Bell-s 2010 Inside Passage Travel Guide

I’m proud to say our photos are on the covers of all three Bell’s Alaska travel guides again this year!!  Great travel guides produced by a wonderful family, I’m proud to be a part of their guides again this year.   You can find these travel guides throughout Alaska at most visitor centers, restaurants and other businesses.  If you are in Alaska be sure to pick them up, they are full of useful information.

To get a feel for just how small the little grizzly cub is in the top photo, keep in mind those are dandelions.  Sure dandelions grow big up here, but still… !   This little guy was outside of Haines, Alaska.

Bell's 2010 Alaska Mapbook

The Mapbook cover was of a sunrise in the Seward Boat Harbor – it was a post on the blog at the time.

Bell's 2010 Alaska Highway Guide

The final cover is of Emerald Lake, Yukon Territory, Canada.

Stanton Lanier December Peace Cover

Sticking with a music theme, we just received a bundle of our mail and in it was this CD by Stanton Lanier.  As I sit here in the desert in shorts and sandals, I gotta admit seeing my snowshoe tracks in winter is a little hard to relate to, but a fun reminder of our wonderful home!

For the many new followers to the blog – don’t worry, I won’t post every time we make an image sale – that would be boring.  But, I do like sharing covers because, well, I think they are fun.  So I post them from time to time under the category Shameless Self Promotion.

To Stanton – we weren’t able to get through to you on email for some reason, so just in case you see this – the cover looks great – thanks a lot, and thanks for the autographed copy.  We look forward to listening to it soon!

To learn more about Stanton, check out his website:  Stanton Lanier.

Lindsey Vonn at the 2004 U.S. Alpine Championships at Alyeska Resort, Girdwood, Alaska.

I obtained a press pass and photographed the U.S. Alpine Championships 6 years ago in Girdwood.  It was a great experience.   During the week there was only a hand full of spectators along with these amazing athletes.  At the time the mens’ team was stacked with famous skiers like Bode Miller and Daron Rahlves, but on the womens’ side were a bunch of young, outgoing, energetic ladies that were relatively unknown including Lindsey Vonn (Kildow at the time) and Julia Mancuso.  Today both those ladies are Olympic gold medalist, and Lindsey Vonn is considered the best U.S. Skier ever!  I was rooting hard for them yesterday as they won gold and silver at the Olympic downhill.

I gotta admit I have always been an Olympic junkie, but this year seems extra special, probably for a few reasons.  Having photographed some of the Alpine team brings some extra attachment as did our trip to Vancouver last winter to photograph the Olympic facilities – for once the Olympic venue sights are all very familiar.  Having a huge Alaska contingency also helps – including two ladies who run in the Seward Mt. Marathon race every summer.  Finally, we found that the residents of Vancouver and Whistler to be the nicest people we have encountered in our travels, and for this reason I find myself pulling for the Canadians and want to see them host a successful Olympics.

Shorebirds, Copper River Delta, Alaska

This flock of shorebirds nearly formed the shape of  a heart.  I captured this last spring and saved it thinking it would be a perfect post for Valentines day – not realizing it would fall on a holiday weekend.  So I thought I would post it today.  It wouldn’t take too much PhotoShop work to make it into a perfectly shaped heart, but I prefer leaving items as seen.

Actually, this tight formation of fast flying birds making constant direction changes was the result of an attacking predator.

Mt. Alice, Chugach National Forest, Seward, Alaska.

This is another recent photo of Mt Alice at sunset captured this past December.  Maybe I should just call this the Mt. Alice photo blog because I post so many photos of this beautiful mountain.    Really, the subject matter here should be taking a dramatic change soon once we hit the desert and begin chasing wildflowers.

Full Moon over Resurrection Bay, Seward, Alaska.

This was last night’s beautiful full moon rising over Mt. Alice.  The bay was as calm as a lake!

Manual exposure of 10 seconds at f/8 and ISO 400.  Canon 1DsIII and 24-105 lens at 47.

Sunrise over the Chugach National Forest, Seward, Alaska.

It has been a little while since I have posted a new photo from Seward.  Here is a recent image captured out or front door of a view that never gets old!

Resurrection Peaks, Chugach National Forest, near Seward, Alaska.

Here is another photo taken from just a few steps out the front door during another beautiful morning.  This was captured last week on the same day as the photo of ice patterns.

I know, I have thousands of photos of these mountains, and have posted dozens of them here on the blog over the years, but I just can’t help myself, they are just too beautiful!  I’m sure I will take thousands of more in the years to come.

Ice Patterns, Seward, Alaska.

These ice patterns were on the side window of my pickup yesterday.  With the heat off, I carefully drove into position so that the sunset would back-light the patterns.  Nature can sure create some wonderful designs!

From a recent morning in Seward, Alaska.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Seasons Greetings everyone!

The next week will probably be a bit slow here on the blog thanks to the holidays.

Least Sandpiper, Seward, Alaska.

Megan from Costa Rica had an ask Ron question about bokeh.  Here it is:

Hi Ron, I had a quick question for your Ask Ron series.  I was wondering about your opinion of bokeh.  I have a basic understanding of the concept from online research, but it seems that some professional photographers absolutely love it, while others barely use it at all.  Also seems that subject matter doesn’t necessarily determine who likes it or not; in other words, I see some landscape artists use it all the time, and others never.  I’m contemplating buying my first fixed focal lens for my Nikon D60, and am curious what your take is, when and how you decide to “go for bokeh” (ha), etc.

Thanks!

Megan in Costa Rica

For those that aren’t familiar with the term, here is the Wikipedia definition for bokeh: In photography, bokeh is the blur, or the aesthetic quality of the blur, in out-of-focus areas of an image, or “the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light.

For me, I often use it for wildlife portraits, and close-up work like flowers – it allows me to isolate the subject from the rest of the scene and effectively “remove” distracting elements.  I think the bird portrait above is a good example.  Here I am actually laying in the cold water with the front of the lens and camera just barely out of the water in order to throw the background out of focus.  If I was just a foot higher off the ground, I could be warm and dry, but the background of mud would come into focus and could be a distraction.

The background is often ignored, but can often make or break an image.  As I’m setting up on birds like this, I’m not just watching the birds movement and the direction of the light, but I am constantly evaluating the background.  A bright spot, even if it is out of focus will draw your eye right away from the subject and to the background bright spot.

Now I don’t always try to throw the background out of focus, there are times that it can enhance an image, and provide the viewer with a feeling for the habitat and surrounding environment.  This photo of a desert bighorn near Moab, Utah is one example that comes to mind.

Now you mention landscape photography, and myself, I chose to maximize depth of field and keep everything in focus.  I know some photographers utilize limited depth of field as a personal style, it seems to have gained in popularity in recent years.  I encourage you to experiment.  A prime lens with a large aperture can be a lot of fun creatively.

Thanks for the question – you live in a beautiful country!

Pedersen Glacier, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska.

It has been awhile since I have answered any Ask Ron questions.  As a reminder, I will answer any photography question as best I can.

A couple of weeks ago I received this question:

I love how you capture a foreground, middle ground background with such great depth.
Do you typically try to accomplish this with a 24 T/S or the 24 1.4L?
Thanks, Ray

To answer your question, yes I do use Canon’s tilt shift lenses a fair amount.  By tilting the plane of focus I am better able to position the depth of field from near to far without sacrificing a lot of shutter speed.  I go into more detail in this post on tilt with Canon’s tilt shift lenses.  These lenses are especially valuable when you have something really close, say within a couple of feet, and still want to keep distant objects in focus.

But, I don’t use those lenses as much as I should.  It is so much easier, faster and lighter to carry one 24-105 then three tilt shift lenses.  In these circumstances, I use a small aperture to maximize depth of field – usually around f/16.  I then focus about 1/4 to 1/3 of the way into the scene.  I also almost always will use a tripod, mirror lock up and the 2 second self timer to minimize any movement as much as possible.  This is about as good as it gets without tilt.  If something still has to be a bit out of focus I would rather it be distant objects – I believe prominent foreground elements have to be sharp – distant objects like mountains can be more forgiving.

Tomorrow I will answer another recent question on depth of field – this one regarding bokeh.

Cover, 2010 Milepost.

O man, I’m really excited to report that I have the cover of the Milepost for the 4th year in a row!  Growing up in Glennallen everyone who passed through our restaurant had a copy in hand or on their dash.  I dreamed of having the cover one day, I never imaged having 4 in a row!  Now I dread the day I don’t have the cover – I’m going to have to work extra hard next summer!

Now that I travel so much I know why The Milepost is such a valuable resource.  It has mile by mile detail on every road and community throughout Alaska, and on every route and community between Alaska and the Lower 48.  My copy never leaves my truck.  I have been recommending this guide for years on photography forums and on travel forums like RV.net

The main photo is actually of Janine and I with my parents, as we enjoyed an evening campfire at the Chugach National Forest Williwaw Campground near Portage.  By the way, Williwaw is one of the nicest campground in Alaska.  I used a self timer to trigger the camera.  The smaller photo is of Janine in front of Denali (Mt. McKinley).

Alpenglow on Resurrection Peaks, Chugach National Forest, near Seward, Alaska.

This is looking North, directly away from one of the most amazing sunrises I have ever seen in Seward – the same morning of my recent post on sunrise over Resurrection Bay.  This has to be the most dramatic, colorful alpenglow I have ever seen.

I must confess, I have often mis-used the word alpenglow.  Thanks to blog reader Aaron for setting me straight on my welcome home post.  As Aaron pointed out, and further research confirmed, alpengow is the pink glow you see while the sun is still below the horizon.  There can not be a direct path of light from the sun to the mountain.  So that red / orange light shinning on snow caped peaks at the beginning or end of the day isn’t really alpenglow – I have been mis-identifying it for years.  I don’t know what it is called – sweet mountain light I guess.

This is pretty much straight out of the camera.  I added a little contrast to the mid-tones, but I didn’t add any color or saturation.

Orcas work their way along the outer coast, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska.

I captured this photo just before our fall trip – we are now converting and processing images from the end of summer, and from our Fall trip.  I hope to share more here over the next few weeks as we do.

I thought the orcas were cool – but I really liked that rock wall behind them.

Sunrise over Resurrection Bay, Seward, Alaska.

Like my last post, this was also captured last Sunday morning.  The clouds first started turning pink at 8:30 a.m.  Yesterday’s post was captured at about 9:30.  And, the first light of day wasn’t until after 10:00.  We had hours of amazing light!

This is one of 5 photos that will eventually make up a panoramic.

Resurrection River and Mt. Marathon, Seward, Alaska.

We have had an amazing stretch of weather combined with some wonderful winter light – I did a lot of photography this weekend!  Here I waded out into the river and got as low as possible.

This is looking South toward Mt. Marathon and the bowl area, a place we spent the night last summer.  You might remember this image from Mt. Marathon looking North from Mt. Marathon down towards the Resurrection River.

Another photo from Thursday evening of the Chugach National Forest, Seward, Alaska.

I get asked this question a fair amount as friends try to shop for their avid photographer loved one.  It is a tough question to answer because camera gear can be very expensive, and most photographers have fairly strong opinions on photo gear.  So, I thought I would throw out some less expensive, safer options to consider.

Digital frames Most photographers love to share the photos with family and co-workers, and having a  nice  digital frame for the office or home makes a great gift for most any photographer.  I can’t recommend a particular one as I don’t own one, but I have found the buyer feedback on Amazon to be pretty accurate.

Books.   I can’t own enough books, I’m running out of room to store them all.  I have books on particular animal species, books on locations, and books on photography.  Here are some of my favorites:

Outdoor photography

Galen Rowell’s classic book The Inner Game of Outdoor Photography is scheduled for re-release next May.  Until then, this great book by the master is a great read even if some of the information is dated:  Galen Rowell’s Vision: The Art of Adventure Photography

I haven’t seen this book, but know most of the contributors so feel fairly safe in recommending:  The Ultimate Guide to Digital Nature Photography

Location Guides

These can be very helpful and provide a nice running head start for any location.  I like to try to find my own “hot spots”, but there is nothing wrong with getting some help finding the existing ones.  Except for the Oregon book, I have used, enjoyed and relied on these location guides:

Photographing the Southwest: Volume 1–Southern Utah (2nd Ed.)
Photographing the Southwest: Volume 2–Arizona (2nd Ed.)
Photographing the Southwest: Volume 3–Colorado/New Mexico (Photographing the Soutwest)
Photographer’s Guide to Yellowstone and the Tetons
The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite
Photographing Oregon (Phototripsusa)

Animal Reference

Birds – every nature lover should have this valuable resource:  The Sibley Guide to Birds

Bird behavior.  If your photographer already has the Sibley Guide to Birds, this makes a great compliment:  The Sibley Guide to Bird Life and Behavior It covers nesting / feeding, all kinds of stuff.

Wolves.  If you like wolves as much as I do, and Denali, then this is a must read:   Wolves Of Denali

Moose.  I wish there was a book like this on every species.  It is very comprehensive, over 700 pages, and parts are technical, but if you have ever wondered something about moose, you can find it here.  I should warn you, books like this don’t come cheap, but Amazon has it for $75:   Ecology and Management of the North American Moose

.

Or when all else fails, you can never go wrong with a  B & H gift card.

Resurrection Peaks, Chugach National Forest, near Seward, Alaska.

This was from last night at sunset.  It is probably more accurate to say, yesterday afternoon at sunset – this was a little after 3:00.

Harriman Glacier, Prince William Sound, Chugach National Forest, Alaska.

Well now that my first two Alaska photo tours are filling, (we have one spot remaining for the Kenai Fjords photo tour, and two spots for the Bear and Puffin photo tour), I thought I would promote my final offering, a photo tour into the amazing Prince William Sound.

Like the Kenai Fjords tour, this is an all inclusive boat based tour into a region of amazing scenery and wonderful wildlife.  This three night, four day tour will be limited to four guests, myself, an incredibly knowledgeable captain, and a cook – and we will have a 58 foot research vessel to spread out on!  We will have access to a Zodiak skiff for shore excursions and hikes, and will overnight in a different remote location each night.  Instead of repeating the amazing details here, you can read much more here:  Prince William Sound photo tour.