SYLVIA PATTON - 2019 - 2021 - CALENDAR EXTRAS

You have a choice for JANUARY 2021! The photo above is taken on Chiloe Island. It is one of Chile's largest islands, and a fascinating place to visit. These houses on stilts are found in Castro, along with unique wooden UNESCO World Heritage Churches. The churches were made by shipbuilders in the 17th-18th centuries and are made entirely of native wood, down to the wooden pegs used instead of nails. Two are pictured below. You can always use google to find out more! MOVING ON TO 2021 AND ANOTHER JANUARY 2021 Above :This image was captured in Zion National Park in February of 2013. Below: A wider view of the location where the image was taken, along with an image that didn't make it. Some images have an inherent flaw, as calendars go - they are vertical images! Above: Death Valley floor from Dante's View Below: Abstract takenfrom Zabriskie Point - JANUARY 2021 Below: Two wider views from Zabriskie Point. ...

        December is a photo of a guanaco - (guan-A-co) - a camelid, but not a llama, not an alpaca, and not a vicuña.  So what's the difference, you may well ask! All are from the species camelid, with the guanaco and the vicuña being wild, while the llama and the alpaca have been domesticated. All live in the southern altiplano of South America, with the guanaco being found further south. This one was photographed in the Torres del Paine National Park in Argentina. Llamas, descended from the guanacos, are the largest, and are primarily used as pack animals as its wool is not as fine as the alpaca. The wool from the smaller alpaca is quite soft and makes wonderful sweaters, etc. The wild vicuña has an even finer wool, and due to this, and its relative scarcity, is quite expensive. The guanaco has a coarse coat and is not prized for its wool, like the vicuña.      This video explains in more detail the similarities and differences among the four: ...

This will be a November to remember, having absolutely nothing to do with this calendar! NOVEMBER, with its snow and rock design is a distraction from that "other" reality. You  couldn't be further from the angst of the election than this: on the deck of the Nat. Geo. Explorer in Southern Patagonia, looking up at this wonderful vision. Think about that! How far away it seems, even in "normal" times, let alone 2020! Snow, ice, rocks, trees - all form wonderful patterns for us to contemplate. So I thought I'd take this opportunity to introduce 2021's theme, as it continues this idea of design in nature.  Some images are iconic. You see them and immediately know where they were taken. Others, as the one above, could be from anywhere, well - anywhere really cold! In next year's  calendar you will find images from a number of travel destinations. Some you can figure out where they were taken, others you will not be able to identify the location by viewing...

                                                                                                                     REFLECTIONS Reflections are wonderful when the water is calm, the light is bright, and the sky is clear. The conditions were perfect for his early morning shot on a calm Chilean fjord. Even better because at this early hour there was only one other photographer out and about.  Peace, tranquility, beauty, sigh! You have seen a few other images from this fjord in earlier months, so I thought I'd look through the archives and find some other reflections. I immediately thought of the photo below, which was taken at Convict Lake in the Ea...

                                                                                      Sunrise - Moonset      SEPTEMBER  was shot upon arrival at the small town of Tortel, Chile. The town has a population of about 500, but has been in existence since pre-historic times. Hernando de Magallenes was the first European to visit in 1520.      The town can only be accessed by the fjord. The houses are scattered along the fjord, and among the trees in the sloping forest. They are connected with a series of boardwalks and bridges made of cypress. Otherwise the only access would be long walks through the forrest.      Walking these boardwalks in the early morning was a delight. The ...

                                                                     The Bernal Glacier up close and personal! As mentioned last month, this glacier is at the end of a fjord. We had the fortune of traversing it just after sunrise. Smooth as glass, the fjord was full of  reflections as you saw in July's photo.  At the end of the fjord, we were able to land and explore the toe of the glacier.                                                                                                   ...

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY EVERYONE! BERNAL GLACIER      Bernal Glacier lies at the end of the fjord, Seno Montañas (Fjord of the Mountains). The fjord is 41 miles long and has mountain ranges on either side - the Cordillera Sarimiento to the west, and Cordillera Riesco to the east. We reached the upper end of the fjord just after sunrise. Traveling the still waters in the early morning, watching the reflections of the Cordilleras on both sides, was all that I could ask for. As it was early, not many folks out and about - just myself, racing madly from side to side, and National Geographic photographer, Rich Reid, setting up his time lapse iPhones. Heaven!     This fjord, and the glacier, will show up in later months as it was a truly spectacular  photographic experience. For now, I'll include some of the views of the fjord as we approach the Bernal Glacier.  From a distance Looking back Approaching          We'll get up close and perso...