Rounding Up The Horses To Milk the Mares

One of the Mongolian national traditions is Airag, aka fermented mares milk.  What coke is to Americans, Airag is to Mongolians.  Ulaanaa and his sister Sumiya round up and lasso the foals and tie them up for the day.  At the end of the day the mares are milked and the buckets brought to Adiya, their grandmother, to start the fermenting process.  The milk is put into a hide skin bag and hung in the ger.  The milk needs to be stirred often over a few days.  Anyone passing the skin bags picks up the wooden spoon and gives the milk a couple of stirs.
The taste is...well... sour with a fizz, not delicious, but not bad either.  It is custom to offer a bowl of this milk to anyone visiting a ger, and good manners to accept graciously and drink.   Thank goodness for the alcohol as it was an incentive to keep drinking!





Drinking Airag

Mongolia 2011

I love to travel, it seems to be a huge part of who I am.  This summer I had the good fortune to go to Mongolia with Timothy Allen, still  photographer for the BBC series Human Planet.  The trip was designed around photography and expertly produced by Panoramic Journeys.

I flew into Ulaanbaatar, the capitol of Mongolia where I met my team, Madhav, Rosie, Tim, Tudevee our expert guide and Nyama our divine driver.  From the first second we met, we laughed.  We did not stop laughing as we ventured into the great vastness of the Mongolian steppe.



We traveled in a russian built vehicle that looked like an old VW van, but could ford rivers and grind through sand.  Our journey took us through miles and miles of unfenced grasslands that eventually and abruptly bump into range after range of mountains and forests to the north and into the Gobi desert to the south and west.  There were no roads, we bumped along on dirt paths, which we dubbed, the Mongolian highway.



One of the first things we encountered was a Naadam Festival in progress.  It is a competition of horse racing, wrestling and archery. Naadam happens every summer throughout the provinces of Mongolia.
Kids and horses, and nothing but smiles.

Camel Races in Doha, Qatar

So... I am a bit of a travel nut and whenever I get the opportunity to venture into distant lands, I jump at the chance.  This time it was the Middle East...  Doha, Qatar to be exact.  It was a brief visit, but I did get to Shahhaniya to experience and photograph the camel races....  The only jockeys I saw were robot jockeys, here's why...

Interesting info from http://qatarvisitor.blogspot.com/2006/12/camel-racing.html

Child jockeys Until recently, children as young as four were purchased from their parents or kidnapped and sold into use as jockeys. See Mental Mayhem for an account of child jockeys being used only last year, or the Ansar Burney Trust for some disturbing pictures and stories. While this was already illegal, Qatar has now introduced severe punishments for anyone caught using child jockeys, and is going to greater lengths to enforce these laws, in contrast to some other countries in the area. They have also established an orphanage for children whose parents cannot be found. 

Marion and Will

Marion and Will tied the knot at St. Columbas Church in County Sligo, Ireland.  The church is best known as the final resting place of poet, John Butler Yates.  Their reception was held at the beautiful Markree Castle, also in County Sligo.

Dress:  Carolina Herrera
Shoes:  Manolo Blahnik
Jewelry:  Mikimoto
Wedding Bands:  Tiffany & Co.
Event Planner:  Judy Mullins from I Do Weddings
Bride and Grooms personalized plates:  Deborah Sears Isis Ceramics LTD
Hair:  Salon 2:  Sligo
Makeup:  Icon Spa, Castle Dargan
Flowers:  Appassionata, Dublin
Invitations:  Ceci New York
Band:  Jungle Boogie

Terry

This post is dedicated to my friend and sometimes travel bud, Terry Sieg.  He died suddenly on April 17, 2011.  My last few posts on Argentina were a trip that Terry and I had done together.  These photos are from other various trips.

May this last adventure be your best Terrrry!  We all LOVE you....






We stumbled upon this heart on our walk down to the dock in Key West.

Fly Fishing on the Rio Grand

One of the reason I went to Argentina was to fly fish for sea-run brown trout on the Rio Grand with a good friend whom is an AVID fly fisherman.  I don't consider myself an angler by any stretch of the imagination, but I have dabbled in it here and there, mostly there in far away magical places.

I was the only woman on this particular trip and when we arrived the first night at the lodge, there was a lot of eye rolling by the other guys...  EEK female intruder!!  So what does a woman do with such a warm welcome?  She catches the first fish of the trip, one of the ONLY fish caught the first day, one for the record books, on a SINGLE rod, not a spay rod.  So there!  I was in, I was accepted by the fraternal order, my catch was documented in the record book.

I must also admit, it was my ONLY catch in four days of fishing...  I did manage however, to catch a few photos.

I want to note that fishing on the Rio Grand is catch and release, the flies used are barbless.

Argentina Dos

They've been called the wanderers of the Pampas, Gauchos.  These are hardworking, dedicated, and oh so easy on the eyes, men and boys that work the sheep on Estancia Maria Behety.
I had no problem jumping into the fray and snapping a few photos. It was sheep shearing season, it took less than 60 seconds per animal, astonishing, really.
They raised and trained their own line of dogs.  Some were border collies, most were their own special breed.  I longed to take one home....

Argentina

I diverge...  Travel stories.

When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money.  Then take half the clothes and twice the money.  ~Susan Heller

Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe.  ~Anatole France 

I went on a trip with a good friend to Argentina....  We traveled the country.  One of the stops was to

Estancia Maria Behety, which is located on the Rio Grande in the Tierra del Fuego region, in southern Argentina, roughly 45 minutes from Ciudad Rio Grande.  We went to fly fish, but of course I spent most of the time wandering around the Estancia photographing the vast beauty of the land.  The next few post will be dedicated to Argentina.

More details

Beautiful details in B&W

Weddings always take my breath away.  So full of love, expectation, desire. You know the saying, "It's all in the details"... Easton Events, Pat's Floral Design, Pineapple Productions


 

A Lovely Wedding on Jupiter Island

Kingsley and Peter's wedding was one happy affair, beautifully planned by Deanna Marano of Deanna Marano Events. I had the great fortune to have the very talented Julie Skarratt along as my second shooter. She just happened to be available, lucky me. It was a brilliant weekend of image making.