Winter Macro
This afternoon my friend Patrick & I headed out into the snow with cameras and dogs to see what we could find. Of course we carried waaay more gear than we needed, but it gave us some options from scenic (we’re in Juneau after all) to action (the dogs) to macro (complete with off-camera flash).
I tend to enjoy the macro option because I love to notice the details that constantly surround us. It’s amazing how you can go for a walk and miss all of the infinitesimal miracles all around.
Anyhow, here are my 3 keepers of the day that I recall taking. (We had swapped camera bodies several times, so I couldn’t tell you who took many of the other images).
I don’t consider these fine-art, and subsequently they’re just for show and tell, but I hope you’re taking the time to notice your world around you.
3rd Annual Calendar
For the past couple of years, I have taken on the task of creating a photo calendar featuring some of my work from the past year. It’s a fun project for me to look back and find 12 of my favorite images, and of course my mom loves it because she can now brag about the artist, but still get’s her annual calendar from her son! :)
In reflection of my 2011 images, I didn’t think I had a strong enough collection in one particular vein to have strictly a Macro, Wildlife, Scenic, or other theme. But with Heather’s help, we were able to get it done. You can call this particular grouping, “photos that made the cut”! Ha!
For printing this year, I decided to go with one of our partners, Kodak Gallery. In the past I had used iPhoto, chosen for their fairly simple process to get a large, quality calendar. So many places offer calendars but at some minuscule size (like 8.5×11) which, to me, communicates mass-market cheapness. I’m a big fan of quality over price.
After receiving the calendars last week, I can say that I like the product. The size is more than adequate –14.25″x10.9″– (larger than the iPhoto calendar –13″x10.4″– that I’ve had previously), and the print quality gets a 7/10 ranking because while the quality of the print & paper was mostly amazing (9-10/10), the downside was that their printer obviously had some issues as there were color bands across many of the images (5/10). I haven’t decided if I’m going to chase down their quality control offices and demand a refund (reprinting is too late in the game for Christmas Gifting.) They may be expensive to make, but it’s fun to share, and most people can actually use it throughout the year!
If you don’t get one from me by new years and you REALLY, REALLY have to have one, let me know. I’m happy to order more, but you’ll cover the costs. 
Here are the images (in order of how they appear in the calendar). Click for a larger view.
World Wide Photo Walk
Each year Scott Kelby coordinates an International Photowalk where thousands of photography enthusiasts come out of the woodwork to enjoy an outing with their cameras. Because of the world wide reach of Kelby’s influence, there are also some major names who come forward to sponsor the event and each participant has the chance to submit an image for consideration of impressive prizes.
Anyhow, today we had approximately 10 folks join in the Juneau fun. It was great weather, good company, and we even had the occasion of multiple forms of local wildlife.
Sadly, I don’t get the chance to submit a photo to be in the running for the grand prize, but I’m pretty sure I get to submit an image to be in the running for the Leaders competition.
These are my 5 top images from the day – enjoy!
See these and more at my 2011 Fine Arts Gallery.
Glacial HDR
Generally speaking, I don’t use HDR much. Most of my post-processing is done through a variety of tools within Lightroom. I lean on things like exposure, blacks/shadows, vibrance & clarity to handle my editing. It works well for me. This time, with the ice (and the extreme darks and lights) I decided to bracket my shots and then create a few HDR (High Dynamic Range) images. I think they turned out alright. What do you think?
See these and more at my 2011 Fine Arts Gallery.
West Glacier
I am ridiculously tired, but it was oh-so-worth-it.
Today I hiked out West Glacier trail to the face of the ice. After finding the first “cave” unappealing (aka boring), I decided to head farther up the ice and around the bend to find a fairly major cave. It was long enough that daylight was blocked from the entrance, and you were left with a world of blue. This is the first image that I’ll consider a finished product. It is actually several images stitched together to look down towards each end of a bend in the cave.
Enjoy!
Click here for a larger version, or to purchase a print!
Nature, Up Close
Thanks to my friend & fellow photographer Herb Law of Minute Sixteen, I’ve got a new toy on loan to play with for a couple weeks. It’s a giant piece of glass: the 200-400mm f4 VRI. Time will tell if it’s a good idea for me to play with toys like this. It could go either way – maybe I realize I don’t need it, or conversely I find I can’t live without it.
At any rate, I’m considering purchasing some “long glass” – either a similar super-telephoto, or something like a 300mm f2.8 prime lens. I love to have a long reach on the lens, and lately I’ve been “surviving” (oh, the humanity!) with a 70-200mm f2.8 VRII and a 2x teleconverter giving me effectively 140-400mm.
Carrying around the 200-400 today was beastly, with a 5+” diameter and a length of ~18″ (not including the lens hood), you could easily get a work out from just an hour of consistent shooting. 7.5 lbs of glass and metal is not for the faint of heart.
Anyhow, enough with my babbling; here are a few images from today.
See these and more at my 2011 Fine Arts Gallery.
Out Late
Saturday morning I snapped awake at 4am and suddenly realized that the northern lights might be out. I had noticed a stronger than usual chance of the aurora, so was enthusiastic to get up early to explore. I checked Facebook for the requisite comments about the lights and found several folks who had commented enthusiastically. So I set out… And found nothing but a sunrise. 
Last night I opted to stay up late in order to look for the lights. A friend came along so we headed out to the Mendenhall Glacier in hopes of escaping the light pollution of streetlights. After checking out the horizon and not seeing anything of note, we continued to the shore of the Mendenhall Lake. Night photography is always something I enjoy and I had hoped that I might be able to capture some of that cool blue coloration of the evening sky and maybe even the Big Dipper over the glacier itself.
I thought the evening worked out well, photographically speaking. The Auroras came out for around 1-2 minutes at nearly 2:50am, and Joel can tell you how excited I was. I seem to have a knack for getting shots of the aurora the night after a great display. It works, but one of these times I’m hoping the timing will be in my favor.
Enjoy the photos…
This is obviously modified in post production - I had noted that my camera was able to capture the detail of the mountains and nearly give a daylight feel, but with stars. I should note that it is ~2:45am, and it is in fact dark to the naked eye.
One of the techniques I learned long ago was to turn around when photographing an interesting subject. Sometimes we get so immersed in what we "should" be photographing that we miss something even more spectacular that is happening behind our backs. Try it sometime. Oh, and regarding post production here: I simply muted the tungston lights falling on some of the tree branches.
Another instance of 'Turn Around'. If you look closely along the shoreline, you can see my friend Joel engrossed in his own imagery.
Proof of the Auroras. Oh, and note the Big Dipper
See these and more in my 2011 Fine Art Gallery.
Montana Creek Macro
Last weekend while Heather was sleeping, I headed out to enjoy a morning hike along Montana Creek. I took entirely too much photography gear, but that’s what I do.
On the way back, during the brief periods that it wasn’t raining, I captured a few images of the flora (and fauna!) along the path. With macro, it’s always darker outside than I expect. Even “wide open”, I had to crank up the ISO so that I could capture these handheld.
Enjoy!
Early Mornings
In Juneau, during the summertime, we are blessed with more than 18 hours of daylight at the June solstice. Even now in late July, we get around 17 hours of daylight. I love these summer months for the bright early morning outings to spend time with wildlife. There’s something magical about sharing a look of curiosity with a purely wild creature. And, in the early, early hours of the day, you don’t have to fret as much about the most unpredictable species: humans. I am grateful for my quiet time in the wilderness before most people would even consider being awake.
This morning was another outing for me. There were a couple bears near the glacier this morning. I sat and watched one of them for nearly two hours; here are a few keepers…
And, I’ve been learning to appreciate fences too…
Oh, and there was a visiting eagle too. Man I love Alaska.
Recent Wild Things
It’s the summertime again, and so subsequently I’ve been out in the mornings and whenever I can taking more photos of the nearby wildlife. It amazes me to think that I can sit on a rock just 10 feet away from massive American Bald Eagles and they’re as ‘common’ as the crows down the beach. Living here certainly has it’s perks.
Juneau to Haines to Skagway to Juneau or Bust
Heather and I went on a great mini-roadtrip this last weekend. It was three nights away from town and I thoroughly enjoyed the time away from phones and email and other distractions to be able to sit and chat and giggle with my wife. It was our two year anniversary on Monday, and it’s a good reminder that we’re in love, not just the business of living together. Anyhow, I took my camera along for the drive too, expecting the weather to cooperate a bit. Here are my top selections from the images I brought back…
Magnificent Moss
I love macro shots because they help me to capture such great detail of something that we commonly overlook. It’s so easy to see a forest floor and recognize that it’s green in color, and might be soft to step on, but how often do you lean in close to see the individual ‘blades’ of the moss and how they catch light during a sunset?
For me? This was a first.
Moonlight Bright
In mid-February, I heard that the Aurora’s were firing up again with another 4/10 rating, so I decided to head out to do some Northern Light hunting. It also happened to be a full moon. As I drove around Juneau, I eventually made it out to Aurora Harbor and, while I never found any Northern Lights, I did capture a few frames of the bright moonlight and the deep blue of the night. In this frame, we see the Shrine of St. Therese illuminated warmly in contrast of the frozen evening:
Heading Off
During the last PhotoWalk that I coordinated, I spent lots of time looking, but very few minutes clicking. Part of the fun for me is to see others having a good time with a camera, observing the world. I did my own observing of course… I came away with maybe 5 “keepers”. Click on my favorite below to visit the gallery with the rest:
Old Man’s Beard
It’s actually a lichen, but if I ever needed to disguise myself as an old gentleman, it seems this might do the trick. This is again with my macro lens. It’s great to be able to capture the detail of such a thing that I never thought to observe at these ranges before. I’m sure I look strange standing in the parking lot, intensely focused on a piece of moss or lichen just a few inches away from my lens. I’m glad I’m just now looking.
Waiting for Summer
It’s mid-March and while we’ve reached Daylights Savings, we still have yet to get enough heat to coax our flora into coming out of their long nap. Today I took a walk along Auke Lake and took a few images with the macro lens. Enjoy.
Daffodil
Over this last Christmas I invested in a Nikkor 200mm Micro lens. The term “micro” really means “macro”, but I guess they wanted to be special. I don’t know why because the lens is special enough without any fancy naming. I’ve been enjoying capturing images that I never thought of before, and being drawn to notice details on walks that previously I couldn’t have cared less. At any rate, I’ve enjoyed it. I hope you do too.
Auroras
On Heather’s Birthday, the UAF Aurora Forecast showed to hit a 4/10. It doesn’t sound like much, but for those living in Juneau, it means that it’s very likely that the Northern Lights will be visible provided the sky is clear. Lately we’ve had a cold snap and with the skies clear, I was excited to get out to see some Aurora. As it turns out, I’ve seen other postings (through facebook) suggesting that my late-night session in the cold wasn’t nearly as spectacular as earlier in the night, but when your wife wants to head to bed… Well, who am I to argue? I wound up getting out of bed at around 2:45am and headed light hunting. Here’s my favorite shot from the evening:
