Below you'll find a list of all posts from January, 2012
Sunrise along the Lost Lake Trail, Chugach National Forest, Alaska.
I love to run in these hills and usually try to go twice a week in the summer and once a week in the winter. I usually leave my camera behind and just enjoy the exercise and experience – but every now and then I bring along my camera and tripod like I did last Friday morning. I headed up about an hour before sunrise – it was sure a beautiful morning!
Seward Boat Harbor during a snowstorm yesterday, Seward, Alaska.
It has been a cold, snowy winter here in Alaska recently, and although we haven’t had near the snowfall that has put Cordova in the news lately, we have had our share. Yesterday in particular it snowed extra hard blanketing the harbor with snow and ice. So after doing a lot of shoveling, I grabbed my camera and cruised around town grabbing some images.
Downtown, Seward, Alaska.
Ke'e Beach at the beginning of the Na Pali Coast, Kauai, Hawaii.
A couple of kids playing on Ke’e Beach in Kauai. This beautiful beach is at the beginning of the Na Pali Coast.
This was with my Canon 5D II and 24-105 at 67mm. Exposure was 1/50 of a second, f/10 at iso 500. The aperture of f/10 gave me the depth of field to keep the kids and the background both in focus. I needed to bump the iso to 500 to get enough of a shutter speed to freeze the movement of the kids and the waves. Like in my last post, I used aperture priority – but in this one I actually dialed down the exposure compensation to – 1 stop to keep the waves from being blown out, and the black rocks dark. Goes to show, gotta always check the historgram.
Bull caribou, Denali National Park, Alaska.
This is one of the largest bull caribous I have ever seen! This was from my fall trip to Denali National Park.
I often get questions about the settings I use for a particular image. I’ll try to get better at including that information as it can be valuable for learning.
Here I had my Canon 7D with a 70-200 f/2.8 lens and 2x converter. Great combination for hiking because of its light weight. On this day we climbed way up into the hills and I was glad I wasn’t packing a large telephoto. I shot this at f/5.6 and 1/640 of a second at ISO 800. I prefer a lower iso with the 7D, but needed the shutter speed.
I was using aperture priority mode and had dialed up + 2 2/3 of a stop in additional compensation. If that sounds like a lot of compensation, it is. The bright sky really fools the camera, and I didn’t want a perfectly exposed rich blue sky with a silhouette, I wanted detail in the caribou. So I dialed up compensation until I had detail in the caribou and didn’t worry about blowing out the sky. Now as soon as the caribou came off the ridge and had and earth background, I had to quickly dial the compensation back down to zero. That is something very easy to do with the big wheel on the back of many Canon cameras, I can do it very quickly without looking. It is something I have even practiced so that it is second nature. I think being able to quickly adjust camera settings on the fly is really important when photographing wildlife in constantly changing light and environmental conditions.
I have to thank Jim Goldstein for the idea of sharing a look at my favorite photos from the previous year.
With it cold and dark outside, it is a nice time of year to stop for a minute to reflect back on the previous year. The constant pace to produce new material usually has my attention directed towards the future, but when I take the time to look back, I’m always amazed at the wonderful places and experiences I have been blessed to have witnessed in the previous year.
I also enjoy seeing the make up of my favorites. Are they landscape, wildlife, travel or adventure sports? The division between Alaska and outside Alaska is always interesting. This year it looks like Alaska wildlife seems to be featured the most prominently – not surprising as that is some of my favorite subject material. So, here they are – click on the thumbnail to see a larger version:
Denali, Denali National Park, Alaska.
Great light, colors and subject – from my fall trip to Denali.
Brown Bear, Lake Clark National Park, Alaska.
This was from my Alaska bear photo tour last summer – we had a few great sunrises!
Seven Sacred Pools or O'heo Gulch, Haleakala National Park, near Hana, Maui, Hawaii.
Sunset at the wonderful Seven Sacred Pools from our Fall trip to Hawaii.
Dall Sheep, Denali National Park, Alaska.
On this trip to Denali I captured a few landscape images from this location – seeing and photographing a ram in such a beautiful setting was a real treat.
Enjoying Hanalei Bay, Kauai, Hawaii.
Something different for me that received a big response.
Spencer Glacier, Chugach National Forest, Alaska
This was from an over-night trip last summer into a place I love to photograph – Chugach National Forest.
Brown Bear, Lake Clark National Park, Alaska
Another one from last summer’s bear tour – already excited for next year!
Caribou in Denali National Park, Alaska
I had a very limited collection of caribou photos so it was one of the subjects I concentrated on in Denali this fall and I think it paid off!
Northwestern Fjord sunset, Kenai Fjords National Park, near Seward, Alaska
This was one of our overnight anchorages from my Kenai Fjords National Park photo tour last summer.
Field of Lupine at sunrise, Chugach National Forest, Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
This was taken fairly near my home in Seward, Alaska.
I try to limit my selection to just 10, but I’m never successful – so here are some more that received some serious consideration.
Las Vegas Strip, Las Vegas, Nevada.
I do a fair amount of travel photography and considering this has already sold a number of times makes it a strong candidate for the top 10 list.
Brown Bear, Lake Clark National Park, Alaska.
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Brown bear, Chugach National Forest, Alaska.
I like both these bear images and could have had 4 in my top 10!
American Dipper, Chugach National Forest, Alaska
This is a challenging bird to photograph and part of the reason I like this image – plus, it is a cute little guy!
Burrowing Owl, near the Salton Sea, Imperial Valley, California.
Another really cool bird.
An un-named cactus forest, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California.
I have been asked why I like to travel to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park every winter. Here is one reason – today in Seward it was 5 degrees, in Borrego, 85. 🙂
Rainbow over Kauai, Hawaii.
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Hotels along Waikiki Beach, Honolulu, Hawaii.
Two more from our Hawaii trip that I considered.
OK, that is enough! I hope you enjoyed.
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