Bartlett Lake, Arizona.
A recently adjusted photo from our spring trip of the wildflowers around Bartlett Lake, Arizona.
Las Vegas Time-lapse Video
Take a 12 minute trip down the Las Vegas Strip in 12 seconds, and then enjoy the Downtown laser light show! I’m surprised it only took 12 minutes to drive the length of the strip, that is because it was a cold, winter mid-week evening. By the way, if you have the bandwidth or patience, you can watch it in 1080 HD.
This is my first attempt at putting together a time-lapse video. I actually captured the stills for the strip footage 4 years ago on the same night as this Las Vegas Strip photo. You might notice that the demolished Stardust is still standing and open, and City Center doesn’t yet exist. The downtown laser show was from last fall.
Four years ago – I had a big head start on the recently popularity for time-lapse – unfortunately these files have just been sitting on my computer. I shot a fair amount of Alaska time-lapse footage last summer, and hope to do something with it soon as well. It has been a bit of a steep learning curve – the long list of words like codec, MPEG4, H.264 are like a whole new language to me. I have to thank Phil Colla for getting me headed in the right direction.
For those who are interested in how I captured the images of the strip, you might enjoy this blog post: Las Vegas Strip
Alaska Boy Scout Jamboree
Alaska Boy Scout Jamboree and the Celebrity Cruises ship Millennium, Seward, Alaska.
Estimates varied, but I heard there were between 900 to 1,200 scouts camped along the waterfront in Seward for the Scout Jamboree last weekend. I don’t know the exact number, but based on all the tents lining the entire waterfront for as far as I could see – there were a lot!
I thought this photo displayed an interesting dichotomy. Here you have a luxury cruise ship with a 1,950 person capacity passing by some 1,000 tent based Boy Scouts, that together, briefly doubled the size of our town. I’m guessing from the reactions on the beach that most the boys had never seen a ship so large, never mind traveled on such a luxury liner. I’m also guessing that most the cruise ship passengers haven’t spent a night on the ground in a tent in many, many years if ever. But, by judging from all the camera clicks and flash bulbs coming from both directions, that it was clear, everyone was enjoying and appreciating the beauty of a spring evening in our beautiful state, irregardless of how they were traveling – and I think that is cool.
As a side note, I have to admit that I dreaded the thought of living next to 1,000 teenagers for the weekend. But, they couldn’t have been a nicer, better behaved bunch of young adults, we enjoyed watching the festivities from our office, and as far as I’m concerned they are welcomed back anytime!
Denali Dreaming
Mt. Mc Kinley (Denali to most Alaskan's), Denali National Park, Alaska.
As I try to power away on the office work, I can’t help but to day dream away about Alaska’s upcoming summer – it is why most people live here! In just a few weeks we will be back in Denali – a time of year that can be great for baby animals. I’m excited to get back up there.
It seems like in the past week or two we have sold a lot of photos of Denali for various book and calendar projects. Funny how it works – we might go many months without making a sell for a particular subject like Denali, then all of a sudden we see a bunch of activity – then it can go right back to nothing for months. You would think it would trickle in, but often it doesn’t. That is why it really helps to have a wide variety of subject matter.
Wrangell-St. Elias National Park
Aerial of Regal Mountain, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska.
It has been a while since I have spent any time in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. My summer is shaping up to be a busy one, but I’m really hoping to get out that way at least for a bit, maybe this fall.
This area will always have special meaning to me as I grew up nearby and within sight of the amazing Wrangell Mountains of which this is just a small part.
8 Great Years!
Wild wolves at sunrise, Denali National Park, Alaska.
This old photo shot on Velvia slide film is still one of my favorite photos and memories, and as good as any for my annual trip down memory lane. You see it was eight years ago that I left a wonderful job and took the big plunge into being a full time photographer – a decision I have never regretted. I could go on, but I would just be repeating what I wrote last year on my 7 Years and Counting post.
I heard about an interesting study reported on the news recently (NBC Nightly News I think). The researchers interviewed elderly people in retirement homes to find out about their lives, and what brought them happiness and regret. To greatly paraphrase the results, the thing that universally brought about the most regret was not having taken more risks in their life – risks they may have enabled them to pursue a dream or passion.
To this day I have to remind myself of this – I tend to be a bit risk adverse, and to this day I’m a bit surprised I did take such a huge leap. I have to give Janine much of the credit for this decision thanks to all her help and support. It reminds me of the great quote: “It is better to try and fail then to never try at all”.
Shorebird Migration
Western Sandpipers yesterday afternoon, Seward, Alaska.
The last two years I have traveled to the Copper River Delta for the spring shorebird migration – that is one amazing experience!
The number of birds migrating through Seward are measured in the hundreds instead of the tens of thousands over on the Copper River Delta, but it is still fun to see. Yesterday was probably the best day I can ever remember here – hundreds of sandpipers and other shorebirds, numerous species of ducks, even a few sandhill cranes. And a few eagles and a northern harrier preying on the weak. There were birds everywhere – it was cool to see and I’m not even a “birder”.
They seem a bit late this year maybe because of the cool weather. Between the steady rain, wind and a temperature just above 40 – I could barely feel my auto-focus and shutter buttons after a couple of hours – but I was having so much fun, it didn’t matter!
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