Glacier Bay

Winter Reading Book Club

November 12, 2012 by Justin Balog 4 Comments

Winter Reading

For the rest of the year, I’ll be sharing a few books from my own reading list every Monday. This is the season (at least in the northern hemisphere) where you curl up with a good book and invest in your own creativity. This week’s recommendation is Portraits of Earth by David duChemin. It is an inspiring look at the craft of landscape photography. The inspiring part is why you should get it.

Click Here To Get It….

Book Club Details: I hope this will be a book club for creative folks like you and me. I haven’t figured out all the details, but I will be giving away something to a few lucky book clubers every week. I should have the full prize list later this week. But I do know Craft&Vision, ThinkTank Bags, and Nik Software will be contributing something every Monday!

Today’s Photo

It seemed appropriate to share a photo of my book bag, or should I say eBook bag. When my iPad is loaded up, this bag is easily carrying around 100 books or so.

Photographer’s Note

This is a blend of two of the same images. The top image I applied some Nik HDR Efex Pro ‘Granny’s Attic’ preset, then I blended in the non-HDRed image for the background. I shot it using a Nikon D7000 and Nikon 24-70.

Filed Under: Alaska, Cool Books, Glacier Bay, Landscape, Lightroom 4, Nikon 17-35 2.8 AFS, Nikon D700, One Click, Travel

Mysteries Of Alaska

October 31, 2012 by Justin Balog 6 Comments

The waters of glacier bay are still, only moving when the glaciers calve. A calving glacier is violent spectacle, tons of ice break off its face and crash into the water below. Waves are sent out in all directions announcing this event. Shortly after, the clam returns and all that remains of the massive pieces of ice are these little reminders. As they float further away from the glacier, they slowly melt removing any trace the event ever happened.

Have you ever witnessed a glacier calve?

Photographer’s Note: This is a single image brought to life with Lightroom 4.

Inspiring New Photography Magazine

The good folks over at Craft & Vision have just published their first issue of Photograph. I could go into detail about it ,but I’ll keep it short…outside of going to watch a sunset or playing fetch with a puppy, this is the cheapest dose of inspiration you can buy. For only $8 (or $24 for the year) you can refill your creative batteries on a quarterly basis.

Filed Under: Alaska, Book Club, Glacier Bay

There Can Be Only One

October 23, 2012 by Justin Balog 9 Comments

The title seemed fitting for the tree, but it also seemed like a filming location for ‘Highlander‘. I found this image last night when I was processing yesterday’s photo. It too was from Alaska, and had been sitting on my hard drive of the last couple of years. I have over 50,000 images sitting there waiting to be shared. There are a couple reasons why I hold off on certain images, one of them being technology. We all know technology will improve, much like Lightroom 4 did, and when I feel it’s ready I test a few images from the ‘on deck circle’. If I like it, cool…if not, back to the hard drive it goes. I ended up digging this one. It was a simple single exposure brought to life in Lightroom 4.

Filed Under: Alaska, Glacier Bay, Landscape, Lightroom 4, Nikon 70-300 VR, Nikon D700, Processing Notes, Travel

Glaciers And Mountains

November 6, 2011 by Justin Balog 4 Comments

Howdy! I hope everyone had a great weekend. I was hard at work putting together two new iPad Wallpaper collections. You can read more about them below. You can actually put today’s image on your iPad if you want. It’s in the Explorer Collection. The image is from Glacier Bay Alaska. I learned the deep blue water is a result of years (10,000s of years) of granite that is crushed by the moving glaciers. The locals call it glacial flour.

High Resolution iPad Wallpapers

I am very excited to introduce 2 new sets or iPad Wallpapers! I worked long and hard putting these together. Each one is hand crafted to look beautiful on your iPad. Also, 1/2 of all proceeds go directly to the Davis Phinney Foundation which helps people living with Parkinson’s disease, live well. You can find out more about the Davis Phinney Foundation and its mission here.

Click Here to view all the wallpapers and learn how to purchase them. Every purchase helps, so thanks in advance for all your help.

2011 US Pro Cycling Challenge Collection

This collection contains 10 some of my favorite moments from the 2011 US Pro Cycling Challenge featuring everything from Levi Leipheimer’s victory sealing time trial to George Hincapie’s stunning win on stage two.

$9.99 The 2011 USPro Cycling Challenge Collection
$9.99 The Explorer Collection
$14.99 The Complete Collection (both collections)

The Explorer Collection

This collection contains 10 of my favorite images from around the world. Everywhere from high mountain passes here in Colorado to the base of the French Pyrenees.

$9.99 The 2011 USPro Cycling Challenge Collection
$9.99 The Explorer Collection
$14.99 The Complete Collection (both collections)

Filed Under: Alaska, Glacier Bay, News, Nikon 17-35 2.8 AFS, Nikon D700, Travel

The Pilot Boat

May 3, 2011 by Justin Balog 4 Comments

As a photographer I am sucker for a couple of things….1) reflections and 2) single subjects within a field of patterns. When the park rangers approached in this pilot boat in Glacier Bay, I couldn’t help myself. I made several images as it neared our ship. Some included the mysterious islands in the distance. In the end I settled for the minimalism of this image. However, if a whale were to breach alongside this boat, and I was able to capture it in a frame, I might have posted that image instead.

News: I will share an image tomorrow that will be available as a free iPad wallpaper for our ‘GOOD’ Newsletter subscribers. It was one of my favorite images from France, and I think you will like it too. Check back tomorrow for more information about the ‘GOOD’ Newsletter, and the the series of iPad wallpapers that we will be releasing shorty.

Continue for Capture/Processing Notes…

Filed Under: Alaska, Glacier Bay, Landscape, Nikon 70-300 VR, Nikon D700, Travel