Rays of light over Alaska Range at Sunrise, on the Denali Highway, Alaska. ©2010 Dave Taylor/Sixtyone North (Canon 7D, 100-400 @ 330 mm. 1/640" @ f/8, ISO 400)

I’m very happy to formally announce the 4th tour of 2011. The “Wild Lands & Wild LIfe: Denali Highway Fall Color Tour”. August 26-September 1, 2011.

I’d like to invite you to join me on an epic, small group, wilderness photo tour into the heart of Alaska.

The Denali Highway – 135 mile long ‘improved’ road, stretching from Cantwell (near the eastern border of Denali National Park) to Paxson at the east end of the road. From 1957 to 1971, this was the only access to Denali National Park. Since ’71 it has become mostly derelict and poorly maintained. It crosses some of the most dramatic and incredible terrain in the United States. Mountains. Glaciers. Rolling tundra. Taiga forest. Kettle ponds. Raging rivers.

And ‘Big Sky’ that Montana can’t even fathom.

Wild Blueberries & Kettle Pond, Denali Highway. ©2010 Dave Taylor/Sixtyone North (Canon 5D Mk 2, 24-105 @ 28mm. 30" @ f/16, ISO 50. B+W KSM Circular Polarizer)

Then there’s the wildlife. The Nelchina caribou herd passes through this area, every year. 36,000 strong – free ranging, un-penned, wild caribou. Thousands of moose call this region home. Wolves, wolverine, fox, rabbit, lynx, marmot & a wide variety of migrating birds.

It truly is a buffet for the adventurous photographer.

We will spend long days in the field, and our nights at a rustic self-sufficient lodge at the center of all this wilderness. Bring your appetites, you will eat well throughout this adventure. Hearty meals, no frills & no skimping on portions.

Bring your stamina, this is your window seat to adventure. Get ready to be swallowed whole by a landscape so breathtaking that you’ll refer to this photo expedition simply as ‘the trip’ – for the rest of your life.

Most importantly, bring your passion for photography. This is the trip you’ve been dreaming of. The adventure of a lifetime awaits.

Alaska awaits. Where will you be this fall?

Full trip description coming very soon.

If you are interested in this 7 day/6 night all inclusive (meals, guide, instruction, transportation & lodging) epic experience, send me an email now and get on the ‘the short list’. These 6 seats will fill very quickly.

I’d like to thank Scott Slone (of Perfect Blend Media & Alaska HDTV) for producing this very special commercial for the Fall Color Tour. Scott will be joining us again  to film our adventures & has offered a crash course in videography/production and editing to our participants. Thank you very much, my good friend. As always, it is a pleasure and honor to travel with you.

What can I say? I’ve got talented friends.

We met shortly after 8 last night and drove the 1/2 hour to my “Back yard”. Yes, it’s a 1/2 hour away, but I can see it from my bedroom window. Hence, it’s my back yard. My logic is undeniable. Anyway… It seems as though I have just started seeing this area with new eyes. And the possibilities are endless.

Ever since I moved here, Hatcher Pass has been my backyard. My first evening here, my best friend Tim drove us the 4 minutes from my new home to the entry to Hatcher Pass. Here, the Little Susitna’s (Lil’ Su) turquoise waters rush over beautiful gray and white rocks. The river looks like a soft blue milk, with a hint of gray – one of my favorite colors on the planet.

Summit Glow, Hatcher Pass, Alaska ©2010 Dave Taylor/Sixtyone North (Canon 5D mk 2, 24-105 @ 24mm. 2.5" @ f/16, ISO 200, B+W CPL filter.)

These mountains are some of the oldest in Alaska. On the westernmost edge of the Talkeetna Range, they have eroded peaks and ridges, not sharp and defined like newer ones. But just a few miles to the east the range shifts dramatically; precarious spires and razor sharp ridge lines arc throughout the skyline. The valleys are home to hundreds of moose, and the alpine slopes to countless marmot and birds. There are fox and wolf in the area, although I have only seen the “sign” and not the actual critter.

In the summer months, this area is lush with plants and wild flowers. There are verdant green valleys that run for dozens of miles in all directions, small streams coursing their way and nourishing the wilderness. Old and abandoned mines dot the landscape, skeletons of a history not so long ago yet so very different present day Alaska.

Summit View, Hatcher Pass, Alaska. ©2010 Dave Taylor/Sixtyone North (Canon 5D mk 2, 24-105 @ 24mm. 13" at f/16, ISO 200. B+W CPL filter)

There is one road, Willow Fishhook, that cuts through the western reaches of this range. It is a rough unpaved road, but the views can be extraordinary. Atop the pass (above Independence Mine), the road cuts next to Summit Lake. This was where we parked and began the slow trek high into the surrounding mountains. Our time was cut short, but our views were not. Despite the steadily approaching storm and driving rains, we could easily see the city lights of Palmer 13 miles away. To the north, we could see the lower ramparts of Denali at sunset. We climbed to about 4800 feet, then traced the ridge as it ran east-southeast, then slightly north, finally turning west and descending to my vehicle. It was only 4 hours, I could have spent a much longer time on the ridge, but it was very exposed and the weather hit us right after we summited. Scott and I are already planning our next trip up, a multi-day backpacking/filming trip. Should be spectacular.

Slope Life, Hatcher Pass, Alaska. ©2010 Dave Taylor/Sixtyone North (Canon 5D mk 2, 24-105 @ 24mm. 3.2" at f/16 base exposure @ ISO 100. 1/4" at f/16 flower exposure @ ISO 1600. B+W CPL filter.)

For the photographers out there – here’s a brief breakdown of how I created the last image in today’s post.

In the Field

The wind was gusting pretty strong, but inconsistently. Because of the vast scene I knew that I needed to maximize my depth of field by using a wide angle lens and a small aperture (in this case, f/16). Of course, the problem is the wind. At f/16 I was getting a shutter speed of 3.2 seconds at ISO 100. Far too long of an exposure to stop the motion of the foreground flowers. The option was to boost my ISO up so my shutter speed would be high enough to stop their motion, but this meant an ISO of 1600. Higher ISOs like this mean noise. Noise is bad (…usually). I don’t own a tilt/shift lens, so I was kind of stuck.

Or… was I? (it helps if you say this while turning your head slightly sideways with a serious look on your face.)

My solution was to shoot the shot twice, once at a low ISO to capture the scene without noise and to focus on the middle and back ground. The second shot would be to focus on the flowers at a higher ISO to stop their motion. The exposures turned out like this: flowers = f/16 @ 1/4″, ISO 1600, with focus set on the flowers. Everything besides the flowers = f/16 @ 3.2″, ISO 100, with focus set on the rock outcropping in the upper left third of the frame.

Post Production

Once I had imported all of my shots into Lightroom, I did minor adjustments to the colors/saturation/contrast/etc. Then I exported both images into Photoshop as separate files. Now, here’s where it gets top-secret tip kinda zone… If you tell anyone how I did this, I’m telling your mother on you. With both files open in Photoshop, I selected FILE:AUTOMATE:PHOTOMERGE.

“But Dave, that is a program for making panoramics! You can’t use it that way, you’ll be arrested!”

Yes, I know. You are being way too dramatic. The problem with shooting two images of the same scene with slightly different focal points is the scenes don’t overlap perfectly. There is a slight misalignment. Don’t believe me? Try it out. Back? Ok… let’s continue. The great thing about Photomerge is not only its ability to merge side by side images into a stitched pano, but also to correct for misalignments in Blended Images. In essence, what you are doing is creating an image with much more depth of field. So, I selected the “Auto” feature and sat back. In a few seconds, it was done. Two images of the same scene, focused on different areas, overlaid and matched perfectly. I selected the layer that was the image taken at a higher ISO and positioned it as the bottom layer. The image with the low ISO (and no noise) was set as the top layer and I added a layer mask to it. At this point, the image looks nice. No noise, but flowers are blurred because of the focal point change and the motion caused by the wind. So I selected the layer mask I just created and “cut through” the top layer (blurred flowers) to the higher ISO layer below, but only where the flowers and immediately surrounding area was.

Presto Bango… an image with great depth of field (sharp from foreground to background), razor sharp flowers, and a clean sky with no noise visible anywhere. Yes, there is some noise in the flowers. But the sharpness of the detail overcomes that, plus the noise appears to be texture on the flowers. The noise is only visible at very large magnifications on my monitor – it will not be evident on even a very large size print.

One additional note, this is the supreme law of digital photography. If you can only take one photo and have no chance of blending an image (an example would be a wildlife shot), ALWAYS boost the ISO to stop the action. I would rather have a sharp noisy image than a completely clean blurry image.

I hope this technique inspires you to try some new comps, next time you’re in the field.

Stay tuned.

This is a 6-image pano. Each one shot vertically to increase resolution across the panorama. I used a graduated neutral density filter (2-stop soft edge Singh-Ray) to balance the exposure of the sky with the reflection.

This was one of those incredible moments to witness, let alone photograph. And the best part was… not being there alone. As the clouds shifted color and deepened to a pure crimson, the slack-jawed look on Jena’s face was classic. Until she reminded me that I had the same look. Great evening. Nuf’ said.

Please click on the image below to view it larger. Want to see it even larger? This one needs to be viewed large. This image is roughly 5 feet long by 2 feet high in it’s native form. I’m looking forward to having one on display as soon as possible. As soon as I calculate a couple of print options, I’ll post an update. If you have a large, blank wall… perhaps it’s time you fill that space with an image of Mount Foraker, Hunter, and Denali reflecting on a calm lake in the interior of Alaska.

Kashwitna Lake Sunset, Denali and the Alaska Range. ©2010 Dave Taylor/Sixtyone North (Canon 5D mk 2, 70-200 @ 111mm, 1/4" at f/13, ISO 200. Singh-Ray 2-stop soft edge grad ND filter. The images were manually merged in Photoshop.)

Stay tuned. I’ve got several more photos from the past few weeks that I’ll be posting shortly.

Before I forget, don’t forget to take a look at the recently announced workshop: Alaska’s Southern Coast, June 11-18, 2010.

This panoramic was shot yesterday morning at sunrise. I was shooting mainly from the South Overlook, along the Parks Highway, north of Talkeetna. I observed a visual distortion through my Live View viewfinder as I was composing and focusing the photos I took yesterday morning. There was an apparent temperature differential shimmering in front of the mountain(s). It created this moving rippling effect, like a mirage shimmering, and ever so slightly bent the light. Unfortunately, this translates into a slightly softer photograph than I would have liked. Fortunately, our upcoming winter should “remedy” that. Good times ahead!

Denali Rising Above the Alaska Range. Click to enlarge.

This is a pano blend of 3 images shot side by side, then merged in Photoshop.

Stay tuned.

Over the next several days (possibly weeks), I’ll be posting a bunch of photos from this epic fall color trek. Everything from open tundra and mixed taiga on the Denali Highway, paired Trumpeter Swans on a secluded and fog shrouded lake, vast mountain ranges enveloped in alpine glow, to quiet stands of golden aspen. Lots of variety coming up, I hope you’ll keep checking back. Please feel free to leave comments, I’d love to hear your feedback.

ps – this was a scouting trip for a forthcoming Alaskan Photo Workshop, if you are interested in finding out more about joining us on this epic adventure, please send me an email. It will sell out fast!

This first shot is taken above the Monahan Glacial Plain, and the mountains in the background are part of the eastern reaches of the Alaska Range. This was sunset on the first day. Things would only get better…

The Alaska Range, Monohan Glacial Plain on the Denali Highway. Click to view larger image.

From the grand landscape to the intimate closeups, the Denali Highway has it all! Bear berry leaves.

Stay tuned!

Denali "The Great One"

I have had many dreams over the past several years, since moving to Alaska. And, since moving to Alaska, many of those have come true. I have seen more amazing scenery and wildlife in the past 4 years, than most will see in a lifetime. For those of you who have been following along, I have photographed brown bear from not yards – but feet & inches. Dall sheep ram, ewes & lamb from only a few yards. Moose just beyond my car window. Bald eagles so close that their wings grazed my shoulders as they came in for a landing or to leave again. Humpback whales splashing down after an amazing series of breaches. Orca circling our boat in growing numbers. Glaciers actively calving into milky blue waters, surrounded by snow capped mountains.

Hidden Peak - Denali, in Background (Middle Right) Appears Lower

Bare Cliff Walls - The Alaska Range

Drifted Walls - Alaska Range

But one thing eluded my travels. I have seen and photographed Denali from Wonder Lake (note to self: must go back), Talkeetna, and just south of Cantwell. But I’ve always wanted to get “up close & personal” – to fly near the summit, between the rocky crags and over snow rimmed ridgelines. To watch a mountain rise up beneath me, only to watch it fall quickly away once past the ridge. Glaciers below, deeply crevassed – their depths a cold blue whisper falling thousands of feet into darkness.

Resolute Rock - Alaska Range

Low Light on Ridge Line - Alaska Range

Sheer Drop - Alaska Range

I received a gift on Saturday, born of a new friendship. I was finally able to check the Denali flight off my list – trouble is, like so many awe inspiring experiences, it only leaves you wanting more. We met in Wasilla for the ride to Talkeetna, I drove to allow my guests the opportunity to sit back and relax, not to mention take in the view. We were warmly greeted by the staff at Talkeetna Air Taxi, who got us checked in and introduced us to our pilot, Bill. I swear, the people in the guiding industry here in Alaska are some of the greastest people you’ll ever meet. They are passionate, knowledgeable, and safety conscious. Their example has set a high bar for my own business, one that I look forward to attempting to match.

Resolute Rock #2 - Alaska Range

Out of the Glacier - Alaska Range

We boarded the Dehavilland Beaver and taxied towards the runway. Before long we were airborne, the Alaska Range rising before us in all it’s glory. Not a cloud in the sky, and not a bit of turbulence the entire flight – talk about ideal conditions! Bill, our pilot, kept reminding us of how lucky we were for our flight. So true. Denali, and the Alaska Range, is so massive that it creates it’s own weather system. “The Great One” (Denali) is a rare guest, usually hidden in the clouds along with Foraker and Hunter at its western flank. 20, 320 feet tall. Sure, that’s big – but it’s hard to put into context. Try stacking the Eiffel Tower on top of itself, 20 times. Or, for you football fans out there – that’s over 54 football fields (end zone to end zone) tall. It’s roughly 4 miles high. If you were to jump from an airplane at 20,320 feet over the ocean, you would free fall for nearly 2 minutes, before creating the worlds largest canon ball that is. Or if you’re really talented (and gutsy) you’d go for a belly flop. But I don’t recommend either, better to pack a ‘chute.

Bottomless Labyrynth - Alaska Range

I tried to write down something eloquent and moving about my experience circling Denali, gliding over ridge lines and landing on the Ruth Glacier. Truth is, words just aren’t cutting it. So, I’m going to shut up and hope that you’ll watch the video at the end of the post. I’d definitely recommend that you allow the video to load completely before letting it play all the way through, that way you won’t get any “stutter stops”. This is one of those videos that is enjoyed best if you click the “HQ” (High Quality) button while watching it. You can also click on the “Fullscreen” button to the right of the volume button on the player. Now, keep in mind – I am NO cinematographer. The clips were all shot with a Canon G9 – yep, that’s a digital point and shoot camera. Not exactly a RED ONE or a ultra HD professional camera. So please be gentle with me. I did shoot most of the aerial images with the same G9, set on aperture priority and RAW capture. It was great to be able to see an immediate effect of my shutter speed/aperture choices with a live histogram in the rear lcd. Next time, I’ll definitely shoot more with my main Canon camera. Oh you caught that? “Next time”. Oh yes, it will be mine…

Lessons learned:

The G9 does do a great job for such a compact camera. 12 megapixel RAW files with no noise at low iso’s. Great & fast setup for video clips. I shot about 15 minutes worth of video. That’s a lot of small clips.

A polarizer is definitely not needed – didn’t even put it on. The light changes too quickly, flying at 150+ mph over quickly varying terrain, dealing with a variable polarizer would be too much hassle.

A large rubber lens hood would be nice to rest get close to the window with. The further from the window your lens is, the more likely you’ll get reflections in your shots.

I’ll also try a UV/Haze filter for the altitude, but too be honest, we were so close to the mountains that it may not have much haze to cut through.

Remember to keep high shutter speeds to lessen the effects of vibration. As I knew ahead of time, don’t allow your camera, hands, or lens to touch the plexiglass of the aircraft windows – the vibrations will ruin your shots, as they are directly translated to your camera equipment.

Plans? Well, I’m going to get on the list for access to the Mountain House. The Mountain House was built in 1966 and has an amazing view of the Great Gorge and the Ruth Glacier, along with the surrounding ridges and summits. I’m hoping to get a week up there, and as crazy as it sounds – preferably this time of year, or earlier. With any luck I’ll get some clear skies and nights… mmm… northern lights over the Alaska Range.

Don Sheldon Outhouse in the Great Gorge - Alaska Range

In short, an amazing experience. One I’ll never forget. As you have no doubt noticed, all but one of these photos is displayed in black & white. As I’ve discussed before, I am a late entry into the b&w specialty. As much as I loved the deep blues of the sky, I thought that b&w really lent itself well to the sheer impressiveness and textures everywhere you turn when flying through the mountains. The images were all captured in color in RAW format, then converted in Adobe Lightroom to a specific range of b&w tonalities that I believe are appropriate for the grandness of the landscape.

Talkeetna Air Taxi and I are working on a discount for my clients (logistics and group tours). As soon as we iron out the details, I’ll post the specifics here. For now, if you schedule a flight with them, please let them know of my referral. And remember, if you are looking for any logistics help for your photographic trip to Alaska, be sure to check out my “Trusted Businesses” page.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAx58lIynfY

Please leave your comments, I’d love to hear from you!

For now, take care & good shooting. Stay tuned!

Alaska Range: Mt. Foraker, Mt. Hunter, & Denali

I shot this again in Live View mode, composing the 4 images that make this panorama and checking the exposure. I aimed to retain detail in the highlights (the 3 main mountain peaks – Foraker, Hunter, and Denali), and get some detail in the clouds. Live view has been a revelation in my landscape photography. Real time previews of your decision making process, I almost feel like I’m using a view camera – but high tech. Great fun. The image was of course captured as a RAW color file in the camera. I converted a copy of each of the 4 images to b&w – then “round-tripped” them to Photoshop for the merging into a single panorama. I also did a little dodging on the 3 main peaks as well as the upper most (white) clouds to bring out the sunlight first reaching them. I also burned the heavier clouds over head to gain some contrast in the sky. Finally, I added a slight vignette around the periphery of the image to help draw the viewers eyes inward, and keep them from running out of the pic.

Your thoughts?

Stay tuned.

Female, Common Redpoll (Carduelis flammea)

Here’s a quick post of some more images from Saturday, after the Denali Panoramic from the previous post. These birds have quite a view, looking out over the Alaska Range from atop a bluff outside of Talkeetna. They are well fed and used to people. I shot most of these from about 4-5 feet away. There were so many, sometimes 20 at once, that it was difficult to get a clean composition with solo birds. I set up my tripod with my 100-400 mounted, again IS turned off. It was fairly bright, so I was getting a high shutter speed. I still wanted to use a flash to fill in the shadows, but without a flash I was getting a shutter speed around 1/1000th of a second at f7.1 – way above the 1/250 flash sync speed. So I turned on the high speed sync on my flash unit, and since I was so close to the subjects, I knew that the flash power reduction would still be sufficient. So I was able to keep a high shutter speed and get a little fill & catch light. I shot these in 1 shot focus mode, and in single fire mode, as I really wanted to focus (ha, get it? “Focus”… yeah, it’s a bad photography joke) carefully. I wasn’t trying to shoot the birds in flight, or in succession – instead working on just single shots with clean comps.

Every time I am blessed with close encounters of wildlife, I feel blessed. Whether it is a brown bear named Peaches, a Dall sheep ewe and lamb, or a group of birds at a feeder – it is an acceptance of trust by a wild creature. As photographers, birders & wildlife watchers we have an obligation to respect them and not take their trust for granted. It is always a gift. Treat it as such.

Male, Pine Grosbeak (Pinicola enucleator)

Stay tuned.

Alpenglow on the Alaska Range, February 21, 2009 - click to enlarge

“Winter – a lingering season, is a time to gather golden moments, embark upon a sentimental journey and enjoy every idle hour…”

unknown, from Victoria’s Book of Days

I’ve been meaning to get back up and shoot the Alaska Range (Denali specifically), from Talkeetna, for some time. Since I currently have a real job Tuesday through Friday, my photography during the Alaskan winters are restricted mainly to my long weekends. Speaking of which, I’m seriously considering speaking to my congressman about initiating a new bill. What would you all think of a 7 day weekend? Think of how much more we’d get done! Anyway…

Weather is a constantly evolving thing, especially in Alaska. I checked the forecast for Denali National Park on Friday morning, clouds appeared to be moving in. Then I checked it again Friday night, and the forecast had changed again – this time to clear skies. Time to set the alarm. It’s still humorous to me; when I get up early (like 2-3 am early) to be somewhere for sunrise, I have absolutely no problem and look forward to it. But when I have to get up much earlier for my real job (like 7 am early), it is sooo much harder to roll out of bed. But I digress. Sunrise was at 8:28 am in Talkeetna, according to the USNO. I like to be on-site at least 1 hour early, usually 2. With that in mind, I factored in the 1 hour drive time & I set my alarm for 5:00 am.

I always prep my gear and clothing the day/evening before a shoot. Batteries charged? Check. Camera & lenses clean & functioning? Check. Gear checked, sorted & packed? Check, check, and check. Food, clothing, and emergency equipment? Check. Clean underwear? Yes, mom… CHECK!

After leaving in the morning, I stopped by the local Tesoro gas station, filled up the tank & grabbed a few Nutrigrain bars (’cause they’re like Fig Newton bars… on steroids), a bottle of o.j. and a Gatorade. When doing landscape photography, I actually hope for a few cloud – they add a lot to the sky, especially with a nice sunrise. They can put a shot of a mountain range over the top if there is alpenglow added. I got lucky Saturday morning. Impressive mountains? Uh, yeah… it’s Denali and the Alaska Range. Check! Sunrise? Well it was bound to happen again this morning, so check! Alpenglow? Glorious, and check!

I parked at my pre-scouted location, got my gear and hiked till I found a pleasing view. I put my camera bag down in the snow, lid up and chose a spot for my tripod. Quick tip: I am always careful about setting up my tripod – especially in snow. If you open your tripod stance to its widest position and push it straight down into deep snow, you can easily damage or break your tripod. The snow will force the legs further apart than they are meant to go, either they will flex and weaken/break or the tripod collar (where the legs meet below the head) will weaken/break. Don’t do it! Tripods are nice inventions, don’t hurt them… what did they ever do to you? Imagine someone forcing you to do the splits in the snow, naked! Ok, scratch that – don’t imagine it… it’s disturbing. Two options, stomp the snow down in the area you want to set up in, or keep the tripod legs in (don’t do the splits!) and allow them to spread more naturally as you push them into the snow. Just be cautious. I recommend stomping the snow down a bit, it’ll help you stay warm and lesson your chances of damaging the tripod legs.

Once set up, I made a few test exposures since alpenglow was still 1/2 hour away or more. Worked on the compositions I knew I wanted to get (and looked for ones I hadn’t thought of). My goal was to take several overlapping shots in a panoramic series, so I leveled my tripod carefully (I have a bubble level on the tripod collar) and verified that my camera would remain level throughout the series of overlapping images with another bubble level on top of my camera’s hot shoe. Precise leveling is one of the most important points in proper panoramic composition, along with consistent exposure, and overlapping of images. I plugged in my remote shutter release, and set my ISO to 100 for longer exposures and no noise (mmm… BIGGER PRINTS!).

Another quick tip: the cable itself can become very stiff & brittle while shooting in the cold, be careful to not manhandle it – it may snap.

I turned my autofocus off. It’s a mountain, it’s not going anywhere… not in my lifetime anyway. Plus, I have the greatest photographic inventions ever created, eyes with properly prescribed glasses! I also turned off my lenses image stabilizer. This particular lens takes sharper shots when the I.S. is turned off if mounted to a steady tripod. I also tried something new, Live View. It turns on the hi-rez lcd on the rear of the camera, full time. I am able to see exactly what the sensor is seeing, including how my exposure settings are affecting the image, and focus by zooming in up to 10X for critical focus. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this function. I’ve owned cameras before that had this ability, but I never tried it out. It really works very well for landscapes. It does drain the batteries faster, especially in the cold – but I still got about 400 RAW files out of a single battery that morning. More than worth it. Note to self:

“Self, buy more batteries.”

“Sure thing Self, I’d be happy to.”

Done.

Ok, so the nitty gritty part. Decided to compose the panoramic series by turning the camera to vertical (by using the lens collar ring) – I would have to take more photographs than if I shot each horizontally, but I’d get more resolution and more detail this way. I focused (using Live View) manually on one of Denali’s upper ridge lines. I set my exposure to f16 at 1/6″, verified my Live View exposure. Another nice thing about Live View is that it automatically sets the mirror lock up, this reduces vibration and should give an even sharper image with longer exposures. I reverified my leveling throughout the shot sequence, and locked all of my ball head knobs – except for the pan tension. Check.

I always feel like I’m listening to Mission Control from the top of a rocket right before I get to my play time. Play time is the actual photography portion, the set up is business. A subtle change of color in the lenticular cloud directly over Denali’s summit signals the countdown.

10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1

Alpenglow! And we have blastoff.

I’ve already prepared as much as I can, now it’s all down to proper technique. Take the first shot in the series (I always move left to right), pan right (remember to overlap about 1/4-1/3 of the frame), let the camera settle and be still. Shoot & repeat. This image is a 10 image combination. All equal exposures, taking exactly 50 seconds to shoot the entire sequence, but the total exposure time was only 1.67 seconds. From left to right, the distance captured here is nearly 30 miles across. Denali rises 20,320 feet above me from almost exactly 60 miles away. I took series after series, 140 images in total. Made some mistakes. Hey, I’m not perfect! But I also made some images that sing to me, hopefully someone else will here the chorus.

I also scouted another location that morning, but shot only birds. Only birds? Well that was said the wrong way. Beautiful birds in an amazing location! New friends have an amazing view of the Alaska Range, all the way from Sleeping Lady in the west, to well past Denali in the east. I can’t wait to visit them again, very nice people with an amazing view. And DOGS!!! Good people.

So, on to the post processing. This is actually fairly basic stuff – as I don’t “reinvent” nature’s beauty by overdoing it in post. I synchronize all the images once in Lightroom, make sure the exposures truly are even. Do my color corrections, minor tweaks to contrast, saturation/vibrance, a small amount of capture sharpening (every RAW digital image needs some initial sharpening, since only jpegs are sharpened in the camera). Then I selected all the images and sent them to Photoshop CS3 for the panoramic stitching/blending. Once in Photoshop, it’s a simple matter of running “Photomerge” on the opened files. Since I took such care in my leveling the tripod and camera, everything went very smoothly. Once the files were combined (it takes a while – the resulting file is nearly 2 gigs), I verify the alignment and flatten the layers. Then I do my final “fine tuning” of the image, subtle things like dodge and burning areas of the photo to add depth and contrast. Then I save the file as a master file. When I have a final use for the image, it will be duplicated, resized and given a final sharpening for that final size. The original master stays untouched and can be used for multiple purposes. Another note: the sharpening that I do is almost always “selective” sharpening. I rarely sharpen the blurred background or sky in an image. Sharpening these areas just draws undue attention to them and increases apparent grain. I’ll have some “how to’s” in the future about these Photoshop techniques.

So… that’s it! More or less. Like I said in the intro – if you have a question, leave it in the comments section so others can benefit from the answers – I’m glad to help whenever I can. If I can’t, I’ll try to point you in the right direction.

What did I learn? Next time, use the snowshoes I had in my trunk. It would have made the short hike even easier. As a friend pointed out, I should have had worn my snow pants (and not my jeans). Did I get cold? No, but I could have – especially with how deep the snow was (hip deep… yeah, snow shoes would have been great). Practice what I preach to new photographers, “Know your camera!” In the heat of the moment (ok, so it was -4 F) I rotated the back control dial to adjust my exposure while in manual mode, and adjusted the shutter speed for the exposure I wanted. But after I had taken a few photographs, I realized that I had changed my aperture to f32, rather than keeping it around f14-f16. Lenses typically get soft (focus wise) when used at extremely small apertures, but I wasn’t paying enough attention to my settings. Did I miss any shots because of this? No, I still had a “correct” exposure, but the shots were ever so slightly less sharp than the photos I made after I adjusted the f-stop back to where it should have been. Know your equipment. Pop quiz: if in manual mode, do you know which dial on your camera controls the aperture and which controls the shutter speed? Alright hotshot, pop quiz #2: which direction would you turn the respective dials to make a longer exposure, or a smaller aperture? If you don’t know, sit down with your camera right now… and practice. What’s the big deal? Lost shots.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.”

Mark Twain

He should have added, “Know your camera, so you aren’t disappointed by the shots that you didn’t get.”

What’s next? Well, I’ve got a bunch of bird photos to post, so they’re coming up. Also have that review of the Bushhawk camera support system wrapping up, complete with profanity!!! But not what you think. More like, “why the #$@! didn’t I get one of these things sooner?”

Looking at the weather report right now… might be good skies above Denali again tomorrow morning. Time to set my alarm early again and check my gear:) Clean underwear? Check.

Stay tuned!

Yeah, that's my handsome mug. Notice the "designer" snow pants? See? They are pants with snow on them. Hence, snow pants!