Hey Folks,
Yellowstone at last. It took us a while. We travelled hard from Glacier National Park to here. Some expert driving (from yours truly, no less!), but I finally managed to land my parents in Yellowstone. Yellowstone National Park is the oldest national park in the US, and my parents are quite possibly the oldest parents in the US; my dad is 387 and mum turns 373 in a few days. They do pretty well for their age, but they’re definitely
Continue reading
Hey Folks
Well here we are. Not quite in the US. We drove most of the day, through Kananaskis Country, just west of Calgary, and on down south to the US border. Apparently there are no vacancies in the US this evening, as the border is closed, like it’s full. I guess that’s one solution to the illegal immigration issue, just close the borders. 7:30 in the afternoon, still light, and the border’s closed.
Continue reading
Hey Folks
Well, here I am in Banff. I’m still riding around the countryside with my parents, who give new meaning to the word “doddering”.
We’ve visited nearly every public toilet in western Canada, which has been a real treat. So far, I haven’t had to unleash any violence, but I may resort to that medium of regulation sometime in the near future. My patience has been the mainstay of what stability we’ve managed to clutch. Dad doesn’t listen, and mum mumbles; a potent combination.
Actually, they’re doing OK, and I’m really enjoying showing them some of my favorite parts of the world.
Continue reading
Hey Folks
Here’s the latest from the road! I shot this saturday evening, just before dark. I had long been looking to forward to bringing my parents thru the Canadian Rockies one fall, Jasper National Park in particular. I knew they’d love watching the elk in rut, hearing the bugles and feeling the energy of the place.
We had an awesome day, and visited Maligne Lake where we hiked out for a mile or so along the shore, and enjoyed some quiet of the forest and nearby mountains, before walking back and having lunch down the road by Medicine Lake.
A quick run into town for a milk shake, some email and shopping (my mother is a certified shopaholic) and we were back out in the park looking for elk. just before dark we found this bull and his harem. I grabbed my camera and tried to get some slow shutter speed images, blurring the motion of the elk as they moved about. I was really hoping I’d got this series right when it happened, as the bull looked awesome through the viewfinder.
After dinner this evening, I browsed through the images from today and was glad to see this was pretty close to what I was hoping for. A nice bull elk image, conveying the frenetic energy of the rut, and the intensity of the great animals.
Photographing elk is an addiction, I’m the first to admit. The rut is so different to other ungulates because of the setting (majestic mountains ranges such as the Rockies), the crisp fall air, fall colors, and the bugling. That bugling is such an amazing sound. my mum asked my why the elk bulls bugle, and I wasn’t sure. Some say it’s an expression of dominance, a challenge to other bulls, or a call to females. It could well be an expression of the sheer exuberance of being alive and a part of this incredible experience. I think if I could bugle like that as the mist settles down on the pine forest in the Canadian Rockies, I probably would too!
Cheers
Carl
Hey Folks
Well, I’m here in Anchorage, after a long trip, and glad to be here. Anchorage is such a cool town, and I look forward to getting to know it a bit better. With all the time I’ve spent in Alaska over the years, I’ve not spent much of that time in Anchorage, and so don’t know too much about it. I do know that traffic is a hassle, as I was reminded yesterday afternoon when I arrived.
Continue reading
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
Another bird! I haven’t had much luck with the weather for shooting landscapes, but I’ve been fortunate to get a few bird photos instead. This bald eagle photo was taken along the Athabasca River in Alberta’s Jasper National Park, just north of Banff, Canada.
After a crappy morning (I was minutes late to Moraine Lake for sunrise, and missed the VERY brief glow of good light on the peaks there by mere seconds), I took off again and headed north, this time to Jasper National Park, one of my favorite places.
Continue reading
Hey Folks
Hola, from the road. I’m currently in Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada. I love this part of the world, but I don’t enjoy the crowds. I had to come in to the town of Banff today, to check some email, and do some errands. I can’t wait to finish, and get back out into the mountains. The crowds here drive me crazy. The traffic is insane, made worse by a bunch of road construction being undertaken right now.
Continue reading
Hey Folks,
Moose are one of my favorite subjects to photograph. It never ceases to amaze me at how enormous they are. From a distance they look “big”, but as I approach and get close to them, their size just blows me away. A big bull like this can stand 7′ tall at the shoulder, and weigh up towards 1800 pounds in their prime. I found this particular bull moose in Denali National Park, and I was able to spend quite a bit of time in the area, photographing him. The light and weather was almost always uncooperative for me,
Continue reading
Hey Folks,
Here’s the last of my series on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, for now.
I’d like to write some more about the place, but will do that later. I wanted to post this because I read somewhere the other day that because the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is not a pristine wilderness, we may as well go ahead and drill there. What so often is forgotten or neglected is that much of the disturbances to the pristine nature of the land here are a function os previous oil exploration. Out on the coastline, the tundra is littered with signs and debris of oil exploration. Whilst I was hiking one afternoon, I counted over 300 empty oil barrels lying on the tundra in one very small section of coastal plain.
Continue reading