The Best Job in the World

Left to Right: Maryanne Culpepper, Mark Thiessen, and Pamela Wells

Today I went for the movie - The Best Job in the World at the NG museum. The movie is on NG photographers and captures the intense situations that have to be in to get the famous photos we see in their magazines for the last 125-ish years. As usual, it was an incredible movie! The shots, the stories, the near escapes just take your breath away. 

The movie follows Cory Richards as he goes to Antarctica to climb the Wohlthat Mountains, where no man has ever been, to photograph from the summit. The story is incredible, and braving the conditions there is just insane. The get stuck in storms, their base came gets completely buried in snow and they have to dig it out before they can do anything else. They took 15 days to reach the summit on Bertha's Tower. And once on the top, one of them said "We are on top of the mountain at the bottom of the world."

They fly from South Africa to a Russian base in Antarctica. When they are headed from the base to closer to the Wohlthat mountains, as they load their plane one of them says "Blizzards, planes, and snow mobiles. Every little boy's dream. We are professional children." :D :D 

While they showed Cory's story, they showed stories of other NG photographers and the images they took and what they had to go through to get them. There was the guy who photographed drug dealers, the one who found the titanic, one who photographed the Vatican like it never had been, the one with the Leopard Seal (my favourite story), the lady who photographed the horrible man who trafficked women in Bosnia, the alligator attack while trying to photograph them, an active volcano in Africa with the world's largest lava lake (this was just INCREDIBLE!). 

The leopard seal story was special to me. The photographer was in the water, photographic the seal that had a penguin its mouth. When the seal saw the photographer, he dropped the penguin and came toward the photographer, with a head bigger than a Grizzly bear it was definitely scary. But, the seal didn't end up attacking him and instead got curious as to what this creature was. He gave him a penguin, when the photographer wasn't interested, he got him dead penguins. The photographer still wasn't interested, and he just kept getting him penguins, thoroughly confused as to why the photographer didn't want it! The photos he was able to get of the seal, were just amazing! :)

After the movie, there was a discussion with photographer Mark Thiessen, executive producer Pamela Wells, and producer Maryanne Culpepper.

 Lava Lake (photo courtesy: National Geographic)

Leopard Seal (photo courtesy: National Geographic)

Random Fact: On average for each assignment they take 24,000 photos! :-o

Lions & Tigers & Bears

With tickets for The Best Job in the World, I got the the NG museum early to explore this exhibit. I LOVED it, and so it results in a photo heavy post. The photos aren't of the best quality, but I wanted photos of the photos I enjoyed. So, here they are! :)

These photos were taken by photographers, Michael Nichols (Lions), Steve Winter (Tigers), and Paul Nicklen (Bears).

The first three are my favourite lion, tiger and bear photos. :

A female keeps her infant cubs hidden in a den during their first few weeks. She introduces them to the pride when they are ready for the competitive jumble of older cubs.

In one of the last places where wild tigers are thought to thrive, a Bengal tiger pauses in a river to listen to another tiger roar. Here on the Bay of Bengal, vast mangrove forests in the Sunderbans of India and Bangladesh provide rich habitat for the adaptable cats 

For Nicklen this powerful image evokes the words of Phil Timpany: "Nothing good will ever come from killing a grizzly bear."

Male lions make funny expressions! :D :

C-Boy mates with a lioness from the Kimbumu pride a day after mating with another Kimbumu female. The black-and-white photographs were made with infrared light to minimize the disruption to the lions. 

A male lion often asserts his prerogatives. C-Boy warns off waiting Vumbi lionesses and cubs with low growls as he feasts on zebra. Their turn will come when he is finished. 

I learnt something new! :

Hildur, a resident male of a few prides, frequently travels long distances to visit the Simba East pride. A coalition of males that controls two prides must maintain vigilance over both. 

Naughty Big Guy! :

These two cubs, one six months and the other three, rest under a tree. The older cub should be weaned but continues to nurse, stealing milk from the younger cubs

Tigers are my favourite! 

I really liked this photos :) :

A camera trap positioned at a secluded water hole in Bandhavgarh National Park captures a tiger cooling off. For narrow locations such as this one, tigers usually back in to the water to maintain watch on their surroundings. 

He looks suspended, no? :

A remote camera bolted to a tree 15 feet off the ground captured this image of a tiger raking long scratches into the bark. Tigers scratch, spray, scrape, rub, roll, and roar to advertise their presence, to find a mate or avoid surprise encounters that could prove fatal. 

I love camouflage in the wild! :

A tiger moves nearly invisibly through tall reeds. Though humans tend to think of tigers as a jungle species, they are perfectly adapted to grasslands. Their striped  camouflage raises the odds of successful kill. 

And another thing I learned. :

A white bearded mane, darker rust-colored coat, and thicker black stripes set the Sumatran tiger apart from other subspecies. Though recent surveys show the population to be more wide-spread than previously thought, these tigers are extremely elusive. this nighttime camera trap image is one of only a handful of existing images of a Sumatran tiger in the wild. 

CUBS!!! or CUB. :D :

When Winter learned a tiger he had previously photographed had given birth, he returned to document the two-month-old cubs. The den was located in a secluded gorge the Winter could only access riding an elephant through the valley below. He glimpsed the youngsters just twice. 

A wary three-month-old cub briefly investigates the photographer's intrusion before ducking behind his resting mother. This tigress gave birth in the same remote cave where she was born

I love the red of the salmon against the white and green. :

In the moss-draped rain forest, a spirit bear eats a salmon to fatten up for hibernation. In certain areas of the Great Bear Rainforest in British Columbia, as many as one in ten black bears are white. 

A female bear navigates the dense forest for a meal of crab apples. The fruit is an important source of nutrition. Bears use all levels of their habitat - from the intertidalzone, estuaries, and rivers to the forests and mountains. 

Silly, greedy Polar! :

A large male polar bear feeds on the ribs of a bearded seal in Leifdefjorden, Norway. He was so full that he was regurgitating out of one side of his mouth while continuing to eat with the other. 

I love this story! :

"This is the moment I met the most amazing bear. After I had spent months coming up empty, this large male appeared and stayed with for two days, allowing me to live a childhood dream of walking through the forest with one of the planet's rarest animals."

Two large males - a black bear and a spirit bear - began their encounter by staring each other down. Moments later, they locked in a roaring embrace of claws and teeth in a battle for a prime fishing spot. 

Moms are the best! :

A protective mother rests with her cub while scanning the Manitoba landscape for danger from male polar bears. 

Richard Dawkins

 

For someone who doesn't believe in God, I thought it was highly ironical that he kept appearing "God-like" in all the photos I snapped

After spending the afternoon at Crafty Bastards with Smita, we hung out a bit at Union Market and then headed to Lisner for the Richard Dawkins talk. We were early, but with free seating, it was good. We got up close (6th or 7th row from the stage, I think).

The talk was very interesting, however, Jamila Bey (host of radio show The Sex, Politics And Religion Hour: SPAR With Jamila) was not good. Her questions were lack luster, there seemed to be quite a few points where she didn't know what to say and where were awkward pauses, and there was no rapport between here and Richard Dawkins. I wonder if she was just star stuck, and her questions are just that bad. As Smita said, the audience had better questions than she did. 

I didn't agree with what they said about religious people preventing their children from wondering and thinking about science. While, I agree that very religious people do do that. But, not every set of religious parents are like that. They do encourage science. 

Anyway, a couple of gems from Richard Dawkins, I managed to note down, that had me laughing:

- On discussing the Bush-Kerry Presidential debates: "Bush was elected, not in spite of being stupid, but because he was stupid."

- "There are 535 members of the congress. All of them are believers of some religion. How is that possible? Some of them are quite educated."

I managed to get his face once they turned the audience lights on and I underexposed. 

Before he came out, there was a slideshow of photos from his early years playing. I really liked this one.

Crafty Bastards - Day 2

I went with Smita today for Crafty Bastards. I bought the jungle book coasters and a tiger night light for Aiden :) from the same stall. The coasters are made from actual pages of books. :)

Union Market in DC

I didn't really know about this place until we went to Crafty Bastards. It reminded me of a smaller version of Eataly in NYC. I would like to go back there again and buy some meats and things. We didn't buy anything today since Saurabh is out all of next week for his conference and staff retreat. 

Delicious and Pretty Cappuccinos 

Crafty Bastards - Day 1

 The back

Water colour on paper and then put on wood - We bought this one! :)

After lunch at Malgudi with Chris and Louise we headed to Union Market for the Crafty Bastards annual craft fair. I have wanted to go to this for years but we have never ended up going. The stuff was very interesting and really unique. Definitely not items we have seen elsewhere. 

Stereophonics

Stereophonics at the 930 club! A fantastic concert! :)

Watson Adventures' Murder at the National Gallery Scavenger Hunt

With Jess and Adam in town, it was the perfect opportunity to do this Murder Mystery Scavenger Hunt that I have now been wanting to do for a couple of years. We got to the National Gallery of Art a little before 2PM (the meeting time) and collected at the designated area. The rep from Watson Adventures came wearing her Watson Adventures' hat, collected everyone and explained the rules before we were given 2 hours to solve a bunch of clues and figure out who the murderer was and what the reason was. 

It was SO much fun! So glad we did it, and would love to do it again!

Too bad we didn't take any photos, but yay for Google images! :)

Ginevra de' Benci Painting - 2 sided painting of Leonardo Da Vinci - the only Da Vinci painting in the US

The left image is from the NGA website, and the right one from Google Images

Jess and Adam Visit DC

Jess and Adam came this weekend to DC from Dover to spend some time with us! It was great to see them! On Saturday night, we braved the stupid rain and went for a Scavenger Hunt to the National Gallery and then later for dinner at Sakuramen (our current favourite ramen place). The bulgogi buns and pork buns are sooo good!! And all the ramen is delicious and can get really spicy if that is what you'd like it to be...or not, if you don't want it to be :). 

Bell

Smita and I went to the NG museum for BELL - a one man play on Alexander Graham Bell by Jim Lehrer. The National Geographic Society turns 125 this year and is celebrating their second president, Alexander Bell. 

The play was excellently written by Jim Lehrer and peformed by Rick Foucheux. The play is focuses more on Bell's other invention while covering the phone too. 

Great performance! 

Photo courtesy Google images

Bobby's Burger Palace

Please don't go here. While the burger isn't terrible, there are a number of places in DC with muchhhh better and cheaper burgers. Totally wasn't worth the visit, especially being Iron Chef, Bobby Flay's restaurant. 

Disappointed.

Also, because I was feeling hot, I asked them to turn the temperature down on the air conditioner and they said it wasn't working. That just bothered me more. 

Russel Brand - Messiah Complex

After watching this hilarious clip, and seeing that Russel Brand was coming to DC at the Warner Theatre, I had to buy tickets. 

Though he came 30 minutes late due to bad weather, he was hilarious and entertained us for the entire 2 hours! 

Warner Theatre is so beautiful!

Potted Potter

The Golden Snitch part was my favourite! I wish google had a photo from the performance we went to

We went for Potted Potter today - a 70 minute parody on the synopsis of all the 7 Potter books. The show was hilarious and had me in tears. 

Daniel Clarkson and Jefferson Turner perform this 2 man parody with many props and just do a wonderful job! In 2005 they were commissioned to create a 5-minute street show recapping the plot of the first 5 Potter books, for performance to queues of fans waiting for the midnight release of the sixth book. In 2006, Potted Potter is born as a street show and into an hour long performance in which the first six books are parodied. After touring the U.K. in 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2011, they start touring North America in 2012. 

The performance started out okay, but it just kept getting funnier. The audience participation was fun and the little girls they brought on stage from the audience to be the seekers, in the audience quidditch game, were just adorable. Both were in witch robes! The audience was split into two teams - Gryffindor and Slytherin and had to punch around the quaffle trying to get it through the high goal post. It was just hilarious. Then Jefferson Turner came out as a golden snitch while the seekers tried to catch him. The. Best. Part. Ever! 

This snake was just hilarious! :D

Photos courtesy Google images

Uhhhh...We bought a car!