Photo Blog - Niebrugge Images

This is a photo from last winter in the Chugach National Forest, Alaska.

Happy New Year!

Well, it is year end, and we are in that position of either spend it, or give it to Uncle Sam - so we are spending baby! 

With today’s large image files, my old Pentium computer just isn’t cutting it anymore, so we made the logical decision to get Janine a new computer - yeah that’s right, Janine.  Since she does all the important parts of the office work, it is fitting I get her computer hand me downs, and she gets the screaming machine.  Actually, Janine does a lot of the image adjustment work.

 Anyway, I have been anguishing over this decision for the last couple of weeks as I researched and read countless forums, reviews etc., so I thought I would share my thought process as it may be beneficial to other photographers in a similar situation - I know I found similar write-ups valuable.  Janine thinks I’m an over-researcher , and she is right.  Warning, this may get long! (more…)

Another photo of the frozen waterfall in Seward, Alaska.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

If you read the My Excuse post, you will know we have been working hard to remodel our home - new paint, carpet, blinds, etc.  The hardest, but most rewarding part was the two weeks we spent on the kitchen.  In stock cabinets, vinyl floor and Formica counters won’t get it showcased in Sunset Magazine, but it is sure a huge improvement for us! (more…)

Frozen waterfall, Seward, Alaska.

I ran by this waterfall in town a few days ago and noticed it was starting to look pretty nice thanks to our recent cold spell, but then I forgot about it.  I owe local truck driver Bob Valdatta a big thank you for giving me a call and heads up on the waterfall today.  He said it looked as good as he had ever seen it, and he was right!  There are so many cool photo possibilities right there.

By the way, we are forecasted to get at least a foot of snow thanks to an incoming storm.  I hope they are right!

The snowy mountains of Mt. Alice from the home office last night, Chugach National Forest, Alaska.

A few people emailed after my mountain post earlier this week to ask if this was really the view from the house.  I should point out, I am shooting these with my 100-400 at about 300, so that does tend to exaggerate the impact a bit - there is about 3 miles of ocean between us and the mountains, but otherwise that is the view.  It is awesome to have a photo opportunity like this right out the door!

Route 66, Arizona.

Even historic Route 66 looks better with wildflowers! 

It is hard to believe this little road was once the main East / West highway to California.  I explored long sketches of the road through California and Arizona in 2005, and in many places you would rarely see another car.  It was kind of fun to try to imagine what this road was like back in its hay day.  It had to be some adventure crossing this country, especially in the summer.

Here are more Route 66 photos.

When I looked at the window last night (well, make that early afternoon) and saw the amazing color in the alpenglow sky, I knew I would be taking a break from the desert wildflower theme!

Native rock art, Christmas Tree Pass (timely name), Lake Mead Recreation Area, Nevada.

Having wildflowers around just provides that many more composition possibilities, even for something like native American rock art. 

A bumble bee view of a California Poppy at the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve, Mojave Desert, California.

This fun technique is one I would like to play around with some more this winter.  What I do is put my smallest extension tube on a wide angle lens.  This now gives me the ability to focus very close.  I basically have the lens sitting in the flower, and I’m able to focus on portions of the flower that are a mere fraction of an inch from the front of the lens.  With certain wide angle lenses, I can actually focus on the front of the lens. (more…)

Death Valley National Park, California.

Well continuing with the desert wildflower theme, here is a photo of Death Valley from the amazing winter of 2005.  Hard to imagine Death Valley with huge meadows of wildflowers, but this is what it was like that year.  Here are more Death Valley Photos.

I wanted to show the size of the desert candles from yesterday’s post - I needed a way to show scale, so I put my camera on self timer and sorta posed with the unique wildflowers. 

This is a pretty rare photo - not because it is hard to find desert candles, although it is - but it is more rare for me to be in front of the camera!

Desert Candle, Mojave Desert.

The Desert Candle has to be one of of the most unique wildflowers I have ever seen!  When back lit, the hollow shaft of these giant flowers exhibits a wonderful glow, they are really impressive.  I think they are fairly rare, I know I looked far and wide before finding a small patch in 2005, and its not like they are hard to miss!

Normally I love winter, but this year in Alaska we have had endless warm temperatures and rain - in the winter, rain is wasted precipitation in my opinion - it could be snow!  So I guess this spring like weather has got me thinking of spring wildflowers!

Poppies in the Arizona Mojave Desert.

Another storm just past through the desert Southwest dumping even more rain!  The Phoenix area received an additional inch of rain this past weekend, with even more forecasted for today and tomorrow, this really could be good news for wildflowers in Arizona this spring.  Palm Springs also received .6 of an inch of rain.  Unfortunately the rain largely missed Anza-Borrego, they officially received .02 of an inch.

Zion Canyon Overlook, Utah.

When I’m traveling, the photos I post here on the blog are ones that take little work.  Now that I’m back in the office, I have the computer and time to spend on some of the more difficult photos. (more…)

My excuse for the lack of blog activity. (more…)

Wildflowers in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California in 2005.

The last two years in the desert Southwest have been bone dry.  Fortunately that all changed late last week. (more…)

If you are looking for some last minute gift ideas, you might consider our 2008 Alaska Calendar.  We don’t actually have any left, but I learned last week that ANHA still has a few left.  Here is a link to the calendar at their on the on-line store; ANHA.  They sell for $10.