The Northwest (US) where I live features some of the planet’s grayest skies, a nightmare of gray on gray for sometimes unending weeks at a time. In summer, on the coast, it mostly ruins photography while kayaking, but those same gray sky conditions present opportunities as well. Just ask Ansel Adams. A gray sky provides […]
Utah Canyonlands
A 4-wheel tour of Canyonlands National Park’s remote Needles District, and a rain-drenched raft trip of Catatract Canyon — with Tag-A-Long Expeditions. October, 2006. Moab, Utah. On a two-night trip sponsored by the Utah Office of Tourism and the Moab Area Travel Council, surprises came early. The first morning we traveled by 4-wheel with Dave Pitzer of Tag-A-Long Expeditions to the […]
Ford’s Terror
Aboard the kayak mothership Home Shore, we travel from Petersburg to Sitka, paddling in Endicott Arm, Ford’s Terror, West Chichagof, Taylor Bay and other Southeast Alaska locations. July, 2006. Petersburg, Alaska. We motored out of Petersburg under gray skies, heading north aboard the Home Shore – my 8th, and, as it turned out, wettest tour aboard the […]
Doing the Splits: Digital vs Glass Graduated (Split) ND Filters _ 08/2006
After hiking to Spray Park at Mt. Rainier NP (August, 2006), I shot a few frames to compare a graduated (split) neutral-density filter with achieving similar results in Photoshop. If you’re not familiar with split filters, they have darkened glass on half of their surface, to hold back the light, with clear glass on the […]
Photo Tip: Take Your Eye Off the Viewfinder __ 07/2006
Serious film photographers wouldn’t think of it, but point-and-shoot digital shooters routinely snap photos with camera at arms length. Not just holding the digicams straight out in front of them, but overhead, down low or off to the side. Some point-and-shoot LCD’s even cleverly fold out and twist to aid in composing, though this isn’t […]
Baja by Kayak Mothership Ursa Major
Sea Kayaking aboard Ursa Major in the Sea of Corez in Feb, 2006. We travel from La Paz to Loreto, and return. February, 2006. Baja, MX. After 28 or so consecutive rain days in a dreary Seattle, the sweet, dry desert air of La Paz, enveloped us in bliss. We boarded the charter yacht Ursa Major, […]
Sitka Adventure Cruise
Sea Kayaking on the mothership Home Shore in SE Alaska. Destinations included Endicott Arm, West Chichagof, Icy Strait and a circumnavigation of Baranof Is. June, 2004. An American Dipper beats a small, inch-and-a-half long fish – perhaps a candlefish or salmon fry – against a rock. She (or he) repositions the fish in her bill […]
Prince William Sound
“The Enchanted Circle” A week in early May sea kayaking and wildlife watching, traversing Prince William Sound aboard the charter yacht Faithfully. Sea Otters. They porpoise, they dive, they crawl up on a nearby iceberg and slide back in. They frolic in an intertidal lagoon full of bergie bits from a nearby glacier. Sapphire-blue ice […]
Santa Cruz Kayak Surf Festival, March 19-21, 2004
One weekend a year, the board surfers yield famed Steamer Lane to kayak surfers. Santa Cruz, CA. The March 19-21, 2004 Santa Cruz Kayak Surf Festival featured waves so small they were drowned out by the bark of sea lions and the squeal of offshore sea otter pups. A high mid-day tide forced kayakers in […]
Wild Capes, Great Crepes
Aboard the Home Shore, routes from Sitka to West Chichagof and Lituya Bay, and then to Tracy Arm and Icy Strait. A sea kayaking cherry-pick. May, 2003. “I wouldn’t want to take a boat through here”, I said, looking up from the chart to the rock-strewn entrance to Piehle Pass. “That’s just why I wanted […]