“Hiking Reed Lakes, Alaska”!

How many?

Oh… around 5 million. Give or take.

Two photography tips for this location in May? Yeah… you’ll thank me later.

Tip #1 – Wear rain gear at all times. Might be a good idea for your camera gear too.

Tip #2 – Don’t EVER look up with your mouth open. Those aren’t wet snow flakes. Well, they may be. But do you really want to take that chance?

You’re welcome.

Hartney Slough Twilight Pano. ©2010 Dave Taylor/Sixtyone North - CLICK TO ENLARGE

Annnnnnyway. In mid June, there are less birds and associated poop to dodge.

The grass that grows in Hartney Slough is thick and lush green.

The river is constantly changing appearance. When the tide is out, it is just few feet deep and is mainly clear with a light silty tint to it. When the tide comes back in, the river creeps up the grassy banks of the slough and takes on a beautiful milky blue cast. Evidence of it’s glacial source.

This place, where ocean meets land, embodies the Prince William Sound. Perhaps all of Alaska. It is snow falling high in the mountains, compacting to ice over eons, drifting slowly & inexorably downhill. It crushes those same mountains into rock, pebbles, and fine powder. The glaciers melt and carry the same silt downstream, tumbling through deep dark rainforest. It collects fallen trees, leaves, and plant life and carries them through the sloughs and finally the sea. This is life, death, and rebirth.

And everything in between.

Moose and Calves. ©2010 Dave Taylor/Sixtyone North (Canon 5D mk 2, 100-400 @ 310mm. 1/60" at f6.3, ISO 3200)

Stay tuned.

Huh, whats that? Oh.

My assistant just told me that is already the case. My mind is sufficiently blown. I really must investigate this thing he calls a “tee vee”.

Anyway. The way a videographer/producer works is very enlightening. The amount of work put in is very similar to what we as photographers struggle with. Scott was telling me that he typically shoots something like 2 hours worth of video, that will be edited down into a 10 minute piece. I learned a lot about holding a viewers attention. With video, it is literally measured in seconds. In photography, it is not uncommon for me (on a wildlife shoot) to shoot over 1000 frames in a day. Out of those frames, perhaps 100 will be good enough to keep. Of those 100, I might be proud of 20… if it was a good shoot. If 3 make a “Portfolio Grade”, I’ve had a good day. Other wildlife photogs I’ve spoken to echo similar stats.

Now that I own two cameras that shoot full HD video, I’ve been having a blast experimenting with the medium. It’s a great bonus to have a good friend that is a video pro. Scott shoots high end HD cameras for tv/film production. His workflow and style is very different from mine, it’s absolutely fascinating. And his product shows it. It’s personal, inspiring and passionate work. So, if you ever need professional video work done here in Alaska – make sure you get ahold of Scott.

This first shot is of a small cove left exposed by the low tide at Bird Point, along the Turnagain Arm. I liked the soft curved line of the drainage set against the rocky beach and imposing mountains beyond.

Bird Point B&W, Turnagain Arm, Alaska. ©2010 Dave Taylor/Sixtyone North (Canon 5D mk 2, 24-105 @ 24mm, 1/1000" @ f/8, ISO 200. B+W CPL. B&W conversion done in Lightroom 2.7)

The other shot I’m posting today is a bit of a “misdirection”. This was taken maybe 40 yards from the wide angle frame above. It looks like an aerial shot of a great sand dune, like you might find in Namibia or the Sahara. But in reality, this “dune” is roughly 1 inch tall. From the bottom of the frame to the top, perhaps 6-8 inches of total coverage. I used a macro lens with a very shallow depth of field (f/4) to simulate a reverse tilt-shift effect. I’ve been wanting to shoot these sand ripples in the tidal zones along the Turnagain Arm for quite a while, but Saturday the light was simply too bright, with too much contrast. I tried a reflector panel to bounce the light onto the back (unlit) side of the “dune”, but the light simply didn’t look natural. It wasn’t the soft lighting I was going for. So I decided to embrace the contrast and push it a bit. I hope you like it as much as I enjoyed laying in the mud. I like my office.

"Ripple in Time", Bird Point, Turnagain Arm, Alaska ©2010 Dave Taylor/Sixtyone North (Canon 5D mk 2, 70-200 f4 IS @ 192mm, 1/1250" @ f/4, ISO 100. Canon 500D Macro Diopter)

Stay tuned.

Same ol’ routine. Got up early, well… relatively early as compared to the sunrise time. Sunrise today was at 9:57 am at the location I planned to shoot. That’s the great thing about landscape photography in winter – sleep in and still catch sunrise!

I got up at 6:30, showered & (because of mom’s good teachings) put on clean underwear. Don’t be that person. I headed south to the Kenai Peninsula in the dark. Along the Turnagain Arm, several pair of eyes glanced up at me from the road side, 4 Dall sheep not 10 feet off the pavement. But I was on a mission, and it was dark. Very dark. In the summer months, the sun would have been up for over 4 hours by this time. But at this time of year, I had 2 more hours of darkness. Thank you Starbucks…

My original plan was to shoot ice formations on Kenai Lake, just beyond Moose Pass. As I neared the lake though, something peculiar struck me.

There was no ice.

This was going to make walking on the lake very difficult. And wet. And cold. You get the idea.

I was stunned, Kenai Lake is always frozen this time of year. But there she was, waves crossing the surface and lapping along the shore. Stumped, I turned around and headed back towards Moose Pass. Luckily, Trail Lake (which I am guessing is much more shallow than Kenai Lake) had plenty of ice covering it. So I parked and hiked down to the shoreline. Absolutely quiet. No wind. No movement other than a light fog hanging midway up a mountain slope and scattered clouds that were well above the peaks. The ice was thick, as far as I could tell – at least 2 feet thick, if not more.

I started looking for interesting patterns and pressure ridges in the ice. I was about 10 yards beyond the shore line when 3 things happened.

Trail Lake Ice Formations - Copyright 2010 Dave Taylor/Sixtyone North LLC

1. The ice lifted, then fell under my feet. The ice didn’t collapse or give way – it just surged. Wow, wasn’t expecting that.

2. The lake itself groaned, breaking the early morning silence. It was a series of odd sounds: deep and resounding “Bewwwwwwww”‘s and pops, then cracks and creaks. It’s funny how loud these sounds are when you are standing directly above them when they occur.

3. I realized that mom was definitely right about that whole “clean underwear” rule. She’s a bright woman.

I “casually” moved (read: “ran like hell”) off the ice and back to the safety of the shore. I had only brought the one pair of clean underwear and all. I didn’t want to push my luck.

Trail Lake Bubbles in Ice - Copyright 2010 Dave Taylor/Sixtyone North LLC

I spent the rest of the morning photographing fractures in the ice, landscapes, air bubbles trapped in the ice, and pressure ridges at Trail Lake. Beautiful location right off the Seward Highway, couldn’t be easier to get to. But the surroundings are pristine and I had the place to myself the whole time. Next time, I’m going to plan a clockwise circumnavigation of the lake to search for more image options. The area is rich with them & I can’t wait to get back.

On my drive home, I took a short side trip down the Sterling Highway to Cooper Landing and the other end of the Kenai Lake. The vast majority was open water, but I did find a nice patch of ice near Quartz Creek with several options for more photographs.

Kenai Lake Ice Fracture - Copyright 2010 Dave Taylor/Sixtyone North LLC

I had beautiful, soft light the whole day. It would have been nice to have a bit more color in the sky – but it was still an excellent day in the field. And as we all know, even a bad day in the field is better than any good day in the office.

Stay tuned… I’ll post more pics from today’s shoot over the next several days.

1 week ago, I boarded the high-speed ferry in Whittier, bound for Cordova on the eastern edge of the Prince William Sound. The forecast had changed so many times over the past couple of days, that I really had no idea of what to expect. Honestly, is there anyone out there that can be so wrong, so many times and still get paid for their job. Weather forecasters can barely even tell you what happened yesterday, let alone what will happen tomorrow or the next day. I think they use a Ouija Board, a Magic 8 Ball, and a 24-sided die to make their forecasts. Sorry Al Roker, the people have spoken. Now move along to a respectable, reliable, and predictable line of work, like politics or gambling.

Anyway… I tend to drift a little, but those darn tangents can be fun.

It was raining lightly in Whittier as I came out of the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel. I have never traveled by ferry before, or dealt with the AMHS (Alaska Marine Highway System). Check in is not like at the airport & not like dealing with the TSA. Actually, I have nothing against the TSA – they do a thankless job around people that have to take off their shoes can you say Odor Eaters? (Odor Eaters is a Combe Incorporated brand). Here is my check in conversation:

“Good afternoon, my name is Dave Taylor. I’m on the fast ferry today at 4″

“Hi Dave, can I see your driver’s license. Great, do you have any firearms, explosives, or fuel?”

“None other than in my car:)” Hey… she laughed…

“Ok, here are your tickets. Just pull your car into lane 6 or 7 and have a great trip”

In and out of the check-in building in less than 1 minute. Easy peasy.

Everything is very ordered and neat. You board the boat in a very orderly manner and after parking your car in the parking bay below the passenger deck, you move upstairs to the very comfortable sitting area. This is not like coach on a plane. This is like first class seating, everywhere you look. Oh, and everywhere you look… panoramic views out huge windows. This is a cruise, not a mode of transportation! There are ample power outlets, tables, and comfortable reclining seats with GOOD headrests! And it’s not super expensive. The AMHS offers a deal for travelers driving their cars on – the driver goes free. My round trip ticket with my car was $210. Not too shabby.

The high speed ferry (the M/V Chenega) is a catamaran, and offers a very smooth and quiet ride. The trip to Cordova and back to Whittier 5 days later was a great time to relax and soak up the beauty of the Prince William Sound as it passes by you at nearly 40 knots.

On to Cordova. Cordova is amazing. So much variety nearby and the people are fantastic. It truly is “The Land that the Internet Forgot”. I found 1 wifi spot, at Baja Taco. Baja Taco has great food & questionable wifi. Cordova’s idea of wifi is you tossing your laptop across the room at a high rate of speed. Which is fine for you Dell (dude you should have bought an Aerobie!) users, but my MacBook Pro is no frisbee. But it was actually quite nice to be “unplugged” for the majority of the trip, avert my eyes from my laptop screen and unglue my finger tips from the keyboard. Because Cordova has so much to offer. Surrounded by mountains, rainforests, glaciers and ocean. Both salt and fresh water are either crystal clear or a pale & milky blue from glacial silt. Which brings me to the colors of this area… wow. My retinas are actually stressed because of the intensity of the colors, everything is so lush and vibrant. Brilliant greens in the rain forest and deep, warm browns of tree bark. Wildflowers such as columbine (scarlet), lupine (blue), and geraniun (deep lavendar) blossom this time of year. Then there are the colors of the glacier… the deepest blue you have ever seen. The deep layers of compressed snow and ice haven’t seen daylight in hundreds (or even thousands) of years, but when they get exposed it is like they are lit from within. I’ll have photos posted of all of these subjects over the next several days, so keep checking back!

Oh, and one more thing. I’m heading back to Cordova next year, likely for 2-3 trips. The first will be in early spring for the Shorebird Migration on a solo trip. Then back again around this time of year for 2 separate photography workshops. I think you’ll see why in the upcoming posts. One of the trips is already booked! I’ll have the details on the other trip very soon, so if you are interested in joining Sixtyone North on an amazing photographic adventure, send me an email NOW to get on the list. It will be an all-inclusive 5-day trip (meals/lodging/transportation (during the workshop)/and guiding all included) and is sure to become an annual event. This isn’t offered anywhere else.

But for now, on to the cute fest. The sea otters of eastern Prince William Sound. Awwwwwwwwwwww… where’s that damn box of Kleenex? There are a bunch of images here, so take your time & remember to click on them to see a larger version.

Sea Otter (Enhydra lutris) floating in Prince William Sound

Sea otter (Enhydra lutris) floating in the Prince William Sound

Sea otter (Enhydra lutris) floating in the Prince William Sound

Sea otter (Enhydra lutris) floating in the Prince William Sound

Sea otter with cute baby (Enhydra lutris) floating in the Prince William Sound

Sea otter with baby on chest (Enhydra lutris) floating in the Prince William Sound

Sea otter with baby on chest (Enhydra lutris) floating in the Prince William Sound

Sea otter with baby on chest (Enhydra lutris) floating in the Prince William Sound

Sea otter with baby on chest (Enhydra lutris) floating in the Prince William Sound, in front of ship wreck. Near Cordova, Alaska.

Sea otter with baby on chest (Enhydra lutris) floating in the Prince William Sound

Sea otter with baby floating in the green waters of Prince William Sound, near Cordova, Alaska.

Sea otter pup swimming towards me. Prince William Sound, near Cordova, Alaska.

Sea otter pup on back, floating in Prince William Sound. Near Cordova, Alaska.

Sea otter mother "cruising" with pup on stomach. In the Prince William Sound, near Cordova, Alaska.

Blonde sea otter floating in Prince William Sound, near Cordova, Alaska. Apparently, he thought I did something right. He clapped.

Raft of sea otters, in secluded bay in eastern Prince William Sound. Near Cordova, Alaska.

]]> http://sixtyonenorth.com/2009/06/the-sea-otters-of-prince-william-sound-caution-cuteness-coma-alert/feed/ 3 http://sixtyonenorth.com/2009/05/dere-be-whales-here/ http://sixtyonenorth.com/2009/05/dere-be-whales-here/#comments Mon, 18 May 2009 21:45:14 +0000 admin http://sixtyonenorth.com/wp/?p=510 Another trip to Seward, another epic adventure. Joined my friends at Kenai Fjords Tours on another “Captain’s Choice Tour“. We spent the day plying the waters outside of Resurrection Bay. There were several photographers on board; both local Alaskans as well as first time visitors to our amazing state. It was great to shoot along side them and stretch our creative muscles – pushing and prodding each other for tidbits. There was the usual jesting involved & everyone took it very well. Good people all around, and a great captain and well… captain. We got 2 captains for the price of 1! Because they were only running one boat yesterday, we were lucky to have a second captain on board to serve as the deck hand. They switched on and off at the controls and were a wealth of information and humor throughout the duration of our voyage – I’ve come to expect nothing less. There are a few competitors taking travelers onto the waters surrounding Kenai Fjords National Park, but Kenai Fjords Tours really is a step above. Knowledgeable, customer service oriented, and safety conscious. A winning combination & I travel with no one else.

Oh, and we saw whales too.

I’ve done this trip before, a bunch of times. But I’ve never gotten to see Holgate Glacier so “up close and personal”. Aialik Glacier is still my favorite, as it is so wide at the terminus (where it meets the ocean), but Holgate was very dramatic. A very steep face along with several small calving events (one of which I was able to get on video – hope to post the vid soon!). There is nothing quite like sitting 1/4 mile off the terminus of an active tidewater glacier. It is alive. You can hear it breathing, groaning, and shifting fitfully. It may be silent for a while, but then without warning you’ll hear a sharp crack, followed quickly by a low and rumbling booooom. Ice chunks thousands of years old flake off, plummeting towards the water. Ice chunks the size of houses. Houses the size of a mansion! Yeah, it don’t get much better than that.

Did I mention we saw whales?

We had several Dall’s porpoise playing off the bow of our ship for several minutes – it was too contrasty to shoot the camera, so I got some fun video (that’ll be coming soon too!). We also witnessed some playful Orca that circled our boat for a long time in the morning. Orca, more commonly known as killer whales, aren’t actually whales at all – they belong to the dolphin family. Sometimes called “Blackfish” or the “Sea Wolf”, orca are the largest members of the dolphin family. This particular family (or pod) was very active, expelling air from their blowholes, arcing their backs, and surfacing in groups of 5-6 at one time. There was even tail slapping behavior and “spy hopping”. Spy hopping is when the orca pop their heads and upper body vertically out of the water to get a look at their surroundings. It is very difficult to photography well, because you never know where they’ll surface, or when. I got a few shots of the activity, but nothing noteworthy. What was noteworthy however, was witnessing it.

“Dave, I don’t mean to press. But you did mention whales…”

Oh yeah, my bad. I was one of the lucky few on our boat to see it happen, but a large humpback breached off the port side of our boat. That’d be the left side of the boat for all you “land-lubbers”. It was further out to sea and a good distance away – to far to get a decent shot. But still amazing to see a 40 ton creature rocket fully out of the water, arch its back and then slam back into the water. The splash down, even though about 1/2 mile away (or more) was still very audible. Yeah, I lead a charmed life.

Here are the pics I got. Remember comment and critique away!

Sea Otter (Enhydra lutris) - Resurrection Bay, Seward, Alaska

Orca/Killer Whale Pod (Orcinus orca) - Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska

Surfacing orca, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska

Orca in black & white, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska

Steller Sea Lions (Eumetopias jubatus), Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska

Female humpback (Megaptera novaeangliae) surfacing, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska

Humbpack whale - baleen view, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska

Symbiosis - humpback and gulls, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska

Surfacing spout, humpback whale, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska

Symbiosis 2, humpback and gulls, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska

Humpback tail fluke & gulls, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska

Holgate Glacier Panoramic, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska

I’ll also be posting the second installment in the “Buying your first digital SLR “kit”‘ shortly, as promised. Stay tuned, and keep shooting!

But what about new photographers looking to make their first purchase? How do you make sure that you are making a good investment? Cameras and camera equipment (kit) are not cheap. There is a dizzying array of options to choose from. Everything from cameras to lenses, tripods to filters, memory cards to flashes, remotes to camera bags. And a whole lot in between.

What comes first? What is the next step? I hope to answer some of those questions in this post.

Cameras

First things first. Simply put, they are only a light-tight box. They are the human eye ball simplified. The camera body is the eye,  and the digital sensor is the retina. You need a lens to complete the eye analogy. The aperture is the iris and pupil, and the lens elements are the cornea and crystalline lens. The eye lids are the lens hood. There you have it – a human eye simplified. To prove a point, professional photographer Terry Richardson, used a disposable film camera (yep, those little Kodak or Fuji plastic and cardboard contraptions) to do an entire shoot for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue (I swear, I read it for the articles…). Oh, and he got the cover shot. It’s not the camera!

“Dave, hurry up and tell me what to buy!”

No.

You’ve got to ask yourself a question first. “Self, what do I want to photograph?” Until you know that, the rest is trivial. 75% (or more) of people would be fine buying a digital point and shoot camera and going with that. Heck, I own one & it’s a lot of fun. But if you want to push your photography (and yourself) and have a fully customizable camera, you need a digital SLR.

“Dave, what’s a SLR?”

“SLR” stands for Single Lens Reflex. It simply means that it uses a mirror to allow the photographer to look through the viewfinder and see exactly what is being photographed. The mirror flips out of the way when the shutter is fully depressed (pushed down, not considering a course of Prozac). Point and shoot (p&s) cameras and rangefinders provide a viewfinder that looks around the lens and approximates the view of the lens. Sometimes, much less accurately than desired. SLR cameras allow you to buy different lenses and swap them out as the subject or circumstances dictate. They also offer the widest variety of accessories, so you can grow and customize your “kit” as you develop.

I stick by my long standing belief that you should buy a camera from one of the “Big Two” manufacturers. Canon or Nikon. Pentax, Sony (they bought Minolta’s technology), Sigma do make good equipment – but their systems and available accessories are not as developed as Canon or Nikon. Truth be told, both Nikon and Sony use Sony digital sensors on most of their offerings. The only major difference that sets these brands apart is stabilization technology. Canon was the first to the plate with I.S. lenses (Image Stabilization). Then came Nikon with their V.R. lenses (Vibration Lenses). Sony shook things up by building on Minolta’s in camera sensor stabilization (SteadyShot INSIDE™). Canon’s I.S. has been very good and Nikon has really advanced their V.R. technology – but I honestly hope that they both adopt an “in-body” stabilizer technology like Sony in the future. It would make the lenses smaller and lighter weight and lower their cost. Sony has proven that in-camera stabilization is every bit as effective as lens-based stabilization.

Digital SLRs are very different from their old step-brother, the film SLR. Image quality is essentially identical between a 1970′s Canon and a 1999 Canon. Not so in the digital world. Sensor technology leaps forward every few months it seems. But remember the original point I tried to make. That great shot you took 1 year ago with your “now old and decrepit Cakon 1X Alpha” is just as good as it was then. A good photo can stand the test of time, regardless of the technology.

There are a lot of options in camera bodies, but they all do the same thing – they take pictures. Some even make movies! As a comparison between Canon and Nikon, here is how their cameras match up in offerings. They don’t match up perfectly, but this is in the ball park.

Canon Rebel XS & XTi = Nikon D40, D60 and D5000

Canon Rebel T1i = Nikon D80 & D90

Canon EOS 40D & EOS 50D = Nikon D300

Canon EOS 5D Mark II = Nikon D700

Canon EOS 1D Mark III = Nikon D3

Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III = Nikon D3X

The megapixel range in these cameras is astounding. Any of these cameras can produce very nice 16″ x 20″ prints. The more megapixels you throw into the camera, the larger you can go and the more aggressively you can crop. The top of the line EOS 5D Mark II, 1Ds Mark III and the D3X can produce amazing 24″ x 36″ prints with no problems, and can often times go much larger.

The first 3 lines (Canon Rebel models through the Nikon D300) all use an APS-C sensor size. APS-C is smaller than a 35mm piece of film but offers a higher resolution than a 35mm piece of film ever could. It also means that they magnify any lens you put on the camera by about 1.5 times! A free and built in  teleconverter! So a 20mm lens is in fact producing a 30mm view & a 600mm lens is producing a 900mm view. Great for wildlife, bad for wide angle landscapes. There’s another trade off, the viewfinder isn’t as bright or large to look through in these cameras when compared to a full frame camera. Everything in photography is a compromise, everything. The sooner you recognize that, the sooner you can advance as a photographer. The Nikon D90 and D5000 can also capture HD movies, though not as high a quality as the Canon EOS 5D Mark II.

The Canon 5D Mark II & the Nikon D700 both use a full frame (35mm equivelant) sensor size. With these, there is no built in teleconverter. This means that any lens you mount gives the exact view it was designed to give, a 12mm wide angle lens is exactly that – 12mm. Awesome for landscapes and offer LOTS of detail in your images. The Canon 5D Mark II also shoots full HD 1080P movies – beautiful quality movies!

The Canon 1D Mark III is a “partial-crop” sensor. Almost a full frame sensor with a 1.3 built in teleconverter. Great sensor, very fast frames per second rate, and a great “compromise” between a full frame and an APS-C type sensor.

The Nikon D3, Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III and the Nikon D3X are all full frame sensors. Again, great for landscapes and very high quality (and resolution) images. Oh, and they’re expensive. The Nikon D3X (at the time of this writing) is about $8000. That’s just for the camera body. “Lenses NOT included”. Got a bank nearby? Consider a loan or robbery. Disclaimer time: Dave Taylor & Sixtyone North LLC accepts no responsibility for any photographers anticipating incarceration due to alleged robbery attempts. Darn lawyers – they made me put that in there.

The long and short of it is that every one of these cameras can produce fine images. It is a matter of what your intended “final product” will be. If you are a hobbyist looking to decorate your home/office with small”ish” prints of your family, vacations, or local wildlife/landscapes a Canon Digital Rebel or Nikon D40 – D90 will work wonderfully. If you want more features, higher resolution, better noise performance, higher “frames per second” (can you say 10 frames per second?), you’ll need to look at that loan/robbery option. *Please refer to afore mentioned disclaimer*

The growing popularity of the movie making option on a few of these cameras is a sign of the future. Rather than having to lug around a digital camera and camcorder, you can have all that performance in one package. Get used to it ol’ fogies, HD movies are here to stay – this ain’t your dad’s Holga or Brownie.

Don’t discount ergonomics either. True, I’m a Canon shooter – but I’ve always thought Nikons fit my hands better. The grip and control layout just makes sense. So why did I go with Canon? At the time, Nikon wasn’t committed to developing their V.R. system, stating that it wasn’t a tool that working professionals saw the benefit of. Watch a football game or a tennis match. Check the sidelines (and endzones), see that white mass of huge camera equipment? Those are all Canon cameras sporting 500mm and 600mm lenses… with I.S. capability. They make a world of difference. Nikon came around though, but by the time they had, I had already invested a sizable amount of cash/credit in my Canon system. I may switch sides in the future (cameras… not orientation. I like women. Sue me). The Canon ID series, and the Nikon D3 series also include a built in vertical grip. This adds weight, but also comfort and a good counterbalance to heavy lenses. You can add aftermarket vertical grips to most of the other cameras in this list as well. The Canon models look like you slapped a plastic brick on the bottom of your camera, whereas some of the Nikons (in particular the D700) blend together so well, it’s hard to tell that it is an accessory. Canon could learn something from this approach.

Another compromise. With smaller sensors (like those in the first few lines), you will see more noise in your photos at higher ISOs. This is because of something known as “Signal to Noise Ratio”. A Canon 50D shares a similar resolution with the venerable Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II, but the larger sensor of the Mark II will produce “cleaner” files because of it’s larger sensor.

Coming up next? Lenses & Filters! Stay tuned. And remember, the best camera is the one that you own and have with you. That little p&s camera you carry in your purse or messenger bag takes a lot better pictures when you have it with you. When it’s sitting at home & is 20 miles away, you probably aren’t gonna get the shot.

This weekend I’m heading for Homer, and the Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival. I couldn’t make it to Cordova and Copper River Shorebird Festival this year, and as disappointing as this was, I’m very excited about heading back to Homer for a different kind of avian photography. Homer, for me, has always been centered around the Bald Eagles gathered there in the winter. But this is a completely different gathering of birds. Over 130 species of birds. Over 20 species of shorebirds. Over 100,000 birds.

And the weather looks absolutely weekend worthy! Mid-50′s and partly cloudy/mostly sunny Friday through Monday. Hey, I do it for the art! Someone’s got to make sacrifices, and I volunteered. I will also be working with Mako’s Water Taxi on Saturday and Sunday morning. He’ll be taking me to his favorite locations for tide pooling, where I will be doing some macro photography of some of the best tide pool life in Alaska. Sea urchins, sea stars, anemone, sea cucumber (salad anyone?). Gonna be a great weekend. This is another scouting trip for next years On Location Workshops, 2 of which will be based in Homer. More on that to come, stay tuned!

Gotta post a link to a friends blog. Ron Niebrugge of Seward is currently in Cordova and he’s been doing his own Shorebird Migration Festival photography – but at the Copper River Delta instead of Homer’s Kachemak Bay. He’s been getting some great shots – so please check out his journal.

Anyway, my papa has been pestering me to post some pics (say that 10 times fast! Heck, say it twice…) from last weekends trip to Seward. I spent most of my time photographing Oscar, the friendly sea otter in Seward’s small boat harbor. It was a beautiful weekend, warm & waaaaaay to sunny for photography. I kept hoping for a few clouds to help with the contrast – but had no such luck. Oh well, it was just nice to get out and spend some time on the coast with clear skies and a cool breeze. I was able to meet some friends in Seward and really enjoyed myself all weekend. There are some “incriminating photographs” going around (that I didn’t take ahem…). All I can say is, “I have no knowledge of said activities…” It was fun though:)

On to Oscar!

"Spinach? Did I get it? Anyone got floss?" Oscar the sea otter. Seward, Alaska

"No need to salute, I'm off duty" Oscar the sea otter. Seward, Alaska

Rough Life - Oscar the sea otter. Seward, Alaska

"I Dream a Dream of Water Colors" Seward, Alaska

Stay tuned for pics from this weekend! Take care and good shooting.

I decided to drive down to the Kenai Peninsula on Monday – Redoubt has been “actin’ a fool” lately, blowing her top on every occasion. Talk about a crisis… drama queen. Ash has been lightly dusting the area, from Wasilla to Anchorage and down to the Kenai Peninsula. Ash even fell in Valdez, 225 miles as the crow flies, from Redoubt Volcano. She had explosive eruptions 5 to 6 times a day at times, since March 23rd. During eruptions, the standard warning is, “Don’t go outside in an ash fall zone, especially if you have lung issues. Do not operate machinery or electronics, as ash can damage them.” So what does your favorite intrepid photographer do? Well, drive towards the volcano of course. I had high hopes of being directly across the Cook Inlet in one of my favorite 6+ locations for views of the range that Redoubt is nestled within. Shot 1 – towering (preferably 50,000+ feet) of ash plume erupting into the atmosphere above 10,197 foot Redoubt. If this were to occur at say… sunrise in full alpenglow? Fine, I’ll deal with the mess that is amazing photographic opportunity. If by chance, she decided to again blow her top in the middle of the inky dark of night, I would be ready because I was going to sleep in my car at a pre-scouted viewpoint. Camera was all set up for this amazing view – intra-plume lightning created by huge static discharge in the quickly accelerating ash cloud. Amazing display of… what? Nope, didn’t happen. Neither did the eruption at runrise alpenglow. Or anytime for that matter, while I was there… ready… waiting. There was a steam plume. Which would have been cool, but it just looks like a cloud… coming out of a mountain. Don’t worry Redoubt, I’m not bitter. So that ash that they all warn you about, the stuff that can wreak so much havoc with cars, filters, electronics? Nada, no fresh stuff. The only thing that made contact with my car was a chunk of ice. It was evidentally more substantial than my right front tire and rim. Can you say taco? Folded my rim right over on itself. Other than that, uneventful. Now, after the tire incident & the eruption that wasn’t, I would have been well within my rights to head home – skunked. Didn’t take a single exposure.

Male King Eider (Somateria spectabilis) - captive. Alaska Sea Life Center

Instead I fell back to my secondary plan – check the weather report for Seward. Partly to mostly overcast skies, chance of clearing for sunset. Seward is a rough little spot to shoot. To picturesque, it can be very difficult to get anything other than a cliche-type image. Surrounded by mountains? Check. Gorgeous ocean inlet? Check. Possibility of marine wildlife? Ummm… it’s Resurrection frickin’ Bay! Case in point. 2 summers ago my parents were up, visiting from Wisconsin. They brought MY 3 shelties (yeah, Mom & Dad – you’re just renting them:) up with them. One morning, my mother and I were walking them on the rocky beach just past Miller’s Landing, enjoying the beautiful weather and calm seas. A small group of new kayakers were lined up on the edge of the water, half in & half out of the water, straddling their kayaks as they learned to paddle in the air. My mom and I chatted idly as the dogs ran along the shore… “Sasha, that’s kelp… not a stick to play fetch with”. WHOOOSH… both our heads jerked up towards the ocean. Not 15 – 20 feet from the still shore-bound (and now mouth agape) kayakers was a lone humpback whale, lazily arcing its back just above the surface of the water.

So yeah… possibility of wildlife? Check.

Male King Eider (Somateria spectabilis) - captive. Alaska Sea Life Center

I called Ron Niebrugge (Seward resident since 1992 & professional photographer specializing in travel/wildlife/landscapes) to meet up, and he told me he had just seen a humpback whale in front of his house. No, not on his lawn. His front yard overlooks the Bay, and mountains beyond. Rough gig he’s got going on there. I heard “whale” and my foot heard “accelerate”. Luckily no police officers got in my way. Note to law enforcement, do not get between a photographer and a humpback. No good can come from it. Once near the shore, I grabbed my binos and started scanning. Bunches of shore & sea birds, a group of porpoising Steller sea lions were moving steadily out towards the open ocean, and a sea otter or two. All within 2oo yards or so. But no whale. Oh well, next time.

Sea Anemone - Alaska Sea Life Center - captive

I made my way to my scheduled stop at the Alaska Sea Life Center. It is the only public aquarium & ocean wildlife rescue center in Alaska, and offers a great opportunity for photographers (and normal people too!) an up close & personal view of Alaska’s marine wildlife. I typically shy away from shooting at “zoos” & the like, but this is different. There is a great aviary; puffins, Eiders, harlequin ducks, etc. The best part is, you can walk right into the aviary and photograph as much as you want. No petting, loud noises, or feeding though. Head shots of King Eider with 100 mm lens? Check. The Sea Life Center is manned by a great group of people – nature lovers all. If they can’t answer your questions, it’s unlikely anyone else could. Shallow “tide pool” aquariums where you can reach in and lightly touch an anemone, sea star, or urchin. Hey, I saw a 2 year old girl do it. So man up! Researches are also nursing the newest addition to the SLC, a 12 week old male sea otter named Skittle. Ok, maybe now is not a good time to remind you to man up. Cute little guy, and according to the staff there, he has learned to poop and pee away from his bed & food! Probably wouldn’t do well in the Army.

"Woody" Steller Sea Lion (Eumetopias jubatus) - Alaska Sea Life Center - captive

Then there’s Woody, all 2000 pounds of him (that’s about a ton, for all you mathmaticians out there. Yeah, I had to Google it…). Woody is a Steller sea lion, a big one. Thank god for wide angle lenses. Anything but graceful out of the water, you should see him in his element. Amazing, impressive, and beautiful.

"Woody" Steller Sea Lion (Eumetopias jubatus) - Alaska Sea Life Center - captive

All in all a great location for photography. You would probably never get the opportunity to photograph these creatures so closely in the wild. Be sure to take advantage during your next trip to Seward. Looking for something special, consider signing up for one of my workshops – with special access to the Sea Life Center. Specifics coming soon!

"Woody" Steller Sea Lion (Eumetopias jubatus) - Alaska Sea Life Center - captive

I wrapped up my trip after dinner, by walking down in the small boat harbor. Small boat harbors are one of my favorite spots, especially now – before the tourist season begins. Calm waters, a quite harbor, and just across the Bay, beautiful mountains climbing high into the sky. Very peaceful setting. There was even a sea otter floating and diving lazily in the harbor – at times only a few yards away. He’d come up from a dive with a sea star cluched in his front paws, jaws crunching away on his dinner. I took a few shots, but the sun had dropped below the mountain ridges long before and it was getting too dark. It was great to watch and study though, photos or not.

Last hint of alpenglow, Kenai Fjord's National Park - Resurrection Bay, Alaska

Moral to the story? Easy. Never throw in the towel when your first option backfires, misfires, or (in the case of Redoubt) doesn’t fire at all. Always have a secondary & tertiary option, and stay flexible. I’ve ditched my trips totally in the past when my “plan” didn’t materialize. It always left me feeling hollow. Put the time in, then put more in. Can’t shoot? Bad light? Study your subject. I walked along the docks that night, totally immersing myself in the sea otter & watching him eat his dinner. Cradled in a beautiful bay with calm waters and brief, but colorful, alpenglow. Not a bad way to spend an evening, for me either.

Stay tuned & keep shooting.

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!