Category Archive

An above and below water photo of Red Salmon, Chugach National Forest, near Seward, Alaska.

I got out my remote setup for above / below water photos yesterday, it is pretty fun to play with!  I have never used this setup in swift moving water like this – it offers some new challenges.

For one, the water level moves up and down in the frame from photo to photo – in still water it is easy to have the surface bisect the middle of the frame.  In addition, the water surface itself also seem much thicker then on flat water.  What happen is sometimes the fish or the trees get hidden by the water surface if that makes any sense.  Finally, the fish and light rain kept getting the glass wet as you can see by the blurred areas in the top half of this image – I think I have a solution for this.  But, when it does work, I think the results are pretty cool!

I hope to spend a few more days working this location – now if I could only have a bear here like there was last year!

Snow River Valley, Chugach National Forest, Alaska.

I captured this yesterday as a rain squall moved up the valley.  Check out the fresh snow in the mountains – it usually begins looking like that in September, not June!

Pectoral Sandpiper near Seward, Alaska.

I think this is the last of the shorebird photos – the birds have now move on.  This will give me the chance to get caught up on the Ask Ron questions.   Read More

Mount Alice viewed from some beach driftwood, Seward, Alaska.

I located this cool looking stump on the beach about a month ago, and have intended to photograph it for some time now.  I can see myself returning to this spot and trying different compositions in varying light.   This was from last night at about 10:15.

Since the sun was off the driftwood, I played around with some off camera flash.  It probably would have been better with two flashes, but I just had one with me.  This was with my 24-105mm lens set at 32, with my aperture set at the smallest opening of f/22 to maximize the depth of field.  Shutter speed was 1/5 of a second.  I had to bump the ISO up to 400 to increase the strength of the flash which I had manually set to full strength (1:1).  I hand held the flash off to the left of the driftwood.

A Least Sandpiper resting near Seward, Alaska.

Seven years ago I walked away from a great job with full benefits, a wonderful boss and awesome co-workers to pursue my dream of being a photographer.  Janine had left her job a couple of years before to begin building the business and it was time to take the plunge.  It was the scariest, but one of the best, decisions I have ever made.

I find it interesting, at the time I was consumed with “making it”.  I really wanted to succeed, and would work as hard as possible to achieve that success.  If you had told me then that 7 years later we would be traveling, taking photos and making a comfortable living, I would have breathed a big sigh of relief and would have been thrilled at the thought of actually “making it”.  But now that I’m here, I still worry about the future, and continue to have those thoughts that I hope we can “make it”.  As someone told be recently, it is probably a good thing to feel that way.  I know one thing – it sure has been a wonderful journey!

A Least Sandpiper near Seward, Alaska.

This was from earlier this week – I liked how the sandpiper appeared to be checking out its reflection.

I wanted to thank everyone for all the constructive comments and emails I recived on the sandpiper blur image – lots of great insight, I really appreciate it!