Bonfire and friends

Happy Birthday! - HDR Karson

Last week was a friend's birthday, so there was a Saturday night bonfire on the beach to celebrate.  It's now light out until almost 9 pm, and the evening was so calm and beautiful.  We've had sunny skies and highs in the mid to upper 40s for more than a week.  It's good to get a reminder of why it's great to live here!

Steve, roasting some Little Smokies.

HDR sunset at Indian Cove.

Staying warm as the sun goes down.

Right brain, left brain

I spend a lot of my day thinking in numbers, thinking about science, and staring at a computer screen.  I mean, it's what I signed up to do when I went back to school, so I'm not complaining.  But the deeper I get into research and computer modeling, the more I find I need to flex the creative side of my brain.  I'm afraid that if I don't, I'll turn into another absent-minded professor type who wears mismatched shoes because...wait, what was I saying?

Anyways, I really like photography, and obviously living here in AK means no shortage of pretty scenery and wildlife.  So, I spend a lot of time taking pictures and being outside, then thinking about ways to make my pictures better...or just different...or just trying something crazy.  Recently, I've started to get interested in HDR - high dynamic range - photography.  It's largely a digital processing technique that uses a set of photographs - one underexposed, one 'correctly' exposed, and one overexposed, then combines them in a software program.  By doing this you can capture more of the light dynamics that your eye can see but the camera generally cannot in a singe exposure.  It's borderline photography-creative art in my book.  I used to be more of a purist in that only 'real' photographs that looked good without processing (in say, photoshop) were "Photography" (with a capital P).  But, I'm opening my mind now.  I still don't love composite shots passed off as photographs...such as when someone photographs a castle during the day, swaps out the boring blue sky for a moody cloud backdrop, then adds a wild pony to the foreground.  I think it's fine to do that and call it art, but in my opinion, it's no longer a photograph, since that scene never existed in the real world (or at least all in one place at one time).

But HDR is something I am enjoying because it allows for some creativity with processing, but everything is still 'real', in the sense that I can change contrast and amp up colors and make it look crazy without adding new elements.  So, it's pseudo-photography, but fun!  And I should also note - I don't think this sort of technique should replace good fundamental photograph skills (which I am working on but definitely don't have down yet).

What does a HDR photograph look like?  Well, they can be subtle or a slap in the face.  I'm noticing them all over now, which is kind of cool.  Here's an example of a picture I took on a stormy-snowy day when the light was fantastic, but when I looked at the photograph, it was just flat.  Kinda boring.  It totally didn't capture the light dynamics I saw when I pulled over to take the picture, though I still like it and with some work on light balance it would be better.

Now here's the same picture with HDR-style processing, which just plays with the light balance (among other things):

It's the EXACT same photograph, just processed differently. You see more of the textures in the clouds, the white of the fresh snow is brighter.  The blueish cast is gone (which I could have done in the original just by correcting my white balance).  It looks real, but almost surreal.  I don't like to look at the bottom picture and think 'photograph' but I do like it and think it's pretty - like you could walk right into it! - and almost like a photograph. 

Here's two more examples:

      First, one in color...

     And then a similar angle but done in black and white...

So much sunshine

Another beautiful day in Juneau.  We have a visiting scientist in town (from North Carolina) for a couple of days and since it was so nice out, we decided to drive out to Eagle Beach to chat and see some scenery instead of sitting in a conference room for a meeting.  This is a much nicer view!

We're getting far enough into spring that clear skies at night no longer means very cold temperatures!  That's an exciting turn of events up here. :)

Just another day walking the dog

Yesterday I took Seca for a walk to the marina across the street.  I wasn't paying a lot of attention to the piers as we walked, I was too busy looking up (at all the bald eagles sitting on the tops of the pilings, and hoping they didn't poop on me), and looking at the water, looking for seals (it's baby seal season!).  And that is how I totally missed seeing the dozen or so seals (and pups!) hauled out on the pier until they all went scrambling into the water and nearly gave me a heart attack.  And I supposed Seca and I nearly gave them heart attacks as well.  One seal pup stayed on the pier long enough for me ooogle it.  So stinkin' adorable.  Then they all hovered in the water, waiting for me to leave again.  Whooops.  I feel pretty bad about not noticing them and scaring them into the water. 

I should also note that bald eagle poop is both large and messy.  It wasn't hard to spot their favorite perches, based on the messes below them.

Another mountain biking pic

Steve texted me this photo yesterday with the message "We didn't ride this one."  Presumably that means they walked down/around it...

And YAY (for me)...he comes home tonight.  :)

Mountain biking

Steve sent me a picture today...sure is different weather there than the driving snow we're getting here. 

I wish I was in Vegas too...

Steve left yesterday for a mountain biking trip to Vegas (and beyond).  He and a friend will be hitting the trails, each with their own GoPro camera to record their fun.  I hope he sends me a picture or two to share...and that he comes back without any broken bones.  They come back on Friday night. 

I texted him this morning to let him know about the fabulous weather he was missing.
     Me: Good morning!  It's snowing here - and sticking!
     Steve: 69 and sunny.  High of 81.  I'm never coming back.
     Me: You'd miss Seca.  You'll be back.  :)
     Steve: Ok...
    
I'm a bit jealous of the weather there.  I'm definitely done with winter. 

So I'm on my own this week, which is actually pretty unusual for me.  I'm on spring break, but since I'm done with classes that doesn't actually mean much.  I might take a day off if it gets nice outside, but if not, it's business as usual.

Ice caves!

We've had a loooong stretch of really sunny, cold weather here, but it's slated to end tomorrow.  While I'm happy for warmer temperatures to return, it'll be sad to see snow (forecasted for Friday and Saturday) and rain return.  Though rain should temper some of this ridiculous dust that's everywhere now...

Given that it's been so cold for so long, it seemed like a great chance to hike out to the ice caves.  You can get there via overland trails/bushwhacking in summer or winter, but in winter when Mendenhall Lake is frozen over (like it is now) you can take a major shortcut across the lake.  I'm not sure how long the overland hike takes (maybe 3 hours each way?) but it's common to get lost because there's not actually a trail for the last half.  The lake way, however, took only 30 minutes each way (to the glacier face) and since it's been so nice for so long, there's practically a highway of trampled snow leading right to the caves.  That's also good because walking on or near the glacier can be dangerous when there's fresh snow or melting snow - lots of sink holes and crevasses!

Walking across the frozen lake to Mendenhall Glacier

First, let me say it was amazing.  Simply beyond words.  Second, OMG is was COLD outside.  When we left the parking lot, it was -3 outside, fortunately no wind.  By the time the sun took the lake out of shadow, it was warmer (maybe 10 F?) and finally on our trip back it was 25-30 F. 

This (below) is the face of the left side of the glacier.  That's were you approach to see the ice caves because the right side is very steep and not easily climable.  The glacier is still advancing and calving, even in winter, thus the ice heaves in front of it.

This picture was taken just behind the face of the glacier. You can see one small cave in the middle.  Standing back here you hear nearly constant pops and groans and cracking and splashing of water.  It's such a dynamic landscape, and kind of creepy sounding!  Occasionally you hear loud, low booms, which are either the lake ice cracking or the glacier cracking. 

You need to hike farther up the left flank (on the glacier) for a ways before you come to a huge ice cave carved out of the side of the glacier.  We saw several huge sinkholes on the glacier - 8-10 feet across and you couldn't see the bottom, not that I was actually close enough to the edge to look all the way down. 

I got down to the cave before part of our group and I'm glad I did, because I was able to take this picture to provide some perspective about the sheer size of the cave.  Yes, we walked across the cave, not actually knowing we were on top of it. It was huge.  I'll admit that I have no idea how the caves form or how long they last (or how fast they change). We explored the inside a bit, I didn't go back as far as some in the group (*cough* Steve). 

Steve, peering into the mouth of the cave.

The farther back you go into the cave, the more intense the color of the ice was.  We had left the parking lot of the glacier visitor center at 9 am, and we had the cave to ourselves.  It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen, I'm so glad we made the trek out to it.  It's hard to see from these pictures, but the floor of the cave is covered in a super-fine powdery dust.  It's ground up rock created by the glacier, and it's a light greyish color.  I finally understand why glacier-fed rivers are such a milky color...they're laden with this fine sediment!

I'll post some more pictures on facebook, if you are interested in seeing more.  If we're not facebook friends, we probably should be!