If you follow the Highway as far North as you can go on Vanvouver Island you find yourself in Port Hardy. Even though this is the end of the road there is still much further you can go by car ferry to Prince Rupert. From Prince Rupert you can continue inland by road or board the Alaska State Ferry to various ports there.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
End of the road...
A bit of a drismal day, but I did get a chance to take a few pictures just the same. This picture is with the Sigma 10-20 at about 15mm.
If you follow the Highway as far North as you can go on Vanvouver Island you find yourself in Port Hardy. Even though this is the end of the road there is still much further you can go by car ferry to Prince Rupert. From Prince Rupert you can continue inland by road or board the Alaska State Ferry to various ports there.
If you follow the Highway as far North as you can go on Vanvouver Island you find yourself in Port Hardy. Even though this is the end of the road there is still much further you can go by car ferry to Prince Rupert. From Prince Rupert you can continue inland by road or board the Alaska State Ferry to various ports there.
Something from the wide angle
I haven't had much of a chance to do anything fun the last 3-4 weeks and that includes taking photos. I did get out about two weeks ago and take a few photos but it has taken me this long just to get them off the camera and look at them.
I had intended on taking a few sunset photos on this day but the clouds and sun weren't going to cooperate so I switched up my plans and got a little "clouds on the water" action using the Sigma wide angle lens.
More Flowers!
I have position my camera on top of the flower, and fill-in with the flash. Also, I covered the flash head with a piece of cardboard with a hole about a size of a nickle in the center. That way only my main object will expose, and the rest of the frame under expose.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Big Waves
The events of the past 24 hours leave me with mixed feelings of awe, sorrow, humility and respect for the fierce power of nature. I'm sure this is true for all who have been following the news out of Japan as it unfolds. For those of us here on the Coast the possibility of earthquakes and tsunamis is ever present.
The events of the past 24 hours also bring to mind one of my earliest memorys, the Great Alaska Earthquake magnitude 8.6 and subsequent Pacific wide tidal wave in 1964!
It was March 27th 1964 a few days before my 4th birthday at the time we lived on a small island in Sitka Sound near Sitka Alaska, I recall my Father and Mother bundling up my younger Brother and myself and heading to the highest part of the island to wait out the aproching tidal wave. The Island was only 32 feet at it's highest point. My Father and his older brother who had rushed over by boat to warn us went back down closer to the beach to watch the coming waves.
My younger brother and myself in Alaska 1964.As circumstances would have it the tide was low at the time the tidal wave struck the Sitka area and the waves did not come above the hight of the highest tides though much damage was done to docks and boats just the same. We were all very fortunate.
Interesting how these things weave themselves into our lives and burn themselves into our memories...
Not a pretty picture
I know that this has nothing to do with photography but since there are a few of us on here that have a true love for Hawaii I thought I would post this news story.
Hopefully they are wrong about the wave!
Honolulu, Other Parts of Pacific Brace for Tsunami
HONOLULU - Hawaii and other parts of the Pacific including the U.S. western coast braced for a destructive tsunami early Friday after a massive earthquake struck in Japan.
Tsunami sirens were sounded and coastal areas were being evacuated in Hawaii, where the first waves were expected to hit about 6 a.m. PST Friday.
Waves about a foot and a half high hit Wake Island in the Northern Pacific, meaning the biggest waves to hit Hawaii could reach more than 6 feet, said Gerard Fryer, a geophysicist for the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.
Residents in coastal areas across the Pacific from Hawaii to Guam were ordered to evacuate to shelters and higher ground. In Hawaii's tourist district of Waikiki, visitors were being moved to higher floors of their hotels. Residents waited in long lines stocking up on gas, bottled water, canned food and generators.
"We're preparing for the worst and we're praying for the best," said John Cummings III, spokesman for the Honolulu Department of Emergency Management.
Tsunamis can travel at speeds of 500 mph, as fast as a jetliner. Tsunami warnings are issued due to the imminent threat of a tsunami. Waves could hit the western coast of the United States between 7 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. PST Friday.
The warnings issued by the Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center cover an area stretching the entire western coast of the United States and Canada from the Mexican border to Chignik Bay in Alaska.
In Alaska, a dozen small communities along the Aleutian Island chain were on alert.
"Everyone in that area knows, when you feel it, move - don't wait for a siren," said John Madden, director of the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. The largest affected town is Unalaska, population about 4,000.
The tsunami was expected to hit the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory at 1 a.m. PST, but no big waves came. Waves about 2.6 feet high hit the beach in Saipan, and sirens still sounded in the empty streets.
Maria Mettao, who works at the front desk of the Hyatt Regency Saipan in the Northern Marianas, said hotel staff has been given the all-clear. Mettao said the hotel has allowed guests to leave from the higher floors where they had been evacuated.
In the Philippines, officials ordered an evacuation of coastal communities along the country's eastern seaboard in expectation of a tsunami following the 8.9-magnitude earthquake in Japan.
Disaster management officials in Albay province southeast of Manila say they ordered residents to move to designated evacuation sites that are at least 15 feet (5 meters) above sea level.
In Guam, authorities advised people to evacuate low areas of the U.S. territory and seek ground higher than 50 feet above sea level and 100 feet inland.
Australia was not in danger because it was protected by island nations to the north, including Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, that would largely absorb any wave activity, said Chris Ryan, a forecaster at the National Meteorological and Oceanographic Centre, the Australian government agency that monitors the threat.
The warning was issued Thursday at 9:31 HST p.m. Sirens were sounded about 30 minutes later in Honolulu alerting people in coastal areas to evacuate. About 70 percent of Hawaii's 1.4 million population resides in Honolulu, and as many as 100,000 tourists are in the city on any given day.
Honolulu's Department of Emergency Management has created refuge areas at community centers and schools, and authorities on Kauai island have opened 11 schools to serve as shelters for those who have left tsunami inundation zones.
Gov. Neil Abercrombie told residents to take the warning seriously and head for higher ground. A small 4.5-magnitude earthquake struck the Big Island just before 2 a.m., but there were no reports of damages and the quakes weren't likely related, a geophysicist with the United States Geological Survey said.
U.S. Coast Guard rescue crews were making preparations throughout the Hawaiian Islands to provide post-tsunami support, with cutter and aircraft crews positioning themselves to conduct response and survey missions.
Dennis Fujimoto said the mood is calm but concerned on the island of Kauai while people readying for the tsunami.
There's long lines at gas stations, and at the Wal-Mart, one of the few places that was open to midnight, people were stocking up on supplies. "You got people walking out of there with wagonloads of water," he said.
Chip McCreary, the center's director, said tsunami waves have the potential to swamp coastal areas of all Hawaii's islands.
"What these waves look like is an elevation of sea level, where the sea level will rise above its normal level and stay high for 10 or 15 minutes before it starts to recede," he said. "As a result of this, in a tsunami wave, that water can flood the coast line and be a hazard to people and buildings on the coast."
McCreary said the threat will become clearer when the waves hit Wake Island and Midway.
"Tsunami waves, because of their long length, they wrap around our islands very efficiently," he said.
Readings have come in from deep ocean gages deployed since the 2004 tsunami in Banda Acha in Japan and around Wake Island.
Hopefully they are wrong about the wave!
Honolulu, Other Parts of Pacific Brace for Tsunami
HONOLULU - Hawaii and other parts of the Pacific including the U.S. western coast braced for a destructive tsunami early Friday after a massive earthquake struck in Japan.
Tsunami sirens were sounded and coastal areas were being evacuated in Hawaii, where the first waves were expected to hit about 6 a.m. PST Friday.
Waves about a foot and a half high hit Wake Island in the Northern Pacific, meaning the biggest waves to hit Hawaii could reach more than 6 feet, said Gerard Fryer, a geophysicist for the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.
Residents in coastal areas across the Pacific from Hawaii to Guam were ordered to evacuate to shelters and higher ground. In Hawaii's tourist district of Waikiki, visitors were being moved to higher floors of their hotels. Residents waited in long lines stocking up on gas, bottled water, canned food and generators.
"We're preparing for the worst and we're praying for the best," said John Cummings III, spokesman for the Honolulu Department of Emergency Management.
Tsunamis can travel at speeds of 500 mph, as fast as a jetliner. Tsunami warnings are issued due to the imminent threat of a tsunami. Waves could hit the western coast of the United States between 7 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. PST Friday.
The warnings issued by the Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center cover an area stretching the entire western coast of the United States and Canada from the Mexican border to Chignik Bay in Alaska.
In Alaska, a dozen small communities along the Aleutian Island chain were on alert.
"Everyone in that area knows, when you feel it, move - don't wait for a siren," said John Madden, director of the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. The largest affected town is Unalaska, population about 4,000.
The tsunami was expected to hit the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory at 1 a.m. PST, but no big waves came. Waves about 2.6 feet high hit the beach in Saipan, and sirens still sounded in the empty streets.
Maria Mettao, who works at the front desk of the Hyatt Regency Saipan in the Northern Marianas, said hotel staff has been given the all-clear. Mettao said the hotel has allowed guests to leave from the higher floors where they had been evacuated.
In the Philippines, officials ordered an evacuation of coastal communities along the country's eastern seaboard in expectation of a tsunami following the 8.9-magnitude earthquake in Japan.
Disaster management officials in Albay province southeast of Manila say they ordered residents to move to designated evacuation sites that are at least 15 feet (5 meters) above sea level.
In Guam, authorities advised people to evacuate low areas of the U.S. territory and seek ground higher than 50 feet above sea level and 100 feet inland.
Australia was not in danger because it was protected by island nations to the north, including Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, that would largely absorb any wave activity, said Chris Ryan, a forecaster at the National Meteorological and Oceanographic Centre, the Australian government agency that monitors the threat.
The warning was issued Thursday at 9:31 HST p.m. Sirens were sounded about 30 minutes later in Honolulu alerting people in coastal areas to evacuate. About 70 percent of Hawaii's 1.4 million population resides in Honolulu, and as many as 100,000 tourists are in the city on any given day.
Honolulu's Department of Emergency Management has created refuge areas at community centers and schools, and authorities on Kauai island have opened 11 schools to serve as shelters for those who have left tsunami inundation zones.
Gov. Neil Abercrombie told residents to take the warning seriously and head for higher ground. A small 4.5-magnitude earthquake struck the Big Island just before 2 a.m., but there were no reports of damages and the quakes weren't likely related, a geophysicist with the United States Geological Survey said.
U.S. Coast Guard rescue crews were making preparations throughout the Hawaiian Islands to provide post-tsunami support, with cutter and aircraft crews positioning themselves to conduct response and survey missions.
Dennis Fujimoto said the mood is calm but concerned on the island of Kauai while people readying for the tsunami.
There's long lines at gas stations, and at the Wal-Mart, one of the few places that was open to midnight, people were stocking up on supplies. "You got people walking out of there with wagonloads of water," he said.
Chip McCreary, the center's director, said tsunami waves have the potential to swamp coastal areas of all Hawaii's islands.
"What these waves look like is an elevation of sea level, where the sea level will rise above its normal level and stay high for 10 or 15 minutes before it starts to recede," he said. "As a result of this, in a tsunami wave, that water can flood the coast line and be a hazard to people and buildings on the coast."
McCreary said the threat will become clearer when the waves hit Wake Island and Midway.
"Tsunami waves, because of their long length, they wrap around our islands very efficiently," he said.
Readings have come in from deep ocean gages deployed since the 2004 tsunami in Banda Acha in Japan and around Wake Island.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Welcome to Spring Season of 2011.
You are probably wondering why I post a Bride portrait with these flower pictures! Today I went to Dallas arboretum to shoot these flowers for the first time. For the last 5 years I have shot a few Bridal portraits at this location, but never have energy after the session to do my personal shooting.
Anyway, while I'm waiting for this Bride to finish at one of the location, but could not help to see her sister using a D40 without other accessories to do this job, especially in high Noon lighting.
First, I lend her my reflector, then I realized she's not going pull this job easily. By looking at their faces, they are in desperately need a lot of helps from someone know how to do this. Instead of turn my back on them, I pop the question, then next thing I'm running the show. It's free! But, I feel good about it. Only 20 min. from my service, and I hope my picture will last a lifetime for her.
That's why I never can run my wedding photography as a business, I guess I'm a kind of person thinking about the quality over the $$$.
Monday, March 7, 2011
WILDFIRE
I will say that every Photographer should get to experience the Magical and extreme bending of the Light from an approaching Dust Storm below the Cap Rock!
Just had to include a pic of my sturdy steed bathed in the light of the fire. So becoming of Her!
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Talons
While out walking on a nearby beach yesterday we found a drowned Eagle. You don't realize just how large these birds are until you get up close. For scale my 6'4" Son held his hand beside one of the Eagles tallons while I took a picture.Kauai Flower on Canon point and shoot camera.
Found this flower on the ground on our way to secret falls in Kauai. I think our tour guide told us that the reason for these flowers on the ground are caused by spuirrels like to eat the flower stem at night. Once, the flower on the ground most likely the wild boars will eat them. Now I know what bait to use when I want to shoot wild boar. LOL.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Young Raven
Took this picture with the Sigma 120-400 at 400mm. Still having problems with the focus motor in this lens and will be sending the entire unit in for warranty repair. Aparently as I mentioned before this is a known problem with a whole batch of these lenses. Even with this little problem I am still very happy with the pictures I get using this lens.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
March, In like a Lion...
Woke up yesterday to 6" of white surprise! My dogs sures loved it.
Then today we woke up in the dark after a wet stormy night... The trees definately bested the power lines this round!
Hopefully that's the end of the "In like a Lion" part.
Hopefully that's the end of the "In like a Lion" part.Now bring on the "Out like a Lamb"!
Sunday, February 27, 2011
GEARS AND A WHEEL
A walk across the top of Overholser Dam one will find straight rows of gears that were once hand operated.
I sure hope the workers had more than one wheel because that was a lot of 'DAM' gates to open!
Friday, February 25, 2011
The tree
The large Banyon tree on Magic Island is the perfect place to relax in the shade on a warm Hawaiian afternoon.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Well????
OK, so it wasn't a UFO. I was going to title the photo "Look Ma, No tripod!".
The photo was taken of a cruise ship sitting just off the Lahaina Harbor on Maui. I took the photo with a Sony point and shoot from the lanai of my room one night after we had returned from having dinner. I knew better than to even try but I did it anyway. The camera has a 10x zoom on it and I had it zoomed all the way out and I cropped these photos by about two-thirds. As you can guess, this picture and the one I posted yesterday were taken hand held and after a day of being a tourist and having a cocktail (or two).
Q got me to thinking about Hawaii again (like I ever stop) when he posted the photos of the paddle surfers. This got me looking at my old Hawaii photos to see what I had that I could post that wouldn't bore everybody. This last one was also taken from the lanai of our room but during the day (and hand held with the same point and shoot). This was about 7:30 a.m. and there were already people sitting in the lounge chairs waiting to get those bronze bodies.
Maybe it's just me, but I don't understand the concept of traveling thousands of miles to a tropical paradise to sit by a pool.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Cold and clear... Burrr
Port Hardy Coast Guard Station
Have the Arctic outflow winds happening in this part of the world just now! Beautiful photography weather but too cold to stay out of the truck for very long... Why can't it just be summer again for a few days at least! LOL
Is it a UFO??
OK, I promise I will get out and take some photos soon. But until then, I was bored and playing with the old photos again and thought I could make this one interesting.
So how'd I do?
Monday, February 21, 2011
SHINED RAILS
No rust on these tracks! Several Freight Trains a day assure a highly polished finish to the steel on these rails.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Playing with fire
Don't ask me why but a couple of years ago when I was burning brush in my yard I felt compelled to take some pictures. I wasn't sure what I would get but I was going to try anyway. I did get a lot of orange and yellow!
Saturday, February 19, 2011
PRIZED CATTLE
Nice specimen of a mama cow with her horns beginning to form the natural twist as they grow. All Longhorns are branded with the WR on their left shoulder.
Duck, duck, duck, duck... Goose!
Many years ago in Coal Harbour one of the locals kept some domesticated Canadian Geese. Because the weather here is so mild these geese never bothered to fly South for the winter.More recently another type of goose the Brant a much smaller Russian goose has decided to winter here also. Though these two groups of geese usually ignore each other this picture is evidence that this hasn't always been the case. Note the Brant with Canadian Goose markings.
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