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Greetings,
Just another quick update....
I've got space in my Sitka tour, my Z6 gets a workout, and our lawn is looking lush!!
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One opening in Sitka Whales and more tour
I recently had an opening in my Sitka photo tour, August 2-7.
This tour is limited to four participants. That means plenty of room for moving about on the boat.
Our captain is Captain Gary of Captain Gary’s Sitka Adventures. Gary was born and raised in Sitka and has spent much of his life on the waters of Sitka Sound. He knows the places, the critters and more.
This tour revolves around three three-hour excursions on the sound where we’ll see humpback (and maybe other) whales, sea otters, sea lions, seals, plenty of birds, and fishing boats.
I’ve been out on Sitka Sound a bunch of times and it’s always fun, exciting and educational. And we always come away with some great pictures.
 When we’re not out on the Sound, or resting from being out on the sound, there are multiple harbors to photograph along with the nearby rain forest, the Totem poles at Sitka National Historical Park, salmon running in Indian Creek, the Alaska Raptor Center, Harbor Mountain (sunsets!) and more.
And Sitka itself is a great little town to walk and explore.
This is small group tour and strictly limited to four participants.
More information can be found on my Sitka page.
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Dusting off my Nikon Z6
Well I finally made it out to the Sol Duc trail in Olympic National Park. I've been wanting to do this since the park was closed down at the beginning of the pandemic. Then when it did open, the Sol Duc road was still closed for winter. And then yard projects....
But finally, I made it. And it was fantastic. I love all the possibilities of this little stream, and this time my scouting found this little Trillium next to the stream. There were actually a number of them around, but finding one in a good spot to include a nice portion of the stream is the challenge. This was the only scene I photographed and I took my time with it. I wished the trillium was turned to face the camera a little better, but it was a bit shy.
For this scene, I took several shot at different focal points and then blended the final image in Photoshop. In the field, I set up the Z6 in its Focus Shift Shooting mode, which automatically changes the focus point, starting at what I focused at in the front and continuing through the back of the scene.
I'm still learning what settings are needed for particular scenes, and the settings I used for this caused the camera to take more shots than needed. But better too many than too few. This is the result of blending nine images.
Photoshop did a fine job blending this too, with just a narrow band of out-of-focusness that needed cropping.
I'll be back at this location next week to share this spot with my workshop group. We may need to visit more than once!
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A cool, wet spring
It seems like winter keeps wanting to come back. It's been mostly cool and damp these last few weeks, with a few days that actually popped up near 80 degrees!
But it's been good for the lawn and all the yard flowers are starting to come out.
I figure I better enjoy the lawn while I can because come summer will eventually get here and start drying things out.
I rather hope the clouds stick around another week or so since I'm heading to the rain forest next week. And bald blue skies are no fun for sunsets at the coast.
Hope to have some more pictures to share next month from Olympic as well as Bandon.
Be safe everyone!
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