An Olympic hopeful training at the brand new Richmond Speed Skating Oval near Vancouver.  This venue will be used for long track speed skating in next year’s winter games.

I thought this scene epitomizes the typical Olympic athlete’s life.  Long hours of training by themselves in relative anonymity.  It is kind of ironic, if he does make the Olympic team as expected, millions of people from around the world will one day watch him skate on this same ice surface.   On this day, it was only Janine and I, along with his friendly girlfriend.

I also found it interesting that only Canadian athletes are allowed to use this facility up until two weeks before the Winter Olympics to help provide a home country advantage.  I thought the home country advantage was limited to the supportive crowd and familiar surroundings, but I guess there is even more.

This is a beautiful building.  The inside is finished, and they were wrapping up some cosmetic stuff on the outside, but clearly it will be ready for the Olympics.  Here I used a fish-eye lens.  It was the only way to get the entire ice surface and roof in a single frame – plus it helped emphasis the wonderful curves in the roof, and on the ice surface.

Visit our website for more photos of Vancouver, Canada.

Folks, this is why I don’t take pictures and you should use a tripod!  Even with Ron taking care of all the camera settings I still managed to take a soft picture.  Anyway, the real reason for this post is because I found this very funny.  I stepped out of the house for literally no more than 2 or 3 minutes and I walked back into the living room to find what you see in the picture.  Ron had completely torn the living room apart and set up shop.  He had just received his latest “toy” and was like a kid at Christmas.  I could not believe he had managed to totally rearrange the room and set up that fast.  It made me laugh. 

Left Fork, North Creek, Zion National Park, Utah.

When you reach this beautiful little setting, you are very close to the Subway.

By: Janine Niebrugge 

Every now and then, if we are lucky, we have an experience that WOW’s us and may even change a part of who we are forever.  Today was just that sort of day for me.

A couple of months ago when we decided to make Grand Teton National Park a part of our spring trip Ron dropped the suggestion that we take a mountaineering class.  Specifically, he had developed this desire for me to learn to rappel.  I’m quite certain he has a photo op in mind of which he needs my assistance.   Over the course of this trip he has mentioned the idea a few more times!  Last week we visited Exum Mountaineering and I said let’s go for it.

This was huge for me.  Anyone who knows me knows I have a tremendous fear of heights.  Were not talking sweating palms and being uncomfortable we are talking leg shaking, paralyzing fear!  Over the years I have worked very hard at challenging myself and trying to overcome this fear.  I have made great strides but taking this class was going to challenge me like I have never been challenged before.

 Despite my fear I was looking forward to the class.  There were two others in our class, a couple of very nice young men named Joel and Josh from South Carolina.  Our guide, Brendan, was great.  We started out bouldering then learning knots and belaying.  Once we were all comfortable we hit some mild pitches.  The climbing part was difficult for me.  The technique is counter intuitive and I had a tough time overcoming what I wanted to do, lean in, when I should have been leaning out.  This made the climbing part harder for me but I managed to get up. We continued up the mountain each pitch offering a little bit more of a challenge.  We belayed each other requiring a lot of trust in the person at the other end of the rope.  At one point I was belaying Joel and let out an “oops” about halfway up his climb.  I realized I was belaying improperly.  He good naturedly suggested I not yell out “oops” while someone was climbing.  We all had a good laugh.

 Next we moved on to rappelling.  I figured this was going to be my biggest challenge.  The climbing part had turned out to be more challenging to my fear of heights than I had thought it would be so I wasn’t sure what was going to happen when I tried to rappel. 

  As with the climbing we started out with a pretty mild rappel, both feet firmly planted on the ground.  I did surprisingly well, in fact I can honestly say it was FUN.  Now on to a more challenging rappel, this time we would drop over a ledge which then sloped inward leaving me dangling from my rope.  Again, I surprised myself and showed little hesitation in dropping over the edge.  Brendan decided we were all doing so well he would have us try another rappel, one usually covered in the intermediate class and one that simulates the rappel off the top of the Grand Teton.  We dropped off over a cliff and continued down 120′ – as in a 12 story building!  It was AMAZING.  That’s me in the picture during this rappel.  The rappel continues beyond the bottom of the frame.   

When all was said and done I was thrilled I had agreed to take this challenge.  I’m not sure I am cut out for mountaineering but I am ready to do some more rappelling.  What an AWESOME day! 

Pumpkin Patch

Story by Janine.

There are times in our life when our experiences bring us full circle.  Such was the case this past week while in Borrego Springs.  Growing up, my family spent many a weekend in Borrego Springs.  Joined by several other families we would camp at the same grove of trees.  Days were spent riding our dirt bikes in the Anza-Borrego Desert, nights around the campfire.  These were special times for me and this recent trip to Borrego Springs brought back many fond memories.  The Pumpkin Patch is one of them.

Not so much a memory as a curiosity.  I had often heard the grown ups refer to the Pumpkin Patch in evening stories around the campfire. Our Dad’s took us kids on many adventurous dirt bike rides but we never did convince them to take us to the Pumpkin Patch so I was left only with the visual my imagination created.  And a curiousity never fulfilled.

So I was especially excited when Ron and I set out to photograph this place that was a long forgotten memory.  When we arrived I was surprised at how small the “patch” was, but the pumpkins were as I had imagined.  I wondered what my impression would have been 30 something years ago as a young girl.  I had long ago forgotten about the Pumpkin Patch but as we left I felt strangely satisfied to have finally seen the Pumpkin Patch, and a childhood curiousity was fulfilled. 

The Stirring the Senses guide book was a fun assingment a did a few years ago in Kenai Fjords National Park. 

This book was just named Honorable Mention in the Publication – 48 pages and Under category in the Association of Partners fro Public Lands 2006 Media and Partnership Awards.  Pretty exciting.

I provided the photography, Andromeda Romano-Lax was the author and Jill Brubakeer was the editor.  Along with the great writting, I think a lot of the credit should go to Chris Byrd who did the design and illustration.  Chris has an wonderful eye for design, I’m always amazed and what he produces.

The Stirring the Senses guide book is given to passengers on the full-day tours in Kenai Fjords National Park aboard the Major Marine Tours and Renown Tours vessels.  The book aguments the narration provided by the Park Rangers on these tours.

We get a number of requests to purchase extra copies of this little book, but I’m sorry to say it is unavailable for sale. 

Here are more Kenai Fjords National Park photos.

Author:  Janine Niebrugge

One great thing about shooting the Chugach National Forest this summer has been the opportunity to explore new areas.  I have found most people feel the need to travel away from home to recreate and vacation.  Or tend to frequent favorite areas over and over.  Ron and I are no exception.  We have our favorite trails right here in Seward and we do them over and over again.  So this summer we have ventured beyond our backyard and have had a blast doing so! 

The Kenai Peninsula is full of wonderful trails that we often talk about doing but seldom make the effort.  This past week we enjoyed TWO full days in a row of glorious sunshine so we took advantage of this rare weather event to mountain bike a couple of trails that have been on our list for quite a while.

On Monday we mountain biked part of the Russian Lakes-Resurrection River trail.  We started at the trailhead near the Russian River Campground.  A beginner mountain bike rider, I found the trail easy to ride with no rocks or roots to maneuver.  This would also make a great hiking / walking trail for all ages and levels of experience.  We quickly made our way to Lower Russian Lake where we stopped at the Barber Cabin.  What a beautiful location right on the lake where we watched three swans and a loon.  There is a dock and canoe for cabin guests to use.  Ron and I will definitely be reserving this cabin in the future. 

After leaving the cabin we backtracked to where the trail to the Russian River Falls intersects and rode down to the viewing platform to see if we could see any bears feeding on the spawning salmon.  No bears .  We stayed a while before returning to our truck.  Total trip was 9 miles.  We had so much fun we can’t wait to do it again!

On Tuesday I had plans to go to Anchorage but the weather was too nice to spend inside so I changed my mind.  We had so much fun yesterday that Ron and I decided to try mountain biking part of the Resurrection Pass trail.  Ron has long wanted to photograph Juneau Falls.  So we packed up our gear and headed down the road.  We started at the trailhead off the Sterling Highway just outside Cooper Landing.  Right away I knew we were in for a different experience than yesterday.  This trail was more difficult with many rocks, roots and an overall elevation gain of about 900 feet with most of the climb in the first two miles.  Experienced mountain bikers would take it in stride but my novice skills were challenged!  About 1.3 miles into the trip Ron stopped abruptly.  Hearing a rustling in the bushes below the trail he stopped expecting to see a porcupine, instead he found himself face to face with a large grizzly bear about 20 feet away.  They both starred at each other for a few seconds and then the bear turned and started running through the brush.  By this time I to had stopped but could only hear the bear crashing through the tall brush but couldn’t see anything.  Not wanting to be stuck with a bear between Ron and myself I quickly rode up to join Ron.  My heart quickened and my eyes darted back and forth looking for the bear.  In what seemed like forever, a large grizzly bear emerged from the forest onto the trail about 50 feet away.  I heard a woofing sound coming from the brush and more crashing sounds – there were two grizzly bears.  Both bears stopped on the trail and looked our direction before heading into the forest. 

Ron and I released a huge sigh of relief and collected ourselves before continuing our ride.  We made lots of noise hoping to avoid another encounter.  All of a sudden my pink jelly bell wasn’t such a joke!  Arriving at Juneau Falls we decided to continue our ride to Juneau Lake and the Juneau Lake cabin.  We reached our destination without any further wildlife encounters!  Our return trip was equally uneventful and we finished the 19.1 trip wet and muddy but with smiles on our faces…just another day in the office! 

For me I enjoy the business side of photography.  Designing and keeping up the website, sales and marketing.  These are challenges I enjoy.

I to am creative but in a different vein.  I enjoy working with glass and have a small stained glass work area that I putter around in.  I also enjoy writing in my free time … LOL!  My goal is to spend more time exploring my writing in the months to come. 

I hope to contribute a “non-photographer’s” perspective to our travels in this blog.