Hi all. I returned from what is probably (unfortunately) a once in a lifetime trip to southeast Alaska. All told, it was 10 days including travel
time to and from. In between I got to see a part of the world I clearly knew little of and cared next to nothing about. As is usual with my
travels, which are many, I've come back changed by the experience. I got to sea kayak, although not with whales, only otters and sea lions
as company along with many wonderful birds, witness bears in their natural habitat - I'm not talking about food conditioned ones like in
Yellowstone, I'm speaking of ones where the park service personnel carry rifles just in case.
We did go whale watching and got to see these giants up close. Unfortunately, the times they were closest (like 20 feet) I was too
dumbstruck to get good images. There is something about a many ton mammal swimming by your boat at 10 knots that focuses ones
attention on other things. I did get some fairly good ones at a longer distance though. On the technical side, I would say that the use of the
70-200 VR w/ TC-14E is not a bad thing at all for this activity from a sharpness POV. It faired as well as the 300 f/4 with the same
teleconverter when the distance was appropriate. The biggest problem I saw from my shooting companion who was using that set up was
the lack of speed and lack of VR left him grasping a bit. I even felt I had enough light to use a polarizer for some shots, although on the tail
end of things I did take it off. Not because of nightfall, but because of a darkening of the cloud cover which seems to be ever present up
there.
We got to do a rafting trip through an incredible bald eagle preserve - and I think I got some real winning shots there. These bad boys are
simply majestic, even when they are as plentiful as pigeons.
Finally, we traveled up to some of the most spectacular glaciers one could imagine, and watched as icebergs the size of small houses were
calved.
All in all it was a great trip, although I'm exhausted from it for many reasons. I'm looking forward to looking at and eventually posting some
shots from the 43GB of images I brought home.
Some actual thoughts on the whole thing:
On traveling to southeast Alaska -
You will get wet. Very wet. Do not wear cotton or you will regret it.
A Pelican case is a very useful thing. As is a Lowepro Rover AW. Between these two items, along with a plastic bag surrounding the lower
compartment in the Rover and dry sacks everything stayed nice and dry apart from when I was using it. Nikon's sealing is excellent or I
would have a ton on useless gear by this point. However, I did make the point of keeping the places I was keeping it dry and took pains to
wipe it all down and dry it out each night.
Accept the missed shots and get ready for the next. These things happen, especially when the day is about waiting for a bear to "do"
something.
Skagway is not something you need to waste your time on. Haines on the other hand is wonderful. Gustavus is amazing.
Float plane landings are softer than you can believe. I guess there is something of a weeding process going on there. Hats off to the guys
at Ward Air. You are both nice as can be and excellent pilots. Thanks for letting my youngest (10) girl be "co-pilot".
The biggest challenge of the trip photographically was dealing with the rather bright overcast sky. I used a polarizer maybe 80% of the time
to try and get some contrast, but that was of marginal utility in this aspect. On the other hand, shooting things other than landscapes was
fantastic, since the lighting was by universal soft box. Pretty much anything without the sky in it was lit perfectly. The problem was in getting
good lighting on the landscapes while not completely blowing out the sky. When these conflicted I chose blown out sky over lost shadows
but it is the one area that left me feeling a bit unprepared.
Did I say that this is a rain forest? In 6 intra-AK flights (single engined Pipers or Cesnas) we got above 3k' once for about 10 minutes. For
the most part we were flying over water because the ceiling was seldom above the mountains.
Finally, and I apologize to those who feel differently, but the cruise ships are evil, nasty things. The passengers are mocked by the locals. If
you go to Alaska, go there. Stay there, hire a guide. Walk it, kayak it, raft it and sleep on land. You won't regret it.
Oh, and I think I've eaten more salmon than one would have thought possible.
Thanks to all who offered advice prior to my trip. More than anything people here made me really think about what I was going to do, and
then think about what I was doing. Hopefully I will be able to return the favor in small ways in the future.
, Jul 22, 2008; 05:55 p.m.
