Telling a Story

Only used half my memory cards on this trip

We are home after traveling across the North America continent from Tennessee to Alaska and back.   We had a fantastic trip, logging 1,200 miles on a little Kia Sportage and learned there are only two seasons in Alaska - winter and road construction.  Given we were there for the later,  we only saw the beginnings of winter.  For most of the trip we had  some unusually good weather with a couple extremes thrown in to make it a real adventure.

I  have 2,613 photos and a handful of videos from this trip.   While that may be excessive for normal travelers,  it's not that many for outdoor or travel photographers.   I've taken many more on shorter trips.  It's still going to take a while to go through them.

I've decided to do something different this time.    My plan was to write a blog each day for the next 12 days, corresponding to the days of our adventures in Alaska.   This way I get to relive our vacation and you get to see some photos and read some stories.  The problem is I have more to share than I can cram into 12 blog posts.  It's going to take more than 12 days to relive our experiences.  Here goes with the first post....

Day  1 Wasilla to Denali

As with all my blog posts, you can click on any photo for a larger view.  

After a long day sitting in airports and on planes, our first stop was a B&B in Wasilla Alaska.   Wasilla a pretty good size city of about 9,000 people.  The town is famous for two things -- it was the home of Sarah Palin and according to one blog post, it is the location of the largest Walmart in Alaska!

Sunset View from Wasilla B&B

If you were following the news a few weeks back you may have heard about the wildfires in Alaska, and one in particular called the Willow Creek fire.  Just north of Wasilla we passed through the Willow Creek area and we saw signs of the recent fires on both sides of the George Parks Highway.  Fortunately there were no active wildfires where we were traveling and  we didn't have any problems from smoke.

Denali from George Parks Highway

Those of you older than 30 may remember the television series called Northern Exposure.  The town of Cicely from that series  is said to be patterned after the real town of Talkeetna Alaska.  A little community of about 800 people, Talkeetna is located at the confluence of three rivers, the Susitna, Chulitna and Talkeetna.   We wandered around town a bit taking in the sights, which took all of 30 minutes.   We then wandered down to the Susitna River where we could see the Alaska Mountain Range off in the distance.   

Sustina River and Alaska Mountain Range

While we were hanging out at the river we were treated to the Alaska Railroad pulling passenger cars loaded with vacationers from the Princess Cruise ships.   Railroads have always been important to Alaska and the Alaska Railroad still runs between major cities and destinations.  The cruise business is big in this area with trains and buses constantly shuttling people between the port of Anchorage and Denali National Park.   

A little ways up the Parks Highway from Talkeetna is "World Famous" Wal*Mikes.   No greeters met us at the door at this cool little roadside store.   They had a lot of stuff for sale, not much of it newer than 25 years.

Unlike Wal*Mart, Wal*Mikes is a special place.  I'll do a post with more photos from Wal*Mikes after I finish this series.

That's enough for the first blog post.  In tomorrow's post we'll continue day one with a visit to Denali State Park, Byers Lake and Carlo Creek.

21,016 Gifts

Recently spent a couple days with some great friends in the Smoky Mountains taking photos and enjoying each other's company.  The day before I got there they were treated to a spectacular sunrise from the Foothills Parkway.  

Sunrise by Miles Smith

You can see they were blessed by spectacular colors, light, and God Beams shooting through the clouds.  I wasn't able to be there because I couldn't take the time off from work.

The next day Mike Roberts and I went to the same spot at the same time hoping to see something just as spectacular.

As you can see, the conditions were not the same for Mike and I.  I could gripe and complain that we deserved to have conditions just as beautiful as the others.  All that griping would do is make me unhappy.

I may not have been blessed with God Beams but I have realized I was blessed to be able to open my eyes and see the new day.  That I was able to be there that weekend, have good eyesight, have a car to drive myself to the parkway, and a nice camera to take photos were blessings that I didn't even think about.  To date, I have been blessed with 21,016 sunrises that started 21,016 days, every one a gift.  

We are not promised blessings such as sunrises, We're not even promised tomorrow.   Nothing we have done or can do can earn the gift of seeing another sunrise or living another day.   Through Jesus we have been given the gift of eternal life.   None of us deserve that gift.   Jesus sacrificed to give us the gift of life.

Jim Bales Place

I've only lived long enough for 21,016 sunrises and sunsets.  The Jim Bales cabin was built in the Smokies in the late 1800's and has seen many more sunrises.  Life was hard there.  I wonder what blessings the Bales family had.  

As old as that cabin is, it's only been there a small fraction of the time since Jesus died for me.  There have been over 724,000 sunrises since Jesus sacrifice for us.

I'm thankful for each day that I can wake up, open my eyes and see.   I don't know how many more I'll have, but I'm going to enjoy every one, even the cloudy ones.

Thanks to Miles Smith for letting me use one of his beautiful photos.  I'm blessed to have such great Christian friends.

Packing for a Big Photo Trip

I've started the process of going through my collection of camera gear and trying to deciding what to take on our trip to Alaska and what to leave behind.  It's not always possible to take everything when traveling by airline.  

First step is to get everything out.  This is important because in the past I've packed at the last minute and  forgotten things that I wished I had.   I've laid out almost all my gear.   Add one more lens, a compact waterproof camera, a tablet computer and a laptop computer to this.

In the past I have carried everything except the tripod, including the computer, in the big bag on the right.  It is designed to fit under an airline seat and has always worked great.   Once at our destination I move essentials to the middle bag, which is what I take when hiking.


Realistically I know I will not be able to bring everything on this trip.  With the addition of one more lens and the waterproof camera I'll be out of compartments in the bag.  I'm going to have to decide what to leave at home.   How do I decide what takes the trip and what is left behind?

Packing camera gear is a simple prioritization process.  I'll figure out what I need and what I can live without.

17-40 mm

The photos on this trip are going to be pretty much all outdoors.   I'll be shooting my favorite subjects - mountains, lakes, waterfalls, wildlife, flowers, and other subjects God has created for us to enjoy. Scratch the flash.

300 mm

300 mm + 1.4X Tele-Converter

I hope to see some of Alaska's wildlife on this trip.  The National Park rules say we must stay 300 yards from bears and 100 yards from most other wildlife.  That's a long way to shoot!  I will have my longest lens (300mm), plus a 1.4x Teleconverter, plus my cropped sensor Canon 7D body.   That combination is going to give me an effective focal length of 672mm.  I just hope that's enough.

If the weather cooperates we'll have great views of some of Alaska's majestic mountains.   That means a 17-40 mm wide angle zoon lens and my Canon 5D body.  I don't go anywhere without my favorite 24-105 mm zoom lens so it's on the list.   I'll need something between 105 and 300 mm so I'll bring my 70-200 mm zoom.   I love taking macro photos so I must bring my 100 mm macro lens.

70 - 200 mm

This year I'm renting a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens for taking photos of the night sky.   I'm hoping the Milky Way will be clear and spectacular while we are there.

That's five lens and two cameras.  My back is starting to hurt just thinking about it.

This trip has also thrown a special challenge my way.   We will be flying into Denali National Park on a small plane.  The plane is small enough that I'm limited to 25 pounds of luggage, including camera gear.   I guess June is going to have some of my clothes in her bag for those 4 days.  

Just going through this planning exercise has gotten me thinking about the trip and I'm getting excited!   I made some of our reservations in January.  Being 9 months away, it didn't seem that real at the time.  Now sure it does!


Now that I have figured out the important stuff, it's time to figure out what clothes I'll need on this trip.

24 - 105 mm

Wait For It

Saturday night I was at South Holston Dam with the Eastman Camera Club.   We were out there to practice our light painting skills.  For most of us, those skills were pretty close to zero and we had a lot to learn.  It was a great time to spend with other photographers, learn from each other, and enjoy a beautiful evening.

After watching the sunset from the top of the dam, we headed downstream to the weir dam to see what we could come up with.

Big Sunset From Top of The Dam

Timing is everything.   About the time the sun was setting, TVA stopped letting water through the big dam and the cool water that was flowing over this weir dam stopped.   It would have made a more interesting photo if it was still flowing, but we were there to experiment and learn.  I didn't expect to get a great photo this first time out.

The water below the big dam is very cold and around sunset a dense fog forms on the surface of this cold water.   Shining a flashlight straight into this fog had the same effect as your car high beams.  The light reflected right back and became a solid white blob.   To overcome this, June stood off to the left and shined the flashlights back on the weir dam at an angle, eliminating much of the glare.  Yes, she had two flashlights and at one time she was waving them around like Mickey Mouse directing the stars in The Sorcerer's Apprentice.  All that waving payed off with the dam being evenly lit by the flashlights.

Light Painting the Weir Dam

This was a 30 second exposure, which allowed the stars to be seen in the sky.

By 10:20 the full moon was up, washing out the stars and most everyone had packed up and left thinking the show was over.   We started walking toward the car and I decided to try one more shot looking up river right into the moon.   I wanted to get the curving walkway defined by the posts along the river bank.  During the 30 second exposure, someone drove through the parking lot doing some impromptu headlight painting right into my shot.   Their headlights give the posts a nice halo effect, defined the curve of the walkway and balanced out the strong light from the moon.   I really like the effect.

Accidental Light Painting

Sometimes we think the show's over, there's nothing else left to shoot and we leave.  I've seen people leave when they think a sunset is done, only to miss the most spectacular scene after the sun has gone down below the horizon.  Leaving early may get you home sooner, but you may miss some of the best photography of the day.  Sometimes you just have to "wait for it".

Previsualization

The concept of previsualization in photography is where the photographer can see the final print before the image has been captured. Ansel Adams dedicates the beginning of his first book to previsualization, and is often quoted as saying “Visualization is the single most important factor in photography” - From Graham Clark Photography

I have been driving past this scene for years.  The tree has been there, slowly growing taller and fuller.  Many times I would wish I had my camera with me so I could capture the scene I had in my mind.  Today, June and I were heading that way and I remembered before getting too far from the house.

I really like minimalist photography where a photo will have a single subject with lots of empty space in the photo.  They are very simple photos that can be beautiful.   I imagined the photo with this tree on the top of the hill with lots of sky behind it being the empty space.  

When I made the shot today, the sky wasn't empty but had some pretty interesting clouds, which were not in my imaginary photo.   I took several shot from two different locations.  Some in portrait orientation and others in the landscape orientation.  In the end, I liked this composition best because I could use the clouds on the right to balance the tree on the left.  I cropped off much of the hill below the tree because it didn't really add that much to the photo.  This is a graphic image that seemed to me to be a good candidate for black and white.

Lone Tree

The end photo is not exactly what I had previsualized in my mind.   With the clouds in the background, it doesn't have the minimalist feel I was hoping for.  I still have something else in mind.  I'll just have to keep driving that road and remembering to bring my camera along for the ride.

A Ghost Volunteer.

I know this as Indian Pipes.  It’s also known as Ghost Plant.  It showed up in our flower bed this past week, which was a big surprise to me.  I’ve only seen these in the forest, and only rarely. For a big stand, see the last photo taken on Vancouver Island in British Columbia last year.

Indian Pipes

Otherwise known as a Ghost Plant

The plant’s scientific name is Monotropa uniflora.   It might be mistaken for a fungus because it’s white and grows close to the ground.  It’s white because it doesn't have any chlorophyll, but it is not a fungus at all!  It's really a flowering plant-- in the blueberry family! The flower is pointed directly down at the ground, making it impossible to photograph the inside without breaking the plant.  June and I were able to check out a dying flower earlier and sure enough, it is a beautiful flower with orange Stamen inside.  This is one of about 3000 species of non-photosynthetic (i.e. heterotrophic) flowering plants. 

How does this plant survive without chlorophyll??

Like all monotropes it is parasitic on fungi! These fungi feed off photosynthetic trees, and thus the energy ultimately comes from photosynthesis of the tree, passing through the fungus on the way to the Monotropa.  So, this one is getting energy from the Dogwood it is growing under courtesy of some fungus in the mulch.

Indian Pipes on Vancouver Island, BC

You never know what you'll find if you look around!

Better Than Sealing A Driveway

I had to make a choice between two options for Saturday.  The first option was putting down asphalt sealer on our driveway, which is what I had planned for Saturday.  The second option was to spend the morning with June riding bikes around the  Cades Cove loop in the Smoky Mountains.   The driveway sealer will certainly keep for a few more weeks.

On Wednesday and Saturday mornings, the loop road is closed to vehicles until 10:00 AM.  We wanted to get there close to sunrise to make the most of the time before the gate was opened and the parade of cars and trucks took to the one lane road through one of the parks most beautiful areas.  It's a two and one-half hour drive from home to the gate and the sun rises is at 6:15.  Do the math to figure out how dedicated (crazy) we are.

It was foggy all the way from home to the park and we got there a little later than we hoped, but it was still a great morning.  The fog that slowed our drive was spectacular in the early morning "magic hour" light.

Loop Road Panorama

Deer and Butterfly

Click any photo for a larger view or go to my Online Gallery for more photos.

A lot of heavy photo gear is not fun to deal with on a bike.  I only took the camera and two lenses with me on the bike - my go to 24-105mm and a 300mm prime telephoto.  I had to go sans-tripod this morning.  I found that you can make stitched panoramas and hdr photos without a tripod. The Loop Road Panorama is 10 vertical shots stitched together in Adobe Lightroom CC.

Sunrise is prime time for wildlife and I took the 300mm hoping to get some bear, coyote, deer, turkey and other wildlife.   The wildlife was scarce today, but I did manage to get a deer and butterfly in one shot.

The only people on the road are bicyclists, walkers and some people running the 11 mile loop.   We started out with one group and played tortoise and hare passing each other all morning long.  

Running The Loop Road

Running Into The Sun

We stopped when we saw the sunlight streaming through the trees and fog, creating awesome sunbeams.  While we were stopped they passed us again.   I think they may have won the race, but we got the photos!

We enjoyed the morning ride enough that we cut down Sparkes Lane and went around to Hyatt Lane and back for a total of 17 miles.

There are more photos from the morning at http://www.thesiggins.com/AllWorks/Earth-Sea-and-Sky/Cades-Cove-June-2015/

Field In The Fog

Looking Good After 17 miles.