Below you'll find a list of all posts from April, 2009
Kayaking in Prince William Sound, Alaska.
As part of the ask Ron theme, adventure photographer Ryan Bonneau asks how I handle my camera gear while kayaking. Ryan is going to be spending two months kayaking in Prince William Sound this summer (lucky guy!). He went on to say he has tried storing his gear on deck in a dry bag, as well as in his cockpit in a dry bag, and has never felt comfortable with either system.
Well, unfortunately I don’t have a solution for this one. I do the same thing as Ryan, and have never felt comfortable with those options either. Usually I keep my camera in a dry bag under the bungees on the deck in front of me, kind of like the yellow bag you see in this photo. My camera’s dry bag is red – it is probably sitting on my skirt and just out of sight in this photo. Getting the camera in and out of the bag and stowed away is always a wet, awkward proposition full of risk – I dread hearing that plunking sound of a lens dropping overboard, so far I have been fortunate. I’ve seen this topic come up in photography forums, but have never heard of a better solution.
By the way, the dark area between both bows is a large school of salmon.
I hadn’t seen Ryan’s photography until today – check it out, he has some great stuff. Looks like he just started a blog as well.
Cover of the Kenai Peninsula Tourism Marketing Council Travel Guide (KPTMC), Alaska.
This is actually a composite of two of our images combined by KPTMC. You see, they really liked this photo from Harriman Fiord in Prince William Sound. Problem was, even though it looked like it could have been captured in Kenai Fjords on the Kenai Peninsula, savvy viewers would certainly recognize this as part of Prince William Sound which is outside the Kenai Peninsula. So they replaced the background with an image of ours from Kenai Fjords. They did such a good job that when this arrived last week, I forgot it was a composite – it even fooled me!
Sandhill Cranes, Seward, Alaska.
Seward was inundated with seasonal visitors this weekend, but I’m not talking about the two legged tourist type that typically start appearing about now. Actually, there really weren’t any tourists in town with the Seward Highway closed all weekend. No, we received hundreds, if not thousands of birds this weekend! We went from very few birds, to huge flocks in just a couple of days. The transformation this time of year is a treat to watch.
The most exciting to me were the Sandhill Cranes. You could see and hear large flocks working their way up Resurrection Bay. Most of the large flocks stopped for a quick bite to eat before moving on. There were also large numbers of White-fronted and Canadian Geese, and lots of ducks, especially Northern Pintails, and even a couple of swans.
A flock of Sandhill Cranes leaving Seward, Alaska.
Camping in the Chuach National Forest, Alaska.
How do I handle the power needs for my digital camera and file storage on long trips away from electricity? This was an ask Ron question brought up by two fellow blog’en photographer friends of mine Richard Wong and Gary Crabbe. Both guys operate great blogs – blogs I read everyday, so if you have extra time, do check them out. Read More
A ferris wheel at night, Long Beach, California.
Well I hate to post the same photo twice, especially in the same week, but in response to my “ask Ron” request, this was the most asked question. More specifically, Dennis Barton wanted to know how many tries it took to capture this image, while Sheri Lyons wondered how the photo came to look like this.Read More
The Fred Olsen Cruise Lines ship Balmoral leaving Seward, Alaska last Thursday.
April 16th seems early for our first ship of the summer. The passengers aboard this ship are taking part in a 104 day around the world cruise. This ship, and these same passengers were in the news in early March when it was reported that pirates attacked the ship off the coast of Somalia. I remember seeing an interview on the Today show where passengers or crew talked about having to take cover as shots were being fired. The cruse line came out recently and said not only were there no shots fired, but that there was never attacked. Who knows. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize it was this ship until after it departed, or I would have asked one of the many passengers who passed by the house that day about what happened.
Thanks for the responses to the Ask Ron post – I will follow up with answers soon.
A ferris wheel at night, Long Beach, California.
I thought I would try a new idea with the blog and create an Ask Ron category. My thinking is that every so often I would answer reader submitted questions and publish the question and my response here on the blog. They can be pretty much anything photography related, from travel destinations, gear, techniques, thoughts and opinions – you get the idea. If there is a photo you have always wondered about, maybe the story behind the image, that would be good too.
If you have a web presence; website, blog, Flickr page, I would be happy to link back in my response. If you would prefer to remain anonymous, that’s cool too.
You can post your questions in this thread, or feel free to email them to me at ronn@arctic.net If you could, put “Ask Ron” in the subject so that I will know it is for the blog and not just someone asking a question.
I will do my best to answer all questions as best I can, but I will have editorial control, so I could decide to ignore a question – heck, it is my blog. 🙂 So if I start posting photos of a wolverine den, chances are slim that I will provide the GPS coordinates. Likewise, asking for the name and number of the photo editor at XYZ magazine probably won’t get a response either, but most stuff will be fair game. So hit me with your Q’s!
Hey, speaking of wolverine. Now that we are heading into spring, I figure it might be a good time to remind everyone that my deal from last year is still on!
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