A Vincent Mounier Photography Blog
New York Skyline, a Maritime View
August 6, 2013
Water, however murky, is ever-present in New York City. I guess things could be much worse.
Out for a cruise aboard the Hornblower Hybrid recently, I made the best of stormy weather and shot the city from a maritime point of view, the Big Apple's urban assault dampened by much water and beautiful shimmering lights. Unfortunately, the city hum and incessant horns and sirens had been horribly replaced by on-board disco. It fascinates me that a sightseeing cruise would not...
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Latest WordPress Update Cripples the Blog - Fixed!
August 2, 2013
UPDATE: I have now fixed all these issues and things should be back to normal.
UPDATE: The slideshows now work, but in two separate sections for each post. The images within the text are in one slideshow, thumbnails in a grid at the bottom are in another. That's just for now.
The latest WordPress update to version 3.6 has rightfully implemented support for jQuery 1.10 but by doing so, crippled many plugins which used a jQuery version checking syntax that seemed to only...
Slingshot to Kruger, Part 6 - Predominant Mopane Syndrome
July 29, 2013
In the morning, the hyenas were gone and I wondered if I had dreamt their presence.
Departing from Balule, we concluded that the life of a camp keeper can be rough and left the grumpy guard a tip. He lit up like a child, receiving the gift with both hands the customary way. It would appear this was a rare occurrence for him. We had yet to visit Tsendze, where we would be reminded of the virtues of hospitality. But not everyone is a born host.
The drive north wound th...
Invisible light - Part 2
July 27, 2013
2013 note: This entry was originally published exactly six years ago - July 27, 2007. This is an anniversary reprint. On that date, lightning struck and the greatest wheels were set in motion. Time stood still for only an instant and then leaped forward.
The comments left referred to this post about HDR photography. History in the making.
This time it was only midnight. I walked towards False Creek and the bridges to go record some invisible colors. Somebody was sleepi...
Slingshot to Kruger, Part 5 - Interview with the Hyena
July 21, 2013
Wintertime mornings are chilly in the Kruger Park, and when up before dawn, a sweater or fleece are welcome. Shivering a bit in the dark rondavel, I dressed up enough to feel cozy and brewed coffee on the outside hot-plate while birds added their solos to the river tune. Our next camp, Balule, was only a half-hour away and we had decided to go for an early drive before packing up and moving on from Olifants.
One of the park maps we carried along showed a little star som...
Slingshot to Kruger, Part 4 - The Wild Song of the Olifants River
July 14, 2013
Up before dawn, I glanced at Marie. A single strand of red hair emerged from underneath her sheets and she looked fast asleep, having had a difficult night.
I decided to let her rest and got dressed silently for a solo drive. I could hear the camp slowly coming to life around me, although only our immediate neighbor tent was in sight through the vegetation.
By the time I reached the open camp gate, Tamboti had released its load of early game watchers in various direc...
Slingshot to Kruger - Interlude
July 13, 2013
(Brought to you with the help of Google Translate)
"- Yeah, and good old Muddy's entire family was culled last week after he got carried away and led them through a fence into a tented camp. Best bushes and leaves ever, y'know? Never touched, all organic and first growth. Any way, he'd miscalculated his appetite and brought a whole tree down onto a couple of occupied tourist tents. Dude, these little pests exploded like pop-corn! I heard it from all the way acr...
Slingshot to Kruger - The Map
July 10, 2013
Due to popular request, I have created a map of the Kruger trip. You can zoom in using the navigation buttons top-left, and dragging with the mouse will move you around.
Or even better, click here to open the map in a new browser tab, full page, and then use the mouse wheel to zoom in like on other Google Maps, or click on the shortcuts on the left to go to that section or place directly.
Here we go for the first 4 days of the trip; I will keep updating the map with ...
Slingshot to Kruger, Part 3 - Through the Orpen Gate
July 9, 2013
In a rare breach of morning protocol, the Landcruiser was packed and the premises vacated even before breakfast the next day.
The keys dropped off, we asked for advice on the best place to purchase some kind of coffee-making apparatus, and drove down the main street two full stop signs and a bit. To our utter delight, the recommended shop not only sold coffee makers but they were authentic Bialetti's!
We replaced our missing Italian genie with great relief, ordered a...
Macy's 2013 NYC Fourth of July Fireworks - Flowers in the Summer Sky
July 7, 2013
I hate crowds. As a sum, they are systematically stupider than their individual parts. There are a few public events in New York that I have always found a reason to skip despite my curiosity, blaming it on the hundreds of thousands who would also attend. But sometimes exposure is unavoidable.
A few years ago, bracing myself, I checked out Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade®. Attendance: 3 million people. I will never go again but I'm glad I saw it.
Ironically, Macy's is...
Slingshot to Kruger, Part 2 - Mpumalanga Worries
July 3, 2013
Up early on our second day, we had breakfast in the hotel lounge and I was granted an eyebrow lift when I asked a waitress if she could kindly fill our coffee flask for the road. I guess Bloemfontein, third capital of South Africa, gets more business travelers than off-the-beaten-track explorers - the latter, it is well known, drinking coffee by the flask rather than the cup.
When I carried our bags out to the Landcruiser, a precocious dawn was upon the city and the nig...
Slingshot to Kruger, Part 1 - Snow in the Karoo
June 29, 2013
I am writing this from New York City, the Big Apple, eight million souls, fifty million visitors a year, four hundred and sixty-eight subway stations, thirteen thousand yellow cabs, on a hot and humid summer day with a thirty-seven degrees Celsius signature (98°F). My head is still spinning from the trip, daydreams powerfully controlling reality, dampening the heat, distilling flower scents from raw smells and muffling sirens and horns until they chirp like happy birds. It...