Part of what drives my photography are those opportunities to wake up to a new morning in an incredible landscape. This photo was made after finishing a long shoot in California. I was driving home to Colorado and needed a place to sleep for the night. The Ibex dry lake bed in Western Utah was the place I selected and this is where I woke up the next morning. If htere's a photography lesson here it's always chose a camp with a good view and bring your camera.
Despite what I imagined riding a donkey down a steep mountain trail might be like, the reality is like sitting in a rocking chair for a ride down a steep flight of stairs, you just lean back and hold on tight.
A donkey transporter is what I used when I descended to a remote village in Oman's Jabal Al Akhdar Mountains. The donkey prove to be a worthy ride in the mountains except when you are descending a triple black diamond trail. Next time I'll opt to walk down and donkey up.
My thanks to Nabhan Al Nabhani for capturing me on the donkey ride.
This photo I made last week isn't an adventure photo or even made outdoors, but the photo of Otima Al Hathri who lives in Al Hamra in the Western Hajar Mountains is one of my favorite images from Oman.
This was one of the images I included for a presentation I did last night in Muscat, Oman's capital city. I was the guest of the Omani Society of Fine Arts Photography Club. After my show Mr. Ahmed Albusaidi, who manages this photo club, gave me a tour of the club house to show me the photo computer lab and some of the recent work by Omani photographers. I was impressed by the photography I saw. I look forward to my return to Oman, spending more time with these photographers (all who offered to show me their favorite locations in Oman) and doing more explorations in Oman's mountains and deserts.
In my experience a sandstorm should include a raging wind followed by choking dust. The sand storm that blew in from Iran and hit Oman a few days ago came quietly during the night. The next morning it appeared like a white fog and five days later it is still hanging thick in the air. All week the flights into Kasab have been cancelled so we rented a 4x4 and hit the road for the seven hour trip via the UAE to Musandam. In Kasab I got my hands on a bike and was told Khor Nejd, a small bay on the Masandam Peninsula, is beautiful in the morning. I guess I didn't have the right filter. I will have to return for that view on a clear day.
The main camera I have been using in Oman, a Nikon D-3s, has stayed pretty clean despite traveling around the worlds largest sand box. Here are some of the dusty environments I found my self exploring in Oman. My locations manager, fixer and Oman expert Michael Dickinson took the photos and helped smooth the way through Oman.
That's me checking out a large balanced rock in Snake Canyon a tributary of Wadi Bani Awf, Oman. It must have been an amazing flood event that deposited this mammoth block. I saw no snakes while I was exploring Snake Canyon, but given the blazing heat and hot sun you can bet I was alert for them and stepping carefully.
This sink hole North of Sur, Oman looks inviting, but because it's near the coastline of the Indian Ocean it's brackish water. During my visit I was told that a few years ago a tourist drove his car into this sink hole and that event prompted Oman's Ministry of Tourism to build a fence around the sinkhole.
There is plenty of sand in the Rub Al Khali, but for the scattered few oasis, there is little life in the Empty Quarter. You can imagine my surprise when I saw this tree. The ground water is only about 5 meters below the sands. The rock is limestone, at least in this region of the Rub Al Khali near the Oman and Saudi border, so the water moves through the rock like an underground river. This tree is rooted in the limestone bedrock rock not in the sand and has created it's own place in the desert. As for it's age that's difficult to estimate, but I figure the tree is a few meters in diameter and looks to be healthy and around 80-500 years old.
In Canada the Inuit have many names for snow. I suspect in the Empty Quarter of Oman the Bedouin have a hundred names for sand and the different types of sand. This desert seems to have every texture and shape. It's certainly a place I will have to return, but not in March when the day temps are in the low 40s c. That's around 104 degrees fahrenheit, but it's a dry heat.
I've been meaning to share some photos from my trip in Oman, but where there is a will there is not always internet access. Today I woke in Salalah, Oman to discover that a big sand storm had blown into Oman from Iran. The timing could not be better because for the last few days I have been exploring the Rub Al Khali (Empty Quarter). The Rub Al Khali is one of the most exceptional remote places I've visited in the world, but it's not a place to lose yourself in a sand storm.
