I've always said that I believe very little of what I hear and only some of what I see.  The same goes for photographs as I know now that they can be edited and manipulated in many ways.  I still often get asked by many of my friends and people why I would want to visit some of the places I do - especially Antarctica and Tanzania in Africa. 

It's great to be able to punch a few buttons on my cell phone and pull up some images from my Instagram account and show people a few pictures of these places.  I can tell by the looks on their face that they understand why I would want to travel so far away into places that many perceive to be dangerous.   At least I can show them why I wanted to see certain places in person.

You can use any of my photos in a variety of sizes for free without worrying about getting in trouble as they are free of copyrights under Creative Commons CC0.  My profile on Pixabay is HERE

Above is a photo of myself in Paradise Bay and below is Paradise Bay which I thought was the most beautiful part of Antarctica which is saying a lot.

This ship seemed so small compared to the other ones I saw and compared to the glaciers surrounding it

The sun would go down around 11:00Pm and come up around 3:00 AM
The glaciers were so much bigger than I expected and it really was not as cold as I expected.  It was generally around 30 degrees Fahrenheit.

This was the closest thing I saw to a sunset and it was almost midnight

The following photos were taken on in Massai Land and on safari in Tanzania.

  These zebra kept running back and forth past these lions.  I was so scared they would get caught playing their "game".

Thank you very much for stopping by my blog.  Please feel free to leave any comments or questions.  I really enjoy hearing from my readers.  I hope you are all having a wonderful week.   

~Michelle

The Salt of the Earth chronicles Sebastião Salgado's career.  You can see his photos here.  I highly recommend taking a peek as they blow my mind!  Not only did this movie inspire me to work on my black and white photography, but it also changed my thoughts and goals regarding my future travel plans.  I watched this movie on the airplane when I returned from Italy and you can see the reviews from Rotten Tomatoes here.

Since visiting Bali 2 1/2 years ago and then Tanzania about two years ago I have become more of a tourist than s traveler.  I have only wanted to see happy pretty things over the past couple of years.  While I have greatly enjoyed myself I know there is another side of the world and part of me has always wanted to make a difference. 

Watching this movie "The Salt of the Earth" has convinced me that I would like to do something either in my own country or in another one to help the environment or people and animals in some way.  It was a very timely thing for me to see this movie a few weeks ago.  The narrator (Salgado) became disenchanted with humanity while taking photographs of war and refugee camps decided that he needed to make some changes.  He eventually goes back to where he was raised in Brazil and helps restore the land that had become barren due to deforestation.

With the Masssai: