Mountain Biking Whistler

Ron NiebruggeCanada, Photos, Travel 8 Comments

Mountain biker on the Bike Park, Whistler, Canada.

Mountain biker launches of a ledge on one of the intermediate trails in the Bike Park, Whistler, Canada.

We were surprised to see that Whistler is just as busy in the summer as it is in the winter.  You can still ski and snowboard high up on the glacier.  In addition, you can raft, kayak, golf, zip-line, bungee jump, ride alpine slides…

But the big activity is downhill mountain biking.  They have an elaborate set of trails on the mountain complete with ramps, jumps and a whole bunch of other challenges.  Riders wear “body armor” and full face helmets and ride mountain bikes that appear to have suspensions similar to motorcycles!

We only had one day and two nights – it was tough not having the time to “play”!

Here are more biking photos

Raccoon

Ron NiebruggeCanada, Photos, Travel 4 Comments

A baby raccoon, Stanley Park, Vancouver, Canada.

A baby raccoon, Stanley Park, Vancouver, Canada.

Found this young guy along with its sibling and parents – they were sure fun to watch!

Took the bus to Whistler yesterday, and have a full day in the cool ski resort town today.

Vancouver Fireworks

Ron NiebruggeCanada, Photos, Travel 4 Comments

Fireworks over Vancouver, Canada.

Fireworks over Vancouver, Canada.

We were excited to learn we were going to be in Vancouver for one of  the nights of Celebration of Light – an international fireworks competition, and something we did not know about when we booked this trip.  We were disappointed to learn that more then 300,000 people crowd the waterfront in a mass sea of people, and to gain a decent vantage point, you have to arrive many hours early and stand your ground and wait.

So we decided our time was better served doing other things, so we rented a boat and followed and photographed a couple cruiseships as they left Vancouver.  Well as luck would have it, at the end of the night when we were all done, the owner of the boat rental company invited us up to the roof of his high-rise apartment building!  This was from the roof top pool area – it was a great show!

See more Vancouver photos.

Whale Tails and Travel Plans

Ron NiebruggeAlaska, Kenai Fjords, Photos, Travel 7 Comments

Humpback Whale Tail, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska.

Humpback Whale Tail, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska.

This was one of two whales who put on an amazing show for us last week.  When they weren’t breaching, they were swinging their tails back and forth throwing lots of water around!  It was awesome!

We have been watching for an opportunity to head back down to the Vancouver area to add summer coverage to the Vancouver photos we captured last winter.  Well the forecast shows most of Alaska receiving rain for the next week, while the Vancouver area looks like a week of sun.  We started looking for bargains and thanks to Priceline, buses and frequent flier miles, we were able to put together an inexpensive, very last minute trip.  We threw this together on Sunday!

I scheduled this post in advance so that it would be posting while we are on the plane flying south.  It is going to be a busy, whirlwind week in which we will spend time in Vancouver, Whistler and Victoria!  Probably won’t get much sleep, but hoping for lots of photography!  I usually post updates from the road, and will do my best on this trip as well.

Steller Sea Lions

Ron NiebruggeAlaska, Kenai Fjords, Photos, Travel 4 Comments

Steller Sea Lion, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska.

Steller Sea Lion, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska.

Another photo from my recent trip.  It was nice to watch these guys in the evening when they are far more active.  I was using a bit of fill flash with my telephoto – this helped illuminate the teeth and mouth.

Breaching Humpback Whale

Ron NiebruggeAlaska, Kenai Fjords, Photos, Travel 17 Comments

Breaching Humpback Whale photo, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska.

Breaching Humpback Whale photo, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska.

I know it is late to be posting to the blog tonight, but I just got in from a wonderful overnight trip to Northwestern Fjord in Kenai Fjords National Park, and was excited to share this photo.

What a sight to see!  A photo just doesn’t do this experience justice, as it is unable to communicate the powerful sounds and energy created when an animal the size of a school bus, rises out of the ocean and then splashes back down in a huge wave of water.  This is really cool to see up close!

This is full frame with my 100-400 at 400.  I was shooting with an ISO of  640 because I needed all the shutter speed I could get on this cloudy day.  This gave me a shutter speed of 1/2000 at f/5.6.  The hard part is locating the whale, framing and focusing while it is still out of the water.

Here are more whale photos.