Humpback Whale
I never get tired of watching whales – especially when they are as active as this one was!
Cataract Cove
Cataract Cove, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska.
Although it is hard to photograph, I love this cove! The cove is surrounded by 500 to 1,000 foot high granite walls covered waterfalls that drop straight into the ocean – it is an amazing sight and sound. Not only are there lots of waterfalls, but we also spotted a number of mountain goats.
Iceberg
Iceberg, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska.
One nice thing about cloudy weather -glaciers and icebergs appear much bluer, and this iceberg was especially blue. On a sunny day, this thing would have looked much whiter.
We had a nice variety of weather on my recent three day trip into Kenai Fjords National Park, everything from rain to sun – it provided a lot of different options for photography.
This image was hand held from a boat at f /8 and 1,000th of a second at ISO 400.
Back from Kenai Fjords!
Aialik Glacier, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska.
I’m back from a wonderful 3 day photo tour into Kenai Fjords National Park! We saw a wide range of wildlife including a number of whales, and visited a variety of amazing landscapes, it was a lot of fun thanks in large part to a great group of passionate nature lovers.
This is the research vessel that served as our “mother ship” anchored in front of Aialik Glacier the first night of our trip. What a place to spend the night! We watched a huge section of this mile wide glacier calve late in the evening – by far the biggest calving event I have ever seen. The resulting wave roared along the nearby shoreline. Surprisingly, unlike smaller calving events, the wave that past under the vessel was barely noticeable – it was more like a big wide swell then a wave. I should note, telephoto compression does make the boat appear closer to the glacier then we really were.
Our awesome Captain Mike bringing us back from a shore excursion for bear and landscape photography.
Kenai Fjords Bound
Aialik Glacier, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska.
First thing in the morning I’m heading out into Kenai Fjords National Park for 3 days as part of my Kenai Fjords photo tour. I’m posting a photo of Aialik Glacier because I’m thinking we will spend the first night in front of the beautiful glacier! Going to sleep to the sounds of a glacier is just amazing. Of couse, depending on the light and wildlife sightings, we could be just about anywhere – that is the beauty of a custom multi-night photo tour!
The vessel I have chartered for this trip just returned from a 7 week trip to the Aleutian Islands with a film crew from the Discovery Channel, so I’m sure we will hear some great stories – but more importantly, I’m sure we will be experiencing our own amazing stories! I will report back next week.
Kenai Fjords Screensaver
The front and back covers of the Kenai Fjords Tours Screensaver.
My good friends at Kenai Fjords Tours contacted me last winter to see if I could produce them a screen-saver product that they could sell on board their many tour boats. After a fun and interesting process – the final product is now complete and delivered – I think it turned out really nice. What is extra cool – Kenai Fjords Tours will be displaying the slide show of images on their flat panel monitors located through out each boat.
From what I understand, they are going to package this product with the Stirring the Senses book for a really low price.
So – be ready for a sales pitch – if you have a business and want a really nice promotional item or retail product, give us a shout and we can create a custom screen-saver exactly to your specifications! OK, end of sales pitch for today. 🙂
Inside of the Kenai Fjords screen-saver.
How do I capture so much depth of field?
Pedersen Glacier, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska.
It has been awhile since I have answered any Ask Ron questions. As a reminder, I will answer any photography question as best I can.
A couple of weeks ago I received this question:
I love how you capture a foreground, middle ground background with such great depth.
Do you typically try to accomplish this with a 24 T/S or the 24 1.4L?
Thanks, Ray
To answer your question, yes I do use Canon’s tilt shift lenses a fair amount. By tilting the plane of focus I am better able to position the depth of field from near to far without sacrificing a lot of shutter speed. I go into more detail in this post on tilt with Canon’s tilt shift lenses. These lenses are especially valuable when you have something really close, say within a couple of feet, and still want to keep distant objects in focus.
But, I don’t use those lenses as much as I should. It is so much easier, faster and lighter to carry one 24-105 then three tilt shift lenses. In these circumstances, I use a small aperture to maximize depth of field – usually around f/16. I then focus about 1/4 to 1/3 of the way into the scene. I also almost always will use a tripod, mirror lock up and the 2 second self timer to minimize any movement as much as possible. This is about as good as it gets without tilt. If something still has to be a bit out of focus I would rather it be distant objects – I believe prominent foreground elements have to be sharp – distant objects like mountains can be more forgiving.
Tomorrow I will answer another recent question on depth of field – this one regarding bokeh.
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