Alaskan Summer Images

[IPT]

I have been just stupidly busy at work lately. Guess that is good, it after all is what helps fund the "sicknesses" and "addictions" I have. Thankfully they are healthy ones.. Reef Tanking, Photography, and Mtn biking. Healthy they may be, but they sure ain't cheep! Neither is the basement remodel I am finally winding down on. Felt like I left one job just to get home to another!

I decided to go out in the front yard and see what I could hunt down with my Macro lens. There are wild roses growing all over, plus other assorted flowers we "imported". The weather was nice super nice and after taking some images I decided I wanted to up the ante. I headed out back to look for a shot I envisioned a few weeks ago. We rode thru some Lupine Fields mtn biking a few weeks ago and I thought the place might have some potential. We tried to go there last weekend but got turned back by a black bear :eek2:. He apparently felt he had the right of way on the trail, and who was I too argue? So no dice that night. No bears last night, but I did almost get ran over by a moose I startled! Figueres, I make a ton of noise to let the bears now I am around and it spokes a moose who damn near ran me over! LOL, life in Alaska.

What am I really excited about though? We're going to Katmai NP next week. That should be AWESOME so stay tuned. I hope to get some nice images there. Just hoping for minimal rain and some soft light.

 

[Recty]

Looks pretty nice. Seems very familiar, almost like we live close by each other.

I look forward to seeing the Katmai pictures, I've never been there.

I like how a lot of your images are pretty wide crops, the wide format is different than normal and just seems kind of cool.

 

[IPT]

yeah, I don't know why I graviate to cropping like that. I've been doing for a while now. I think I just feel it keeps me in the picture more as my eye scans from one side to the other.

I am totally psyched for Katmai. Never been there myself. I won't have much shooting time (2 1/2 days) but hopefully I get some decent weather. Would love a real light cloud cover with some sun poking thru now and then. That's what I am ordering. Anything but clear blue skies or non stop rain and I'll be happy. Have not done too much work at a place like that and this is gonna be a one shot deal so I hope I pull a few "keeper" shots out of the hat.

 

[Recty]

I wish I had the time, I could come with you and show you how to take good pictures

 

[IPT]

I wish I had the time, I could come with you and show you how to take good pictures

LOL - time is always an issue. The $700 per person Airfare (Leaving from Homer) is what's killing me! It's like an hour flight or something like that!

 

[Brett9917]

$700?? Sheesh, I am getting a roundtrip from Philly to San Diego in August for that much... lol

 

[IPT]

$700?? Sheesh, I am getting a roundtrip from Philly to San Diego in August for that much... lol

Yes sir ... I've flown from Alaska to NY for less! I guess that is just the inflated price you pay for a Bush Pilot taking you in somewhere by float plane. At least from every single person I have ever spoken too about going there not one didn't feel that the trip itself was well worth the money!

 

[Brett9917]

Oh ok, I gotcha. I guess it makes sense that they would charge more, but that's still a lot of money though haha. I hope it's worth it, when are you leaving?

 

[Reef Bass]

Sounds like you're headed for a fabulous photographic opportunity Louis. You might want to bring along many gigs of empty memory cards to fill.

Oh, and +1 for the wide format landscape shots. I like the first macro as well. Nice colors.

 

[IPT]

Sounds like you're headed for a fabulous photographic opportunity Louis. You might want to bring along many gigs of empty memory cards to fill.

Oh, and +1 for the wide format landscape shots. I like the first macro as well. Nice colors.

Thanks

Yeah, I bought two more 16gb cards . So I should have roughly 60+ GB worth of shooting (about 2000 images). Plus I am bringing my laptop to download in the evenings so that should be what I can take per day I think that should be enough - even if I go into many frenzied shooting moments. I am just hoping it is not flat, rainy, low light, like it is here now.

When it comes down to it, all we can do is just make the best of what we have thrown at us. I think just being near that many bears and seeing the action is gonna be awesome. If it is a fraction as cool as Churchill was I will be doing back flips out of joy!

 

[snorvich]

The Close Focus Wide Angle image is awesome. (my terminology deficiency comes from only doing marine photography under water)

 

[IPT]

The Close Focus Wide Angle image is awesome. (my terminology deficiency comes from only doing marine photography under water)

Thanks. I am really liking the image myself. It was what I had envisioned for a long time but never quite captured the way I wanted it. I think this image has moved up into the ranks of "my favs".

I guess it was worth hoofing it up there with all my gear in spite of the beating my calf took. I tried to ride up a single 4" wide plank that was the trail and got tossed off into the brush! Sure is a heck of a lot easier coming down that. Big difference when you have momentum on your side!

 

[javajaws]

Really love that second shot. What macro lens did you use for those?

I was in your neck of the woods for a week last year (Soldotna/Kenai). Really lovely around there in the summer. Here's a pic from the middle of the Kenai taken while floating down river (canon 70-200mm F4/IS @ 200mm):

 

[IPT]

Nice shot Java - yeah, this place can be pretty stunning. Images from my bear trip to follow at some point soon. Speaking (or looking at) Eagles - they counted 109 of them from our base camp. They were gathered down there to get the fish scraps the bears discarded.

No Macro for that shot, 15mm Lens on a FF body.

 

[Hookup]

Wow.... Thanks for sharing

 

[IPT]

No Macro for that shot, 15mm Lens on a FF body.

Just realized maybe you meant the lens used for the first image. 100mmF2.8 Canon.

 

[jlt23]

Very nice. I'm supposed to be working in Alaska a week or two a month for a year. Hopefully I have time to go take some pictures.

 

[IPT]

Very nice. I'm supposed to be working in Alaska a week or two a month for a year. Hopefully I have time to go take some pictures.

Hope that you do get some time for that. If it is during the summer you can go out at 10pm and still take pics! Of course the animals are more active at that time. We ran into a bear on the trail the first time I went out to get the Lupine shot.

Of course if you get real lucky you'll find wildlife local in the Neighborhood to shoot! It kills me that last year the calf was bedded down behind a frigging twig, and this time gets behind this plant! I probably could have gotten more to the right and if he looked over his head would have been clear of the plant. It wasn't worth the risk of stirring them up though. I like that they feel comfortable enough to hang around. Though trying later that night they were eatting at the top of my driveway. I had just finished a mtn bike ride and had to wait 10 mins for them to move far enough for me to get into my own driveway! I was not about to ride between a momma moose and her calf on a bicycle! Cute as they may be, these creatures can put a hurting on you ... kill you even.