Day 3 - Denali back to Fairbanks

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The weather forecast for Monday night and Tuesday was snow, and lots of it, perhaps a foot of accumulation.  The fear was that we may be stranded in Denali and not make it back to Fairbanks for our flight to Kaktovik on Thursday.

When we woke up on Tuesday, there was about 8 inches on the ground and it was forecast to continue to snow until mid-day Wednesday.  So the decision was made to head back to Fairbanks a day early.  But first, a little snowy landscape photography.

This was the view from my balcony.  Not too shabby...  I would have enjoyed the view a little more if it was a clear night and the Aurora Borealis were reflected in the lake, but you can't have everything.

Denali Lakeview Inn is a 10 minute drive from Denali National Park, and the view from my balcony was Otto Lake.

The sight of the newly fallen snow was inspiring.  The four of us made our way down to the lake with our cameras.  Here are a few of the images.

There were some interesting things to photograph by the lake, this small boat was a favourite spot.

On our way back to the Inn to finish packing up the Suburban, this ATV got my attention.

Here is a shot of Ron saying goodbye to the Denali Lakeview Inn.

We took our time on the highway to Fairbanks, and thankfully, it was already ploughed by the time we made our way.  Tonight, the plan is to walk around town, and take it easy.

But it's still snowing....

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Mark

1942 Ford Pickup

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The trip to Alaska was primarily about photographing wildlife in their natural settings, but once in a while something would catch our attention.

Many of you know that I love to photograph old abandoned things - including vehicles.  While driving back to our hotel we noticed an old abandoned truck. Of course we had to take a closer look.

After a little research, it is a 1942 Ford Half Ton Pickup, and in pretty good shape.

The engine is a flathead 6 cylinder with a 226 cubic inch displacement, and produced 90 horsepower.

Here are a few other images.

I love to photograph the colours and textures of weathered paint finishes.  And the lines of old cars and trucks are classic.

This was a great diversion to photograph. I'm sure there will be others as well...

If you are reading this blog for the first time, don't forget to review the archives at the right side for earlier entries. And feel free to add a comment, as well as share this blog with your friends. If you have not already done so, please enter your email address in the "Follow my Blog by Email" box on the right hand side. It will be much easier for me to stay in touch with you. If you don't see a signup box on the right side, then click on the blog heading and that should take you to a webpage with better graphics. You should then see the signup box on the right side.  If you have trouble signing up, send me an email at mark.girard@rogers.com.

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Mark

Day 2 - Denali National Park

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Day 2 was a day to explore Denali National Park.  Because it was such a cloudy and overcast day, the sunrise was outstanding.

The park was a 10 minute drive from our hotel.

Unfortunately, the main park road was closed at the visitors centre around mile marker 3.  There was 6 inches of snow that fell on Saturday, so the main road was closed.  The temperatures had been milder Sunday and today, but not mild enough to melt all of the snow.  This was disappointing, as the main road is usually open for some 30 miles of exploring (weather permitting).

After speaking with one of the park rangers, our second choice was a hike on the Horseshoe Lake trail. Very picturesque.  Here are a few of the images.

Some of the shallow ponds had ice with the most interesting designs on them, almost like snowflakes.

We were hoping for some wildlife sightings, could be bears, or moose.  Unfortunately it was not meant to be... the best we could photograph was a grouse.

By mid afternoon, we had given up on any further sightings in the park, and made our way out of the park.  We drove around many of the main highways, and a few back roads, hoping to find a moose.  But no luck.  We eventually gave up, and made our way back to our hotel.

The weather report for Tuesday is calling for heavy snow, perhaps accumulations of up to 12 inches, so we made tentative plans at dinner to head back to Fairbanks one day early if the weather forecast was true.

On our way back to the hotel after dinner, we found a cow and calf moose crossing the road directly in from of our hotel.  Kind of ironic, isn't it? We didn't have to go far after all...

This image was taken with the Sony A6000.  It has turned out to be a very handy camera to keep on hand.  The old saying is true... "The best camera you have is the camera you have with you"...

As I look out the window composing this blog entry, the snow is falling.  Will have to wait and seen how much of it sticks around in the morning.

If you are reading this blog for the first time, don't forget to review the archives at the right side for earlier entries. And feel free to add a comment, as well as share this blog with your friends. If you have not already done so, please enter your email address in the "Follow my Blog by Email" box on the right hand side. It will be much easier for me to stay in touch with you. If you don't see a signup box on the right side, then click on the blog heading and that should take you to a webpage with better graphics. You should then see the signup box on the right side.  If you have trouble signing up, send me an email at mark.girard@rogers.com.

Thanks for reading...

Mark

Day 1 - Toronto - Seattle - Fairbanks

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Day 1 was a long travel day, but before I get into that, there were some fun activities on Saturday.

One of our group travelling to Alaska is Ron Goodlin, a very good friend and outstanding photographer.  He has a show of his Africa trip on exhibit at the Aurora Cultural Centre.  Saturday was a reception where Ron was on hand to discuss his work.

We just bought Mary Ann a Sony A6000, which is a very capable mirrorless camera.  I brought it along to Alaska, so Ron's exhibit was a perfect place to play with it. The camera can stitch together panoramas in-camera, so here was my first attempt.

I have not had a chance to take a close look at the stitching, but it is so much more convenient than manually stitching together 4 or 5 images in Photoshop.

We had dinner with Ron and Ricki on Saturday night, which is always lots of fun.  Mary Ann surprised us by baking a blueberry pie with a top in the shape of a polar bear.

Here is a closer look.

Our flight to Seattle was scheduled for 8:30 on Sunday morning.  Being an early flight to the US is always a bit of a challenge, because of the lineups at US Customs and Immigration.  This time was no different.  It was a good thing that I had a photographers vest with me, because our carry on luggage was weighed when we checked in.  The girl at the counter was a pretty good sport about it, but she made sure the bags were close to the 10 Kg. limit.  It seems kind of silly, because we put all the camera gear back into the carry on luggage in front of her before heading to security. Our flight was a half hour late leaving because there were passengers who were held up in Customs or security.

The flight to Seattle was smooth, and uneventful.  We met one of the flight attendants who was a fashion photographer on the side, and was working on a 12 page spread in Cleo magazine.  Very nice work.  The mountains around Seattle were spectacular.  Here is a shot of Mount Rainier taken through the window with the Sony A6000.

Our flight to Fairbanks was on Alaskan Airlines.  Luckily the baggage was forwarded so we did not have to retrieve it in Seattle.  We had to check in with Alaskan Airlines to get our boarding passes, but that was no problem.

The flight to Fairbanks was smooth and uneventful as well.  But the weather became more overcast, and was raining in Fairbanks.  We picked up our rental Suburban, and drove 2 hours to Denali National Park.

The weather did not improve, so there would be no observing the Super Moon tonight.  The weather is forecast to improve tomorrow, so let's hope for some photo opportunities.

All of the images I have included are Jpegs straight out of the camera.  So far, I'm very impressed with the Sony A6000.

If you are reading this blog for the first time, don't forget to review the archives at the right side for earlier entries. And feel free to add a comment, as well as share this blog with your friends. If you have not already done so, please enter your email address in the "Follow my Blog by Email" box on the right hand side. It will be much easier for me to stay in touch with you. If you don't see a signup box on the right side, then click on the blog heading and that should take you to a webpage with better graphics. You should then see the signup box on the right side.  If you have trouble signing up, send me an email at mark.girard@rogers.com.

Thanks for reading...

Mark

Gangsters, Oliver and Alaska

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A couple of weeks ago, our son Jeffrey and his friends were headed to FanFest downtown.  For those of you who don't know, FanFest is the largest comic book, sci-fi, horror, gaming convention in Canada, and has been around for 20 some years.  Jeff has been going down to the show for many years.  This year they wanted to go in costume, as a bunch of gangsters.  They realized that they could not take their plastic weapons with them, but they wanted a picture in full costume.

I picked an office building in Richmond Hill for the location, not far from Jeff's place.  Needless to say, I was surprised to learn that there was a credit union in the building, so we would have to hurry to avoid the coppers (gangster humour).  The shot did attract a little attention from the locals, but luckily no police showed up. Here was my favourite shot.

Jeff is the third guy in the shot.  I didn't realize that they were dressed up as characters from an online game called Payday.  So they were ask to pose for photos at the convention.  Who knew??? I liked this shot because the shadows reminded me of a jail cell.

Of more importance, Mary Ann's niece Aimee and her husband Gary celebrated the birth of their second son Oliver.  Simon is very happy to have a baby brother to pick on... I mean play with. Congratulations to all.

The third thing I wanted to mention was that I have been planning a trip to Alaska with Ron for over a year now, and its nearly here, only seven more sleeps.  Ron, and I are meeting up with two other friends and headed to Alaska to spend three days in Denali National Park, and four days in Kaktovik.  Kaktovik is a small Inupiat community on Barter Island, off the north coast of Alaska.  The opportunities there are photographing polar bears.  I won't give away the whole game plan, but it should be an interesting trip.

Being an avid photographer, the biggest issue is getting all the camera gear to the destination.  Here is a shot of the essential gear for the trip.

That big lens in the centre is a 600mm and weighs in at 15 lbs. and the big camera bag weighs in at a little over 6 lbs.  Keeping in mind that the carry on baggage allowance is 22 lbs, officially there is no room left for the rest of the gear.  We are also allowed a personal item of another 22 lbs, so that will be the smaller messenger bag, with other fragile stuff like the MacBook Pro, two external hard drives, and a couple of lenses.  All the less-fragile stuff like tripods, batteries and chargers will go in the checked luggage.

The only problem is the camera bodies, so the game plan is to put them in the big camera bag.  If we are asked to weigh the carry on luggage, then I have a vest which can hold the two bodies to get through check in.  Oh yes, being north of the Arctic Circle, there is the parka, snow pants, winter boots, and if there is any room left over, then I may add socks and underwear.

Wi-fi should be available in Alaska, so stay tuned to the adventure.

If you are reading this blog for the first time, don't forget to review the archives at the right side for earlier entries. And feel free to add a comment, as well as share this blog with your friends. If you have not already done so, please enter your email address in the "Follow my Blog by Email" box on the right hand side. It will be much easier for me to stay in touch with you. If you don't see a signup box on the right side, then click on the blog heading and that should take you to a webpage with better graphics. You should then see the signup box on the right side.  If you have trouble signing up, send me an email at mark.girard@rogers.com.

Thanks for reading...

Mark

The One That Didn't Get Away!

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Last weekend Mary Ann and I travelled to the US to visit our friends Dan and Mary Jane.  They live in the Cleveland area, and bought a lake house near Sandusky a few years ago.  We had been trying to get together with them for most of the summer, so we decided that last weekend was the best time to go.

Also visiting was Mary Jane's sister Joan and her husband Joe.  The six of us have known each other for years, and had a great time over the weekend.

The lake house is much more than a cottage, and can be used year round.

 The lake house is on a small island across the bay from Cedar Point amusement park.  The island is home to wildlife, especially herons and bald eagles.

Johnson Island has a very interesting history.  The island was used during the Civil War (1862 to 1865) to incarcerate Confederate Officers who were prisoners of war.  After the war, the cemetery was abandoned and the grave markers had fallen into disrepair.  In 1905 the lands were purchased by the United Daughters of the Confederacy and marble grave markers were installed for the known graves.  Over 200 graves have been positively identified, but many are not.  In 1932 the preservation of the site was assumed by the US Veterans Administration.

Dan is a big boater and fisherman.  One of the highlights of our visit was the fishing.  This time of year, the perch are running in Lake Erie.  Dan, Joe and I managed to head out Saturday morning and we caught about 30 perch, which was enough for a fish fry on Saturday evening.  Perch are not large fish, so we were fishing with ultralight rods and 6 pound test line.  While reeling in a perch, something big and heavy hit my line, and nearly bent the rod in half.  But it quickly released the perch, and moved on.  The first time, I caught the perch, and sure enough, it had teeth marks across it's midsection.  The second time something hit, it stole the perch from my line and I was empty handed.

But the third time was a charm.  I managed to hook and reel in the biggest walleye (pickerel) that I had ever seen.  It measured 30 inches and weighed an about 10 pounds.  Not bad for 6 pound test line.  Dan had to scamper to find the net, which doesn't get much use catching little perch.

And here is the one that didn't get away!

We had a great weekend, and look forward to next year's invitation...

If you are reading this blog for the first time, don't forget to review the archives at the right side for earlier entries. And feel free to add a comment, as well as share this blog with your friends. If you have not already done so, please enter your email address in the "Follow my Blog by Email" box on the right hand side. It will be much easier for me to stay in touch with you. If you don't see a signup box on the right side, then click on the blog heading and that should take you to a webpage with better graphics. You should then see the signup box on the right side.  If you have trouble signing up, send me an email at mark.girard@rogers.com.

Thanks for reading...


Mark

Congratulations Chris!

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I started this blog a couple of years ago to share some of my thoughts and experiences about photography and travelling.  But occasionally a life event takes place that I want to share with my family and friends. This is one of those events.

Our son Christopher learned this morning that he passed his Chartered Accountancy exam, and is now a Chartered Accountant, just like his old man.  Aside from getting married and having children, passing these exams was one of the most challenging and stressful points in my life.  I’m sure Chris would agree this was the most stressful point in his life as well.

The three day exam was written in early June and the results were released this morning.  I can tell you from experience that the waiting period for the results to be released was just as stressful as writing the exams themselves.

So congratulations Chris, the waiting is finally over!

If you are reading this blog for the first time, don't forget to review the archives at the right side for earlier entries. And feel free to add a comment, as well as share this blog with your friends. If you have not already done so, please enter your email address in the "Follow my Blog by Email" box on the right hand side. It will be much easier for me to stay in touch with you. If you don't see a signup box on the right side, then click on the blog heading and that should take you to a webpage with better graphics. You should then see the signup box on the right side.  If you have trouble signing up, send me an email at mark.girard@rogers.com.

Thanks for reading...


Mark