Grand Scenics of Alaska - Glaciers

Are you still being bothered by the summer heat?  These glacier pictures will help to cool you off!

Bear Glacier, Resurrection Bay

Kenai Fjords National Park

Aialik Glacier, Aialik Bay

Kenai Fjords National Park

aerial view of a glacial ice field

Denali National Park

Begonia Mystery Solved

This was the first year that we’ve been able to set out annual flowers along the front walkway of our new home. We decided to plant red begonias for a nice pop of color. Sadly, the plants look just as small now as when we first planted them in April, despite routine watering and fertilizing. We chalked up the poor performance to the thin layer of topsoil that the builder put on our lot. 

By happenstance, I found out the true culprit when I glanced out my home office window yesterday. It’s MARTY! The little booger! I watched him happily munching away on the flowers and leaves, quite content in the fact that we unwittingly provided him a garden buffet this summer. 

I quickly grabbed my camera while he was cooling off under the shade of our pint-sized Japanese maple. I got this picture of him, in-between bites, and applied an oil painting filter to the image.

Marty, you better get your fill while you can because this will be the last year that we plant begonias! You are so busted!

Grand Scenics of Alaska - Mountain Peaks

I hope that my dear visitors are not getting bored with my Grand Scenics series of Alaska photographs! If you are, please tell me and I will switch to some other topics for a while! Can you stand another week of them? And yes, it is quite permissible to repeat adjectives in your comments, in case you are running out of them in your vocabulary, LOL.

Since many of us are still suffering from the hot summer temperatures, we need a little “virtual” cool breeze right now. Don’t you think so? Flying high over beautiful snow-capped mountains should cool us off in a hurry!  And please click each photograph to see it bigger!

aerial view of craggy Mordor-like mountains,

north of Talkeetna,

Denali National Park

(black & white processing)

sunny mountain range east of Seward,

Resurrection Peninsula

majestic Denali crest,

long-range view from Wonder Lake,

Denali National Park

Grand Scenics of Alaska - Ships at Sea

Oh the time will come up

When the breeze will stop.

And the breeze will cease to be a'breathin'.

Like the stillness in the wind

Before the hurricane begins.

The hour when the ship comes in.

"When the Ship Comes In" by Bob Dylan

passenger ship leaving Whittier harbor,

Passage Canal, Prince Edward Sound

fishing trawler at daybreak,

Homer Spit, Kachemak Bay

crabber vessel heading out to sea,

Homer Spit, Kachemak Bay

I hope that my blogging friends on the east coast will be safe this weekend when Hurricane Irene blows through!

Grand Scenics of Alaska - Porcupine Cove

No story tonight, just a couple of pretty pictures to soothe your soul…

cliff cave of Porcupine Cove,

Harding Gateway, Kenai Fjords National Park

rocky islands of Porcupine Cove,

Harding Gateway, Kenai Fjords National Park

Grand Scenics of Alaska - More Fox Island

We couldn’t help but relax at this intimate island retreat, with no television or internet. It was perfect for “chilling”. We visited with each other, took photographs, watched the clouds and boats pass by, and marveled at the majestic mountains of Kenai Fjords National Park located across Resurrection Bay. At night, the lodge served us a scrumptious dinner. After one more visit to the rocky beach, we retreated to our cozy cabins. The one assigned to us had a lovely view of a large, freshwater lagoon. 

When we woke up, our tour group was happy to see a continuation of the beautiful weather for the scheduled boat trip around Kenai Fjords. This glorious view, looking north toward Seward, was waiting for us at sunrise. After enjoying a big breakfast and copious amounts of hot coffee, we hated to say goodbye to this tranquil setting.

And here are some little learning tidbits about Resurrection Bay!

• It acquired its name from Alexander Baranov (1747-1819), a Russian-born merchant. He was forced to retreat into the bay during a bad storm in the Gulf of Alaska. When the storm settled, it was Easter Sunday. So the bay and nearby Resurrection River were named in honor of the event.
• The Bay remains ice-free throughout the year, making it easily navigable. 
• The opening of The Hunt for Red October (one of my favorites!) was filmed here, with the bay serving as a stand-in for Russia’s Murmansk Fjord.

Grand Scenics of Alaska - Fox Island

Thank you for all of your kind words about my photo challenge images! I am glad that you are enjoying these unique Alaska scenes and hope you continue to come back to see more. Your armchair journey has just begun! 

Today I am featuring a couple of photos from Fox Island. Many tourists who make their way down to Seward decide to take a boat tour of Resurrection Bay and the Kenai Peninsula. Some go ever further and opt to have lunch at Fox Island, located on the southern end of the bay. But a few take the time to stay on the island overnight! We were excited that our tour booked us at Kenai Fjords Lodge so that we could relax and enjoy the island. It was an incredibly beautiful setting. 

Before dinnertime, about half of our tour group went kayaking out in the little bay. Some of us went for a walk with a park ranger. And a few stayed behind to skip stones along the shore from the rocky beach and watch the boats sail by in the distance.

During my walk across the beach, I got a chance to admire many “ghost trees” along the way. There is an interesting story to these trees. When earthquakes occur, the ground sinks and the land is flooded. Salt water kills the trees, yet preserves the trunks. These particular ones serve as a ghostly reminder of the major earthquake that rocked Alaska in 1964.

I’ll share a couple more images from this magical place tomorrow!

Photo Challenge: Portraits

It’s time for another Brenda Photo Challenge! The theme this time is Portraits. As my long-time blogging friends know, I am not a portrait photographer. First of all, a ready supply of willing subjects is not available to me. There is also an art and a science to posing people, proper lighting indoors, and then digitally processing the images to get flattering skin tones. Portrait photography is just not my thing! But I took some photos during our recent Alaska trip that fits the bill well enough for this challenge. 

When our little tour group traveled on the Alaska Railroad between Denali and Wasilla, we couldn’t believe how well our conductor fit the image of his position. He was handsomely distinguished in his uniform and had a charming personality. As photographers, we were all smitten. We wanted him to model for us! Our tour guide worked his magic and the conductor agreed. What a good sport! So at the next stop, we momentarily disembarked and had a quick photo shoot with him. I decided to take one of my images and digitally process it for an antique, weathered look. The camera settings were f/6.3, ISO 1000, and 1/2000 second. I had to laugh when I saw my statistics later on because I forgot to change the settings I used to take photos from a moving train. A speed of 1/2000 second for this portrait is overkill of the highest order! 

I finally got a long-awaited wish fulfilled when I saw puffins on this last trip. I just love how funny they look! We saw some on the boat trip, but I was excited to find them at the Alaska Sea Life Center in Seward where I could see them up close. I spent almost all of my allotted time on the tour in the Seabird Habitat room, photographing puffins! There are two species found in the North Pacific Ocean habitats: horned and tufted. There were a few tufted puffins that swam close to the edge of the giant exhibit pool, so I proceeded to fill up one of my digital photo cards, LOL. The lighting was horrible for photography, with a mix of tungsten-type overhead fixtures and harsh, direct light coming in through some windows. So trying to get the right color balance on the raw images is quite a challenge. Ah, but the results are so worth it! This puffin portrait was taken at f/5.6, ISO 1000, and 1/400 second. 

This last portrait is kind of wild, but I want to mix things up a bit with a fun digital effect! We had a delightful visit with the dogs at the Kantishna Roadhouse’s kennel (Denali National Park). Emmitt Peters, Jr., a past winner of the Junior Iditarod, rescues the dogs and trains them for competitions and demonstrations. Emmitt learned mushing skills from his father, an Iditarod champion and member of the Hall of Fame. We could tell that all of the dogs had unique personalities. One of the most photogenic of the group was Eddie, with piercing blue eyes. I had fun playing with this photo crop of him. I recently downloaded Adobe’s free pixel bender plug-in for the Photoshop CS5 program, and the “oil paint” filter results in cool effects. So this photo is of sled dog Eddie on a pixel bender, so to speak! The camera settings were f/9.0, ISO 500, and 1/320 second.

I hope you go check out the photos of the other challenge participants!

Grand Scenics of Alaska - Exit Glacier

Kenai Fjords National Park was one of several parks that we visited in Alaska. This 1760 square mile park was established in 1980, and its most remarkable feature is the Harding Icefield. The icefield holds the distinction of being the largest one entirely contained with the U.S. It’s HUGE! There are 38 glaciers within its expanse, including Exit Glacier. 

Exit Glacier is a popular destination for visitors because it is so accessible. There is a trail system where you can walk up close to the side of the glacier, to its terminus, along the drainage basin, or up a mountainside for an aerial view. We chose the less strenuous trail through the cottonwood forest toward the drainage basin and were rewarded with beautiful panoramic views. 

During our visit, the sky directly over Exit Glacier was completely overcast. However, the sky was blue in the opposite direction, looking toward Resurrection River. That’s part of the fickleness of Alaska weather!

Exit Glacier, Kenai Fjords National Park 

drainage from Exit Glacier to Resurrection River,

Kenai Fjords National Park 

Grand Scenics of Alaska - Spruce Forest

a spruce forest with mountain backdrop, 

westward view from Alaska Railroad train

between Denali National Park and Wasilla

Grand Scenics of Alaska - A Rainy Day

It’s hard to complain about a rainy day in Alaska when you have a view like this!

landscape behind the lower river bear-viewing platform,

Brooks Lodge, Katmai National Park

New Photo Series - Grand Scenics of Alaska

Alaska: it’s big, bold, and wild. It’s a place where photographs can’t possibly convey the majesty and diverse ecosystems. We saw only a very small portion of interior and coastal Alaska. And just that tiny sliver confirmed to us its immensity and magical qualities.

For my hubby, it was a bittersweet visit to see once again the land and feel the spirit that captured his young adult life. For me, it was a vast learning experience and a challenge to take it all in. We wore ourselves out on this journey, but we were so thankful that we finally accomplished it. 

If you ever have a change to go – GO! If not, I hope that my photos will fuel your imagination and help you envision the last great wilderness of our country. Sit back, click on the images to see them in a bigger format, and enjoy! 

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be posting a variety of “grand scenics” of Alaska. Then I will begin sharing photos of “Katmai brown bears” and finish up with a “wildlife wonders” series. 

And so it begins…

snow-capped peaks overlooking the Wonder Lake area, Denali National Park

El Malpais National Monument - Sandstone Bluffs

This is the final installment of this series! And I saved the most striking and picturesque part of El Malpais to feature last! This area of the park has an extensive geologic history, from the 200-million–year-old sandstone formed by ancient seas, to the 3000-year lava that borders the bluffs. 

Standing from the top of the bluffs, you can see the incredibly jagged terrain below. The land is covered in cooled, black lava that once poured out of a volcano called McCarty’s Crater. The lava tube cave system here extends at least 17 miles. The undulating fractures of the black crust are weird to see in person. From satellite views (such as Google Earth), it looks like a strange, giant lake. 

There are no trails along the bluffs, so you have to be careful where you tread. It is a beautiful area to explore. As you walk, you will notice there are little potholes scattered along the lateral surfaces. These depressions fill up with water after rainfalls and create temporary miniature ecosystems for fairy shrimp, tadpole shrimp, spadefoot toad tadpoles, and water insects. 

I am always amazed in harsh environments like this when vegetation takes hold and is determined to thrive. A walk through the bluffs reveals pinyon-juniper, ponderosa pine, and cholla cactus. How the trees can establish a foothold in the rocks is a mystery to me! In the processing of the photo below, I emphasized the fractured nature of the sandstone that surrounds a large ponderosa pine. 

This solitary brave tree particularly endeared me. Undoubtedly, it has endured a harsh life at the top of a bluff, surviving countless storms and droughts. I enhanced the sky in this photo to add to the dramatic effect.

Coming Up for Air

Isn’t this a neat book jacket cover? Hubby had kept this book over the years and it resides in his office library. The old pictures in it are a scream. But the book has some great nuggets of photography information that are just as helpful now as it was back then. 

In case you have been wondering, yes, I am alive. My poor blog has gotten a little ignored lately. I also haven’t been visiting your blogs as much lately either. Work, life, and digital editing activities have taken priority. Please raise your hand if you think that there are not enough hours in the day too! 

Ah, but here is the good news. The first Alaska photo series will get posted next week next week! Marty says, “Hip-hop-hooray!”

El Malpais National Monument - La Ventana Natural Arch

We were delighted to find out that this New Mexico area had a natural arch to photograph. The sky turned overcast by the time we got to see it, but the arch’s size and beauty merited a photograph regardless of the weather conditions! One of these days, we hope to get back to Arches National Park again and spend some time there in depth. In the meantime, it is a treat to find sandstone arches at other locations, like this one. There is a nice trail here, picnic tables, and some rest rooms. Except for three other visitors who left about five minutes after our arrival, we had the place to ourselves. 

Here are a few details for you! The La Ventana is the second largest of New Mexico’s arches. It’s name in Spanish means “window”. The arch’s sandstone has been eroding back to the age of the dinosaurs. And, from base to the top, it is reported to stand 135 feet tall. Settled into that massive sandstone cliff, it sure seemed bigger than that!

I have one more post planned to share El Malpais photos. Then I will begin a new Alaska photo series. I am a self-confessed slow-poke when it comes to digital editing, so please continue to bear with me! The poll I tool on my sidebar showed that the majority of my blogging friends would like to see “grand scenics” first. But I find myself getting easily sidetracked in the editing because I keep working on some of the wildlife and bear photos too! You will understand completely when I feature a charming wildlife “portrait” in the upcoming photo challenge (August 20).

Photo Tip: Don't Forget to Look Behind You

Unless you do studio work where conditions can be controlled, it is always a challenge to be at the right place at the right time to capture magical scenes with your camera. You never know when fleeting moments are going to present themselves. And sometimes they are happening right there around you, but they are missed because of a lack of focus or your attention is on a different subject altogether. You have to be ready. Vigilant! And remember to look behind you.

The photograph above illustrates this tip. It is one of series that I took of this darling little girl, walking through a field of tall grass, leisurely picking a handful of dandelions to give to her mom. I would have never anticipated this scene and captured these precious moments in time if I had not simply turned around 180 degrees.  

Of all places, this particular moment in time was at the Large Animal Research Station, in Fairbanks, Alaska. We were there to photograph muskoxen, caribou, and reindeer. Unfortunately, the double-walled fence, along with restrictive barriers that keep you back several feet from the fencing, made it extremely challenging to take any decent pictures of the animals. Some of us decided to go up to the top of an outdoor amphitheater to see if we could get a view over the tall fence. That strategy was satisfactory for the animals that were located off in the distance.  

Since my knee replacement, I have to admit that I am a bit preoccupied with the potential of falling down. I make sure of my footing so I don’t take a tumble. When I carefully adjusted my stance at the top of the amphitheater, I happened to glance and notice what was going on behind me. In an overgrown field next to the visitor’s trail was this little girl, picking a dandelion bouquet. It was a precious and picturesque moment that would have totally escaped me if I had not simply looked. It would have been an opportunity lost, and I would have been none the wiser.  

The moral of the story is that there are times when you think the best subject matter is in front of you. But it could actually be right behind you. You just have to remember to look.

El Malpais National Monument - Garrett Homestead

One of the highlights of our visit to El Malpais was discovering the old Garrett Homestead. This archeological ruins site is located a short walking distance from a gravel road that leads to a sandstone bluff overlook. Built between 1935 and 1937, the homestead was one of many in the area that were victims of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression.

 

Homesteading was no easy task for the families who traveled to this area with dreams to begin new lives in the American West. They had to make $800 worth of improvements and live on the land for seven of twelve months for three years before they were declared owners of the land. Most families did not fulfill their ownership requirements because of the harsh circumstances, and they had to move to more developed areas to make a living and survive. 

The Garrett Homestead site consists of a residential structure with some remaining standing architecture and also the ruins of several outbuildings. The National Park Service has included the area in its Vanishing Treasures program so that the artifacts can be maintained and preserved.

New Mexico was experiencing high winds during our April visit, which is typical in the spring season. With an abundance of scattered clouds developing in the atmosphere, the winds were soon weaving the clouds into glorious swooping patterns. A traveling photographer always hopes for optimum weather and lighting conditions, but is ready to adapt to whatever luck has in store at that particular moment in time. It goes without saying that the best pictures result in being at the right place at the right time. Fortunately, the planets aligned for us at the homestead, and I was able to record this dramatic setting. I couldn’t decide whether the scene deserved a horizontal or vertical composition, so I shot it both ways!

New Photo Series - El Malpais National Monument

While I am working on my Alaska pictures, here is the start of a new photo series for you: highlights of El Malpais National Monument. This geological area is one of those little known places managed by the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management. We decided to stop here during our April trip to New Mexico and we’re glad that we did! 

El Malpais was established in 1987 and is located in the high desert lands south of interstate 40, midway between Gallup and Albuquerque. This is very desolate country and we saw only a handful of visitors while we were driving and walking on short trails. (Let’s just say that there was no need to remove our shoes to help with the counting!) The name means “badlands” in Spanish. With an incredible rugged terrain, it lives up to the name! The elevation ranges between 6500 feet and 8300 feet. Most of the 114,000 acres is not accessible thanks to the volcanic remnants of lava flows and caves.

For the initial post of this series, a few examples of notable sights in the conservation area are shown below. The first photo records the remains of an old block-wall homestead, sheltered near a massive rock wall. Scenes like this serve as a reminder of a tough life once lived in the high mountain desert.

In addition to the towering sandstone cliffs in the topography, we also periodically saw giant monoliths rising above the terrain. Oddly out of place, they look like they had been magically dropped from the sky. 

And this rock buttress was spectacularly immense, dwarfing mature trees and the farm ranch at its base.

A Simple Gift - A Drink of Water

If you were to offer a thirsty man all wisdom,

you would not please him more than if you gave him a drink.

~ Sophocles ~

It’s August. It’s oppressively hot in most of the U.S. There is a simple and inexpensive thing that you can do to brighten somebody’s day. Offer them a drink of cold water. 

For years, we have kept bottles of cold water on hand in our refrigerator. We routinely hand them out people who do work for us or deliver packages. Our UPS deliveryman says that we are the only customers who have ever done this for him. Our lawn mowing/trimming crew, trash collector, postal worker, and various repair folks all say the same thing. You would not believe the radiant smiles and expressions of gratitude that we get for such a simple and unexpected gift! 

Service people work hard for a living, particularly this time of year. I hope that you will consider starting a similar tradition of your own!

August - A Look Ahead

Alert! Christmas is less than five months away! Haha, I couldn’t resist saying that, particularly since most of us are broiling with the summer heat this year. We were basking in the cool Alaska weather last week and now it feels like a sauna whenever I go outside. Ah, but the weather will always be a’changing, so we adjust.

This month I will concentrate on settling back into routines, working, and resting. As much as we love our journeys, it is so comforting to be home once again. The trip made my spirit soar and my legs sore, LOL. We’ll be returning to the fitness center again this month. We’re also going to be cutting back on food portions and eating more vegetables and fruit. The goal will be to build up a little bit more stamina before the next trip! 

I jumped back into the working world again yesterday. It’s amazing how much my brain turned into a gelatinous puddle during my absence and how much I forgot. It’s a good thing that I wrote down the multitude of computer passwords I need! It will be a busy month, but I am quite grateful for the work and the extra cash in these tumultuous economic days. The groceries sure aren’t getting any cheaper at the store!

A few outside tasks will need our attention this month. Lawn weeds are sprouting up and must be zapped. Daylily stalks and the lavender plants need trimming. And we should finally be getting a bid on building a block retaining wall for the flowerbed on the front left-hand side of the house. Whether the work begins this month or not will remain to be seen. Oh yes, and the hummingbirds will once again be fed! They had to have been quite dismayed when the feeders ran dry last month. But all was forgiven and they arrived in droves this weekend when hubby put out some fresh sugar water for them. They are fighting each other like crazy and drinking down the sugary joy juice, building up energy reserves for their fall season sojourn down south. 

I may finish up a sewing project or two, but my spare time will mostly be spent by organizing and digitally processing the Alaska photographs. Okay, quiet down! I can hear those cheers and whoops! Since we don’t ever anticipate a return to Alaska, we went overboard on snapping our cameras and filling up our digital cards. During one hyperactive photo shoot at a bear observation platform, my shutter finger actually went numb! LOL, that was a first! But that just means I increased my chances of getting some really good images that show off each individual creature’s personalities. If you haven’t done so already, please vote in my poll over on the sidebar to tell me which kind of photos you want to see first. So far, it looks like “scenic wonders” is winning!