Alaskan boat ride- Prince William Sound

Due to the horrible weather here I've been going back through and processing photos. If you'll recall back a few months ago while in Alaska we took a charter boat through the Prince William Sound for some photo sight seeing. An unfortunate turn of weather left the boat in some of the thickest fog I've ever seen for several hours. I decided to make the best of the situation and exploit my captive family and work with what I had at hand. The results are below. D300, 50mm f1.8

Tourists.

Alaska- More random shots

Title says it all- some more shots.


Hope, AK


Decrepit boat on Homer Spit.


Halibut carcass on beach, Homer spit. They taste better than they look. The fish that is- not the carcass...


Fishing boat in Whittier small boat harbor.


Fishing nets on Homer Spit


Boats in the Seward small boat harbor.

Alaska- random shots

Some random shots and sights from AK. Captions below.


Some kind of machinery (fishing related no doubt. Everything is fishing related) on the Homer spit.


A cruise ship docked in Seward harbor.


Small boat harbor in Seward.


Machinery at Potter Marsh.


Sea plane in Anchorage

Alaska- night photos

A few night photos from Alaska. There aren't many- sunset was around 11:30pm and I rarely managed to stay up that late.


Small boat harbor gangway in Seward


Whittier tilt/shift at night.


Small boat harbor in Seward.

Alaska- Animals!

Wildlife is a huge highlight of any Alaskan trip. We were lucky to see lots of it! Some of it in captivity but most in the wild. Captions under photos.


Horned Puffin at the Alaskan Sea Life Center. This Puffin was going nuts swimming under the water and shooting out into the air above the surface. He must have flapped around playing in the water for about five minutes without pause. Puffin fact: they only have their beautiful orange beaks and colors for mating season. The orange beak is actual a colored growth similar to a fingernail that covers their much duller bill underneath. When mating season is over, the cover falls off and their plumage dulls.


Red Legged Kittiwake and baby at Alaskan Sea Life Center in Seward. The entire Red legged Kittiwake population exists in the wild on a solitary island in the Aleutians.


Ducks (not sure what kind) at the Alaskan Sea Life Center.


Band of Lazy Sea Otters in Prince William sound vicinity. There were otters everywhere just floating around and cleaning themselves. They were very hard to get good photos of because they rarely let you get anywhere near them in a boat and they are very, very fast and small. On our return trip from Surprise Glacier we were surprised to not see anywhere near the number of otters that we stumbled upon on the way in. The reason became apparent when we rounded a corner shortly after and found them all floating and napping in two huge groups of about thirty or forty. The bonus was they were far less skittish in a group and we could get in a bit closer in the boat for some better shots.


Large fish in the Alaskan Sea Life Center


Mother otter and pup in Prince William Sound vicinity. Otter fun facts: Pups can't swim so their carried around by their mothers until they are old enough to fend for themselves. Otters also have pockets under their armpits in which they store clams and a shell or stick to open them.


Mountain goat outside of Anchorage. This guy was literally on the side of the road nibbling grass. Why he wasn't skittering around way up on the rock faces above with all his pals- who knows.

Alaska trip- all mapped out so far

*Edit: I guess I didn't mention it but the enclosed google map on the post is fully functional. You can click, zoom etc. Each of the flags corresponds to where a photo was taken and will pull up the photo if clicked. You can also get to the full frame map by clicking the highlighted "nifty Alaska Google map" text.

One of the cooler things that ProductsuperiorJenn and I have and regularly use are GPS taggers for our cameras. Sure we've received a few snickers and heard the snide under the breath comments of "Geeks!" and "Neeerds.." from some of our LeCliquer pals (and you know who you are...) but we don't care. Every one of our photos is stamped in the metadata with the exact spot we were standing when we took it. That means when we go on a trip to I don't know- let's say Alaska- and cruise around a bunch of tangled Fjords for nine hours in a boat when we get home we can figure out exactly where we were and what we saw there. We can also assemble all of it into a nifty Alaska google map.

I've gone through and added the locations of all the Alaska shots I've posted so far. I'll be updating the map with Jenn's photos and the locations of any of our future Alaska posts so you can check back.


View Alaka trip 2009 in a larger map

Alaska-last post on location!

All good things come to an end and with that we depart Alaska tomorrow evening. Although this will be my last post from this great state both Jenn and I will have much more to share after we arrive back home. We've seen countless animals, seen amazing sights, and eaten more fish than the law should allow and can't wait to share the rest of our photos with all of our friends here on Le Clique. So for one last time from our current location in beautiful Homer, Alaska enjoy some random shots from the day.

Alaska (more quickies)

Alaskan transportation (quickie)

Near Anchorage

RVs are ALL the rage, see this fine specimen found parked at Potter Marsh.

Alaska (more shots)

Puffin at the Sea Life Center in Seward.

Near Portage Glacier

Fish waste cage under the cleaning dock in Seward (a barge comes at some point and opens to the cage to haul the waste out to sea).

Begich-Boggs Visitors Center, at Portage Glacier (notice rise in water here versus link images)

Animal hides at an Anchorage street market

Alaska- Fogged in

Great weather for two days, fog and drizzle for the next. Bad for people with curly hair. Good for landscapes. Shot on D3 with 70-200 f2.8VR and 24-70 f2.8. Details below each shot.

Fog covered beach in Prince William Sound.

Mountainside trees shrouded in fog above Seward.

Glacial runoff below Exit glacier outside Seward. Exit glacier deposits one inch of sediment yearly across the valley floor in the form of silt and rock.