Via

Ron Niebrugge Alaska, Photos, Shameless Self Promotion, Travel 11 Comments

Via

This is pretty exciting – this image is on the cover of a couple different versions of AAA’s magazine Via, including the Mountain West and Oregon editions.  We have a series of photos to go along with the story about Southeast Alaska on the inside as well.

Long time subscribers might remember when I captured this image from this post on the Skagway Railroad.

Now that we are home and going through our mail I may subject you to a bit more shameless self promotion.

A Whale of a Welcome Home!

Ron Niebrugge Alaska, Chugach, Photos, Travel 8 Comments

A humpback whale dives off the shoreline in Seward, Alaska.

A humpback whale dives off the coast of Seward, Alaska.

I got back into the home office on Saturday morning.  I stopped to gaze out the windows in order to take in  ocean and beautiful mountains – something I frequently do, it can be hard to get work done here!  Well low and behold, there was a humpback whale!  What a place we live in.

This photo was captured yesterday (Sunday).  The whale was back in front of the town a number of times during the day.  Surprisingly, a tour boat went right by it, I was surprised someone on board didn’t see it, although I was just as surprised to see a tour boat this time of year.  I assume it must be hardy visitors up to watch the start of the Iditarod.  Too bad they missed such a cool sighting!

My postings here may slow a bit over the next month or so as I spend more time in the office and less in the field.  It seems like everytime I write that, and still find time and stuff to photograph!

Leaving Las Vegas

Ron Niebrugge Las Vegas, Nevada, Photos, Travel 5 Comments

Bellagio Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada.

Bellagio Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada.

Well we have shipped a bunch of gear home, and are now preparing to drive back to California to put our vehicle in storage.  We will then  make the long flight back to Alaska.  The next few days  will be very busy so I probably won’t post again until Monday from our home sweet home.

Commitments on both ends of this trip made this our longest trip to date, probably a week or two too long – but it has been very fun and productive!  We typically would break this time up into two separate trips, but with the cost of travel from Alaska, it worked a lot better to do one long trip instead of two.  It is hard to believe all the places we have visited, from Borrego to Orange County and even Vancouver, Canada – some of those destinations seem like they occurred in an altogether separate trip.

Although I’m leaving at what is shaping up to be a great desert wildfower year, we are really excited to get back to Alaska.  March is typically one of my favorite times of year up there – then we will be heading into spring and summer – you can’t beat summer in Alaska!  Not to mention, we also have a ton of office work.

We will be updating our collection of Las Vegas photos soon.

Las Vegas NASCAR

Ron Niebrugge Las Vegas, Nevada, Photos, Travel 9 Comments

Joey Logano, Las Vegas NASCAR practice.

Joey Logano, Las Vegas NASCAR practice.

It is hard to convey just how fast these cars are going – at places, over 190 mph!  For this photo I closed the aperture down as far as I could ( F/32), dropped my ISO to 100, and ended up with a shutter speed of 1/25th of a second.  I then panned with the car – this left the start finish line along with the background in a nice blur.

Tony Stewart

Ron Niebrugge Las Vegas, Nevada, Photos, Travel 2 Comments

Tony Stewart

Tony Stewart

This was yesterday, just minutes before Tony “Smoke” Stewart qualified for Sunday’s Las Vegas NASCAR race.  Given all the demands from media, fans etc., I got the feeling that finally sitting down in the driver seat was probably a welcome quiet escape; I was hoping to capture that in this photo.  I used a bit of fill flash to help illuminate Tony inside the dark cockpit.