Photographers should regularly remind themselves that pictures aren’t reality, but are static, two-dimensional representations. Whether it’s on paper or your monitor, a picture is a frozen world. To thaw the freeze, show action, or re-create movement, look to the diagonal line, among the strongest of compositional elements. Diagonals imply action. Take a tree as an example. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Wild Side Easy
Kayak Mothership Cruise. Three weeks in Southeast Alaska aboard the charter yacht Ursa Major, with wildlife watching, plenty of paddling, and a trip to fabled Lituya Bay. Charter yacht Ursa Major motors into Saook Bay, Baranof Island. She parks briefly mid-bay to toss out shrimp pots. The water depth is 160 feet. Crab pots are […]
Florida Bird Photography
I was in Florida in February, 2000, to photograph birds and to kayak. South Florida stops included Ding-Darling NWR, the Venice Rookery, Myakka State Park, Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, and Everglades National Park. I kayaked at Ding, Myakka and the Everglades. I also visited Loxahatchee NWR, Merit NWR, Cedar Key NWR, Wakulla State Park, and St. […]