Fabulous Alaska and Yukon

Ron NiebruggeAlaska, Denali, Photos, Shameless Self Promotion, Travel 6 Comments

Ulysse travel guide to Alaska and the Yukon.

Ulysse travel guide to Alaska and the Yukon.

I haven’t hit you with any shameless shelf promotion in awhile, so I figured it was ok to work this one in – the cover of the Ulysse travel guide to Alaska and Yukon!  If you look close, you can see that Janine barely survived the crop on the right.  Even at the time I captured this photo I had hoped to place Janine a little more in front of the mountain, but with the land climbing sharply to my right, and Janine being in an area where you aren’t allowed off the trail – this was about as close as I could get.

Long time subscribers here may remember another cover we did for Ulysse.

It is a really nice looking guide book, that is if you speak French.

Alaska Aerial

Ron NiebruggeAlaska, Chugach, Photos, Travel 5 Comments

The tracks of the Alaska Railroad can be seen cutting through the valle heading south to Seward, Alaska.

The tracks of the Alaska Railroad can be seen cutting through the valley heading south to Seward, Alaska.

I captured this from the plane on my way to the NAB conference in Las Vegas.  It is fun to pick out places I have been from such a high altitude.  Here I can see where the Alaska Railroad cuts through the Grandview area, hangs a right to Trail Lake, and off in the distance at the top of the frame is the very head of Resurrection Bay and Seward.

Seeing this from the air just reminds me of what an amazing place I live – from this elevation it almost look inhabitable, but of course I know otherwise.

After a number of long days in a huge, crowded conference, I am able to appreciate this even more!

The conference was really valuable, made lots of great contacts and learned a ton.  James Cameron was interesting, and pretty much everywhere I looked there was something to do with 3D.   There was 3D footage aired at every presentation I visited including during Cameron’s opening address, and pretty much at every vendor booth there was talk about how they are incorporating the capability.  My head is still spinning with ideas as I try to process everything I learned and saw.  I know one thing, I think I’m at the right place to mentally process all this information.  🙂  Now, I’m off for a quick, spring cross-country ski!

Whales, Glaciers and More – 3 Day All Inclusive Kenai Fjords Photo Tour

Ron NiebruggeAlaska, Kenai Fjords, Photos, Travel 4 Comments

Aialik Glacier, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska.

Aialik Glacier, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska.

Imagine being anchored up for the evening in front of these amazing mountains and very active tide water glacier!  This is your view as you enjoy dinner and breakfast – tell me what restaurant can compete with this.  When we are not eating meals in front of this amazing view, we are running to shore to a place with wonder fields of wildflowers, in a place that often has numerous black bears.  And, this is just the first evening!

When we aren’t here, we are watching humpback or orca whales, checking out a huge puffin colony, or spending time photographing eagles, sea otters or at one of the numerous sea-lion haul outs.  I have timed this years tour around the peak of the wildflower bloom – the landscape possibilities are endless.  This is an awesome tour.

All this, for less then the cost of a typical 3 day tour into Kenai Fjords without a photography guide!  To learn more, check out our page here:  Kenai Fjords National Park photo tour.   I have room for two more folks.  I haven’t updated the page, but I need to add – the boat I am using now has two separate sleeping cabins, so a couple can now come along and have their own cabin.

Home Sweet Home – But Leaving Again?

Ron NiebruggeAlaska, Photos, Travel 9 Comments

An aerial of Seward, Alaska from last summer.

An aerial of Seward, Alaska from last summer.

Well it has been a very busy week – thus the lack of posting.  Cleaning, winterizing and towing our RV trailer back to our storage spot, and then the long day of travel back to Seward is a chore that is nice to have behind us.

Yesterday (Thursday) was the first day back in the office for unpacking etc. – and the day starts with an email from a very large TV production company we have been communicating with, giving me an opportunity to meet with them at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Conference in Las Vegas next week.  Truthfully, until yesterday, I knew very little about this conference, but the more I read, the more we felt this would be a valuable conference to attend – heck, there is even a master class in 3D filmmaking!

So we used miles and book flights and rooms and now before I had even unpacked, planned to leave again on Sunday!  I’m going to be traveling light and won’t even have my laptop, so unless I do a blog or two before I go, it may be a week or so before I post again.  See ya on the back side!

Aurora Borealis

Ron NiebruggeAlaska, Chugach, Photos, Travel 18 Comments

Aurora Borealis over Trail Lake, Moose Pass, Alaska.

Aurora Borealis over Trail Lake, Moose Pass, Alaska.

Since I captured this early this morning and will be traveling on Monday, I decided to do a rare weekend blog post.

With a lot of packing and shipping to do, I really didn’t need to be running around last night looking for Northern Lights – but I just couldn’t resist and headed out for a couple of hours a little after mid-night.  You see it has been another slow winter for the Aurora Borealis, especially in Alaska for some reason – they have been getting some pretty good shows in Norway.  So when I saw things were looking good on the computer, I had to go for it!

It takes a very good show to reach us down here in Seward and unfortunately this wasn’t one of them.  By driving North, I was able to watch them on the Northern horizon, but didn’t have the time to go any further – I probably would have needed to go past Anchorage and Wasilla.  So I made the best of it as I watched them on the shores of Trail Lake and listened to the ice cracking on the lake – actually the ice was really loud – that made it kind of eerie on such a dark, moonless night!

Ok, back to packing!

For those who are interested, you might enjoy reading about how to find the northern lights, or how to photograph the northern lights.

Bear Tour Opening?

Ron NiebruggeAlaska, Lake Clark, Photos, Travel 20 Comments

A bear cub from last summer's Bear and Puffin Photo Tour

A bear cub from last summer's Bear and Puffin Photo Tour

As you may know, despite more then doubling our offerings, our Alaska Bear and Puffin Photo Tour sold out many months.  But, after reading about our overnight boat photo trip into Kenai Fjords National Park, one of the participants wants to do this trip instead so this opens an unexpected spot for this amazing experience!  Follow the link or give us a call if you have any questions, I don’t expect this one to be around too long.

Got Snow?

Ron NiebruggeAlaska, Chugach, Photos, Travel 17 Comments

Snowy trees in the Chugach National Forest, Alaska.

Snowy trees in the Chugach National Forest, Alaska.

Here is another one from December, back when we had lots of snow.  A warm rainstorm wiped it all out, and now sunny cold weather has kept us relatively snow-less – at the same time, it seems like much of the lower 48 has been receiving lots of snow.  I think that is about to change, we picked up a few inches yesterday, and it looks like we should revive a lot more later this week.  Fingers crossed!

Winter Humpback Whales

Ron NiebruggeAlaska, Photos, Travel 16 Comments

A couple of humpback whales, Seward, Alaska.

A couple of humpback whales, Seward, Alaska.

This was captured just a few minutes ago – as two humpback whales swam out in front of our home / office!  I sure live in a great place!

I have often heard it said that humpback whales will summer in Alaska and winter in Hawaii, but there is a fair number of humpbacks that remain in Alaska all year.