Costa Rica 2010
Inkjet prints, 18x24” & 15x27" (including gray mat)
Gloria and I went to Costa Rica in February 2010 with a tour set up by the Urban Ecology Center of Milwaukee, Wi. The tour emphasized sustainable agriculture and environmental concerns, such as preserving the rain and cloud forests in Costa Rica, agroengineering and watershed restoration projects. We visited several beautiful rainforest gardens and reserves, experimental self-sustaining farms, pre-Columbian ruins, Volcano National Parks. We took a boat trip down a local waterway, walked in cool wet cloud forests, and spent a few dry hot days on the Pacific Ocean near a beautiful mangrove. I loved kayaking in the mangrove estuary - where trees grow in an area where fresh land water and ocean salt water meet and merge. Thankfully we did not go deep enough into the mangrove where alligators are known to hang out!
My favorite experience in Costa Rica was walking, alone, through a Monteverde cloud forest reserve. It was a magical place of fog and tree tops, suspended bridges and invisible tropical birds and their wonderful birdsong. A funny thing happened on that walk . . .
But first, you have to know there were many bird watchers in our tour group and they desperately wanted to see the famous, but mysterious Quetzal bird. I am not a bird watcher, and I had been kidding them about the birds they wanted to see and often could hear but could not see. Too often I would show them pictures I had made of other pictures, or configurations of tree brances and leaves that looked like birds but really weren't - just to see if they could identify the "bird." They'd look at my pictures and eventually realize I was trying to fool them. At first it was funny but . . .
. . . I was walking through the cloud forest on a suspension bridge when all of a sudden an amazingly beautiful iridescent green and red bird flew over my head and into a tree top right next to me. I took it's picture and brought it back to show the tour group. It turns out it was a Quetzal! But the bird watchers refused to believe my story - they thought I had somehow faked the picture and was trying to fool them again.
This webpage and the photos you see here were prepared in late January, 2012. The last seven images are mandalas, or symmetrical repetition images that I had constructed in 2011 for inclusion in a project entitled Celestial Gardens.
Welcome to Costa Rica! and be sure to click on the images (once, twice) to get a closer look.
Welcome Page to The Departing Landscape website which includes the complete hyperlinked listing of my online photography projects dating back to the 1960's, my resume, contact information, and more.
Gloria and I went to Costa Rica in February 2010 with a tour set up by the Urban Ecology Center of Milwaukee, Wi. The tour emphasized sustainable agriculture and environmental concerns, such as preserving the rain and cloud forests in Costa Rica, agroengineering and watershed restoration projects. We visited several beautiful rainforest gardens and reserves, experimental self-sustaining farms, pre-Columbian ruins, Volcano National Parks. We took a boat trip down a local waterway, walked in cool wet cloud forests, and spent a few dry hot days on the Pacific Ocean near a beautiful mangrove. I loved kayaking in the mangrove estuary - where trees grow in an area where fresh land water and ocean salt water meet and merge. Thankfully we did not go deep enough into the mangrove where alligators are known to hang out!
My favorite experience in Costa Rica was walking, alone, through a Monteverde cloud forest reserve. It was a magical place of fog and tree tops, suspended bridges and invisible tropical birds and their wonderful birdsong. A funny thing happened on that walk . . .
But first, you have to know there were many bird watchers in our tour group and they desperately wanted to see the famous, but mysterious Quetzal bird. I am not a bird watcher, and I had been kidding them about the birds they wanted to see and often could hear but could not see. Too often I would show them pictures I had made of other pictures, or configurations of tree brances and leaves that looked like birds but really weren't - just to see if they could identify the "bird." They'd look at my pictures and eventually realize I was trying to fool them. At first it was funny but . . .
. . . I was walking through the cloud forest on a suspension bridge when all of a sudden an amazingly beautiful iridescent green and red bird flew over my head and into a tree top right next to me. I took it's picture and brought it back to show the tour group. It turns out it was a Quetzal! But the bird watchers refused to believe my story - they thought I had somehow faked the picture and was trying to fool them again.
This webpage and the photos you see here were prepared in late January, 2012. The last seven images are mandalas, or symmetrical repetition images that I had constructed in 2011 for inclusion in a project entitled Celestial Gardens.
Welcome to Costa Rica! and be sure to click on the images (once, twice) to get a closer look.
Click on images to enlarge
Costa Rica 2010 Contemplating the Arenal volcano 18x24"
Costa Rica 2010 Dirt road to the Arenal Volcano
Costa Rica 2010 Mangrove estuary looking west toward the Pacific Ocean
Costa Rica 2010 Lake, Poas Volcano National Park
Costa Rica 2010 LaPaz Rainforest water falls
Costa Rica 2010 Rain forest
Costa Rica 2010 Cloud Forest near LaPaz Gardens 15x27"
Costa Rica 2010 Suspended bridge, Selvatura Cloud Forest
Costa Rica 2010 Tree tops, Selvatura Cloud Forest
Costa Rica 2010 Tropical Bird
Costa Rica 2010 Two Geicos on a restaurant wall
Costa Rica 2010 Bat & tropical plant, Tirimbina rainforest reserve 15x27"
Costa Rica 2010 Cocoa bean
Bamboo forest, Jardines Lankester, Costa Rica (symmetrical repetition image) 15x27"
Costa Rica Mandala (Selvatura Cloud Forest)
"The Veil" Mandala (Mangrove estuary near Pacific Ocean, Costa Rica)
Mandala (Poas Volcano National Park, Costa Rica)
Costa Rica Mandala (bird in tree)
Costa Rica Mandala (Tropical flowers) 15x27"
Costa Rica Mandala (Two tropical flowers)
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