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