The Polar Star is inching its way across the Drake Passage, with only a few more hours to go before calmer waters. Remarkably, I’ve retained all my meals. This is in part due to the scopalamine patch stuck on my neck. The patch is also to be blamed for my current state of double vision.…
DetailsTomorrow will close out the final shoreside visit to the Antarctic Peninsula. The light photographers dream of has been very elusive in the southern ocean. It’s now 10pm and our ship has been hanging out with a group of 20-30 humpback whales that have been gorging themselves on krill in the Bransfield Straight. That comes…
DetailsThe forty hour ship journey from South Georgia Island to the South Orkneys fell under amazingly gentle seas. I woke up at 3:30am to the first views of giant icebergs so far. The light was not dramatic, but the vistas were thrilling and the icebergs on an epic scale in comparison to the thousands I’ve…
DetailsOn the eve of Jan 6 we arrived at South Georgia Island after a few days of open ocean travel from the Falkland Islands. While artfully dodging a pathway through a beach littered with fur seals, elephant seals, and king penguins, my brain was in stimulus overload. This includes sight, sound, and smell. Two of…
DetailsToday (Saturday, Jan 26) concluded our second day of visits to the Malvinas Islands (Falklands). And both included multitudinous observations and photography of the humorous and artfully swimming penguins. Sorry I can’t share any pictures since the outgoing email on the ship is text only. Despite 3 applications of sunscreen, my reddened face reflects the…
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I’m making this brief post in haste as our ship the Polar Star is about to depart Ushuaia, Argentina for the Falkland Islands, and the weather looks favorable for good traveling. That means less chance for sea sickness. The skiffs are docked on the top deck of the ship and I’ll be driving one of…
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The internet is full of the “BEST OF” anthologies from any category one wishes to direct their voyeuristic energies. I thought, what the heck, I’d make a slight deviation from the norm and indulge in a self deprecating list of photography-related mistakes. After all, the mistakes we make often teach us best, even though the…
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In a few days I leave for a month long trip to Antarctica as a staff member of Cheesman’s Ecology Safaris. Based on a 300 ft. Russian Ice Breaker, 100 passengers will voyage to the Malvinas Islands, South Georgia, the Orkney’s and the Antarctic Peninsula. I’ll be giving photo instruction and operating an inflatable boat…
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I’ve been reviewing some files from the summer, and thought I’d share this image of Cascade glacier, taken from a rock island prominence in Barry Arm, in Alaska’s Prince William Sound. The sedimentary layers reveal and amazing pattern of lines and the surface rock has been ground quite smoothly from the ancient work of an…
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Monitor calibration borders on an evil word for many who sit in front of these light emitting monsters. Its one of those things that all photographers know they should do, but take the guilt over the trauma and complexity of color profiling and monitor calibration. Well, to replay the mantra one more time, yes, you…
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The pursuit of northern lights photography led me to the purchase of Canon’s 24mm 1.4L, and the following updated version II of the same lens. My comments are derived from experience with this lens in the field and are not a comprehensive review by any measure. Here is what Canon has to say about this…
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I was all ready to photograph the Gemenid meteor shower last night, but clouds moved in around midnight, which was a disappointment. However, on Sunday morning, I woke up to a faint aurora display, directly over my house. I grabbed my camera and took a few experimental shots. I say experimental because I was testing…
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First of all I updated the slideshow header on the blog, but you might not see the new images until you hit the F5 Key. We recently photographed some artwork for one of Fairbanks’ very creative and talented artists, Karin Franzen. She works in the medium of fabric, but don’t be fooled by the term…
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The pre-sunrise light in Fairbanks this morning was of a particular brilliance. Some fear the thought of a residence in this reputedly dark winter region of the northern hemisphere. The former two adjectives are somewhat accurate, but mostly in that they serve to keep the general population growth in check. In my opinion, they are…
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Since the day I returned from Mozambique Africa in 2001, where I spent 4 weeks working in an orphanage and photographing children, I saw the writing on the wall that the days of film were over. Because of the ease and inconspicuous use of my little 3 MP Canon G1 digi cam, I photographed with…
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To date, my digital specialist Andrew Johnson and I have photographed a broad spectrum of assignment based subjects. From hotels to jewelry to bowls of hot soup. It is not the bulk of our work, but does break things up a bit and offers a chance to peek into the world of what other people…
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I’m guilty of tight compositions. It’s a by-product of the school of thinking that frowns on cropping and feels that a single image needs to be self contained and compositionally defined when you push the shutter button. It’s a school of thought I no longer adhere to, but won’t get into that subject right now.…
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I sold a photo for the second time recently, which prompts me to make a few comments about the potential life that lurks under some very seemingly dead digital captures. One day while driving the Dalton Highway in northern Alaska, I saw a bow hunter just a few yards off the road waiting for a…
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Prior to 2009, the last time I went in search of mountain goats I carried a gun in my hands. That was 26 years ago. After climbing precipitous rocky cliffs for an entire day in pursuit of a billy, I almost gave up many times, thinking surely I would kill myself if I fell or…
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While I spend my share of time traveling to exotic locations to photograph, I still contend that photographing in one’s backyard is viable for the average photographer. Now I confess that I have a fine backyard for this–8 acres of boreal forest, and not all backyards are the same. But, you don’t need acres really,…
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Adobe introduced a digital photo workflow program a while back called Lightroom. Since v1.0, it has improved considerably and although v2.6 has room for improvements, it remains my software of choice for grading digital imagery (FYI, a beta version of Lightroom 3 is available for download. I’ve been experimenting with it a little and look…
DetailsTime to take a little bend in the road of still photography and explore some of the newly bundled features in today’s quickly evolving digital cameras-HD video. Since the inclusion of HD video in the Canon 5D Mark II, I’ve enjoyed playing around with it a bit, with an emphasis on “playing”. It is less…
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For a few years now I’ve had some photos on display at the Alaska Coffee Roasting Company in Fairbanks. If you are passing through Fairbanks, they have fresh daily roasted coffee and it some of the best I’ve encountered, and that includes many locations around the nation. In November of each year, I refresh the…
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Instead of photographing for the past few weeks, I’ve been doing a lot of staring at digital files. I’ve upgraded to a new computer with Windows 7 and upgraded my second monitor to now equal my primary monitor, so I’ve got two 30 inch monitors side by side. There is a little bit of learning,…
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Snow is falling in Fairbanks right now, and autumn drifted by a few strong weeks ago. The change of seasons brought this photo to mind. Some argue that Alaska has two seasons, some argue three, few argue four. Spring happens very fast, as does autumn, and the leaves can burst forth in spring faster than…
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