This is the final image from my Alaska trip. During one of our last days on the trip, we walked on Exit Glacier. The weather made some very happy and others quite miserable. It was in the mid-30s and raining, but my ski jacket and pants protected me from most of the rain. However, that limited the number of images I took on my camera as I tried to keep it dry. Of the few I took, this one stands out, highlighting another group about to go ice climbing.
Another popular hike on the trip was this one of the Harding Ice Field. This nine-mile hike ascends over 3,300 feet but is not difficult to climb. However, I made the mistake of only bringing a rain jacket and sweatshirt. By the time we reached the peak, right on the edge of the glacier, a stiff wind blew off the glacier and significantly decreased the temperature. We quickly ate lunch on top then began the descent back down. On the way down, I took this panorama, capturing both the glacier and valley below.
Later in the wildlife cruise, we turned south and headed towards Aialik Bay. While battling stiff winds and ten-foot swells, I looked back and saw the mountains to the north of Seward. There were a few days on the trip when it rained, but most of the time, the clouds were like this, some low and many blocking the sun. If possible, I would have loved to take a long-exposure image, but the swells made an piece like that impossible.
Back in Denali, there is something special about this peak. When we first flew past it, it was on the opposite side of the plane that I was on. I tried capturing it from across the plane, but I could not through the window. We eventually turned around, and I took this image. I love how Peters Dome has snow on it. The white peak draws your eye to it, and then you notice the glacier and peaks around it.
Valdez is made up primarily of the fishing and oil industries. Not many people travel there for vacation as it is so remote, and there is no port for cruise ships to dock. We visited for two days, and both were hazy from wildfires to the east and south. Regardless, we went to the dock, and I took a panorama as I tried to fit everything into one image. While some borders are not exact, Lightroom does a great job of stiching them together almost seamlessly.
One of the other activities we completed in Seward was a wildlife cruise. I had low expectations going into it, as I did not think we would see many animals, but that quickly changed. For starters, a low cloud cover provided more character to the landscape, and we quickly saw animal after animal. There were otters, puffins, killer and humpback whales, seals, and bald eagles. Photographing a bald eagle was more difficult than I thought it would be. The white head is unlike its dark body or the rock underneath. I prioritized having the exposure fit the head and brightened everything else in Photoshop.
There are hundreds of fishing boats in Seward, and this particular one was one that our campground owned and took individuals on for sightseeing excursions. It provided the perfect subject for an image with the mountains in the background. Throughout the evening, I took hundreds of pictures of this scene, some with a high aperture, others with a low, some with a fast shutter speed, and others with a slow shutter speed. I settled on this image because I love how the boat is in sharp focus, yet the mountains are still visible enough to see their features.
After landing, we took pictures of the plane and entered the park to start hiking. On one of the hikes, we crested a ridge and saw this caribou grazing the bushes, looking for berries. I switched my wide-angle to a telephoto lens and took this image. It is not something I would typically post, but I figured this was an exception. The piece screams Alaska, and I feel it is obligatory to post it.
Back on the Denali flight, it was fascinating to see how fast the landscapes changed over the flight. We started in a lush area with a dense forest, but it quickly transformed into jagged, snow-peaked mountains. There are over 100,000 glaciers in Alaska, which I thought was an overstatement, but throughout the trip, it felt like we constantly saw one glacier after another. This glacier comes off of Mt. Pendleton. I forget its name, but it is one of hundreds near Denali.
While McCarthy was my favorite town that we adventured through, Seward was my favorite campsite. We stayed at Millers Landing, about a ten-minute drive south of town and on Resurrection Bay. Some locals told us that sunsets like this are incredibly rare. With Seward right on the bay, it is constantly surrounded by a fog that blocks these mountains. For us, this was our first-night camping in Alaska. It set the mood for the rest of the trip, and the weather rarely disappointed.
This plane flight might have been my favorite activity we completed in Alaska. The previous day and morning of the flight were rainy, but for the seventy minutes we were in the air, the clouds broke just enough that we could fly. The plane is small, as only ten individuals could fit at once, which meant the flight was incredibly bumpy. However, for those seventy minutes, I took almost seven hundred images. My shutter rapidly opened and closed the entire flight as I tried to capture every landscape we passed. This piece is a composition of eight pictures stitched together in Lightroom. It looks south, towards Denali, but still many miles to the east of it.
Our camp in McCarthy was right at the toe of the Kennicott and Exit Glaciers. It overlooked a glacial lake filled with icebergs and the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. This image comes from another campsite less than a quarter mile from ours. Between our campsite and McCarthy is a footbridge that crosses the Copper River. While on the bridge, I looked north and saw this composition.
Of all the hikes in Alaska, this was easily the best. Granted, it was also the hardest hike, covering over ten miles with almost four thousand feet of elevation gain, but seeing the old mining equipment and the town of McCarthy was worth it. Of all the towns I have traveled to, McCarthy is the one I want to return to the most. It is deep out of cell coverage, with the only connection from one hotel, but the views are endless, and it is truly rural Alaska.
When determining the order of the images, I did not intend to have three pictures from Denali in a row. However, I like how the colors and composition of the pieces complete each other in the sequence. Regardless, this image also comes from the Teklanika River. One of the facts about Denali National Park is they request that visitors not follow trails. Their theory is that trails ruin the landscape, and the growing season is too short for the vegetation to regrow. By requesting that people not follow trails, they will not form, and the landscape will stay as pristine as possible. That fact was confusing, but after thinking about their logic, I think all parks should encourage that.
Further down the road in Denali, we reached the Teklanika Rest Stop, overlooking the Teklanika River. I took this image on August 18th. As someone from Texas, I thought this would be incredibly early for fall colors. Maybe it is from the filter I added, or maybe the leaves were already starting to change, but I love seeing the green and yellow leaves in the foreground. After thinking about fall in Alaska, we realized that winter would quickly follow. It is now mid-September, and only four weeks after we hiked through, and snow is already on the ground. It would be magical to see the same landscape in the snow.
One of our other stops was to Denali National Park. In 2021, a landslide shut down the only road through the park, cutting the road from 92.5 to 43 miles. However, from what we could see, the park is absolutely stunning. Like most days on the trip, the skies during our time near Denali were overcast with a few afternoon sprinkles. For this image, the sun broke through the clouds enough that the right side of these mountains shined while the left side was still in the shadow. Additionally, the light haze adds to the softness of the mountain peaks.
Welcome to Alaska! Over two weeks in August, I traveled throughout central and eastern Alaska hiking, camping, and, most importantly, photographing. This first image comes from Crow Pass Trail just to the south and east of Anchorage. It is a six-mile trail with two thousand feet of elevation gain. At the top of the trail is this cabin, which serves as a shelter for hikers overnight. Our group did not spend the night, but we were fortunate enough to see the cabin and lake behind it.
As I continued walking around one morning, I looked back at the hotel to find the different levels empty, except for these people. I immediately knew I wanted to put the image into black and white to highlight the differences between the floors and accentuate the figures. To further help achieve this, I increased the contrast and clarity and added a vignette to draw the viewer's eye to the middle.
Since October, I have not had a strong desire to pick up the camera. Maybe it was because I became busy with schoolwork, or maybe I was embarrassed to walk around with a big camera or post images that people might not care about. Whatever the reason is, I would like to capture more moments and increase the number of times I post. For example, with this image, it was soothing to stroll on the beach and look for anything that caught my eye. Using my telephoto lens, I zoomed in on this sailboat while still highlighting the vast ocean. I want to continue living in the moment and capturing images like this.
Hello again! It has been a while since I last posted. After October, I became busy with school and everything that comes with it, but now that it is summer, I have some free time to post images I have been holding onto for a while. This first five-image series comes from the beach. After that, I have a few images from Colorado. And following that, I am taking a trip to Alaska, where I will certainly take and post many pictures. The plan for the foreseeable future is to post images from those trips and continue that into the school year, posting on Mondays and Fridays. In the meantime, enjoy this image from the drone of a boat floating in the open ocean.
This is my final image for our Canada adventure. I took it on the first day we were there but posted it last since it is my favorite. We had been at the lake for about thirty minutes when a light mist rolled through. I was shooting the mountains in the distance when this group of kayakers decided to head back towards the dock. I quickly changed the lens and settings, which resulted in this image.
As my long day of hiking turned into night, I spent sunset on the shore of Lake Louise. As you can see, there was pretty significant cloud cover, which diluted the typical sunset colors, but for about ten minutes, there was a yellowish hue. To capture this, I used a slow shutter speed to slow the water's movement and create a more dramatic image.
On this hike, I also took out my telephoto lens. I started looking for bears and other animals in the backcountry, but after not seeing anything for a few minutes, I turned toward the trees. I'm not sure what it is, but I really like the simplicity of silhouetted trees. When editing, I applied a black and white filter to increase the contrast between the trees and sky, resulting in
One day, I decided to do it all. I woke up at 4 am to watch the sunrise at Moraine Lake, went back a few hours later to go on a hike, then took a nine-mile hike behind Lake Louise. This image comes from that nine-mile hike. About two miles in, I joined a random couple who was also going to the top. About six miles in, I saw these two people standing on the horse trail, which is when I took this image. The people are a little small, but I didn't want to crop in and ruin the proportion of the size of the mountains.
