with Suzi Eszterhas

I'm back from three weeks photographing tigers and other wild animals in India.  (Katherine stayed home.) This was one of the most interesting and enjoyable trips I have ever taken.  There were a total of ten photographers including myself. They were an intelligent and interesting group and a pleasure to travel with.  The trip was highly successful in terms of the number and quality of photos taken. This is due to the experience and management skill of our leader, Suzi Eszterhas.  She knows when and where to go and has the contacts with the best drivers and guides to find the animals.

(In the photo above, Suzi is the lady in the light blue shirt on the smaller elephant.)

I have seen many wild animals in Africa, Norway, Alaska, and the American West, but nothing is as exciting as the sudden appearance of a Bengal Tiger.  They are not only colorful but they are also the largest of the big cats.  The male Bengal is considerably larger than a lion.

A couple of things that I learned:

• It's wise to carry two cameras, one at the ready to snap a few photos if a tiger suddenly appears and a second on a tripod with a big lens for careful photography if the tiger sticks around.
• Instead of single exposures, set your camera to take 3 to 5 frames a second and blaze away.  The tiger might blink, the elephant or vehicle you are sitting on might move, you might flinch.  With more frames, the chances are better that you will have a sharp one.
• Riding on elephants or riding in vehicles on roads are equally effective in finding and photographing tigers.  
• Photographing tigers is a lot like fishing for trout or salmon.  There will be good days and bad days. Success is part luck and part skill.  In a fishing group there will be one or two who have caught a lot and one or two who have not caught many yet.  It's the same with a group photographing tigers.

All in all, I ended up with a total of couple hundred photos of about a dozen tigers.  Most photos were poor sightings of tigers partially obscured by grass and brush. A handful of photos were much better than I ever expected. Eventually, I will put up a site with a portfolio of images.  For the time being, here is a male Bengal tiger.

During the trip, Suzi conducted lessons on using Photoshop to improve the quality of wildlife photos.  The net result is that I have learned new techniques and have gained appreciation of a higher standard of quality.  I need time to process the photos that I have taken before publishing.

Steve Jobs

One of my children asked why I had not written anything on my blog about Steve Jobs.  My answer was that I could not think of anything to say that had not already been said (and by better writers than me).

Then, to my surprise, I thought of two things:

#1.  For some years, I have noticed some parallels between Jobs and my grandfather, Jim Crawford, Chief Engineer of Chevrolet.

• Grandfather often mentioned his lifelong argument with GM's marketing department.  They perpetually asked him how he could design what would sell without market surveys to discover what the public wanted.  His answer was always (his words), "How do they know what they want until they see what we have to give them?"
• After Jobs returned to Apple, he built the business to the point that Apple's market value surpassed Microsoft - the dominant company in the industry.  Grandfather joined Chevrolet in 1929. By 1936, his redesigned Chevrolet outsold Ford - the dominant company in the industry.
• Neither Jobs nor my Grandfather graduated from college.  Jobs dropped out after one semester and audited whatever classes interested him for a while.  My grandfather never entered college.  After High School he trained to be an artist at the Art Institute of Chicago.

#2. Politicians and other pundits who have never run a business like to tell us that businessmen are scared to hire or borrow to grow their business because they are uncertain about future government policy and regulations.  Steve Jobs never complained that he couldn't grow Apple Computer because he was uncertain about future government policy and regulations.

Back from Siberia

(It's worth clicking on this photo to increase its size and see the detail.)

We are back from taking the Trans-Siberian Express across Mongolia and Siberia to Moscow.  We caught the Express by flying to Beijing and then taking a Chinese train to intersect the Trans-Sberian line.  After Moscow we took a high speed train to St. Petersburg where we stayed for three days before staying home.

The picture above was taken from the north shore of Lake Baikal in the general vicinity of Irkutsk, looking at a small river just before it enters the lake.  The fall foliage - largely birch trees here - was at its peak.  We got off the train and had a Barbecue dinner at the spot where this was taken.

This trip ties with Antarctica as the most stimulating, beautiful, mind expanding, and difficult trip we have ever taken.  The cabin in the train was tiny.  Between the cramped sleeping space and a lot of physical exercise walking every day we were reminded of camping out.  The exertion was worth it.

We had never taken a National Geographic trip before and were pleasantly surprised that our fellow travelers were so interesting and congenial.  The friendships we made were one of the best aspects of the trip.

I have put up a few photos at the this site: