LastFrontier's PhotoBlog

pseudo termination dust

2008-07-24T22:16:27Z

Freezing levels touched the highest mountains and left what resembles termination dust. Termination dust refers to the light dusting of snow that falls upon the mountain peaks, usually in late August to mid-September. This has been an unusually wet and cool summer. Love it.

sweet Toki

2008-07-23T20:00:10Z

Dial-up speed is painfully slow. On the plus side, a) it's temporary, and b) I have plenty of time to vacuum dog fur while waiting for images to download. However, visiting other sites will have to wait until the cable guy deigns to visit. (I'm not that eager to vacuum.)

ah...ah...ah...aaaachoooo!

2008-07-22T08:28:34Z

macro Still studying what I've learned. Please, no further constructive comments for awhile, until I can absorb everything. Thank you all! words and images

thank you, merci, dank, danke...

2008-07-16T18:54:36Z

... děkuji ti, hvala ti, شكرا لك, 谢谢您, tak, bedankt, kiitos, σε ευχαριστώ, धन्यवाद, grazie, ありがとうございました, takk, 감사합니다, dziękuję, obrigado, arigato, mulţumesc, gracias, tack, terima kasih, and thank you in other languages that I cannot translate -- Hungarian, for example -- ah, this just in from vterezia: KÖSZÖNÖM. Thank you, vterezia. I wish I could speak and write all of these languages to thank you for your comments and advice, as so many of you write English well. I am grateful! However, I need to practice what I've learned, before I can post again. Have saved your comments as a PDF from the many posts I've deleted. Visit eljapa's slide show for some lovely work he's done lately with his new website and software. My first attempt at a little slide show has a link in the posts of one of my websites.

a touch of orange and tundra flower

2008-07-07T02:15:29Z

-- ISO 250 ev -.3 Cokin graduated filter 2 f/stops for sky Constructive comments encouraged!

Turnagain Arm

2008-07-05T06:26:55Z

We anticipated a six-foot bore tide along Turnagain Arm this afternoon, and almost missed seeing the small wave as the tide came in. No surfers this time (see youtube video). Still, we enjoyed the mountains and water, an eagle, seagulls, and unidentified sea birds. ISO 200 Aperture priority ev -.3 to -1 Constructive comments appreciated! i.e.: How can I get better contrast? Would you have cropped this differently? Which photo grabbed your attention most? Which do you think is the weakest in the set? Which the strongest? Forgot to mention use of graduated 2 f/stop Cokin filter

lovely day for constructive comments

2008-06-24T22:54:52Z

Beautiful day for a stroll around the neighborhood. Always fun to walk and talk with a good friend, and to see my panting Labs (in their fur coats) sniff and enjoy life. ISO 200 Constructive comments encouraged Note: The order of images changed somewhat from the initial post.

still life

2008-06-25T01:03:25Z

ISO 200 Please offer constructive comments

the longest day: land of the midnight sun

2008-06-21T10:10:39Z

June 20 marks summer solstice this year, the longest day of the year for those of us in the northern hemisphere. The sun here almost never sets. The cause of the summer solstice -- the name of which is derived from the Latin words sol meaning "sun," and sistere, meaning "stand still" -- is due to the angle of the earth on its axis. On this day, the earth is at its greatest tilt toward the sun (in winter, it is tilted away), and the sun is in its northernmost position of the year, above the Tropic of Cancer, where it will hover, shedding maximum rays toward earth before beginning its journey back toward the equator. As Georgia adds in her comments, specific "midsummer" festivities are celebrated throughout other countries near or on this date. Here in Alaska, specifically Anchorage, the night just doesn't get dark. The sun sets, but at 1 a.m. as I key this in, I could take a walk outside without using a flashlight. It's just the most remarkable phenomenon. The Mayor's Midnight Marathon began tonight at, well, midnight, of course. And tomorrow? We start to lose daylight. Slowly at first, and then in great chunks of 5 minutes each day, and more. But for now we take pleasure in the little things in life: friends, new beginnings, the beauty of nature, and just the simple joy of a few more moments of sunlight.

aperture priority day

2008-06-11T09:12:09Z

To further my understanding of the camera, Sunday became aperture priority day (and histogram-study time, too). During our hike and later around the house, I played with setting the aperture and seeing how that affected the shutter speed and/or the image. Sometimes stopped down the exposure value by -.33 to -1. Good fun. Beginning to grasp a few things I took for granted on auto exposure. Oh, and bracketed some images. But the day was so windy that I've not tried HDR. Another day. Shooing in RAW/NEF. Use Nikon's Capture NX software to convert to jpeg. Constructive comments welcomed! Nikon D70 35-70mm lens f/2.8 ISO 200