A Photographic and Cinematic Adventure On The Creative Frontier
I guess it shouldn’t have surprised me, but the amount of commercial fishing traffic along the inside passage caught me off guard. Maybe its because I live in a landlocked state? Everywhere you looked a boat was either headed to, or returning from, sea. Each with its own personality. I was captivated by the character of these ships as they set sail for the mysteries of the sea. I knew they all had a story to tell, I just wish I had the opportunity to hear them all.
This might be the most beautiful ‘scenic overlook’ I have ever visited. The overlook lies just north of Talkeetna Alaska. I’m not kidding, all you do is park your car, walk about 100ft, and there you are looking over this valley. So, say you want to go here. This is what you do:
1) Watch airfare on Air Alaska. I have seen some pretty reasonable prices on the net. $150 one way.
2) Fly into Anchorage.
3) Rent a car and drive north, through Sarah Palin’s hometown, for about 2 hours.
Alaska is far more accessible than I thought and it is absolutely worth the visit. If you do go, make sure to give yourself enough time to stop by the Talkeetna Roadhouse for their world famous cinnamon rolls. Heck, we’ll head back to Alaska just to get one. It doesn’t hurt that places like this are right along the highway.
I guess if you are a sea lion, and all you really do all day is eat and sleep, it makes sense you would challenge each other to games of ‘King of the Buoy’. Between chasing fish and coming up to our boat to check us out, these guys and gals would spend their time wrestling one another off the harbor buoys. If you are ever in Juneau Alaska, make sure to look up Brandon Hasuer. He is a local photographer/guide and will make sure you get to where you need to be. You can find him here:
http://brandonhauser.photoshelter.com/
Tip: I find that when I am shooting wildlife, or anything where I need a faster shutter, I will put my camera in Aperture Priority mode and set a fairly small aperture (wide opening like f2.8 or f3.5). That way, I know my camera is going to set the shutter as fast as it can because it is getting the most light that my lens will allow.
Actually…fish in a pipe. Apparently, migratory salmon are easy picking for the harbor seals of Skagway Alaska. As I promised yesterday I was going to shift gears and post something a little different today. Nothing like a super cute seal to lighten your Thursday. This little gal would disappear for minutes at a time as she swam around the ship from yesterday’s post. Most of the time she would surface, fresh catch in her mouth, and then roll it around like a corn cob with her flippers. As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m not a wildlife photographer, but I hope you enjoyed the change of pace and it put a smile on your face.
Capture Notes:
Myth has it that if you approach the shore of the Tutshi Lake in the Yukon, you will attacked by a large fresh water sea monster. Not wanting to take any chances, I slapped on a zoom lens and kept my distance.
Nik Silver Effects Pro Review: I have added a review of the software I used to handle the black & white conversion for this image. Many of you might already be familiar with it, if not you can read (and watch a video) about Nik Silver Effects Pro here. It includes some of my favorite black & white images.
