Alaska adventure, Mid to Late August, 2019 - Hope, Seward, Homer, Kenai, Kenai Peninsula, AK

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Glacier near Whittier

Passing through Anchorage we stop at the Marsh Bird Sanctuary.  There are only a few ducks swimming along the stream and ponds surrounding the boardwalk.  We also notice very few birders which should have been an indication that this is not necessarily the best time to visit.

My favorite 12 (part 1)

I have been a regular visitor of Ian Plant’s Dreamscapes blog, http://www.ianplant.com/blog/

I like what he and the other bloggers on his team have to say about landscape photography. Someday I hope to get to their level of imagery. They have a lot to say about the photography ‘rules’ that are supposed to be followed. The Dreamscapes photographers generally follow them but they also disregard them; the 'rule of thirds', 'do not use backlighting'... When I am out shooting I usually forget some of the rules because I am still concentrating on basic composition, exposure, focus and the 10 or so other things I can adjust on a digital camera. Most of the time they work out without remembering everything.  Afterwards I can usually look at many of my images and see where I could have improved the image by changing this or that; a little less exposure, different focus, move the camera a foot or two to the right, left, up or down. I will get better as time goes on; I just have to get off my butt more often and shoot more.

Digital photography is easier than film photography in some ways but more challenging in others.  Once upon a time you put a roll of film into a camera you would shoot making the normal adjustments of lens aperture and shutter speed based on the speed rating of the film.  The drawback was that you would have to wait some period of time before you would see results.  With the digital cameras you do the same thing; with the aperture and shutter,  plus you can program the camera to automatically under and over expose multiple images, change color balance, adjust the flash output, saving image quality, ...  The great plus with digital photography is the instant feedback and not having to stop and load a new roll of film after 24 or 36 images.  Does this lead to shooting quantity instead of quality?? Probably, you can always throw away the bad ones, 'images are free once you invest in the memory card of choice'.  You have to invest your time to find which images you want to keep, or not.  I can only suggest to those of you new to digital photography to purchase the 'XXX camera' book for your specific camera to understand the bells and whistles on your camera (I found the Canon manual for my camera far short in explaining all the different options).

Back to the real idea behind this post...

In the Dec 29, 2012 Dreamscapes post Ian talks about selecting your 12 greatest images over the last year. So I looked through what I shot since I bought my DSLR and selected 12 images I like. If nothing else these are my favorites, they remind me of what I did and where I went this year. If you have been following this blog at all this year you will recognize some of the images. Over time I’m sure some images will become a bit more abstract which may turn some people off, or at least leave you scratching your heads at what I was thinking when I made that image. Let me know what you think as I post images over the next year.

I will post a bit of commentary with some of these images. They are in no particular order so do not consider the first image the best of the 12.  I will supply the 12 images over two separate postings.

The first two images are from my trip to the Great Bear Rainforest.  No matter how much planning I thought I had done and checking camera settings I got excited when the bears made their appearance and didn't get as many good shots as I thought.  I doubt that will ever change unless seeing wildlife like this around you all the time becomes common place.

The next two are also from my trip to the Great Bear Rainforest.  Being in a boat full of photographers heightens ones senses to pay attention to the area around you for a great photo. 

The next two photos are shot with my 100mm macro lens.  I like shooting closeup photos, they show things going on around you on a different scale than most people consider.  You have to be lucky, or patient or both to work on this scale especially with insects.  They have a mind of their own and generally do not sit around waiting for you to compose and focus the camera.  The bee image is more luck than patience since bees were going back and forth on this particular flower.  I've photographed very few images of a bee in flight AND in focus!  The dragonfly image was more patience with some luck.  There is a dragonfly pond at the Albuquerque Bio Park where dragonflies are in constant motion.  I hung around the pond for quite a while watching where they were landing and camped out above one of the reeds where they would sit for a bit.  After several attempts at different dragonflies I finally got one in focus and in a nice position.  (No dragonflies were hurt in the making of this image)

Thank you for stopping by,

Mark

Canoona River, Khutze Inlet

It turns out that last night the aurora borealis made an appearance above us. Several of the cooks came in asking if we had seen it. We all gritted our teeth and said no, we were busy sleeping, including me.


Doug Neasloss is our guide today. Doug is one of the elders of the Kitasoo/Xai’xais, he is one of the founders of the Spirit Bear Lodge, a member of the Spirit Bear Research Foundation and an accomplished photographer. I really enjoyed talking with him learning all the things that are going on in the GBR and the implications of all the outside forces pushing against it.

Canoona River

Today the ride to the Canoona River is clear, no fog and very few clouds. The weather forecast for the next day is for clouds to move in and rain to follow in a few days. We have been very fortunate with the weather this week. Normally October experiences 25 days of clouds with almost that many days with rain. The rainforest area averages over 118” of rain a year, almost 10’! Here in NM we have been in a drought and haven’t seen 8” in a year for the past couple of years.

We hike along the river and stop for at least 45 minutes to over an hour in three different spots to watch for bears. No bears are seen; several of us have been watching the river and haven’t seen any salmon either. I think the 2012 salmon run has finished, and the bears have moved to other sources of food.

I had to include the 'tourist' photo of me to show that I was actually at the Great Bear Rainforest.  I'm in my rain jacket although I didn't need it.

This afternoon we’ll move over to the Khutze Inlet looking for grizzlies. Once we arrive we see a mother and cub digging the estuary looking for roots. Mom can tell something has changed with our arrival but we stay low and quiet so mom goes back to digging.  We give her a wide berth and walk up along the river.

Doug tells us that several hundred years ago this area used to have a village of several thousand inhabitants. There are several orchards of crabapple trees farther upstream along with remnants of a village. The valley is spectacular with waterfalls and snow topped mountains.

The tide moves quickly in this area, rising several inches every few minutes, overall tide levels vary up to 10’ between low and high tide. What had been a clear path 15 minutes ago we have to bypass because the water level has risen above the path.

On our way back we see more humpback whales swimming.

Tonight we will celebrate Thanksgiving in Canada, so this year I will get to celebrate Thanksgiving twice. When I was in Vancouver I saw signs advertising a Thanksgiving buffet at the hotel but thought “They sure are advertising Thanksgiving early here. It’s about as bad as the Americans advertising for Christmas before Halloween”. Then I noticed that Thanksgiving is on Oct 8th. One must pay attention.

We ate with the elders of the Kitasoo/Xai’xais nation, we heard stories of where they came from and how the village of Klemtu is progressing and growing. They had many nice things to say about Tim, the manager of the Spirit Bear Lodge. They really love him and the work he is doing with the Lodge.

After dinner I packed up most of my stuff. I have to leave out my camera and tripod, I’m getting up at midnight to see the aurora, if it’s there.

Thank you for stopping by,
Mark 

Mussel Inlet

Mussel inlet was named by one of George Vancouver’s officers. During their exploration in the 1790’s they had found mussels at this inlet, ate them and got terribly sick with one of Vancouver’s men dying. No mussels for me, I’m just here to see grizzlies.

The day starts off clear overhead but cloudy/foggy at sea level. We kept going between clear and foggy conditions up until we arrived at the inlet. It made for some great photography.

There are very few boats in this part of the GBR. We see an occasional fishing boat but not much else. My guess is that this part of the GBR is so remote and being early October, the end of the tourist season, are the main reasons for the lack of traffic.

We jumped into a zodiac for the ride to shore. I made sure to bring my tripod this time as we were not doing any bushwhacking. As soon as we arrived we walked less than 200’ to see grizzlies; a mom and her two cubs were fishing in the river and dining on salmon like we weren’t even there.

 At the same time a second pair of grizzlies was further up along the shore just doing whatever grizzlies do. The family in the river was not more than a couple hundred feet from us.

We stayed at Mussel inlet from about 930 AM to 400PM wandering about a mile up and down the river almost always seeing grizzlies.

Towards the end of the day we saw a mom and cub come over to our side of the river looking for a spot to dig up roots.

Once our guide spotted them rooting he motioned for us to come out from the forest to watch. We got just a little too close, mom was huffing and giving other indications that we were too close for her comfort. We backed off about 10 feet, just under the cover of the trees and then she was okay with us.

They were digging around and eating for 20 minutes or so before they decided they had enough and went back to the other side of the river. In all we probably saw 12 different grizzlies that day; at play, eating or just roaming around.

On the way out we came across humpback whales just swimming along minding their own business.

We returned to the lodge for another wonderful meal with appetizers and dessert. One could get spoiled living like this. Tim met with us again and planned out our next day; Gribbell Island and a bear stand to find black and spirit bears.

Thank you for stopping by,

Mark