Alaska Cruise - Approaching Juneau

So here we are approaching Juneau.  What does one think of when he hears about Juneau?  Alaska, Sara Palin, the fact that this is the capital instead of Anchorage.  More interesting, though, may be the fact that though situated on the mainland this is a de facto island, as there is no road network leading to the city due to the rugged terrain.  And in spite of the appearance that it is much larger, the population is only around 32,000 sans tourists (which add 6,000 on a given day between May and September).

Zoomed in shot below:

Alaska Cruise - Leaving Tracy Arm

After capturing this with the Bigger Cahoona I got a time lapse with my iPhone 7, which made it look like a speedboat hauling out of there.  A frustrating moment, though, as while the time lapse was ticking away a bald eagle flew low over the water behind us, swooping up to perch on top of an iceberg we just passed.  Would have made a spectacular photo, but would also have needed at least a 500mm lens to do it justice, which of course I didn't have.  A good one for the memory bank, though.

Next stop - Juneau!

Alaska Cruise - Tracy Arm Fjord, Cliffside Tree Silhouette

One of my favorites of all the Tracy Arm pics captured...

Alaska Cruise - Tracy Arm Fjord, Mountain Backdrop

Another testament to the tremendous weather we were fortunate to encounter...

Alaska Cruise - Tracy Arm Fjord, Tour Boats

These folks spent a hundred bucks apiece to be in this vessel, which toured for five hours getting up front and close to the icebergs and shoreline, obviously going places where the gargantuan cruise ship could not.  Almost took this excursion myself, but don't think I missed much by staying aboard the Princess.

Looks like the boat below was for touring as well, though perhaps a little more exclusive...

Alaska Cruise - Tracy Arm Fjord, Iceberg Landscape

The pic above looks like it could pass for a mountainscape, looking down with a lake in the distance; and cavernous walls below strewn with treacherous boulders of ice:

  However...zooming out reveals it to be just a tiny iceberg:

Alaska Cruise - Tracy Arm Fjord, Triple Waterfall

I was going crazy trying to capture the best angle for this waterfall and got two chances - one going into the fjord and the other as we were leaving.  Took a six-shot panorama which turned out really well, but the file is too big to convert to post or even convert to JPEG...something to tackle another day perhaps for a print.

The shot below was taken later in the day (on our way out) when the light was more favorable, which is evident in the coloration on the rocks:

Alaska Cruise - Tracy Arm Fjord, Frozen Reflection

Due to the facts that the boat was moving at all times, the Bigger Cahoona was working with a slower lens, and all of these pictures were taken hand-held, some didn't turn out so bad...though they did require a little more labor in post-capture.

Alaska Cruise - Tracy Arm Fjord, Deck Viewing

Never could figure out how to get on this deck above the bridge...guess you had to be someone special.

Note the captain in the bridge keeping an eye on things.  Wow - what it must be like to drive a big boat like this through these narrow passageways...

Alaska Cruise - Tracy Arm Fjord, Blue Icebergs

Even though they were small, backlit by the sun it was still possible to capture the deep blue that everyone was talking about.

Zoomed-out a bit to capture the scene below:

Alaska Cruise - Tracy Arm Fjord, Mountain Pass

We were very, very blessed in that for every day except one the weather was spectacular, even though the forecast was for rainy and cold the whole time.  This was a day and these were scenes that I would not have wanted to miss.

There was one drawback, though, and that was due to perception and nothing else.  This leg of the journey was sold as being a chance to view icebergs.  When I think of icebergs I think of big icebergs, but these were it.  A cruise ship couldn't navigate around any much bigger, I suppose...

Alaska Cruise - Ketchikan, One More Takeoff

One more airplane post before ending the series on Ketchikan.  Sometimes these guys got surprisingly close to the cruise ships and other vessels during their takeoff runs, which allowed for opportunities to capture just the right moment as they lifted off of the water's surface.

A few years ago the family was traveling by high-speed hydrofoil on Lake Como in Italy and a Cessna seaplane took off just in front of us.  Missed the moment then, and have ever since waited for exactly this:

Alaska Cruise - Ketchikan Helicopter

Love helicopters, though I'm a little nervous flying in one.  Had an uncle, my father's brother, who for a time sold helicopters for a living at the Bell facility in Fort Worth.  At about ten years of age, after getting a personal tour of the place and sitting in the cockpit of some of them, I began saving my pennies to buy one.  One day I got a hankering for some candy, however, so went to 7-11 and there it went...

Alaska Cruise - Ketchikan, Houses on Mountainside

Really, really like this pic, which might make a good print one day.  Zoomed out to catch more of the surroundings below, with 2-shot panorama at the bottom:

Always felt it would be awesome to become a Sourdough (someone who lives through a winter in Alaska), though here it would seem like cheating since the climate is so temperate.

Alaska Cruise - Ketchikan, Steep Road

Zoomed out a bit in the pic below:

Alaska Cruise - Ketchikan Ice Fishing Cabin

...and I call this a cabin because it's a bit more than a hut, no doubt being towed to its summer destination.

Alaska Cruise - Ketchikan, Eagle on Light Post

Walking on deck seven of the Emerald Princess after returning from our little hike, I saw some women excitedly taking pictures, and this is what they were aiming at.  This guy must exemplify what it's really like in the wild for bald eagles, and tells it all - survival in the wilds of Alaska is a dirty, messy business.

Zoomed in all the way to 300mm for the shot above, which is fairly cropped in.  Shots below are the full frame of same, then zoomed all the way out to 28mm from the same location on the ship:

Alaska Cruise - Ketchikan Landing Sequence

The series below was a little more difficult in that the plane was much further away, but managed to get all of the shots fairly even in post-capture:

...and finally we zoom out as he coasts in to shore:

Alaska Cruise - Ketchikan Takeoff Sequence

Capturing an airplane taking off requires 3-D focus tracking, which was no problem for the Bigger Cahoona.  In fact the Big Cahoona, my D300s, could have done the same thing, but the focus system in the newer D850 is a little more capable and energetic.  As long as I've owned DSLR's, this is the first time I've tried, and it seemed to work with this sequence, keeping the nose of the airplane in tack-sharp focus as it made its way closer and closer to the camera:

Alaska Cruise - Ketchikan, Lone Plane

As stated in a post from a few days ago, there is a lot of airplane activity in Alaska, much of it from the water.  I've always wanted to capture a seaplane just as it was taking off or landing, and got plenty of chances here.  Within the next few posts I will break precedent and include as many as nine pics in one post in order to sequence as much of the takeoff (or landing) as possible.

Alaska Cruise - Ketchikan, Captive Owl

This guy was in the same enclosure as its companion the eagle, but of course (and probably thankfully to him) didn't get nearly the attention.