Today’s “wildlife” includes H. sapiens, and the photos come from James Blilie. His captions are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them:
This set of photos comprises portraits of people I took while traveling around the world. All of these happen to be from the round the world bicycle trip I took from 1990-1992 with one friend. I have tried to ensure that none of these have been previously submitted to you. All are scanned Kodachrome 64 or Kodacolor 100 (just one or two), with one Tri-X Pan scanned black and white negative and a scan of one very old print.
First photo: A young man in Australia with his big cage of Galahs (Eolophus roseicapilla). We pulled over to the side of the road and probably asked him if we could fill our water bottles. He was very friendly.
A man at a bicycle shop in Johor Bahru, Malasyia. Within 30 minutes after we rode over the causeway from Singapore into Malaysia, I was hit by a car turning left in front of me. It happened so fast, I couldn’t even hit the brakes. It ran over my front wheel. I was lucky to be unhurt. We rode with toe clips but I did not use cleats, so I was able to eject in mid crash and land on my feet. I had no common language with this man; but I handed him the broken wheel and he knew what to do:
A man at a street stall in southern Malasia (peninsular Malaysia) making “roti”, their local version of fried flatbread. We ate this for breakfast every day; it is delicious. You could have it sweet, with sweetened condensed milk and sugar or savory, with lentil curry in a little bowl:
A young man in Bangkok with amazing tattoos (for that time!). We were not staying in touristy neighborhood; and people around there were just normal folks.
Two children at the train station at Sungai Kolok Thailand.
A girl with her little brother somewhere along the road from Kathmandu to Pokhara, Nepal
A woman transplanting new rice shoots in lowland Nepal:
A Masai man in Kenya. You could only take photos of most people in Kenya if you paid them. So we did that. Our guide was very vigilant to make sure we weren’t sneaking photos of people – he said it could lead to a violent altercation:
A man at one of the viewing point for the pyramids at Giza, Egypt. He was a tourist, too. Very friendly.
A young man preparing dinner for guests at our hotel in Sharm El-Sheik, Egypt. We went to Sharm El-Sheik so that my friend could dive in the Red Sea. I snorkeled off the beach (I was not dive-certified) and still got to see some pretty amazing fish just off the beach.
In 1992, we visited my family’s origins in Norway, at a hamlet called Blili, near Eina (between Oslo and Lillehammer) These photos are me (right) with my Norwegian cousins. The gentleman second from the left and I share a great-great grandfather. One of his sons emigrated to the USA in 1880 and was my great grandfather.
The second photo, from the 1870s, shows our great-great grandparents (center), my great grandfather (right), and his great grandfather (left). This photo was taken in the same doorway in the farmhouse on the farm where my great grandfather was born and grew up.
Finally, the culprit. A self-portrait (before selfies were a thing) on the east coast of Tasmania, 1991. My hair and beard were dark! I had hair!
Equipment: Pentax LX camera or Pentax K-1000 camera
Pentax M 85mm f/2.0 (my favorite portrait lens for film; I bought this in a dusty little shop in Thailand for very little)
Pentax A 50mm f/1.2 (before I got the 85mm f/2.0)
Pentax A 16mm f/2.8 fisheye (self-portrait)
A wonderful departure – magnificent, even!
Ah. To the days when we were young and strong! Thanks James.
What a fantastic set! I also very much admire your adventurous spirit.
Beautiful photos! I love the prominence of farm/food animals in the two family photos.
Beautiful specimens of our species!
These were really cool. I bet you have great memories of that adventure. Thanks!
The birds in the cage are Major Mitchell’s cockatoos, (Cacatua leadbeateri) although there is a push to revert to a previous name (Pink Cockatoo) because Major Mitchell was not a very nice person. It has also been known as Leadbeater’s cockatoo. Sadly, it is now officially classified as endangered. It is quite an odd thing to see a number of Aussies keeping native birds in cages.
Thanks, I was wondering about those — Not enough gray on them.
Pretty sure these were the only caged ones we saw. I’m pretty sure that he (or his family) were in the business of exporting birds.