09-02-13 The Safari Endeavor at the Dawes Glacier

I'm about to be told to turn off my iPad on the plane that will take us on our first leg home today. But I selected this photo as my first Alaskan Un Cruise Adventures photo because it capture both the awesome landscape of SE Alaska and the nature of our amazing 7-day cruise on the Safari Endeavor. I'll have more to say about this place when I'm back online.

Later . . .

For the culminating activity on our Un Cruise, we motored up to within a few miles of the Dawes Glacier. Once there, small groups were motored out to within 1/4 mile of the glacier, which meant that we had to go through the ice field you see here. "Wow!" was generally the only word spoken (repeatedly) as Captain Jon S. took us through the chunks of ice. Jon spoke little during the two hours we were out. But he was constantly grinning. And so were we.

The culmination of the day was being served one of my favorite 12-year-old Scotches cooled by 500-year-old crystal clear glacier ice. Wow!

08-29-13 Reprise: Early

I’m off on a junket to Alaskan waters on an Un Cruise Adventure and will be off the grid for a while. And so I’m posting old stuff but I’m making it sound special by calling it “Reprise.” I’ll back back on September 3.

08-28-13 Reprise: He's Watching Us

I’m off on a junket to Alaskan waters on and Un Cruise Adventure and will be off the grid for a while. And so I’m posting old stuff but I’m making it sound special by calling it “Reprise.” I’ll back back on September 3.

08-27-13 Reprise: Classes Canceled

I’m off on a junket to Alaskan waters on and Un Cruise Adventure and will be off the grid for a while. And so I’m posting old stuff but I’m making it sound special by calling it “Reprise.” I’ll back back on September 3.

08-26-13 Reprise: Morning Light

I'm off on a junket to Alaskan waters on and Un Cruise Adventure and will be off the grid for a while. And so I'm posting old stuff but I'm making it sound special by calling it "Reprise." I'll back back on September 3.

08-25-13 Singled Out - Morning Light on Grass #3

This is the last of three macro photos that are intended to suggest that photographers have the potential to make common things interesting by finding the right framing, focus and light.

08-24-13 Singled Out - Morning Light on Grass #2

Second is a series of three.

08-23-13 Singled Out - Morning Light on Grass #1

This is the first in a series that I am calling "Singled Out." The series is an attempt to show you that photographers have the power to make the mundane interesting. All it takes is the right framing and the right light. All of the subjects in this series are considered weeds.

08-22-13 The Darkest Hour?

The saying is that "the darkest hour is just before dawn" and I was aware of that when I went quickly to my camera bag so I could get the moment pictured in this post. I'm not sure how one defines "dawn" but I concluded that the saying was a bit inaccurate even if it is more metaphorical than literal.

I'll have to admit that I've shot the sunrise from this same spot before. And as Monet no doubt felt good about painting the same haystacks over and over again, I can live with my redundancy: even though it's the same spot and the same old sun, this sunrise is unique in all of the 4.6 billion years of the Earth's existence. And I was there to capture it.

On a technical note, those who are inclined to study my photos closely might be inclined to say that part of my style is, as one student said recently, "crispness." Generally, because I shoot with a high resolution camera, use good lenses, generally use a a tripod and use fairly elaborate sharpening processes, they are clean and crisp. But this one is a little blurry. Was it premeditated? Not really. I was standing in a boat that was moving ever so slightly and I was hand-holding my camera with an impossible-to-hand-hold shutter speed of 1/3 of a second. I know that's a sin. But the blur actually adds to the impressionistic nature of this photo. I suspect that Monet might approve.

Canon 5DIII 0.3s f/4.0 ISO800 32mm

08-21-13 Harvest, 2013

The Arrow Education Foundation of Watertown, South Dakota, works hard to support public education in Watertown. They depend on donations from people like you (especially if you live in Watertown or have benefited from Watertown Public Schools.)

Each year they host a charity fundraiser called "Harvest." It is a casual, but gala, fall affair. Invitations were just send out and I'm pleased to say that a photo I donated to the cause is the background art for the invitations. This backlit sunflower was featured in this blog before (click).

Have you made your reservations for Harvest, 2013? Have you donated the Arrow Education Foundation? The world will be a better place if you do.

08-20-13 Prairie Relic

When Deb and I were driving back to Watertown on the day we did Lacey and Matt's engagement session, I remember driving by this tree and saying, "That's an amazing tree." And so, before I ended my session north of town a few days ago (that resulted in the two previous posts) I stopped by this tree and took several photos. I ended up liking this one, largely because of the way the stark monotone of the skeletal tree contrasts with the strong colors of the earth and sky.

Post Script

There is a bit of a back story to this photo. I took this photo on the morning of August 11. Three days later, I was packing my camera gear and discovered that my beloved Canon 24-105 4.0L lens was missing. I searched the house. Twice. No lens. I opened Aperture on my computer to find the last photo I had taken with the lens. It was of this tree. I concluded that I had left the lens exactly where I had taken it off - sitting on top of a fence post. (I used my 70-200 telephoto lens so I could try to blur the background.)

I drove north of town feeling pretty confident that I would find the lens. After all, this spot is fairly remote and I didn't think the country road would have had much traffic. I also imagined that the lens would blend in, looking like part of the post.

And from an eighth of a mile away, I could see the lens. But it didn't look like part of the fencing - it looked like a lens. Fortunately, it hadn't rained and there had been little dew over the three days that it sat on the post. And, aside from a fine layer of dust on the filter (no, I hadn't put on the lens cap), the lens was pretty much as I had left it. Lucky me!

08-19-13 Serenity

Those who follow this blog know that Lonesome Lake is one of my favorite places. Even if I didn't have a camera and tripod, I would enjoy this place, especially on a morning like the one this photo taken on. It was cool and windless, which on an August day is South Dakota, is somewhat rare. And there was a kind of silence here that it hard to describe. But I will say that I could hear and feel the silence. And when I look at this photo, I still do. I wish you had been there with me.

Canon 5DIII 1/125s f/13.0 ISO500 200mm

[DKB url="" text="" title="" type="" style="" color="" height="" width="" opennewwindow="" nofollow=""]