Packing for a winter trip can be a real challenge, especially with all the necessary winter gear, personal items, and camera equipment. I’ve developed a packing strategy that’s worked well for my trips to Mongolia and Canada during winter.
Isabella Tabacchi has been both my business collaborator and friend for several years. We recently had a fantastic time conducting workshops in the Dolomites, which concluded just a few days ago. In this interview, let’s have Isabella share her experience and perspective as a full-time landscape photographer.
Abisko Canyon, located in the Swedish Lapland region, is a natural wonder that has captivated the hearts and minds of visitors for centuries. This stunning landscape has a rich history, scientific significance, and is home to a unique ecosystem that is worth exploring. The Abisko Canyon has a rich cultural history, dating back thousands of years. The indigenous Sami people have lived in the area for generations and have a deep spiritual connection to the land. The canyon and surrounding mountains are home to many Sami cultural sites, including ancient rock carvings and sacred places.
Petrified Forest National Park, located in northeastern Arizona, is a stunning natural wonder that preserves the remnants of an ancient forest that existed over 200 million years ago. The park is a unique combination of geological formations, colorful badlands, and an impressive collection of petrified wood.
Gentoo penguins are known for their unique and impressive behavior called “porpoising,” which involves jumping in and out of the water while swimming at high speeds. This behavior is not only fascinating to observe but also serves an important purpose for these flightless birds in their daily lives. Porpoising is a form of “aquatic flight” that allows gentoo penguins to move through the water more quickly and efficiently than simply swimming. By leaping out of the water and then diving back in, gentoo penguins can conserve energy and move through the water with minimal drag, which is especially important when they need to swim long distances to reach their feeding grounds.
Khongor Sand Dunes are the largest and the most spectacular dunes not only in the Gobi Desert but in Mongolia, with the area over 900 square kilometers, and some dunes can reach the heights of 100 to 300 meters! The inhabitants here name the Khongor Sand Dunes as “Singing Dunes” due to the “roaring” or “blooming” noise when the sand grains move over one another in the windy condition. Gobi Desert is one of the toughest places to live in the world and yet the double-humped Bactrian camels have lived here for thousands of years! Bactrian camels are native to the Gobi Desert. They are among the most adaptable creatures on Earth, as they can cope with drought, high altitudes, and extreme temperature between +40°C in the summer and -30°C in the winter.
These are the images of walruses in Svalbard. The walrus is an iconic and fascinating marine mammal that can be found in various regions around the world, including Svalbard. Svalbard is a Norwegian archipelago located in the Arctic Ocean, and it is home to a significant population of walruses. Walrus scientific name, Odobenus rosmarus means tooth-walking sea horse.
Senja is the second largest island in Norway (not include Svalbard), with the area of 1586 square kilometers and the population of about 8000 people. Senja is called Norway in miniature because it has awesome mix of ocean, mountains, fjords, beaches, forest and fishing villages, and all within a few hours of driving.
Sami are a group of indigenous people that come from the region of Sapmi, which stretches across the Northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Kola Peninsula in Russia. Sami are best known for reindeer herding, and Kine’s family has about 600 reindeer and has been herding reindeer for many generations. Reindeer are so important to the Sami way of life, many people even go to a special university to learn how to care for their reindeer herds!
As a photographer who spent 6 months traveling each year, the expedition to Mongolia wasn’t just another tedious business trip but unique in its own way – their unique cultures in the unspoiled land that have been known as the “end of the earth”. Indeed, Mongolia is the most sparsely populated country in the world, there are only 2 people per square km (6 per square mile). In contrast, Macau has the density of almost 22,000 people per square km (58,000 per square mile)! Mongolia is also the second largest landlocked country (after Kazakhstan), with the closest ocean being the Pacific’s Yellow Sea, which is 700km (435 miles) to the east!