Alaska pics 2009

[NightTrain]

Running the Talkeetna canyon above the cabin... hard to get clear shots while doing this because the boat is slamming up and down.


Looking up at the last chute, the water here is really moving. Back when I was a kid growing up here, this particular set would eat at least one boat per summer, 22' inboards are no match for this if you screw up... you'll be swimming in seconds.


Another.




Looking back down after clearing the last chute.




A friend of mine with a nice Rainbow.




The view from across the river.




Happy hour. The guy on the right is an ice road trucker (the real kind, not the weenies you see on History Channel) with Bill up on the North Slope, hell of a nice guy.




We thought we heard some Taliban Tongue Flappin' in the distance, Bill scans the perimeter with his AK-47. That baby was fun to shoot, but we forgot about the dogs - one came back 6 hours later, and the other returned 20 hours later. Oops.




This is the view as you drive into the town of Talkeetna. Mt Forester, Mt Hunter and Mt McKinley. Easy to remember the order because they're alphabetical.




Mt. McKinley (aka Denali)

[NightTrain]

This batch was taken this September, we went out looking to kill a bear or two. A log that was scratched by a Grizzly.




Taken right in front of the cabin.




Another out front of the cabin.




This didn't come out as clear as I'd hoped. I wear a 9 1/2 wide Nike... this was a big one.




Across the river from the cabin, the bear traffic on this salmon stream was tremendous.




Another bear-beaten area.




Spawning salmon that haven't been eaten by bears yet.

[NightTrain]

Bill's dock on Cottonwood Lake in Wasilla.



A couple of Loons on Cottonwood Lake.




One of the views while snowmachining on the Susitna River about 2 miles below the Deshka Landing.




Beer break about 20 miles down from Deshka.




My brother Jim decided to blast up the side of this hill. He got knocked off balance and that 700 RMK dug itself a hole. We had a beer while watching him work.




Took him about 15 minutes of hard work to get her pointed back downhill.




My friend Kim and I having a beer on the trail.




We did a job down in Valdez (pronounced Val DEEZ) in February, this is right outside town.




It was a really beautiful morning down there. This isn't far at all from where the Exxon Valdez tanker spilled all that oil.

[NightTrain]

More of the bay at Valdez.








Some of the oil handling facilities, this one was being worked on after a fire.
















End of the road. I'd never seen a 29 speed limit before.








Some frozen waterfalls coming into Valdez in Thompson Pass.

[Kathianne]

My God, I'm breathless! That's truly, "God's Country."

[darin]

wow. Breathtaking. Really want to live there.

[Sitarro]

Hey NightTrain, Did a few seconds of Photoshop work on a few of your outstanding photos, pick up Photoshop Elements for under 100 bucks and you can do basically the same thing. Here is Adobe's site for a free thirty day trial download. You will be amazed at what you can do to make the shots you take look like what you remember what you were shooting looked like.


http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/in...&promoid=DZHDI

[NightTrain]

Hey NightTrain, Did a few seconds of Photoshop work on a few of your outstanding photos, pick up Photoshop Elements for under 100 bucks and you can do basically the same thing. Here is Adobe's site for a free thirty day trial download. You will be amazed at what you can do to make the shots you take look like what you remember what you were shooting looked like.

Wow! That really makes a difference. The clarity and color enhancement really adds to them.

What exactly did you do to sharpen those up?

I have more pics that I'll post soon, been kind of busy here the last few days.

[Sitarro]

Wow! That really makes a difference. The clarity and color enhancement really adds to them.

What exactly did you do to sharpen those up?

I have more pics that I'll post soon, been kind of busy here the last few days.

It's as simple as hitting auto levels under image and then adjustments. If that doesn't look right you can go back and use manual levels. You can also use curves under the same adjustments heading. Under filter, go to unsharp mask as move the top slider until it starts looking too sharp and move it back a bit.If you don't like the colr saturation you can increase that too.