Beetle on plant stems at the Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas, USA.
Please comment if you know what type of beetle this is. Help identify birds, insects, plants… in other photos of mine.
Related: Cicada and Discarded Shell – Neon Green Catepillar – Japanese Beetle
This is a photo (by my father) of my early experience with vanlife. My family took this VW Van in Kenya when I was a kid. We only spent a couple weeks in Kenya before living in Nigeria for a school year.
I remember at one point getting stuck in a dried out riverbed in a game park after having passed a small herd of elephants just a short while before. We had to get out and push the van free and watch it zoom forward to safe ground while I thought about the elephants getting curios and deciding to see what the fuss was about. It was quite fun once I was back in the van.
Related: Exploring Vanlife in the USA – Cheetahs in Kenya – Kenya Game Park Safari photos – Elephants, Kenya (on a later trip)
Photo of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington DC. Most of the photo shows a reflection in the shining granite of the memorial. The memorial has the names of those Americans killed during the war engraved into the face (which can be seen in the photo if you look closely).
If you look closely you can see a reflection of the Washington Monument.
Related: Arlington National Cemetery – Rice Drying on the Street, Hoi An, Vietnam – White House West Wing Entrance –
Common sandpipers on the beach in Tanjung Piai National Park – the Southernmost Point in Continental Asia (near Johor Bahru, Malaysia and Singapore).
The Birds look like they are the “common sandpiper” to me but please comment if you have an accurate identification.
Related: White Raptor near Manaus, Brazil – Egyptian Geese for Sale Outside Cairo – Orangutan with a Baby Orangutan in a Tree, Borneo – Petronas Towers, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Most of the posts on this blog are just photos. This post is a bit different in that it is a post about taking photos.
I actually owned a camera that used film. The barrier to talking multiple photos was much greater then – not only the cost but also you only have so many shots left so you can’t “waste” too many. Digital cameras are great for quite a few reasons but one of the best is how easy it is to just snap a bunch of photos and hope some are great.
You really can make quite a bit better photos without much effort. Just paying a bit of attention to good photos can help a great deal.
John Hunter, Bryce National Park
One thing I find amusing is selfies actually take advantage of something good photographers knew a long time ago. To get good photos of people put them in the foreground. You still see it today, but it was much more common (like 98% of these type of photos), where the people are tiny dots next to some tourist attraction. Selfies go a bit overboard with putting the person in the foreground (most of the time) but they are often better than the tiny dot people photos.
I still remember the photo a professional photographer took of my grandparents at their house where I saw this lesson and have remembered it since. The people were put at the front of the yard so they took up a good 50% of the photo but it was staged to capture their home of 40 years. So often this type of photo is with the people little dots in front of the house with the framing of the house nearly the same.
This photo of an Orangutan with baby was taken by John Hunter at Semenggoh National Park in Borneo, Malaysia. See more photos, information and a video of these 2 orangutans.
The photos on this blog are by John Hunter. See many more of my photos organized by tag at Curious Cat Photos.
Related: Grasshopper Eating a Leaf – Elephants at a salt lick in Kenya – Lintang Trail, Bako National Park, Sarawak, Borneo
Santubong Jungle Trek, Mount Santubong, Damai, Borneo, Malaysia.
Quite a wonderful hike that is very steep as you climb to the summit (the longest steep climb I have ever done, by far). This photo is taken on the trail that runs along the base of the mountain.
Related: Orangutans in Sarawak, Borneo – Lintang Trail, Bako National Park, Sarawak, Borneo – Fungus on Tree, Appalachian Trail, USA
Sewu temple is the second largest Buddhist temple in Indonesia, Borobudur is the largest. The Sewa temple is located in the Prambanan temple complex in Yogyakarta, Indonesia (about 1 km away from Prambanan temple). They are rebuilding many of the temples on the site which now lie in ruins.
Candi Sewu was likely built in the 8th century as the royal palace at the end of the Rakai Panangkaran kingdom.
Related: Buddha Statues, Borobudur Temple, Java, Indonesia – Banteay Srei temple, Cambodia – Grand Palace, Bangkok, Thailand
View of Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountain National Park is as wonderful as you would expect. Amazing views, great hiking. Wonderful place. This photo is from the Calapyso Cascade trail (starting from the Allens Park trailhead), which is a great hike.
Related: View of Rocky Mountains from Mesa Trail, Boulder, Colorado – Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde National Park
