Kachemak Bay State Park

Just a few quick shots from this past Sunday morning. Glorious weather in Kachemak Bay, too bright for typical landscape photography – so I concentrated on macro photography, areas small enough that I could block the sun with my shadow. Lowering the contrast with the worlds most portable sun shade:) A self-propelled sun visor made specifically for photographing lichen. Me. I’m unsure of what the actual name of this particular lichen is, but there were several patches of it covering various rocks above the beach in Jakalof Bay. Brilliant colors, and nearly perfectly round in many instances. Incredible shape and color, very complex & yet very simple. Mother nature is a fine artist and has the most varied palette you will ever see. Remember to look...

I’d like to start a new dialogue on my website – I hope that you will participate. I post quite a few images on this journal. It’s been a way for me to share my latest work, my writing trials, and my odd sense of humor (don’t worry, I’m back on my meds). Many of you have taken the time to comment on the images displayed here, and I thank you for that. I enjoy the very kind words that I’ve received, but my friends have questioned the effects on my ego:) I learn best through criticism though. So here it is, if you see something that you don’t like in an image – post a comment explaining why. Does the composition strike you the wrong way? Is there a stick lodged in someones head that I missed, or a feather angles in a...

Not too much writing here, just wanted to introduce you to some of the shots I got this past weekend in Homer. There are two main shorebird festivals in Alaska. The first is the Copper River Delta Shorebird Festival, based in Cordova and the eastern Prince William Sound. It is more secluded, logistically challenging (you can’t drive there, you have to fly or take a ferry), and has much larger numbers (bird wise). In Cordova, they regularly see 5 million shorebirds during the festival. 5 MILLION! I find that if you say it with a Doctor Evil accent, it really helps it sink in. The other major shorebird festival is in Homer, and is known as the Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival. Homer sees only a fraction of the numbers of the birds that Cordova does, but with...

So yeah… this is what happens when there is an active volcano nearby. Ash in the atmosphere causes objects that appear white in the night-time sky to take on a beautiful red glow. I had just checked into my “secret hide-away” in Homer, just after 11 pm. I was getting settled in and just happened to glance out my living room window and saw this peaking above the mountain tops. I ran to my car and got my tripod, mounted the 600 f4 on my camera (equaling a 960 mm lens) and blasted away in Live View. I really hope the color translates somewhat over the internet, because the original RAW file is spectacular – I didn’t touch it, except to resize it for the web. These are the real colors – just as I saw them. What an amazing sight to...