Category Archive

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.

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.

Coyote, Exit Glacier Road, Seward, Alaska.

I know, this is just an ordinary snapshot from a point and shoot camera – hey even photographers can take snap shots!  But, check out how close this coyote was from me Monday morning during a long cross-country ski – maybe 20 feet away! But more on that latter.

For exercise, I love to skate ski. It seems like I often see cool stuff, but my main camera and lenses are so darn heavy, they get left behind.  I wanted a little camera that I could throw in my pocket and forget it was even there, but one that captured decent images in raw, and that is how I ended up with the Panasonic DMC-LX3. — Panasonic DMC-LX3K (Black) 

I gotta say, this little camera is a lot of fun to shoot with. It has a wide, really fast Leica lens which is great for low light and indoor photography. Heck, at f/2.0, I don’t even have a 35mm lens nearly that fast! The thing will focus down to a fraction of a inch which makes it fun for messing around with macro stuff as well. It does a great job handling tricky exposures and even has a HD video mode.Read More

U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Mustang leaving Seward, Alaska.

 There was a humpback whale in front of town just a short time ago.  I didn’t get it photos of the whale, but was on shore for the departure of the Mustang as it passed in front of Mt Alice.

This is the same night (Wednesday) as yesterday’s post, but a different train.  It is a bit unusual to see two trains in Seward during the winter.

As an interesting side note, the Alaska Railroad train in yesterday’s post was caught in an avalanche which knocked a few of the cars of the track.  Fortunately no one was hurt, the cargo was non hazardous.

Alaska Railroad in a winter storm, near Seward, Alaska.

A heavy snowstorm hit this area last night.  I thought it might be great conditions to photograph eagles, but didn’t have any success.  The Alaska Railroad had a couple of trains leaving town, so I decided they would be a good substitute subject.