Ouch!! The airborne girl in purple demonstrates why helmets really are a GREAT idea! I hope that’s a helmet. The boys, already down, are clearly so equipped.

Back in the day, growing up in Minnesota, we never had helmets. But since it was outside, we always wore thick stocking caps.

This is the “Ice Chalet” in Dimond Center, Anchorage, Alaska. The reason the ice is curved is because I was shooting the entire scene with a fisheye lens, and this is nearly a 100% crop of part of it.

The idea was to shoot at a slow enough exposure to blur any of the moving skaters’ faces, but still capture the essence of this fantastic venue that I hope will be able to stay open, despite the EPA’s new standard that may shut it down: The EPA’s War on Ice Rinks.

November 17, 2016

Olympus E-PL5 w/ fisheye lens

So Mom and I were on our way to an event, just before sunrise. When I opened the door, it startled a moose who then trotted in front of our garage. The other more slowly made her way there. They decided to munch on our raspberry bushes, which are right next to our driveway.

Since we couldn’t leave anyway, I decided to do my photo-a-day thing to capture the event until they left the yard. The Mom has a nice disposition, and showed me a cute expression in one of my photos captured there.

As we drove away, we saw the pair about 100 feet away, above Raspberry Road. So I got out of the car with my big boy camera this time, and took this photo of the mom and calf eating sunflower plants.

This is the public berm built to deflect sound. Our neighbor had the great idea to throw some sunflower seeds there, which grew into these.

The mom has a wonderful expression here too, and the calf can be seen behind. And that is a car going by on the right.

After taking this, I had to skedaddle because we were blocking our neighbor who was trying to leave. And we actually barely did make the beginning of our event anyway.

In all of the years I’ve lived here, starting in 1980, this is the first time I recall the moose almost making me late for an event. Although, there have been many times I’ve had to turn around or take a significant detour while walking on trails.

One time, I was driving into our driveway with the window down at night, and a moose startled me, being only a few feet away in our raspberries.

Years ago, I was walking on a trail immersed in prayer, listening to music with ear buds, and could have almost touched the moose that I walked by. I usually now pay more attention and don’t listen to music at all.

I have encountered some ornery moose on occasion too.

In this photo, the light was a little darker than this. I lightened it a bit in post.

She’s cute! Check out her snout/mouth especially : )

November 18, 2016

Canon 5Ds R

Four years ago, during my last day working for Delta (NWA), I photographed these hangers from inside the Anchorage International Airport here.

Now I get to compose these stunning hangers from the outside with my best gear at the best time : )

ConocoPhillips 737s N959BP & N668CP shuttle their workers to Alaska’s North slope: North Slope company ‘bus’ is a plane.

November 19, 2016

Canon 5Ds R

Upon leaving the Christmas Arts and Crafts Emporium at the Dena’ina Center, downtown Anchorage, I spotted this scene.

Who they are:

Alaskan Boreal Bouquet’s Gourmet Herbal Vinegars offer a tantalizing taste sensation as well as a fragrant memory of the endless summer sun of the subarctic. Organically grown herbs are cultivated without the use of chemicals on a traditional Alaskan homestead nestled in the boreal forest of Fairbanks. Fresh bouquets of flowering herbs are hand harvested and suspended in seasoned rice vinegar, in an attractively labeled, square marasca bottle.

November 20, 2016

Panasonic LX100

Fabulous variety of city lights reflected by the Peterson Tower in downtown Anchorage — while some windows don’t reflect. One office room has a sign that reads: “WARNING: WATCH FOR DOG MUSHERS.”

November 21, 2016

Canon 5Ds R

I discovered this lovely scene on my way to photograph the multicolored staircase, which I then photographed later: Photo-a-Day #87 (upper portion of staircase shown in center here).

Although, I do like this image, and did the best I could in processing and even tried another angle with a different lens later, my heart sank a bit when I first opened the image. Without the third dimension of depth, the overhead branch doesn’t reach over and the center tree merges too much with the foreground tree, so the wonderful sense of canopy is mostly lost.

With a 2D-only camera, it’s too hard to tell where those lights really are. This scene would be a great candidate for 3D, if such technology becomes practical someday, to capture the essence of this place.

November 22, 2016

Canon 5Ds R

Downtown Anchorage, Alaska

This is the first pile of moose poop that I recall having been dropped on our sidewalk. So to document this event for my photo-a-day project, I thought I’d walk the yard to see how many other piles I could find. I counted 14 total. We had a lot of visitors during this period, and enough days with very little snow….

At this time of year, moose mainly eat twigs, so these droppings are woody, dry and not really repulsive. It looks like sawdust where some are crumbling apart.

Gift shops actually sell gifts partly made of moose poop, for example: Handmade Alaska moose poop jewelry and gifts!

This is about 2/3 of a single pile, and resembles a figure 8:

November 23, 2016

Canon 5Ds R

I actually have fond memories of Holiday gas stations. As a boy, I used to ride my bicycle to the one near Minnehaha Creek in South Minneapolis. When we later moved to Bloomington, Minnesota, where Holiday is based, Dad would often get gas at a nearby location.

This beautiful, Swiss-roof-with-stone store is only a few blocks from our house and one block from Minnesota Drive — imagine that — in Alaska!

I also very much like their royal blue color — but their brightly lit, billboard ad peddling junk not so much — which I made sure to avoid in this image.

So during this Thanksgiving Day holiday, I photographed our nearby Holiday : )

Thanksgiving Day – November 24, 2016

Canon 5Ds R

Frankly, being that this was idea #89, I was running out of creative ideas, especially because the weather was so bland. I hadn’t taken a photo of downtown Anchorage in this series, and clouds obscured the mountain background, so I decided to portray a version of Anchorage I have not yet seen: Anchorage in bokeh balls (out-of-focus lights), with some Cook Inlet reflections where there wasn’t white ice.

TWO PHOTOS are below for COMPARISON: bokeh balls and in-focus, so the light sources can be identified.

The Hotel ‘Captain Cook’ sign is the largest red orb to the right of the three flags: USA, Britain and Alaska, which show that night’s northerly wind. Scattered lights in the upper left are from the Government Hill area.

This is Anchorage in bokeh!

November 27, 2016

Canon 5Ds R

(On standard to large screens, widen browser until images don’t get any bigger)

This begins the posting of my ninety, photo-a-day images, started on August 31, 2016 — which I’ll post in reverse-chronological order. Subjects will vary greatly. It starts here with a BANG!!

I was driving Mom’s Volvo (smashed here on right) during AM rush hour on Tudor Rd. in Anchorage, Alaska. The black, 6,000 pound Mercedes SUV (behind the police officers) was driving in the entrance lane to the Seward Highway beside us. Instead of going onto the highway, he drove straight into the barrier (which his front bumper still almost touches here), and his rear end jackknifed into us — to our utter dismay! As you can see, the streets were dry, so it wasn’t ice related.

The elderly driver’s airbag deployed, but he did have some injuries. He’s in the ambulance here. One of the police officers said he ran into a sign further down the road. I don’t know why.

Two drivers stopped to help and give testimonies to the police. Impressive and much appreciated!

Nov. 28, 2016

Panasonic LX100