Destinations: Mount Roraima

Destinations: Mount Roraima

Guyana, Brazil, Venezuela
5.1433, -60.7625

(Note: this is a new part to this blog... I've been wanting to try and incorporate more of the 'wandering' into A Wandering Lens, talk about places I've been, as well as places I want to go.  This is the first installment of the latter, with images that are not my own since I haven't been there yet.  I hope you enjoy it.)

There are certain places that are simply otherworldly, beyond what you imagine a landscape to be, and Mt. Roraima fits that classification.  It is located in the tepuis, a plateau of blocky landscape in the southeastern portion of Venezuela, and marks the triple point between the countries Guyana, Brazil, and Venezuela.  It is part of the region known as the Gran Sabana, and the tepuis are almost permanently shrouded in mist and clouds, where rainfall is common on a daily basis. And unlike a conventional mountain chain, the tepuis are isolated table mountains that have been thrust up and then resisted the weathering over millions of years, forming these islands jutting into the sky.



This is an area that defies explanation.  First witnessed by Sir Walter Raleigh in the late 16th century, this area wasn't really explored until the 19th century, when explorers made the first hiking ascent of the mountain to the strange top.  The sheer promontory makes climbing exceedingly difficult, and the appearance of the mountain, sticking like a block out of the lush jungle, was reportedly the inspiration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World.  And, more recently, the team from Pixar used Mt. Roraima for ideas of Carl Fredricksen's destination in the movie Up.
 
While Mr. Roraima is the most famous of the tepuis, and the highest (2,772 m), there are certainly others worthy of visiting.  The highest waterfall in the world, Angel Falls (or Salto Angel) falls from Auyan-tepui (2,460m) a 435 square mile heart shaped table mountain first discovered in 1937 by the pilot Jimmie Angel.


This sort of area is so strange, it is no wonder it has inspired books and movies since its exploration by Europeans.  It looks like something created for a video game almost, I could see it as a landscape from Myst back in the day.  While it is fairly barren on top, with little vegetation, the high sheer cliffs provide a base for beautiful, lacy waterfalls that dangle over the side.  The only way to hike it is a long mountain path that was first climbed by Everard Im Thurn, an English Botanist,with Harry Perkins in 1884.  The eponymous route is now the only way to hike to the summit.  Climbing is even more difficult, as the cliffs of Roraima are inverted and very sheer (not to mention the permits and authorizations that go into climbing in a National Park in South America).

Roraima has a haunting quality that just begs to be experienced first-hand.  It doesn't hurt that it is in the middle of the South American jungle either!  But Mt. Roraima is firmly on my list of destinations to see one day, and I wanted to share it with you all.  Enjoy. 

Photographer of Note: Natsumi Hayashi

Natsumi Hayashi
"Yowayowa Camera Woman"
http://yowayowacamera.com/

I've been thinking of ways of exploring and expanding my photography.  One way is, of course, to travel and shoot more, which is how I'll be trying to post some more on the 'wandering' aspects to my travel and shooting.  The other is about looking and admiring other photographers, drawing inspiration and energy from their endeavors in the photographic arts.  And so, to kick that off, I present the first photographer of note, Natsumi Hayashi.

Natsumi is a photographer in Japan that levitates.  She sets up her camera in various scenes to make it appear as if she were floating above the scene.  Her scenes are well-chosen, always unique, and so it's as much a slice of her daily life (on the train, in a restaurant, walking down the street) as it is about her ability to levitate.  One of the fantastic parts is that the images appear very natural.  While she has to jump to make the photograph, she rarely if ever looks like she just jumped.  It appears as if she is quite literally hovering above the scene, a couple inches or a foot above the pedestrian ground.

Her images are a streak of whimsy in photography, delightful scenes from life and the thought of escape as well as the beautiful execution of each photograph.  I've been following her for just under a year or so, and each creation has been a delight.  Float on!

Dads knew Filters

This post, from Dads are the Original Hipsters, pays tribute to the crazy photo filters that once dominated catalogs from camera companies, and their modern age digital equivalents.  The blog dominates in snide comments to modern hipsters and their proclivities, from messenger bags to skinny jeans.  

From yesterday's posting on DatOH: "Your dad knew about photo filters before you did and he’s got the lens attachments to prove it. He was a master of world recalibration that used honed glass to send 35mm moments on drug trips. Each shutter pull shot 4x6 hallucinations and captured altered images through his collection of laced lenses.   So hipsters, next time you’re using instagr.am to show everyone on Facebook what your brunch looks like and you can’t decide on what filter makes it look best, remember this… If your dad’s photos hadn’t inspired your app, everyone would be able to see how shitty of a photographer you really are."

I loved the last sentence, because it does encapsulate some of what I feel has saturated photography these days.  Instagr.am and other apps have made this sort of manipulation easy, in an attempt to turn everyday, hum drum snapshots into larger, more artistic creations.  But it is, in this photographer's opinion, gimmicky and false.  While those effects (and others... from Lomo-esque shots to shortened depth of field images) have some place to help augment a good image, they do nothing to help a mediocre image (which are the majority of pictures taken by cell phones and posted online).  They end up looking cheap and contrived, a cry to be creative while taking the road of least artistic imagination and passion.  Remember: friends don't let friends use cheap, artificial filters.  Just don't do it.

6 Strange Cameras from Mental Floss

While this blog is mainly devoted to the images I've experienced and created over the years, every once in a while something comes through the internet, photographically-related, that just begs sharing. 

This blog post from the folks at Mental Floss highlights 6 improbable and unique cameras.  Some of them are just bizarre (the skull immediately comes to mind), but some of them present some interesting ideas. 

The one attached to a gun stock seems actually quite practical.  Imagine the stability you'd get from pinning the camera-gun stock to your shoulder rather than trying to hold it up to your face?  As most riflers can attest to, with good breathing and practice, you can get very low vibrations, which would translate into longer permissible shutter speeds.  Who needs VR?