I Fell In Love with the Peruvian Amazonia Trees - Los Angeles Travel Photographer

As humid as it felt at the time, it was the (beginning of) dry season in the Peruvian Amazonia.  Contrary to my previous conception, many deciduous trees were bare with no leaves left.  Trying to look through the branches to the sky gives an other-worldly (my client Sylvia loves to use this word when describing my work.  Haha...) feeling.  

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You English (-speaking) people may think of the word silhouette (剪影)。  I, on the other hand, see paper-cut (剪纸) in this image.

What do you think? 

Am I a Wild-Life Photographer? - Los Angeles Travel Photographer

I did not seek to become a wild-life photographer at the beginning of my career.  I knew I wouldn't have the patience, nor the tenacity.  However, life has an interesting way to teach one to never say never.*

My recent travels have brought me to places where I simply could not resist photographing.  I mean, without making a great image, how could you show off your encounter with this black bird, the yellow-hooded blackbird?  In fact, how would you even go about explaining that such a beauty exists, without expending one thousand words? ;-)  That's why, I chose the jump-first-question-later approach.  Aren't you glad I did?  

*My partner Wayne (as in a CPA firm, in my previous life) used to always say "never say never" and it stuck with me for all these years.  I feel that I should give him credit for how I don't ever say never, publicly. :D

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May you Be Happy Like Two Birds - Los Angeles Travel Photographer

Me and my Assistante have been together for so long that, recently, we celebrated a major milestone in our relationship, together (again).  People say when you are happy, time flies.  I'm sure if my partner-in-crime continues to demonstrate excitement in my presence, like the male white-headed marsh tyrant does in this image, we'd have no idea how we fly through the next 20 or 30 years.  Wink, wink...         

This image was made under, kind of, an embarrassing circumstance.  Well, we "missed the boat".  We showed up when everybody had already left.  So, for the two of us, we were given a special skiff and a special guide.  While we certainly had a great time photographing birds at their breakfast time, it's a different feeling when we caught up with the others and we felt like they were all staring at us, at which point I was ready to kick the male bird off the branch, ahem..., skiff.  "But he's so cute", you may say.  "Not when he makes you late", I'd reply.

I still remember what our travel mate Don said when we got together afterwards.  Thank you for being so supportive, Don!

On this expedition trip, we met many couples in great harmony.  Helen and Roy celebrated their 50th anniversary and so did Doc and Barbara.  On the other hand, Ophelia and Louis came on their honeymoon.  Everybody else was somewhere in-between.  

I wanted to dedicate this post to all the love birds that we met and wish you all be happy like birds, the ones in this image! :-)    

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