Alaska Advice

[ScenicTraverse]

Hi!

I am taking a 2 week trip through Alaska this spring and wanted to see if anyone had advice for shooting spots or had some photos they could share.

We start in Anchorage and drive to Seward, AK, where we'll spend a few days and probably take a few boat trips into the Kenai Fjords to photograph whales (digital camera for that project). I have some free time in Seward so if there are spots in that area, I'd love to hear ideas....

After that we board a cruise ship and travel from Seward to Vancouver via Glacier Bay, Juneau, the Inside Passage, Skagway, Icy Straight Point, and Ketchikan. In Juneau we will probably take a rail trip up the mountain and snow shoe, but outside of that, we have very little planned by way of excursions...

Does anyone have recommendations for shooting any of these areas? Also, I will be shooting the inside passage from on board the cruise ship, besides being on my game to be ready for any shots as they come, are there any recommendations on shooting LF from a cruise ship deck?

I will be packing both the D800 and the Zone VI for this trip and swapping back and forth as appropriate for the scene.

Thanks in advance
Kristen

[Heroique]

By the time you reach Seward, your Zone VI will have soooo exhausted you, it will be time to take a break at the Alaska SeaLife Center, right there in town. Though a small setting, it’s the best marine wildlife exhibit I’ve ever visited. Plus an ideal time to break-out your D800 and macro lens – for the exhibits let you get up close to a wild diversity of native flora & fauna that are behind no barriers. Have a fun time and please share your LF images when you’re back.

[Scott Walker]

Also, I will be shooting the inside passage from on board the cruise ship, besides being on my game to be ready for any shots as they come, are there any recommendations on shooting LF from a cruise ship deck?

Thanks in advance
Kristen

I have been working on a project with my 8x10 on my boat which is somewhat smaller than a cruise ship but still poses many of the same problems.
Movement is the biggest problem and it makes composition a bit of a trick. What I have done is mounted my iPhone to the top of the camera so I can figure out the composition on the ground glass and get everything in focus. I then put in a film holder and pull the dark slide and from that point I look at the image on the iPhone and wait until it is what I want and pull the trigger. I use the View Finder Pro App which crops the image to match all of my lenses.
I found that this eliminates all the guess work and I get the image composed way closer to what I was after than just trying to guess at it.
I discovered that most of my images were better suited to 4x10 so that is pretty much what I am composing for now when on the water.

Also, salt water is evil

[adelorenzo]

I'm quite familiar with Skagway, here are some ideas:

1. Skagway town itself is a very cool place to wander around with a camera. There's all the Trail of 98 history (and kitsch), the harbour, the White Pass trains... Lots of funky buildings although of course the place will be aswarm with people from the ships. The gold rush cemetery is a neat place although personally I don't feel comfortable taking photos where people are buried.

3. You can also go out to Dyea which is the start of the Chilkoot Trail. There is also some historic stuff out there (and another cemetery) although the beginning of the trail itself isn't super interesting from a hiking or photographic perspective. It's a neat area and good chance to photograph eagles and other wildlife.

3. A wide variety of day excursions will take you up into the White Pass which is pretty spectacular. Personally I would recommend taking the White Pass and Yukon Route train it's pricey but it's really amazing, especially if the weather is good. Normally you take it one way and then take a bus or a tour van back to Skagway and stop at different sites along the road. If you have a lot of time in Skagway considering extending your trip all the way to Carcross, Yukon which is my favorite place in the whole world. I was just out there on the weekend with my 4x5.

Regards,
Anthony

[John Kasaian]

To add to the above--
In Juneau there was (or used to be in 1994) a helicopter company that serviced the transmission towers on the ridge line above the city. They'd go up twice a day so since the basic cost of the flight was paid for you could ride along for a low priced fare. They'd drop you off at one tower in the morning and pick you up at another tower in the afternoon, leaving you a day to hike the (easy) ridge line.

The cemetary at Talkeetna is interesting---its where mountain climbers who died on Mt. McKinely are laid to rest--it reminds me of the little cemetary in Zermatt where the casualties of the Matterhorn are buried. You can also take a ride up to the Glacier on the mountain (the Cessna 185 ski equipped planes land on the Glacier so you can photograph) I'm not sure how much time they'll spend (probably as much as you want to pay for) Hudson was a fine FBO if they're still in business. K2 is another FBO in Talkeeta.

If Kirk and Julie still run the Brown Bear Lodge in Lake Louise, they can fly you up river in a vintage Stinson and drop you off with a raft & gear so you can float back down to the lodge if you want some real "Survivor Man" fun.

If you're in Homer just before the commercial halibut season starts, it's like taking part in the gold rush---people camp out under tarps on the spit and carouse in saloons at night until they can start working on the fishing boats. Thats really something to see!

Have a great time! Me jealous!

[photobymike]

Dress warm and get plenty of bug spray and a bug net for your head..... oh if you go into the woods carry a 50cal for the bears. It is legal for open carry in that state.

[Kirk Fry]

I found a hand held crown graphic pretty useful on a trip I took pretty similar to the one you are taking. Tripods are evil on boats. Set your infinity stops and compose through the view finder. I even did whales with it. Don't miss Whittier, charter a small boat for Prince William Sound and do the college glaciers. Don't sneer at a crown graphic, it is a mean, lean, picture taking machine. Tough as nails, compact, and not too heavy.