Sunset over the Seward Boat Harbor, Alaska.

Colorful sunset skies like this are fairly rare in Seward.  Thanks to the beautiful surrounding mountains, it takes just the right combination of clouds, and they need to be relatively high to light up like this.  Usually they are too low and the sun isn’t able to illuminate the bottom of the clouds.

I captured this photo about a week ago at the beginning of this amazing stretch of weather.  Unfortunately, with the hot dry weather has come forest fires – there are now over 70 burning in the state.  Today, you can barely make out the shape of that distant mountain you see in this photo, even though it is just a couple of miles away.

We looked at flying down to Glacier Bay as it was one of the few places not effected by the fires, but now I see new fires in the Yukon have inundated that area with smoke as well.  So instead of broad landscapes with fields of flowers, I will probably be sticking to closeups and maybe more underwater salmon photos. 

I believe this is Mountain Harebell, a member of the Bluebell Family, Seward, Alaska.

I captured this last night up on Mt. Marathon.  I thought the rock was a strong enough subject without the wildflowers, but the flowers were a nice colorful bonus!

Between office work, photographing porcupines and Mt. Marathon, it was a busy day yesterday, but with this amazing stretch of weather we are having – it is hard to stop!

Great news on the baby porcupine in yesterday’s post.  Last night it was spotted reunited with it’s mother!  I understand the mother was about 5 times the size of this little guy.

A baby porcupine, near Seward, Alaska.

I’m just in from photographing this cute little guy!  I want to thank the wonderful owners of Log Dreamin Bed and Breakfast for tipping me off on this youngster.

I have never seen a baby porcupine, I think it is a fairly rare sight.  As exciting as it was to watch such an animal feed and wander about, a part of me couldn’t help but be sad.  Typically, the single off-spring of a porcupine female stays very close the it’s mother, and isn’t fully weaned and able to leave the den site until October.  The adult porcupine typcially seen in this area hasn’t been spotted in weeks – I’m not so sure this one isn’t now on his own.  seeing such a young, typcially nocturnal, forest dwelling animal out in the open during the day is probably not a good sign – it probably isn’t learning these things from its mother.  I hope it makes it!

Update:  Later this evening, this little guy was reunited with it’s mother!  I was told the adult was about 5 times the size of the baby.

Mount Alice, from Seward, Alaska.

I captured this last night at sunset from within the city limits of Seward, looking towards Mt. Alice and the Chugach National Forest.  I was hoping for a bit more color in the sky, but that’s OK, I think it is still a pretty scene.  I think I have more photos of Mt Alice then of any other subject!

Anyone visiting Seward this past weekend (and there were many) must think this is an amazing place.  We had perfect temperatures in the mid-70’s, beautiful scenery in every direction, and if that wasn’t enough, two very active  humpback whales, keeping visitors and locals alike, entertained as they worked their way back and fourth along the towns coastline.

I have always felt that on a nice day Seward is the most beautiful place I have visited.  Unfortuantely, thanks to 65 inches of average annual rainfall and 80 inches of average annual snowfall (according to The Milepost), weekends like this don’t happend often enough.  But when they do, it sure is easy to forget about those rainy summers, and dark winters!

A recent photo of Mt. Benson and the Resurrection River Vally, near Seward, Alaska.

This is a big holiday weekend in the United States – I hope everyone has a wonderful, safe and fun weekend!

A Jumping Red Salmon, Alaska.

Thanks for the great feedback on yesterday’s post!

It was cloudy this morning, so I decided to try again – this time with less wide-angle (58 mm), and using the waterfall as a background.  It is interesting, photographing the waterfall from this angle with a fairly high shutter speed really changed the appearance of the falls – they make for a background that is a bit busy for my taste.

The photos in today’s and yesterday’s post will probably never make it our to our main website, or into our portfolio, but I thought I would still share them here so that you can see my experimentation process.

A Red Salmon trying to leap up a waterfall, Alaska.

OK, here is another setup I have been attempting to fine tune this past week.  This is also captured by a remotely fired camera via a Pocket Wizard, along with a very wide angle lens set at 20mm, and some fill flash.

Since the salmon were often landing where I had my camera setup, I decided to use an old camera (5d), and an old barely functioning tripod, along with an equally old, seldom used lens – glad I held on to that stuff!   Even though I had the whole setup tied to the bank with rope, I really didn’t want to take a chance of losing my main gear into the pool of water!

So what do you think, does this “work”, is it worth pursuing?

Here are my thoughts.  The uneven lighting doesn’t help – I hope to try again on a cloudy or overcast day.  I think 20 mm might be too wide – the salmon looks a little small in the frame even through it is just a couple feet from the camera – maybe 24 would be better.    I might try a different composition, one looking back towards the waterfall – this might help keep the camera dry – I had to constantly dry the front of the lens thanks to splashing salmon!

I need to work on my reaction time – about 100 of my 120 photos contained only a waterfall because by the time I clicked, the salmon had already landed!

A young moose feeds in a pond, Chugach National Forest, Alaska.

I captured this a couple of nights ago, 15 minutes past 11 p.m.!

Balboa Pier, Newport Beach, California.

Thanks to the month or so that we spent in the area, we now have an entirely updated section of Orange County photos on our website!

Since we had extra coverage of two of the communities, Janine also added completly new sections of Newport Beach photos, along with Huntington Beach photos.

Paradise Peak, Chugach National Forest, Alaska.

I returned to this pretty patch of lupine for sunset Wednesday night.  I’m pretty much standing in the same spot as I was in the image I posted earlier this week, but facing a different direction, just as the stormy weather cleared.  It is interesting how the same location can produce such different results in such a short period of time.

An above and below water photo of Red Salmon, Chugach National Forest, near Seward, Alaska.

I got out my remote setup for above / below water photos yesterday, it is pretty fun to play with!  I have never used this setup in swift moving water like this – it offers some new challenges.

For one, the water level moves up and down in the frame from photo to photo – in still water it is easy to have the surface bisect the middle of the frame.  In addition, the water surface itself also seem much thicker then on flat water.  What happen is sometimes the fish or the trees get hidden by the water surface if that makes any sense.  Finally, the fish and light rain kept getting the glass wet as you can see by the blurred areas in the top half of this image – I think I have a solution for this.  But, when it does work, I think the results are pretty cool!

I hope to spend a few more days working this location – now if I could only have a bear here like there was last year!

Snow River Valley, Chugach National Forest, Alaska.

I captured this yesterday as a rain squall moved up the valley.  Check out the fresh snow in the mountains – it usually begins looking like that in September, not June!

Catalina Island, California.

We have an entirely new section on our website of Catalina Island photos.

We really enjoyed our trip to Catalina Island and the town of Avalon last winter.  It has Southern California weather without the crowds or traffic – in fact most people who have vehicles use electric golf carts.

A Humpback Whale waves its flipper, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska.

This is another photo from a week ago – it is alway a treat to find these whales close to this wonderful coastline!

Long Beach, California.

Here is another brand new section to our website:  Long Beach California photos.

I gotta admit, Long Beach was a pleasant surprise.  It had been many many years since I had last visited Long Beach.  I remembered it as a somewhat dirty industrial port.  Either my memory was off, or they have made some wonderful changes to the area – probably a bit of both.  We only spent one evening there, I had hoped to return for more, but that will have to wait for a future trip.

Entrance to Slab City, an abandoned military base that is now home to a large number of squatters, Imperial Valley, California.

We have a new section on our website of photos of the Imperial Valley, California.  This section includes photos of the Salton Sea, Salvation Mountain, Slab City and the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area – all places that I think many people might find a little unique to put it kindly.

Steller Sea Lions, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska.

Another photo from last week.  I really liked the colors and patterns created by the moss and lichen on the rocks.

This haul-out faces out into the Gulf of Alaska – I don’t think I have ever seen the water this calm, not even the slightest wave!

Indian Wells Golf Resort, Indian Wells, California.

Janine has now updated our website with our new photos of the Palm Springs area.

Palm Springs was one of the first communities developed in this portion of desert.  In addition, Palm Springs is also where the airport is located, so the whole area is often referred to as Palm Springs, although today it is made up of a series of smaller towns like Rancho Mirage, Indian Wells, La Quinta and Palm Desert to name a few.  When I’m driving around down there, I never seem to know exactly what town I’m in.

On the local news they refer to the area as the Coachella Valley although locals don’t seem to like that name, and people outside the area probably haven’t heard of it, so for now, we will still call the area Palm Springs.  Our page has photos of most the smaller communities in the area.

In the photo above, of the public golf course, I needed to blend a couple different exposures to maintain detail in the building.  Despite being a “public” course, I was asked to leave right after taking this photo – evidently they don’t like the “public” taking picture there.

Cataract Cove, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska.

This in another photo from my time in Kenai Fjords National Park last week.  Can you spot the mountain goat?  It is amazing where these guys live!  Below is a little closer photo which will give away the  Mountain Goat’s location.

Mountain Goat, Cataract Cove, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska.

Ken Burns with producer Dayton Duncan filming in Aialik Bay, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska.

The famous filmmaker Ken Burns will be in Anchorage, Alaska this Thursday evening talking about and previewing clips from his newest film:  The National Parks:   America’s Best Idea.  For more details, visit Alaska Geographic.

I was fortunate enough to spend 3 days with Ken and his crew in Kenai Fjords a few years ago while he was working on this film.  I gotta say Ken was a fascinating individual.  His creativity goes without saying, but he is a wonderful story teller with a hilarious sense of humor – we had lots of laughs on that trip.  If you find yourself anywhere near Anchorage on Thursday, hearing Ken speak, and seeing some of his film clips should be highly worthwhile!