A Pretty Bouquet for You

Until I return...

Kantishna Roadhouse, Denali National Park

The Trip is a GO!

The Air Canada strike has been averted, so our trip is a GO! Unless our local airport has finally installed the whole body scanner, I will be standing in the “groping” line on Friday morning. It’s one of the prices I have to pay for my knee replacement, radical extremists who are determined to kill us, and an overzealous government agency that refuses to profile. Sigh. But I will be humming a song in my heart and soldier though it because we are definitely going on our next vacation! 

And not a minute too soon! I haven’t had enough hours left in the days to prepare scheduled posts during my absence. So you will have to patiently wait for my return. You CAN do it! It’s only a couple of weeks. And Marty will post a photo for you tomorrow so that you have a pretty picture to look while I am gone. Oh yeah!

Grand Scenics of Alaska - Hidden Denali Mountains

When you visit Denali National Park, you are taking a gamble with the fickle weather and clouds. The majority of the time, the Denali peak and adjacent range are hidden from view. You travel all that way up there, endure a long, bumpy bus ride out to the end of the park road, and whether you get to see the elusive mountains is all up to lady luck. On any given day, the odds are against you. 

Thank goodness we stayed several nights in the park! Of the three days we were there, it was clear on only one day. When I took this photo at Wonder Lake, my hubby assured me that there was a mountain range beyond the tree line. Yeah, right. I had to conjure up a very wild imagination! And yes, I admit that I grumbled. 

But lady luck arrived the next day and the weather broke! Lo and behold, there WERE rocky peaks beyond that chorus line of dancing pines! My hubby wasn’t telling me a tale of whopper proportions! There are dramatic differences between what is hidden and visible in these photos, but also in the quality of light. 

With an overcast sky, light is diffused and colors are softened. Flat lighting like this is perfect for close-up photography, eliminating hot spots. But it is a tad boring for an overall scenic view.

But bring out the sun and paint a blue sky, and we now have shadows, texture, and crisp colors! The landscape takes on vibrancy. And we can actually see a mountain range! Well hello, Denali!

Tribute in Light

I thought that my blogging friends would appreciate this time-lapse video. Please expand it to get the full effect.

Tribute in Light from Duncan Davidson on Vimeo.

Packing the Bags for Eastern Canada

Map courtesy of Tauck World Discovery

We’ll be packing our bags and heading out next weekend for eastern Canada! It’s time for a sightseeing adventure in the enchanting locales of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Cape Brenton Island. We haven’t ever traveled to these areas, but we know we are in for a treat of scenic beauty, friendly folks, and delectable seafood. We have our fingers crossed that fall colors will grace the landscape during our visit. And you know that we will be packing the camera gear!

The map indicates that we will have a busy itinerary on this 2-week tour. We’ll be staying overnight at:

• Halifax, NS
• Digby, NS
• Moncton, NB
• Charlottetown, PEI
• Ingonish Beach, CBI 
• Liscomb Mills, NS 

And yes, I have completed my reading assignment of “Anne of Green Gables”! We’ll be visiting the farm where author Lucy Laud Montgomery created her precocious orphan character, Anne Shirley. And we will also see the Green Gables farmhouse in Cavendish that served as inspiration for the story. At least I am prepared for that part of the itinerary! We also hope to see some rugged scenery and charming fishing villages along the coastlines, echoing back to many fond memories we have of Maine vacations.

Marty will be in charge of the blog while I am gone, making sure that any carrots thrown his way are promptly devoured and with enthusiasm. I don’t know how frantic my work load will be this week, so I can’t make any promises about whether I’ll be able to schedule any postings of Alaska photos during my absence. We’ll be taking along our iPad so I may sporadically pop in on blogging friends when time permits.


P.S. Right after this post went up, hubby informed me that Air Canada flight attendants may go on strike later on this week. (I admit that I am thinking some uncharitable thoughts right now.) We'll be talking to our tour operator tomorrow and finding out what options we have. They made the flight reservations for us, so they have some responsibility to get us to our destination and back. We have travel insurance, but we would be sorely disappointed if this trip doesn't come to fruition. 

Grand Scenics of Alaska - Russian Orthodox Church

When we were traveling down to Homer on the western side of the Kenai Peninsula, my husband surprised me by turning off and heading to the town of Ninilchik. Little did I realize that he was taking me to see a charming Russian Orthodox Church. Though it was a drizzly day with heavy grey clouds, this picturesque sight lifted our spirits.

Surrounded by an old cemetery (filled with unpronouncable Russian names), the Holy Transfiguration of Our Lord Church sits high on the peninsula, overlooking a small fishing village. Russian colonists settled this area in the early 1800s. The church was dedicated in 1901. The five ornate gold domes are said to represent Christ and the four Evangelists.

Grand Scenics of Alaska - Denali Foothills

I appreciate all the terrific comments on my last post about photography. It looks like the topic really hit a chord and even raised some additional questions! Rest assured, I plan to do more posts about photography once I get back in retirement mode. It will probably be none too soon for you and me. 

In the meantime, I need to finish up this photo series and there are a few more posts to go! Tonight, I am going to share a few scenes around the foothills of Denali National Park. Though the weather wasn’t the best when these were taken, you can still appreciate the stark beauty of this wilderness landscape and the expansive tundra.

There is a dramatic contrast between the green vegetation and jagged mountain peaks. The misty fog gives the scene a bit of a mysterious edge. 

Ice and snow have already melted off of these lower mountains, so meandering streams are sometimes reduced to a trickle. 

During our ride to the lodge, we were delighted to see a little waterfall next to the road, cascading over mossy rocks and surrounded by hearty shrubs and colorful wildflowers. 

And we got a rare glimpse of these rugged foothills from the air too, marveling in nature’s texture.

Photo Decisions for a Blogger

A long-time internet friend of mine, Jackie, sent me an e-mail recently that gave me pause. She’s excited to be taking some really good pictures lately. Yeah, Jackie! But she had a million dollar question for me. Jackie wanted know how I figure out which few of my photos to share on my blog. It is quite a dilemma. Just on the Alaska trip, I took over 7000 photos. So she hit on a great inquiry about the thought process I use to whittle them down for sharing purposes. 

Let me begin to explain by wandering around the question for a minute. I’m going to talk about writing first. Now, I wish I had one tenth of the eloquence that my friend, Jenny, possesses. She is a wordsmith of considerable talent, cut from the cloth of legendary southern writers with natural born ability. I’ve already told her that I will be busting my buttons when (not if) she is a celebrated, published author. That’s not to say that I can’t turn a phrase and hold my own with thoughtful prose. I surely can. But all those decades I spent in the technical and corporate worlds have stunted my vocabulary and routine sentence structure. I readily admit that my writing style is very direct. You don’t mince words in business. You say what needs to be said, without fanfare and descriptive adjectives. 

So writing in this blogging venue the past (almost) four years has been a bit of a marathon training session for me. It doesn’t come easy to get stories out of my head and share my experiences. I’m still learning. I will probably never graduate beyond the novice class. But I know that I can tell a story or two with my photographs! And it is easier to describe my experiences with a few pictures to help prop me up. 

Photography, thank goodness, is a language that everyone understands. Most of the photos I take may never see the light of day. That’s okay because they mean sometime to me.  At this point in my life, I know how to take a good photo from a technical standpoint. And my digital editing has improved greatly since starting this blog. Presently, I am trying to stretch my compositions and search for scenes that are a bit different and/or have some whimsy. I am searching for moments in time that I can encapsulate for retelling or memory safekeeping.

Little did Jackie know that I am currently wrestling with decisions on which Katmai bear photographs to share with you. I have about 2000 of them! I will only visit the famous Alaskan Brooks River and cavort with grizzly bears once in this lifetime. So I filled up my digital cards with abandonment. But the ones with personalities will get top billing here on my blog. For example, there was a juvenile bear that proceeded to jump on a rock in the middle of the Brooks River and patiently waited there for well over an hour. I have dozens of images of her that are just precious - at least they are to me! I could bore you silly if I shared all the photos of the same bear sitting on the same rock. So I’ll restrain myself and narrow it down to perhaps two. Eeny, meeny, miny, moe. In the art of sharing on a blog post, less is actually more.

As another example, I spent over an hour taking photos of puffins at the Alaska Sea Life Center in Seward. Yes, I can be a tad focused to the point of going overboard. I confess! But I had always wanted to see a puffin in real life and there was one in particular that practically flirted with me, coming so close that I could have reached out and petted it while he floated by. I cooed. He primped. We became friends. I have about two hundred photos of him, with all different kinds of expressions and poses. You have already seen a previous photo of him. I can’t resist sharing one more with you today. The rest in my digital library will comprise my personal travel memories, frozen in time, reminding me of when I got to spend a magical morning with a puffin. One doesn’t get to do such a thing very often. This wild creature was giving me a gift, by posing and allowing me to appreciate its beauty. I am confident that Mister Puffin would be exceedingly proud to be immortalized on the worldwide web. Hopefully, that message is clear when you gaze at his image.

So that’s the answer, dear Jackie and blogging friends. I select which photos to share by first deciding what I am trying to communicate. Images are a universal form of communication. You don’t need to consult a dictionary or thesaurus to understand a photograph. No translator is required! If my photographs entertain you, give you a sense of wonderment, teach you something new, tickle your funny bone, or move you in some way, then I successfully wove the tale (or tail) and shared my experience. We are both richer as a result.

9-11 Remembrance and Lessons

personal photo, created to commemorate the 10-year anniversary

September 11, 2001. It started out as an ordinary day. My husband and I went to our respective jobs. It was a Tuesday. At my office, the management team had already begun their monthly meeting. I was hunkered down in the land of corporate cubicles. I was working and writing in my office, every now and then glancing out at my aerial view of downtown Knoxville. I was thankful that everyone had finally finished the usual morning chit-chat sessions. It was quiet. I was digging deep for some writing inspirations so I could complete the latest report, missive, or procedure assignment. 

Then a co-worker got a phone call. His wife said that the news reported a plane had flown into a New York City building. I popped out of my chair, rocking on my toes to look over the grey fabricated walls that boxed me in. I asked, “On purpose?” He said they didn’t know. I asked which building. He said the World Trade Center. I knew then that we were under attack and I answered my own question out loud. “Of course, it was on purpose.” 

Our world changed that day. Innocent citizens, going about their normal, everyday lives were killed that day. Murdered in cold blood. The terrorists were part of a radical Islamist group, fanatics who hate our way of life and freedoms. And it should not be a news flash that these zealots still hate our guts and want to kill us. 

Hate is a powerful thing. It can turn into evil in the blink of an eye. 

In the days that followed that fateful day, Americans stood in solidarity against a common enemy. While the Nation healed, we supported and respected each other. Time passed. It’s now been 10 years. In many ways, it seems so long ago. Sadly, the unity is gone now and this country seems more fractured than ever, only made worse by the uncivil discourse of those currently in power. 

I sadly shake my head, amazed at how many have lost their way and perspective in the past decade. Did 9-11 not teach us anything? 

We should remember those lives that were lost and honor their memory. They were everyday folks. They were just like us. It could have been us. 

We should remember the heroes, who faced the chaos and gambled with their lives to save others. If we had been in their shoes, would we have made the same sacrifices? 

We should remember how we once stood as One Nation, Under God. We mourned together. We treated each other with kindness, respect, and tolerance. 

We should remember that we have enemies who want to annihilate us and our way of life. As a result, we need to stay vigilant, strong, resolute, and united. 

America will never be destroyed from the outside.

If we falter and lose our freedoms,

it will be because we destroyed ourselves.

~ Abraham Lincoln ~

Photo Challenge: Dog Daze of Summer

It’s time for another Brenda Photo Challenge! The theme this time is Dog Daze of Summer. I had to wrack my brain to figure out how to best capture this theme. But it turns out that I took an image during our Alaska trip that sums it up perfectly!

When we were visiting the kennel at Kantishna Road House in Denali National Park, I happened to spot a charming scene with Reba, a lead sled dog. She was comfortably resting in her wooden doghouse, with her head at the doorway, thoughtfully pondering the swarm of photographers who had descended upon the kennel for a photo shoot. Gentle as a breeze in personality, I immediately recognized that Reba appreciated simple beauty. Though there was a well-worn dirt track that circled her house, she made sure that she didn’t disturb a dandelion plant growing right outside her doorstep. Sure enough, I caught Reba admiring this iconic summer wildflower bloom and I quickly snapped the shutter. Priceless! 

And just for the fun of it, here is a black and white version with the flower colorized. 

I hope that you will visit the challenge’s web link and check out the contributions of the other participants. And please continue to keep Miz Brenda in your thoughts and prayers during this difficult time for her and her family.

A Request

Please keep my blogging friend Brenda (What's Up Down South and Brenda's Photo Challenge Blog) in your thoughts and prayers.  She unexpectedly lost her husband.

Thank you.

Grand Scenics of Alaska - Water and Rocks

For residents, the Alaskan waterways are essential for transportation and the fishing industry. For tourists, these waterways contrast with rugged mountains, creating breathtaking scenes around every bend. Here are a few of my favorites.

looking across Resurrection Bay from Fox Island,

toward Caines Head State Recreation Area 

Three Hole Point, Aialik Bay 

Bear Glacier Point, Harding Gateway

looking across Kachemak Bay from Homer, 

as the morning sun lights up Kenai Fjords National Park mountains

P.S. And Happy 85th Birthday to my Mom!

Rainy Day Relaxation and a Giveaway Thank You!

The tropical storm that was in the Gulf has finally settled in here in east Tennessee. We’re getting some much-needed rain, though we’ll end up with about eight or nine inches of the wet stuff before the storm system moves out of here. It’s a non-work day for me too. So we were relaxing earlier out on the screened-in back porch, enjoying the cool temperatures and listening to the rain’s musical pitter-patter outside our cottage. It’s a day to catch my breath before I start into a new week of writing, reviewing, and editing technical procedures. Too bad I can’t add a few of my pictures to the procedures to spice them up a bit, LOL!

And here’s a shout-out and hearty thank you to Janice of Gypsy Farm Girl! I won the My Memories scrapbooking program (along with a $10 gift code for shopping) in her giveaway last week, and I’ve been having fun playing with it. I see some good possibilities to use it for custom blog backgrounds and headers! Here is the result of my first practice session. Not bad, huh? Especially since I just dove right in and didn’t read the instructions!

Grand Scenics of Alaska - Alaska Railroad

As part of our tour, we hopped the grand Alaska Railroad to travel from Denali National Park to Wasilla, where we were met by a motor coach. The trip took about six hours and we were comfortably seated at the top of a luxurious double-decker Gold Star railcar located right behind the engines. Once we got underway, we went to the downstairs dining area and enjoyed a delicious lunch. During our ride, we had glorious views from inside the domed car, but we also enjoyed a private outdoor viewing deck. The deck was a favorite spot for the avid photographers, and I spent at least half of the train ride out there! It was fascinating to see how the Alaska landscape changed over as the miles passed by. 

There were picturesque mountains edged with lakes and marshes. 

Meadows were tucked into forested hillsides and painted with fireweed blooms. 

Distant rain clouds hovered over expansive lakes. 

Wild ferns grew with abandon in forest edges and danced in the wind. 

On this special train journey, we couldn't help but appreciate the immensity and the majesty of the Alaska countryside. It was a trip to remember! If you ever have a chance to visit Alaska, please try to work the train trip into your itinerary!

Photo Challenge: Black and White

Kelsey of A Ray of Sunshine announced a photo challenge earlier this week. The theme is Black and White. Oh yeah, I love black and white photos, so I jumped into the fray! 

This is an overall view of the Quarai ruins, an ancient Pueblo mission that dates back to 1630. It is located in the Salinas Valley, southeast of Albuquerque, New Mexico. My camera settings were f/8.0, 1/125 second, and ISO 200. I used Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 software to give the digital image a dramatic emphasis.

If you want to see photos by the other participants, please hop over to Kelsey’s blog for the links!

September - A Look Ahead

 

Hello, September, I’ve been waiting all summer for you to arrive! During this time of the year, I am anxiously waiting for cooler weather, and Mother Nature better deliver this month! Looking at the long-range weather forecast, it looks like I will get my wish. A cool front is predicted to roll in next week, and we’ll drop out of the 90s and get into the high 70s and low 80s. Hooray!

The big event marked on our calendars this month is another journey! Yes, we’re heading out on another tour in about three weeks. This tour will be with Tauck World Discovery, and the destinations are Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. We will be seeing these areas for the first time, and we’re excited about the action-packed itinerary. Tauck is well known for their pampered style of touring, and we are looking forward to lots of sightseeing, learning, and relaxing. Of course, we'll be toting our camera equipment and photographing scenes along the way too! I will post more about the trip before we go. 

The consulting work continues this month. August was tough for me because I was gone for three weeks in July. Payback is you-know-what. Right now I have more work than I can shake a stick at! I’m fondly looking ahead to completing my contract term in mid-January and resuming a blissful retirement schedule. In the meantime, I thank my lucky stars for the opportunity to earn some good, old-fashioned cash in these uncertain and inflationary economic times.  

I have two new computer programs to learn and play with this month. One is a digital scrapbook software product by My Memories that I won in a sponsored giveaway by Janice of Gypsy Farm Girl. Yeah, Janice! The other is the new Black & White Effects software that Topaz Labs released this week. It is a plug-in program that works with Photoshop, Elements, Lightroom, and Aperture. (And right now it is a steal at its special introductory price of $30!) I’m still discovering new ways to use the Nik Complete photo imaging programs that we got earlier this year too. So I have a lot of digital assistance at my disposal when it comes to improving and showcasing my photographic images.  

Here on my blog, I will be featuring more Alaska photos. Images of bears and wildlife will be gracing your screens soon! I will also be participating in two photo challenges this month. So be looking for those posts as well. And, I will enjoy reading about how you and your households begin the transition into the cozy fall season ahead and say goodbye to the summer of 2011.