Category Archives: Photography

Issues and things related to photography, including ethics, technicals, anecdotes, etc.

Bighorn Ram, Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada.

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Bighorn ram in the Canadian Rockies, Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada.

Hey Folks,

A few more posts before the electricity goes and I scrounge around in the eternal darkness of the Alaskan winter. This one is a bighorn ram that I photographed on my first trip to Jasper National Park a few years back. I recently rescanned it, and am spending some downtime now getting caught up on editing and processing images. It’s funny looking at scans of slides these days, after shooting digital for just a few years. Pretty amazing the difference – though I think that’s a function of scanning more than film versus digital quality.

Well, it’s insanely past my bedtime, and I’ve had a big day, so this will be short and I’ll head to my room. You all have a good one and enjoy it while you got it – whatever it is.

Oh wow – just as I’m ready to hit “publish”, one of the dogs upstairs goes insanely off her head. At this time of night that means one thing: I looked outside and there’s 2 moose in the front yard. How cool is that? A cow moose and her calf under the street lights wandering through the front yard. Awesome!

Cheers

Carl

Ice Forms, Kennicott Glacier, Wrangell St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

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Ice Forms, Kennicott Glacier, Wrangell St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

Hey Folks,

I know, I know .. I promised yesterday’s post would be the last of this series, but I changed my mind. This is another image of some ice forms on the Kennicott Glacier. I really was hoping to get some nice abstracts of the deep blue glacial ice so common in this kind of landscape, and so totally missing from my files. It took me quite a bit of clambering around (before my injury, of course), and fiddling with my tripod so that I could get this particular composition, but I was glad I did. There was this huge chunk of hanging ice right above me Continue reading →

Amazing Concert – Bill Frisell

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Alaska Cotton Grass and Chugach Mountains, Wrangell St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

Hey Folks,

I just got home a little while ago from an incredible concert here in Anchorage. I saw Bill Frisell, an AMAZING musician, with Greg Leisz on pedal steel guitar (among other instruments) and Jenny Scheinman on violin. Absolutely amazing. They performed a number of pieces composed and/or arranged to accompany a slide show of photos by Mike Disfarmer. The images themselves are compelling. The music, in Bill’s typical style, is quirky, yet flowing. Together, the performance is beautiful. Continue reading →

Notes from a Caribou Whisperer

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The Caribou Whisperer

WARNING: – The following journal was sent to me (Carl) from my dad. Read on at your own risk – he does tend to ‘go on’ a little.

JOTTINGS ON OUR TRIP TO ALASKA AND THE NORTH AMERICAN ROCKIES

Dear Blog,

I’m not sure whether that’s the correct way to address a blog, but it’ll have to do for now.

Sorry for the delay in penning these brief notes on our trip to Alaska and the North American Rockies. I had to wait till the ice melted in my veins and the blood started flowing again.

After a very pleasant stay of two days in the lovely city of Vancouver, made all the more pleasant by catching up with an old Aussie mate and his partner, we embarked on our Cruise up the Inside Passage to Alaska. Continue reading →

Denali and the Alaska Range photo – a panoramic view.

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Denali and the Alaska Range photo - a panoramic view.

Hey Folks,

Well, here I’ve finally got this image done – for now. It took me a lot of working, and a lot of learning, but I’m reasonably happy with the processing – for now. The image is a stitched composite of 5 horizontal frames, to form a big long wide skinny panoramic photo of Denali and the Alaska Range. I got a full moon in there too, which was nice. The moon was absolutely awesome – glowing like it only can glow in Alaska. As the final image didn’t really fit on this webpage very well, I just linked the thumbnail here – if you click the thumbnail it will open up a larger file. Continue reading →

Bull Moose and reflection photo, Denali National Park, Alaska.

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Bull Moose and reflection, Denali National Park, Alaska.

Hey Folks,

It’s WAY too late for me here in Anchorage – I just walked in a little while ago from this little blues bar, called Blue Central. They have an open mic night every sunday, and I was fortunate to get to play this evening for an hour or more – nice finish to my week.It was tons of fun, and the folks I played with did a bunch of different styles of music, so it was interesting. There’s nothing quite like sitting in with people you’ve never met before, and making music together. It’s all the more fun when they start playing tunes you have no idea what they are, how they go, what key they’re in, or anything else. You just have to listen closely. Continue reading →

Denali Photo, alpenglow, Denali National Park, Alaska.

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Denali, Mt. McKinley, alpenglow, Denali National Park, Alaska.

Hey Folks,

It’s a weekend, and I’ve been having a good day. I won’t ruin it by writing much, once again, but I will tell you I saw the Rugby World Cup Final this morning. Even though the Wallabies weren’t there, as I hoped they would be, it was a decent game. South Africa played England, and South Africa won, which I’m glad about. England beat the Aussies in the previous WC Final, 2003, in the tightest of games, and then beat us again in the quarter final this year – so I was kinda hoping the Springboks would win, which they did. Next I went for a short walk with my buddy Charlie, and his 2 dogs, Keba and KebaMusa . Keba is an African name, kinda like, say, John, might be here .. and “KebaMusa” means “Keba’s Wife” .. they’re awesome dogs, except Musa gets mad at other dogs on the trail, so that’s always exciting. In honor of Keba and KebaMusa, I thought I’d post another image of Denali – the link being, obviously, the names I wrote about recently. I’m still working on another image from the mountain I took this summer, and once I get it worked up correctly, I’ll post it here.

I also want to thank my friend Guy Tal, for his help. He’s an amazing fella, a ridiculous photographer, and very generous with his willingness to help out. He’s helped me enormously with learning stuff about photoshop, and computer stuff in general. He’s also super smart, and his writings are always insightful and great to read. Check his site out here if you’re not familiar with Guy – spending some time browsing his website will definitely add years to your life.

For the photo-tech stuff, this is a blend of several different exposures (3, actually) – I’ve always done images like this in the past with either a grad density filter, or manually blended exposures on the computer – this is my first ever image using the HDR processing of Adobe Photoshop. I hope you like it.

I’m off to bed.

Cheers

Carl

More Denali National Park Photos.

Happy Birthday, Mum!!

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Bull Moose, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming.

Hey Folks

Today’s my mum’s birthday! Happy birthday, mum! Mum refers to October as her ‘birthday month’, meaning she celebrates her birthday for the entire month of October.. which translates to ‘whatever mum wants goes for the month of October’. Pretty nifty deal, for her, I spose. Anyway, it’s all OK, because she’s mum. Happy birthday, mum – Love you! Continue reading →

Mt. Sanford, Wrangell St. Elias National Park, Alaska

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Mt. Sanford, from Rock Lake, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

Hey Folks

Well, well, well .. times have indeed changed. I’m currently sitting in the plush surroundings of the Princess Cruise Line Copper Center Lodge. I’m sitting in the ‘Wrangell Room” appropriately enough, gazing out one of the 15 twelve foot-high windows, across the Copper River Basin, where I can see Mt Drum, Mt Sanford and Mt Wrangell. If for some reason I took it upon myself to stand up, out of my comfy swivel chair, I could also see Mt Blackburn to the south. An impressive view. Continue reading →

Grizzly bear cub, Yukon Territory, Canada.

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Grizzly bear cub, Yukon Territory, Canada.

hey Folks

Well, I made it. Many, many miles of sitting behind my steering wheel finally got me up to Alaska. And whata gorgeous day it is to arrive. This morning, as I made my way through the final couple hundred miles of the Yukon Territory, I saw moose, tundra swans, grizzly bears and a coyote. I managed to take a few images of the coyote, and also the bears as they grazed on the wildflowers and grasses. I saw a number of black bears in western and northern BC, but no grizzlies. Grizzlies are SO cool, it’s always a treat to see them, Continue reading →