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Wedding couple by wall of Emperor Anastas (c500AD), Durres, Albania
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Wedding couple by wall of Emperor Anastas (c500AD), Durres, Albania

  • Yawning grizzly, Khutzeymateen grizzly sanctuary, BC<br /> <br /> I am posting this from the Frankfurt airport. The photo is from the area I just visited in coastal BC, but is one from my archives. The Khutzeymateen <a href="http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/parkpgs/khutzeymateen/">http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/parkpgs/khutzeymateen/</a> is a very remote area with only a handful of visitors permitted each year. The grizzlies have, therefore, experienced very little contact with humans and are more approachable than in areas where they have learned to fear humans. This young grizzly had been feeding along the shore. Photo was taken from the water from a zodiac.
  • Pre-dawn light with zodiac, around 4 am, Rescue Bay, BC
  • Green anemone at low tide with small crab (middle left) and shell bits attached to its body, near McInnes Island, BC<br /> <br /> At low tide these anemones pull in their tentacles and look like a blob on the rock. The sides of their bodies are covered with adhesive structures that attach bits of shell, rock and seaweed. When closed up at low tide the attached material causes the anemone to look like a bed of crushed shell. The bits of debris probably reflect light to keep the anemone cooler and reduce water loss at low tide, or the debris they collect could be dispersing wave action as the tide ebbs and flows each day.
  • Woman sheltering from the rain under the awning of her schooner, Denny Island, BC. (better to see the rain lines at larger sizes)<br /> <br /> I don't often use filters, but did use an angled strokes filter (one of the embedded filters in Adobe CS6) in this photo to emphasize the lines of the rain that was pelting down.....it is the north temperate RAIN forest after all!
  • Ochre sea star (Pisaster ochraceus), near McInnes Island, BC. (This is a 'wild' sea star photographed near McInnes Island, which is a manned lighthouse near the Inside Passage up the coast of British Columbia. A photo of the lighthouse can be seen here: <a href="http://goo.gl/op4XM">http://goo.gl/op4XM</a>).<br /> <br /> Piaster is a keystone species, and is considered an important indicator for the health of the intertidal zone. They feed on mussels and other sea shells. Keystone species play a critical role in maintaining the structure of an ecological community, affecting many other organisms in an ecosystem and helping to determine the types and numbers of various other species in the community. If the sea star is removed from the ecosystem, the mussel population explodes uncontrollably, driving out most other species. Fortunately, we saw lots of these in the coastal water of Northern BC.<br /> <br /> For other intertidal photos (leather star, dead man's fingers, rockweed, giant kelp with kelp crab, sea lettuce) see here: <a href="http://goo.gl/op4XM">http://goo.gl/op4XM</a>
  • Remains of old pier-2 at low tide, Bella Bella, BC<br /> <br /> The tidal range can be over 25 feet at times on the northern BC coast, and at low tide a rich intertidal community is exposed. This old disused pier is covered with barnacles and mussels. For photos of an old tug and a fisheries research boat see here: <a href="http://goo.gl/RknQF">http://goo.gl/RknQF</a>
  • Pacific Coastal seaplane, Bella Bella, BC <br /> <br /> Huge tracts of the mid-coast of British Columbia that comprise the Great Bear Rainforest <a href="http://www.britishcolumbia.com/regions/towns/?townid=4120">http://www.britishcolumbia.com/regions/towns/?townid=4120</a> and the Fiordland Conservancy <a href="http://www.britishcolumbia.com/parks/?id=24">http://www.britishcolumbia.com/parks/?id=24</a> are roadless wilderness, composed of myriad islands and long deep fjords. The area, and its few small communities, are only accessible by boat and by seaplane. The area and its abundant wildlife are at risk from tanker traffic if the Enbridge pipeline development goes forward <a href="http://wcel.org/our-work/tar-sands-tankers-pipelines-0">http://wcel.org/our-work/tar-sands-tankers-pipelines-0</a>. Information about trips to this area can be found here: <a href="http://www.oceanadventures.bc.ca/">http://www.oceanadventures.bc.ca/</a>
  • Our boat, Great Bear II at the wharf at Bella Bella,BC<br /> <br /> Had a little window of internet access, so thought I would post a pic of our boat.
  • Boy and his puppy in the family hut, Bodauna Is, Laughlan Islands, PNG<br /> <br /> The Laughlan Islands are a small group of islands (hard to find, even on Google Earth. Hint, search for Bodelun Island to the ESE of Woodlark Island). They are the outermost part of the Kula Ring.<br /> <br /> I'm off tomorrow to explore my 'back yard', the Great Bear Rainforest <a href="http://www.britishcolumbia.com/regions/towns/?townid=4120">http://www.britishcolumbia.com/regions/towns/?townid=4120</a>) and the Fiordland Conservancy <a href="http://www.britishcolumbia.com/parks/?id=24">http://www.britishcolumbia.com/parks/?id=24</a>. This is one of the largest remaining tracts of unspoiled temperate rainforest in the world. The area is home to grizzly bears, humpback whales, cougars, wolves, salmon, and the Kermode ("spirit") bear, a unique subspecies of the black bear, in which one in ten cubs display a recessive white coloured coat. This area also contains the traditional territories of three First Nations Peoples, the Heltsiuk,the Kitasoo/Xai'xais, and the Gitga'at People. <br /> <br /> There is no internet of cell phone service throughout most of this area, so I won't be posting or commenting until my return, when my Melanesian series will continue, interspersed with (hopefully) interesting photos from the coastal fjords of BC. <br /> <br /> I have made the whole Kitava Island gallery public for those who might want to browse them during my absence: <a href="http://goo.gl/7nbxI">http://goo.gl/7nbxI</a>, and if you have time to leave a comment, even better!
  • Boys doing 'cricket' dance, Kitava Island, Trobriand Islands, PNG<br /> <br /> Trobriand cricket<br /> This photo shows a dance centered around the fascinating story of Trobriand cricket. Missionaries were disturbed by the overt sexual activities associated with yam competitions and yam celebrations and dances (for explanation see here <a href="http://goo.gl/G2ZAB">http://goo.gl/G2ZAB</a>). So they introduced the islanders to the game of cricket as a means of diverting their attention away from these other activities. The Trobriands enjoyed cricket a lot, and foiled the missionaries by adapting cricket competition to resemble the yam competitions and dances. So cricket acquired sexual overtones, and one team taunts the other and displays their physical and sexual prowess (e.g., with much pelvic thrusting) to the women on the sidelines. Other photos of Trobriand cricket can be seen here: <a href="http://goo.gl/ACpQu">http://goo.gl/ACpQu</a>
  • King of the castle (best seen at larger sizes).<br /> <br /> Boys climbing on a piece of dead coral at low tide, Kitava Island, Trobriand Islands, PNG<br /> <br /> As a follow up to a previous post ( <a href="http://goo.gl/zGy7L">http://goo.gl/zGy7L</a> ), there is an interesting explanation of how the young girls can be sexually active, but have very low pregnancy rates. It all has to do with yams. It is almost impossible to overestimate the importance of yams to the Trobriand culture, and the production of yams is a focus of daily life. A lot of time and energy is spent growing yams, celebrating the harvest, and storing yams. Yams are a source of both food and wealth, and yams are a medium of exchange. Yams are grown by men who spend tremendous effort on growing their yam gardens, not for themselves, but to give to women (recall that this is a matrilineal society). Once the yams are harvested they are displayed for all to see before they are turned over to the woman they have been grown for. <br /> <br /> Yams and marriage are significantly linked, and it is only after a man and woman have eaten yams together that they are considered to be married. There are complicated relationships between families centered around the growing and acquisition of yams (too complicated to describe here), and after harvest there are yam festivals and yam competitions, accompanied by much sexuality.<br /> <br /> So what does this have to do with pregnancy? It turns out that yams contain phytoestrogens and plant sterols whose effects are contraceptive. The chemist Carl Djerassi synthesized a key ingredient for oral contraceptives (the long-acting progesterone compound norethindrone) from chemicals he extracted from yams in the 1950s, and this research led to the development of birth control pills. So societies that have high yam consumption (including parts of Mexico) experience reduced conception as a side effect. The autobiography that Dr. Djerassi wrote, “The Pill, Pygmy Chimps and Degas’ Horse”, describes the discovery of the birth control pill, and it makes fascinating reading. <br /> <br /> More new photos can be seen here: <a href="http://goo.gl/47FLK">http://goo.gl/47FLK</a><br /> <br /> In answer to comments: yams (Dioscoreaceae, yellow/white colour) and sweet potatoes(Convolvuaceae, orange colour) are often confused in grocery stores, but belong to completely different families of plants. <br /> This large rock is probably a piece of coral rubble that was thrown up into shallow water by a huge storm.
  • Portrait diptych of a girl and a boy, Kitava Island,Trobriand Islands, PNG<br /> <br /> I saw the opportunity for putting these two photos together so the boy seems to be giving the girl an admiring look!<br /> <br /> One of the big challanges shooting in the field on Kitava Island, and indeed for all the rest of my trip, was our arrival, according to the proper protocols for visiting, at a time of day when there were severe contrasts between light and shadows. In order to get anything even vaguely usable, I was shooting RAW files, with their greater dynamic range, underexposing by up to -2, and using flash fill for almost all images, and trying to get close enough so the flash would reach. I also tried wherever possible to pose subjects in the shade, but the Kitava dancers were performing in the sun. Then I did a lot of processing in Adobe Camera Raw 7.1 and Photoshop CS6 to further adjust the light and shadows to get the final product. Without RAW files, flash fill, ACR and CS6 I would have had to trash pretty much everything!<br /> <br /> Did I succeed? How would you have handled this? Critiques welcome. See other new photos here: <a href="http://goo.gl/rIcQO">http://goo.gl/rIcQO</a><br /> <br /> In response to eyeshots comment, normally I don't process a lot, but the difficult lightening circumstances here made it necessary. Sometimes you don't have the opportunity, or the equipment handy, to set up the shots you want with the quality of lightening you want - so it's processing or no photos. Other than working on the highlights and shadows, these images were not otherwise altered in any way (they weren't even digitally sharpened), and National Geographic accepts that it is OK to crop, and to adjust shadow and highlights in the material that they take.
  • Dog greeter, Kitava Island, Trobriand Islands, PNG<br /> <br /> This Kitava Island dog waded out to greet us. I figured that this photo was unlikely to offend anyone, even though the dog IS naked, LOL. Some interesting research on the Kitava Island diet/health connection has recently been published, which I have summarized below. <br /> <br /> Kitava island and the other Trobriand islands are famous not only for their culture but also for their huge yam gardens, controlled by matrilineal clans, and important in their culture and traditions. They have no electricity, no cars, and no outboard motors on boats. The people are most subsistence horticulturalists. <br /> <br /> In 1989, Swedish researcher Staffan Lindeberg and his team identified Kitava Island as being one of the last populations on Earth where dietary habits match that of the original inhabitants of the island several thousand years ago, as early as 23,000 BP (before present). Sixty-nine percent of their calories come from carbohydrate, 21% from fat and 10% from protein; this is essentially a carbohydrate-heavy version of the paleolithic diet. Lindeberg found that the residents of Kitava live exclusively on root vegetables (yam, sweet potato, taro, tapioca), fruit (banana, papaya, pineapple, mango, guava, water melon, pumpkin), vegetables, fish and coconuts. Less than 0.2% of their caloric intake came from Western food, such as edible fats, dairy products, sugar, cereals, and alcohol (compared with roughly 75% in Western society). Their fat consumption (from coconuts), while low, is high in saturated fat and they have high intakes of vitamins, minerals and soluble fibre, and a low salt consumption. <br /> <br /> Lindeberg's studies of the islanders showed that Kitava Island has a fair number of older residents, none of whom show signs of dementia or poor memory. Death is due to accidents such as drowning or falling from a coconut tree, homicide, malaria, complications of pregnacy and old age. The islanders have undetectable levels of cardiovascular disease, stroke and overweight and they have low blood pressure and no acne. Sounds like a pretty healthy diet to me!<br /> <br /> Pictures of large groups islanders can be seen here: <a href="http://goo.gl/WXzCX">http://goo.gl/WXzCX</a><br /> <br /> 135 mm, 1/640 sec, f11, ISO 160
  • Wedding couple by wall of Emperor Anastas (c500AD), Durres, Albania
  • Portrait of a girl-6, Kitava Island, Trobriand Islands, PNG<br /> <br /> The Trobrianders practice many magic spells, and the spells for beauty are are chanted into coconut oil, and then a person rubs it onto their skin, or into flowers and herbs that decorate their armbands and hair, as you can see here. (This apparently works even for 'ugly' people).<br /> <br /> In the early 1900s, the anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski lived for several years with the Trobriand Islands and he wrote a series of groundbreaking books that still make entertaining reading today. A short summary of Malinowski’s observations can be read here: <a href="http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/savagesex">http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/savagesex</a>.<br /> <br /> In Malinowski book ‘The Sexual Life of Savages’ he describes the fascinating sexual customs of the islanders where girls as young as 6-8 start freely having sex, and boys as young at 10-12 years old. As in this photo, the girls went topless, although this is now starting to change due to the influence of the missionaries.<br /> <br /> Malinowski describes how, despite having sex from an early age, the girls rarely get pregnant, and the people don’t believe that sex is the cause of pregnancy. They believe that when people die their spirit takes a canoe to the island of Tuma, and when their spirit get old it shrugs off its skin and turns into an embryo, which a spirit takes back to the island of the living and inserts into a woman and makes her pregnant. Apparently this belief in the lack of connection between sex and pregnancy can still be found today. Since they don’t believe that sex causes pregnancy, there is no concept of fatherhood and the society is matrilineal since you can always be sure who your mother is, even if there is no ‘father’. However the mother’s husband shows great care and concern for the children.<br /> <br /> Malinowski’s work influenced the young Margaret Mead, whose famous book “Coming of Age in Samoa” influenced the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Her description of matrilineal societies such as the Trobriand Islands (‘Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies’) was the cornerstone of the feminist movement.<br /> <br /> Some other portraits of Trobriand girls can be seen here: <a href="http://goo.gl/92JRv">http://goo.gl/92JRv</a><br /> <br /> 125 mm, 1/125 sec, f11, ISO 280, flash fill
  • Portrait of a young girl in a tree, Dobu Island, D'Entrecasteaux Islands, PNG<br /> <br /> This girl caught my eye, not only for her perch in a tree, but for her bright dress that picked up the colours of the leaves behind her, and for her wide eyed expression of interest in our party of visitors.<br /> <br /> Arctangent remarked that many of the villagers are wearing western clothing. William Henry Bromilow, an Australian, was the founder of the Methodist mission in British New Guinea in 1891. Because of its central position, and the prestige of its inhabitants among their neighbours, Dobu Island was chosen as his headquarters. Bromilow established mission stations throughout the D'Entrecasteaux and Trobriand Islands and the Louisiade Archipelago, as well as boarding schools for girls and boys, and a training institution for local teachers and pastors. Like so many missionaries in those days, he did not approve of many of the values and customs of the Melanesian peoples and he helped to destroy traditional customs wherever they conflicted with his own moral standards. We noticed a negative correlation in the various islands between the presence of women with bared breasts (which is traditional) and the 'civilizing' influence of missionaries.<br /> <br /> The Bromilow Memorial is located on Dobu Island and a couple of photos of it can be seen here: <a href="http://goo.gl/23cF1">http://goo.gl/23cF1</a>. These are the last of the photos from Dobu Island; next stop the Trobriand Islands, the famous 'love' islands of Margaret Mead. <br /> <br /> 112 mm, 1/125 sec, f 6.3, ISO 640, flash fill
  • Outrigger canoe sailing off Dobu Island, D'Entrecasteaux Islands, PNG<br /> <br /> The Melanesians have been building and sailing outrigger canoes long distances for thousands of years and this photos shows a good example of one of their double ended sailing outrigger canoes. It has a boomed lateen rig and this, combined with the double end, means it can be sailed in either direction. It is steered by using the paddle as a rudder (see the technique at large sizes). The sail is made of some kind of polypropylene.<br /> <br /> Another view of the canoe and other Dobu Island photos can be seen here: <a href="http://goo.gl/VXOdw">http://goo.gl/VXOdw</a><br /> <br /> Re the comments about perspective, I was standing on the deck of our ship when the outrigger sailed by.<br /> 250 mm, 1/250 sec, f 11, ISO 250
  • Warrior dance where local girls are 'kidnapped', Dobu Is, D'Entrecasteaux Islands, PNG<br /> <br /> Sorry, my day got away from me (I was triple booked!), so not much time left for comments!<br /> <br /> See more photos from Dobu Island here: <a href="http://goo.gl/XU5VS">http://goo.gl/XU5VS</a><br /> <br /> According to the anthropologist, Nancy Sullivan: "Relations between men and women were managed almost entirely by magic. Without a love charm to arouse and create desire, desire does not exist to the Dobuan. Men and women mate, he (Reo Fortune) reported, only because men are constantly exerting magical power over women, and women over men. But this custom made men and women wildly jealous of each other. If their own natural charms were not enough to draw and hold a mate, then they were constantly searching for and testing out counter-magic to deflect competitors and win over the wayward affections of their mate. Needless to say, the pursuit of happiness was anything but peaceful. It created malicious rivalries with suspicions of poisoning and even death between rivals, lovers, spouses and their families.<br /> <br /> 82 mm, 1/100 sec, f 6.3, ISO 640, flash fill
  • Portrait of a father and child, Dobu Island, PNG<br /> <br /> Besides the male sorcerers, the Dobuan women also had a reputation for casting powerful witchcraft. Reo Fortune wrote in 1930 "The women of Dobu do actually possess…incantations which they believe enable them to fly by night to make mischief, to kill, to dance upon the graves of their former victims, to disinter their victims and in spirit hold ghoulish feasting on them. Meanwhile, the woman as 'an empty skin' stays asleep in her house."<br /> <br /> See other new photos from Dobu Island here: <a href="http://goo.gl/I69Pt">http://goo.gl/I69Pt</a><br /> <br /> 100 mm, 1/100 sec, f 6.3, ISO 640, Flash fill
  • So this is what all the fuss is about! (more photos from Dobu Island can be seen here <a href="http://goo.gl/kiJTu">http://goo.gl/kiJTu</a>)<br /> <br /> Shirley Campbell with kula necklace (center) and two bracelets (either end). Shirley is an anthropologist who is a notable expert on the Kula Trade; she wrote the book "The Art of Kula". The valuable (kula) parts of the necklaces are the two round shell arm bands (which are male), and the red beads on the necklace (which are female). The rest of the stuff is attached decorations. Over time a man gains fame and prestige by transacting shells of high quality (= high rank). The oldest, largest, highest rank Conus shells have unique names. Only large shells can move up through the ranks to achieve fame and unique personal identities. You can tell their age by their color. New shells are white and the older ones gather a yellow, then red patina as they are handled. So the shell on the right of the photo is more valuable since it is larger and darker coloured. The necklaces are made of red spondylus shell. A high ranking shell string is very thin and very smooth from repeated handling. Some high ranked name shells have been circulating continuously for 100 years or more, and serve as a medium for fostering relationships between people. OK, enough about the kula stuff, already; Dobu has some cool witches that I'll tell you about in another post.<br /> <br /> I'm really chuffed that some of my work is profiled in the new issue of Jim Zukerman's Photo Insights Magazine. Jim is a world-renowned professional photographer, and I can certainly recommend his on-line magazine for all the wonderfully helpful tips that he gives to photographers each month. There is a link to all the previous issues near the back of this month's issue. <a href="http://issuu.com/jimzuckerman/docs/june__13">http://issuu.com/jimzuckerman/docs/june__13</a> edit

  • fotoeffects

    on June 19, 2013

    Terrific!

  • TinaMarie Gardner

    on June 19, 2013

    great wedding portrait

  • Katherine Witrick

    on June 19, 2013

    lovely shot

  • dalystock

    on June 18, 2013

    great comp... love the extra character on the wall in the background:)

  • Ed Murray

    on June 18, 2013

    Wonderful shot!!!

  • johnchapmanphotographer

    on June 18, 2013

    Hi Terry, this is a Superb picture.

  • BruceSmith

    on May 27, 2013

    Wonderful contrast between old and new - and well captured!

  • Art Hill

    on May 27, 2013

    Don't get discouraged. I have long thought that there is no red thumber, just a bug in smugmug software. I've never heard once shred of evidence that pictures disappearing and then reappearing is caused by the so-called snake. Lots of anecdotes, no comments from smugmug, etc.
    In any case the vast majority of us love your stuff so don't bail.

  • PAULBELLINGERSR

    on May 27, 2013

    Nice work Terry.

  • fotoeffects

    on May 27, 2013

    Beautiful wedding shot and the shot of the young Melanesion girl is lovely! It is a shame that any one person thinks they have the right to decide for all the rest of us what we will view.

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