After sailing through the Icy Straits, as described in a previous post, we entered into Glacier Bay en-route to the Margerie Glacier. Along the way, we passed wonderful scenery and wildlife, including hump-back whales, seals and eagles. Glacier Bay is a pretty amazing place and even more amazing is that it was a wall of ice in 1791 when explored by George Vancouver. The ice has retreated 65 miles since then leaving 16 major tidewater glaciers (a glacier which generates sufficient snow to flow out from the mountains to the sea). As we approached Margerie Glacier, it was hard to believe the it has a total height of 350 feet, of which 250 feet rises above the water level. It is one of the most active glaciers in the park with respect to calving where chunks of the glacier break off of the forward ice wall into the water with a resounding roar. This is probably the main reason why most cruise ships visit this particular glacier. As can be seen in the photo, the glacier is surrounded by rugged mountains where pieces of the mountains collect on the glacier making it look "dirty". Margerie Glacier has tones of blue color as the ice crystals in the glacier absorb light of longer wavelengths (i.e. red) leaving the blue color.
Rocky Sentinel
As I mentioned in a previous post, my son and I spent the better part of a week scouting New England lighthouses as potential sites for his movie short. This is the first of a number of lighthouses that you will be seeing on my blog in the upcoming weeks. Today, we take a visit to the tip of Rhode Island to see the Beavertail Lighthouse located in Jamestown. The lighthouse got it's name after the southernmost part of Conanicut Island which is known as Beavertail, for its shape on the map. The lighthouse is now part of Beavertail State Park.
The lighthouse was built in 1749 and is considered the premier lighthouse in the state. It stands 45 feet in the air and its light is on 24 hours a day. The light provides navigation for boats entering the Narragansett Bay between Conanicut Island and Newport, Rhode Island. As can be seen in the photo, it is surrounded by rugged rocks on three sides. It is not only a destination for tourists but it is also popular with the local fisherman. In fact, I had to maneuver between fisherman to get this shot. We observed quite a few fish being caught during our visit.
All in all, the beauty and location of the lighthouse keeps it on the short list as a potential location for my son's movie short.
Force of Nature
This past weekend, we all watched with fascination and horror as mother nature roared. Hurricane Irene left a destructive wake in her path up the eastern seaboard of the US. At times like this, we realize that nature can be quite devastating. This past May, I visited another force of nature that possesses the same brute force but in a beautiful and non-destructive way. I am talking, of course, of Niagara Falls. Standing alongside the edge of the American Falls, you can feel and hear the power of the falls as the Niagara River plummets over the edge on its way from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. While setting this shot up, I made sure that I had a rain cover for my camera and lens. It is a necessity as the spray from below can drench anyone and anything close to the edge. The river rushes over the edge so fast that you almost don't need an ND filter to get the silky smooth look to the water. For this shot, I used a 3-stop ND filter and fired off a 5 bracket set of images.
Vineyard Light and Shadows
A quick post today. Back in June, we attended the wedding of our friends daughter. The wedding and reception was held at Saltwater Farm Vineyard in Stonington, Connecticut. I had never heard of the vineyard but the location was quite beautiful especially for a wedding. As I was standing on a balcony and the sun began to set, the soft light and the shadows that the buildings cast on the vineyard grounds were lovely.
What's All That Racket?
As you may have noticed, I shoot primarily landscapes and cityscapes. Once in a while, I will shoot different subjects. As I was looking through images that I have pegged to be edited, I came across this shot. Now, I'll bet the last thing you would expect from me is a photo of a cat but this cat reminded me of a great couple of days I spent with my son, Greg, in New York City. He was attending the New York Film Academy and had written a story of a young girl whose mother had passed away. This mother was a photographer who was in the middle of a project. Greg needed some photos of New York City to use in his film so he asked me to come to the city to shoot different areas with him. After a long day taking photos, we ended up in Brooklyn where we passed this window. The cat stuck his head out and looked at us as if we were bothering him. He had this great expression that I couldn't resist.
The photo reminded me of the great time I had with Greg on his movie short. My photos can be seen as props in his movie, The Theory of Everything that can be watched on YouTube.
Num-Ti-Jah Dreams
The Icefields Parkway in Banff National Park is one of the most beautiful roads in the world. The three hour drive (only if you don't stop) from the town of Banff to Jasper traverses through the Canadian Rockies. It is famous for it's scenic mountains and lakes. About an hour and fifteen minutes north of the town of Banff lies Bow Lake. The northern shore of Bow Lake is the location of a great old lodge, the Num-Ti-Jah Lodge. It is a family owned lodge and it's history can be found here. When we first pulled into the lodge's parking lot, we saw the rugged mountains reflected in the water. I immediately got my camera and shot quite a number of images, this being one of them. Every angle produced a beautiful composition. This image is just a very small slice of what you will find along the Icefields Parkway. I haven't been back there in a number of years but I still dream of my next trip to Num-Ti-Jah Lodge.
Pemaquid Reflections
As I had mentioned in my post last Wednesday, my son and I were scouting New England lighthouses to find locations for his upcoming movie. We drove to our hotel in Edgecomb, Maine which is located close to the Pemaquid Peninsula. The next morning, we headed about 30 minutes from Edgecomb to the tip of the peninsula where the Pemaquid Point Lighthouse is located. The lighthouse is situated on top of a huge rocky promontory with dramatic views in every direction. The surrounding rocks have deep ridges caused by the perpetual pounding waves of the ocean. The lighthouse was commissioned by John Quincy Adams in 1827. Today, visitors can visit the lighthouse and museum. If you climb down one side of the rock promontory, there is a small collection of water where you can see a reflection of the lighthouse. On this morning, it was quite windy causing non-stop ripples in the water. It was a waiting game and the wind never totally stopped blowing to get the glass-like refection I was hoping for. After a while, the wind died down a little for a minute or two and I snapped this shot.
All Aboard the Alaskan Rail
After our stay in Denali National Park, we boarded an Alaskan Rail train. The train would take us to Whittier where we would board our cruise ship. This 8-hour train ride is something everyone should have on their bucket list. The scenery is spectacular and when the weather is right (as it was on this day), Mount McKinley can be seen in all of it's grandeur. Our train car had a glass dome for viewing the gorgeous Alaskan countryside. I quickly determined that shooting through the dome was not going to work due to the reflections, so I quickly headed for the open-air observation decks to shoot images from the speeding train.
This image was taken from the caboose of the train shortly after leaving Denali. The locomotive was chugging alongside a river bend in front of some of Denali's beautiful mountains. This is a train ride that I will never forget.
Shadows
Newport, Rhode Island has been a summer resort destination for a long time. In fact, during the Gilded Age, many rich industrialists built some of the most opulent summer "cottages” of the era. They came to Newport for the short summer social season. Their "cottages" had large receiving areas, dining, music and ballrooms, but with few bedrooms, since the guests were expected to have "cottages" of their own. The social scene at Newport is described in Edith Wharton's novel The Age of Innocence. The biggest of all of the mansions is the Breakers which was built by the Vanderbilt family. The Breakers has 70 rooms and contains approximately 65,000 square feet and cost $12 million to build in the 1890's.
This image of a small portion of the front entrance to the Breakers caught my eye before entering the mansion. The sunlight painted great streaks of shadows on the marble columns and walkway.
Giant Spoke
I thought I would give you another uncommon image of a very famous icon. When looking at this subject, I was trying to figure out how to capture it in a way that showcased the size of this popular attraction in a way that was different from the thousands of other photographs of it. The spindle in this photo is approximately 225 feet in the air. The cables include 16 rim rotation cables and 64 spoke cables, which are similar to bicycle spokes, holding the rim tight to the central spindle. Did you guess what it is? No, it's not a big bicycle spoke in the sky but rather London's very famous tourist attraction, the London Eye. Have a great weekend everyone
Early Morning at the Lodge
As I have mentioned in my previous posts about my Alaskan trip, we stayed at the Mt McKinley Lodge for a couple of nights before heading to Denali National Park. The lodge is located off of Alaska's Parks Highway (Milepost 133) that connects Anchorage and Fairbanks. This remote location (the nearest town of Talkeetna is 45 minutes away) guarantees that there is always a crowd in the lodge relaxing and taking in the view of Mt McKinley and the surrounding scenery. The lodge is beautiful and and well appointed with several restaurants, viewing rooms and outside decks. As you can tell from my website, I rarely take photos of the inside of buildings (not sure why) but I really wanted to capture the beauty of the lodge's main viewing room. I figured that in order to shoot the room without anyone in it, I had to get there very early in the morning. I was happy to see that at 5:30 am, I was the only one there other than staff. I wish that the weather was not overcast as having Mt McKinley visible through the window would have been great but I am pretty pleased with the result. I think that I will making an effort in the future to shooting more inside subjects.
Cape May Light Sunrise
I have always had a fondness for lighthouses and love to visit them whenever I can. In fact, I am currently touring New England lighthouses with my son who is an aspiring screenwriter. He has recently written a short story in which a lighthouse is featured prominently and we are in the process of scouting possible locations for a shoot. You can see more about his project and itinerary at his website. You can probably expect some of the New England lighthouses we visit in future blog posts. This image is of Cape May Light near the southern tip of New Jersey. I was visiting my brother-in-law who has a place in Wildwood and took my nephew out before dawn to shoot the lighthouse with the sunrise in the background. I hadn't done any scouting beforehand (I know, this should be done whenever possible) and there wasn't a great angle to get both the lighthouse and the sunrise in the composition. Instead, I went out to the beach and was quite pleased with the scene of the lighthouse basking in the soft light of the sun against the blue of the dramatic clouds.
Ruins
We only had a day to spend in Athens, so with so many options, we had to narrow down where to visit to a couple of things. Of course, you must visit the Acropolis but what to do next? For something a bit different from the bustling activity of the city, we decided on taking a bus to Cape Sounion to visit the ruins of the Temple of Poseidon. Along the way to the cape, we passed some stunning coastal views as well as many great beaches. Pulling up to the entrance of the temple, it was obvious why the temple was built on this site. The ruins are situated on top of a rocky hill where views of the beautiful Aegean Sea are visible in almost every direction.
The Temple of Poseidon was built around 440 BC and these columns are all that remain. According to Greek legend, Cape Sounion is where Aegeus, king of Athens, leapt to his death off the cliff, thus giving his name to the Aegean Sea.
I chose this composition as I thought the colors of the columns would contrast nicely with the cloud cover.
Open Range
Continuing our adventures in Alaska, we visited Denali National Park on a pretty dreary day. While it didn't rain much, it was pretty raw out. Since we didn't have a car, we took a tour of the park hoping to see some wildlife. Even with a car, you can only drive as far as we did on the tour. To be able to go further into the park, you must arrange an expanded tour (wish we knew that going in). Unfortunately, while we did spot a few animals, they were mere specks in the distance. Despite the lack of wildlife and the gloominess of the weather, the scenery was outstanding. I was struck by the amount of open range in the park and how the mountain range contrasted with it. The clouds added to the gloomy mood. As I studied the scene, I was reminded of the words "...Purple Mountain Majesty..." in the song, America the Beautiful. It seemed to me that the words were inspired by these mountains.
Spiderman's View
After my post last Friday of the Balancing Upside Down Elephant, I decided to end this week with an unusual image. The Transamerica Building is an iconic part of the San Francisco skyline. There are thousands of images of the famous pyramid shaped building from every angle (okay, I admit to taking some of those more common shots). I also wanted to take an uncommon shot of the building and this is it. I have a little history with The Transamerica building. In the 1980's I visited San Francisco for the first time for some business meetings that were held there. It was then that I fell in love with the city. When I first looked at the image, my first thought was the perspective Spiderman would see if he tried to climb the building. I'm not sure why that popped into my head but it is probably because as a kid, I loved to collect and read comic books (baseball cards were a close second). I don't know what happened to the comic books of my youth but I still have a fondness for them today.
Sailing the Icy Strait
My recent trip to Alaska was a combined land and sea adventure. As I have probably mentioned before, one of my bucket list items is to visit and photograph as many US National Parks as I can. On this trip, I was going to get to visit two of them: Denali National Park and Glacier Bay National Park. After spending time on mainland Alaska and in Denali, we boarded a cruise ship to see the inside passage including Glacier Bay National Park. Sailing down from Hubbard Glacier the day before, we entered into the Icy Strait early the next morning. The Icy Strait is in the Alexander Archipelago and can be entered from the Alaskan mainland from the north. Continuing into the strait reaches the entrance to Glacier Bay en-route to Juneau to the south. To say that the scenery was breathtaking is an understatement.
This is one of the numerous images I shot from the deck of our ship. The wind was whipping around and I was dressed in layers with gloves on. The interesting thing about it was even though it was cold, I hardly seemed to notice. The light was good, the clouds added great interest to the snow-capped mountains. These mountains are actually part of the national park, namely Glacier Bay Park and Wilderness.
Peaceful, Easy Feeling
After our exhilarating flight to the summit of Mt McKinley the previous day, I was ready to have a more relaxing morning by walking around Byers Lake in Denali State Park. While the adjacent national park is world famous, I discovered that Denali State Park was no slouch. The lake was about 20 minutes away from our lodge and is accessible from the Parks Highway that connects Anchorage and Fairbanks. The park is undeveloped wilderness with the exception of the two day-use areas, three campgrounds, and two trailheads, one of which leads to Byers Lake. The lake was very tranquil and relaxing. About a quarter of the way around, we came upon this secluded small dock. While there were a few people around, the lake was essentially empty. The clouds were outstanding and perfectly reflected in the calm lake waters. While sitting there looking at the scenery, the Eagles song, "Peaceful, Easy Feeling" came to mind.
Soaring the Alaskan Range
After our overnight stay in Anchorage, we hopped on a bus for 3 hours to Mt McKinley Lodge. I was really looking forward to getting to the lodge because it looked like a nice day where we might have a chance to actually see Mt McKinley (the mountain is only visible 30% of the time). Even more exciting was that we had signed up for a Mt. McKinley Summit Flight that afternoon. We got to the lodge (yes, McKinley was visible), had lunch and hopped on a 45 minute bus ride to Talkeetna Airport (the lodge is pretty remote). On the way, my wife Carol muttered "I don't know why I agreed to do this" (she is not the best of flyers). When we got to the airport, we were assigned a small 10 seat airplane. She was assigned the co-pilot seat and was told not to touch anything (like she would have). I was alone in the second row and our friends were in the back row. To complicate things, it was raining and a fresh storm was approaching. Off we went anyway.
On the way to Mt McKinley, we soared above the Alaskan Range and this image was taken en-route to Mt McKinley. The majesty of this mountain range is something to see. It was pretty challenging to photograph from the plane. I kept getting the damn propeller in my shot and shooting through a small window at such high speed was a challenge. All-in-all, I do it again in a second but I'm pretty sure Carol won't.
Standing Tall
If you are anything like me, you are always looking for your next trip so that you can take photos of somewhere you've never been. But often times, there are wonderful subjects right around you that are just waiting to be photographed. This is one of those subjects. I live on a very small mountain (627 feet - not sure if it even qualifies as a mountain) and often walk around my neighborhood for a little exercise. I almost never carry a camera with me. This day, I decided to take my camera with me with my macro lens (Nikon 105mm Micro - highly recommended) and shot a couple of flowers in the community gardens. This is one of the better images of a flower with it's stamen standing tall with the pollen ready to be freed by a summer breeze. I think I will be carrying my camera a little more often on my neighborhood walks.
The Balancing, Upside Down Elephant
Barcelona is a wonderful city with fantastic architecture and unusual sights. We saw a lot of unique things during our visit. However, whenever you think you've that you have seen everything, there is always something around the corner that surprises you. As I stated in an earlier post, we usually tour a new city on a hop-on, hop-off bus. As we toured Barcelona's sights we drove past the CaixaForum Centre building and discovered this wacky sculpture (I guess it is art) of an elephant balancing upside down on its trunk on the sidewalk. The sculpture is a work of Miquel Barceló, a famous Spanish artist.