No Animal was Harmed in this Shooting - Los Angeles Travel Photographer

Having lost (almost) our last tie to modern development, we set sail for Falkland Islands.  While many of us set our eyes on the anticipated encounters with various types of penguins on this trip, I got to meet pintado petrels and giant petrels for the first time.  Being the opportunistic feeders, giant petrels, when at sea, often follow fishing fleets in the hope of picking up offal.  With a wingspan of up to nearly 7 feet (83 inches), their glide on the surface of ocean, in gusty wind, seemed effortless.

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While being busy following the ever-swift movements of the birds and, at times, being mesmerized in the almost dance-like creation of the ocean, I found myself somehow caught (or rather, involved) in a "serial" shooting.  What a busy day that was!  

And, I felt that I have to put the disclaimer out there: with three "shooters" that you see, nobody was harmed - not a wild life, nor a person.

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Ushuaia, End of the World, Beginning of Everything - Los Angeles Travel Photographer

I was nervous the day that we left Buenos Aires for Ushuaia.  It was the day that we were leaving behind everything that we've been brought up on and lived with.  Once boarding the ship on our voyage of the Antarctica, we'd be, pretty much, fending for ourselves in the mass bodies of ocean.

Despite the area being the habitat of The Selk’nam Indians, the Yaghan (also known as Yámana), since 10,000 years ago, the city is so remote that it was once occupied by two prisons and was built by the prisoners.  

The nerve was somewhat quenched by a cruise in the Beagle Channel before bidding good-bye to the city that's long been regarded as being the southernmost city in the world.  Little did I know at the time that it was the beginning of a wildlife paradise that I was about to enter.  As some puts it, Ushuaia is at the end of the world, and yet the beginning of everything.  

Stay tuned for more stories.  In the meantime, please feel free to visit our ever-growing image galleries, including that of Argentina. 

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Keeping the Past Alive Today - Los Angeles Travel Photographer

A much welcomed surprise in my kitchen recently had me think about this trip to the area in China that's known for this type of food for centuries.  Granted, I'm a trained microbiologist (that happened in one of my past lives), the whole thing about tofu being covered by cotton-like fluff that originated from the air is just mythical.  Even after tasting the food there, and even having watched the documentary by CCTV1 (China's national TV station), it's beyond my wildest imagination to create something like these cotton balls in my own kitchen.

In my mind, this food belongs to a place and people where it carries hundreds of years of history, where tofu (and many other types of food) is still sold on carrying poles, clothes dried in the open air and laundry done in the pond in front of their houses that were constructed and carved back in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and don't forget the  Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.  OK, this last part was a joke with you all.  But the movie was filmed there.

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Then, on my journey to seek traditional food preparation methods, the cotton balls made their presence in the most unexpected way in my house, on a fine spring day.  It seems they've been around all this time, including the years after the trip while I constantly reminisce about the incredible food, only waiting for the prime opportunity to debut.  So, is it the mental readiness that it's waiting for or that I started drying clothes in the open air?  Enlighten me, please.     

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