PhotoCentral Spring Show Participation: 2016-2019
These images were among the 150 or so prints that are included in the PhotoCentral Spring Show each year. PhotoCentral is a valuable photographic community resource in Hayward, CA that offers classes, workshops, digital and analog processing labs, as well lectures and exhibits by local, national and international artists.
The Spring Show was juried in 2016 by Margaretta K. Mitchell and in 2017 and 2018 by Margaretta K. Mitchell and Danny Sanchez. For 2019, the jurors were Irene Imfeld and Margaretta Mitchell.
My entries have been well-received, both by the jurors and by attendees at the exhibit opening, whose votes determine the Peoples' Choice Awards, each year. The caption of each image lists any award it earned from either the jurors or the exhibit audience.
The groups of images for each year appear below in reverse chronological order.
Magadi Spectacle I
Lake Magadi, the southernmost of Kenya’s soda lakes, can draw enormous flocks of flamingos. The vistas during this 2018 doors-off helicopter flight over the lake were simply awesome. Privately held Lake Magadi is surrounded by SORALO land. [2019 Exhibit, Best of Show]
Background note: my three 2019 entries are all related to an organization called SORALO, the South Rift Association of Land Owners, which joins and represents the Maasai pastoralist communities of Kenya’s South Rift Valley region. SORALO’s domain encompasses an area of about 2.5 million acres, comprising much of southern Kenya’s last remaining lands where significant communal land holdings remain intact and where livestock and wildlife continue to co-exist across large areas.
SORALO sums up their approach with two Maasai words, each with deep cultural meanings:
• Enkop’ang – roughly: ‘our land, our common identity, our common pride’
• Erematare– roughly: ‘stewardship over common resources’
SORALO is simultaneously:
• an inspiring story of community-based stewardship, including a successful lion conservation initiative called Rebuilding the Pride
• a beautiful and authentic window into East Africa’s pastoralist past and still-evolving present and
• an exciting conservation photography opportunity without the crowds of East Africa’s national parks and reserves and with welcoming access to working Maasai communities.
Back to the Boma
As the sun sets, a Maasai herder guides his cattle back to the protection of the fenced boma. SORALO’s Maasai communities successfully share this land with wildlife, including predators like lions, using a combination of age-old practices such as protective bomas and new technologies like radio tracking of local lions. [2019 Exhibit]
Coalition on the Prowl
A coalition of young cheetahs hunts on the rift valley floor, with the rift wall in the background. Cheetahs are among the predators that share the SORALO area with Maasai communities and their livestock. [2019 Exhibit]
Lion Alert! on the Masai Mara
Masai Mara National Reserve, Kenya. A cheetah mother and her five cubs monitor the plains for lions, a dangerous cheetah predator, especially for the cubs. [2018 Exhibit, Best of Color and Peoples' Choice Award]
Amboseli Sunset
Amboseli National Park, Kenya. A giraffe traverses the dry and dusty pan (dry lake bed) late in the day. [2018 Exhibit, Peoples' Choice Award]
Blue Ice Beauty
A cape petrel flies across the face of a large iceberg in Gold Harbor, South Georgia. Wave action at the water line has cut into the highly compressed (and therefore deep blue) ice there. The vertical channels may be a result of erosion. [2017 Exhibit, Peoples' Choice Award]
Grace and Power
A red-crowned crane has just taken flight at a crane conservation center in Hokkaido, Japan. This area supports the only known population in Japan of these endangered cranes (which are also known as Japanese cranes). [2017 Exhibit, Award of Excellence, Peoples' Choice Award]
Reflection
A pair of Japanese macaque monkeys in a hot spring pool in Nagano, Japan. Japanese macaques are known as "snow monkeys" because they live in areas of Japan where snow covers the ground for months of the year; during those months, they can congretate in geothermal springs to stay warm. No other non-human primate lives further north or in a colder climate. [2017 Exhibit]
Holi in Mathura: Color and Rhythm
The Holi Festival is deeply spiritual for many participants. In this temple, it also has a musical dimension and is a color paradise for photographers. [2016 Exhibit]
Holi in Vrindavan: Faith and Color
A pedestal holds a small metal sculpture of a cow and calf, which are sacred for Hindus. In this extended exposure, Holi celebrants are paying respect and touching the pedestal for a blessing. [2016 Exhibit, Award of Excellence]
Mumbai: Solitude in the Megacity
Amid the rich patina of age on a busy street of old Mumbai, a quiet
moment of reflection. [2016 Exhibit]