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September 15, 2009, a Tuesday
Wasilla (D&RA), Alaska, USA
— Hatcher Pass one last time
I had my normal breakfast but with the LavAzza coffee to go because we were going to go to Hatcher Pass one last time. We left around 8:40 in the Jeep.
We stopped around 9:10 to photograph the cascades on Little Sustina Creek at the gateway to Hatcher Pass. The round boulders and fall color added to an already spectacular scene. I photographed first with my 24 TS (tilt/shift) so I could incorporate foreground elements really close and make them appear large (the "24" part) and use the tilt function to align the plane of focus to get the foreground and background in focus with a moderate f-stop (below left). I used a polarizer to enhance the reflections off the water and either six (6) or seven (7) stops of neutral density (ND) to increase the exposure time to get the glassy-smooth water.
Then I switched to using my 24-105 so so I could "get closer" to the main cascade (above right). Both of these images were taken from almost the same location, but the focal length and resulting composition give them quite a different feel. We left around 10:25 and ...
Continued heading up Hatcher Pass. We stopped at the pika rock field, and the pika weren't doing anything interesting so we continued up the pass. There weren't any Arctic ground squirrels at the top of the pass, so we kept going down the other side of the pass. We explored along the Upper Willow Valley road and saw lots of nice color, but the light wasn't particularly good for photography. We turned around and went back over Hatcher Pass. There was a hoary marmot out on a rock sunning itself near the pika rock field, but it jumped off and ran down the hill into thick brush before we could stop. :(
We returned to the RV around 1:00. I vacuumed the RV interior while J went inside to have a "real shower." I showered in the RV, then downloaded the images I took today. I selected and processed some images for the blog, then worked up a blog entry. I started to grill burgers on our grill so I wouldn't turn them into hockey pucks. (When I had borrowed D&RA's grill before, it was much hotter than I was accustomed to, and the meat was way overdone.)
D&RA came out to the RV for dinner around 6:05. In addition to the grilled cheeseburgers with fresh fixin's, we also had some of J's three-bean salad and some potato salad. We sat around and visited for a while. We said goodbye to D&RA because we were going to leave tomorrow. D&RA went back inside around 8:00 and I did the dishes.
I had some Aalborg Akvavit while working on a blog entry.
We stopped around 9:10 to photograph the cascades on Little Sustina Creek at the gateway to Hatcher Pass. The round boulders and fall color added to an already spectacular scene. I photographed first with my 24 TS (tilt/shift) so I could incorporate foreground elements really close and make them appear large (the "24" part) and use the tilt function to align the plane of focus to get the foreground and background in focus with a moderate f-stop (below left). I used a polarizer to enhance the reflections off the water and either six (6) or seven (7) stops of neutral density (ND) to increase the exposure time to get the glassy-smooth water.
Little Susitna River Cascades - I
Hatcher Pass, Alaska, USA
Canon EOS 1Ds Mk III, 24 TS,
polarizer, ND, 6 sec, f8, ISO 100
polarizer, ND, 6 sec, f8, ISO 100
Little Susitna River Cascades - II
Hatcher Pass, Alaska, USA
Canon EOS 1Ds Mk III, 24-105 (at 47mm),
polarizer, ND, 10 sec, f11, ISO 100
polarizer, ND, 10 sec, f11, ISO 100
Continued heading up Hatcher Pass. We stopped at the pika rock field, and the pika weren't doing anything interesting so we continued up the pass. There weren't any Arctic ground squirrels at the top of the pass, so we kept going down the other side of the pass. We explored along the Upper Willow Valley road and saw lots of nice color, but the light wasn't particularly good for photography. We turned around and went back over Hatcher Pass. There was a hoary marmot out on a rock sunning itself near the pika rock field, but it jumped off and ran down the hill into thick brush before we could stop. :(
We returned to the RV around 1:00. I vacuumed the RV interior while J went inside to have a "real shower." I showered in the RV, then downloaded the images I took today. I selected and processed some images for the blog, then worked up a blog entry. I started to grill burgers on our grill so I wouldn't turn them into hockey pucks. (When I had borrowed D&RA's grill before, it was much hotter than I was accustomed to, and the meat was way overdone.)
D&RA came out to the RV for dinner around 6:05. In addition to the grilled cheeseburgers with fresh fixin's, we also had some of J's three-bean salad and some potato salad. We sat around and visited for a while. We said goodbye to D&RA because we were going to leave tomorrow. D&RA went back inside around 8:00 and I did the dishes.
I had some Aalborg Akvavit while working on a blog entry.