Fixing Blue Light

'Blue' photo from the day before yesterday - not touched up - YUCK

The day before yesterday when I skied up into the Upper Buskin Canyon I thought I was taking spectacular pictures.  But when I got home - YUCK, they were all blue.  The problem is that the canyon is very deep and, additionally is in the shade of Erskine Mountain.  This creates a color shift and turns the ambient light blue.  It is very hard to correct in iPhoto.

If I was a photographer who shot in RAW this would not be a problem.  RAW is basically unadulterated photo files that you have to process at home.  I never have the time for this and instead let the camera process the pictures for me.  And this is usually not a problem.  I tell the camera if it is cloudy or sunny etc and whether or not I want them with contrast, saturated etc and it makes the processing decisions regarding light for me and creates a pretty jpeg.  When I get home I make some minimal adjustments in iPhoto, and I got my pictures.

The tough part is telling the camera how to process the pictures.  Telling it to remove the blue light so to speak.  It did not look blue down in that canyon!  So yesterday when I went back up the canyon I tried experimenting with the settings.  I turned on the 'shade' and 'cloudy' light settings and they sort of worked.  My camera even allows further micro adjusting on the various settings and so I even adjusted the 'shade' setting with less blue/green and more red/yellow.  Things looked a little orange.

So I went to the nuclear option and picked the light setting where one uses a grey or white card to 'set' the white balance.  This is usually WAY too much of a hassle.  Anyway, I used the white snow for a 'white card' and set the white balance.  I then used this light setting for the rest of my time in the canyon.  And the pictures came out GREAT. When I got home I only had to make minimal adjustments in iPhoto to get them to look right. I saved the setting for the next time I go up the canyon.

Of course the really important thing to remember is to change the light setting (white balance) when you are done with a particular light environment.  My 'canyon' setting would take awful pictures outside of the canyon.  And no I am not going to start shooting my pictures in RAW! That's way more of a hassle - most of the time anyway.  Patrick

Photo from yesterday with the whites corrected

I tried my best to fix this one up from the day before in iPhoto - and failed

Same picture from yesterday - much better!

Compare this one to the one from the blog post below

This is an unadulterated picture taken on the 'shade' setting with the red and yellow pumped a bit - too orange

Flowing river

The tough part is remembering to change back to 'daylight' or 'automatic'

My Favorite Place to Cross Country Ski

The big bend in the Upper Buskin River canyon

All last week the XC skiing on the Upper Buskin River was taunting me.  The ski conditions were marginal and the river half frozen.  Back in town I'd wake up to a dusting of snow and cold temperatures and I'd think, 'Today will be the day - Today I'll be able to go up the canyon'.  And then I'd drive to the Upper Buskin after work and find that the conditions were still marginal (See Saturday morning post below).  Still it was not all bad - the skiing might have been marginal but the scenics were spectacular.

So yesterday I woke up to an inch of new snow at my house, and had high yet tempered hopes.  I drove out in the afternoon and found 3 or 4 inches of new snow -  Whooooo hooooo!  I skied down to the river through a winter wonderland.  All the bushes and trees were draped in powder snow and no more rocks in the trail to worry about.  I got to the river and it was a snow covered highway all the way up to the small waterfall at the head of the canyon.  My absolute favorite place to cross country ski is back in business!  Patrick

A selfie at the small waterfall turn around point - I had to rush to get into the picture!

XC Skiing with the Hounds

My friend John S took this sequence of pictures yesterday afternoon of me skate skiing with the doggies on Lake  Gertrude.  I'm on skate skis so I go pretty fast and the dogs chase me around and around the lake.  It is a good way to get them tired pretty quick.  By the end of the ski only Brewster was keeping up and Tank had figured out that he could save energy by taking shortcuts across the lake.

Yesterday I was supposed to be in an all day meeting, but we got out early. In anticipation of the meeting I had gotten up early and gone skiing in the dark.  I watched the stars disappear, the sky slowly lighten up, and the trees you see in these photos got silhouetted in the orange of a glorious sunrise.  I could hear all the marbled murrelets making their noises as they flew from their nests in the trees to breakfast at sea.

I had thought that after the meeting I would be taking the doggies for their walk in the dark.  So it was a huge bonus to get out early and catch the afternoon sunshine on the lake.  Patrick

Sunset Ski

I love it when there is XC skiing at the nearby local park - Fort Abercrombie.  It is so convenient.  I can go for a quick ski any time I want.  What's amazing is that the lake was totally open Tuesday morning, but by Thursday evening it was covered with a sheet of black ice 3-4 inches thick.  I guess that's what single digit temperatures and wind will do to water - freeze it up quick!

Yesterday I had planned on ice skating, but it snowed in the morning.  So in the evening after helping Nora with her paper route we went out on the lake with the dogs for a quick XC ski.  The sunset light on the trees and in the sky was spectacular.  We were trying to decide what to call the color of the clouds - pink or umber? Not a breath of wind - just us, the trees, and the snow on the lake.

Earlier in the day after work I had tried skiing again at the Upper Buskin.  I thought that just maybe the new snow would allow me to ski up the river to the canyon.  But no - there was not quite enough new snow and there is still way too much overflow.  But in a few days maybe another of my absolute favorite ski sojourns will be possible - the Upper Buskin canyon trail (click here for a post about my last time up the canyon).  I'm hoping so - fingers are crossed!  Patrick

Sunset ski on Lake Gertrude

On the Upper Busking the snow is a little skimpy

Upper Buskin view with the frozen river in the foreground

If you look carefully you'll see that Buskin Lake has even frozen over

Ambient Light

Here on Kodiak we finally have snow on the ground at sea level.  This makes a HUGE difference in terms of light levels.  Ambient Light.  When it is cloudy or after sunset it stays light.  Rather than gloomy it seems bright.  This does wonderful things for my mood - or maybe it is just the snow.

Winters without snow in town are gloomy, brown, muddy and blah - winters with snow are crisp, bright and happy!  Patrick

This is where I like to cross country ski - yesterday (top) I noticed that the river had frozen

Pretty soon we'll be skiing up the river - I hope (fingers crossed!)

I took these after sunset in the park - the lake has since frozen up!

Tsunami Day

The best part of the earthquake and mid night tsunami warning was that the next day all the schools got cancelled and I did not have to go to work.  So we all got a sleep deprived vacation day.  I gather it is only the second time in recent history that the schools have closed - Tsunami Day! And it turned out to he an absolutely gorgeous day.

Soon after sunrise I took a doggies into the park for a walk.  I loved all the new snow under the trees, and the golden light slanting through the trunks.  Then I took the kids and a friend to the golf course for skiing, sledding and fort building.  I beat in a skate ski loop and did 25K.  As I skied around and around I watched the kids partially climb up the backside of Pyramid and create a luge run.  There was also a big drift where they built a fort.

Back home we did the paper route and I took another sunset walk in the park.  The sunset was spectacular on the newly forming ice on the lake at Abercrombie - and I had forgotten my camera!

Later after dinner Stuey hopefully asked, 'what are the chances of another tsunami warning?  I kind of hope it happens again!'  Patrick

Tsunami Warning

At 1AM last night we woke up to tsunami sirens and howling dogs.  Our hound Sheba was crooning to the sirens.  We all got up and checked the internet - we had slept through an 8.2 earthquake (later downgraded to 7.9).  Tsunami warning in effect!  Nora looked out the kitchen window and noticed all the cars driving by - our neighbors were evacuating.

So I grabbed some water and sleeping bags and we drove about 2 minutes to nearby North Star Elementary which is situated on top of a hill.  We joined a growing crowd of cars.  My friend Mike P sent me a text.  He was 2 cars away.  Everybody was visiting and listening to the radio.  Rumors were rampant - 32 foot wave on the way, the harbor is draining, wait no it isn't. Another rumor was that the NOAA tsunami website was down because of the government shutdown - was that one true?

And then I got messages from people on the East coast.  I found our earthquake was big news.  We waited a few hours and then the tsunami warning got downgraded to an alert.  Time to go home, and the sirens finally stopped.

It turns out that the earthquake was of the strike/slip variety and not one that goes up and down like they often do in subduction zones.  Hence it did not generate a big wave like what happened in 1964. Kind of cool to see that we were ready for it.  Driving back we heard about a traffic jam on the road to Pillar Mountain behind town.  Those people could not go home as easily as we did.

When we got up in the morning school was cancelled.  On the internet and TV Kodiak was headline news.  I went downtown to check on the museum - then went for a walk in the sunshine with the dogs.   When I checked the news again (USA Today) we were no longer on the front page.  The news cycle seems to have moved on.  Patrick

Nora's First Time 'Skinning' Up The Mountain

Saltonstall women backcountry ski in skirts

In the past when I have taken either Nora or Stuey backcountry skiing I have always had to carry their boots and skis all the way up the mountain in a backpack (click here, here, here, and here for some looks back).  Stuey and Nora had alpine gear that the ski rental store at Alyeska had kindly sold us for cheap.  Heavy gear that is great for going down the mountain, but not so great for carrying on your back, and there is certainly no skinning up the mountain! (In old times people strapped strips of seal skins to the bottoms of their skis for extra grip going up the mountain - hence the term still used today 'skins').

So yesterday when Nora wanted to go downhill skiing we found that the alpine boots no longer fit.  It was time to try some of my old backcountry gear.  Backcountry ski gear is light and made so that the heels of the boots can go up and down for the ascent and lock down for the descent.  You put climbing skins on the bottom and walk right up the mountain.  Backcountry gear is also really expensive and not something you just buy and then have the kids outgrow in a year.  So imagine my happiness when the boots fit.  Nora has graduated to backcountry ski gear! From now on she will be skinning up the mountain.  I'm in Heaven.

The day before I had seen Shanna and her husband Jason on the mountain.  I told them I planned on taking Nora up the mountain in backcountry gear (I asked if they thought I was crazy).  Shanna liked the idea so much she decided to go along and help support Nora for her first 'true' backcountry ski. And Nora loved it!  When she saw Shanna at the mountain it perked her right up.  She raced up the mountain before I even had the gear together.

3/4 of the way up the mountain it got pretty foggy and windy and I wanted to turn around. But not Nora - she wanted to go to the top.  And to the top we went, and Nora had a blast.  Shanna was impressed that even during the descent when Nora did wipe out she got up with a smile on her face.  Patrick

Nora and Shanna

Whiteout conditions near the top

Time to go home - climbing skins off, heels locked down, and away we go!

Huge Panoramic

Yesterday it was beautiful on Pyramid and I could not resist taking lots and lots of pictures.  Sunshine, snow and layers of fog made for some very atmospheric pictures.  I think my favorite from the day is the HUGE panoramic shown above - this is actually 8 pictures (2 stacked rows of 4 side-by-side vertical images) stitched together into one big pan.

The next 2 pictures are actually taken from the same spot and show the same view.  If you look carefully you can see them in the big pan above.  None of the pictures are cropped - so they show the view I can capture with the camera.  The only way I can get the view above without a super wide lens is by creating a panoramic. It actually encompasses about a 160-170 degree view - this is the view you naturally see as you skin up the mountain.

What I love is how the picture looks normal - you'd never know it is a HUGE pan.  Also unlike a picture taken with a wide angle lens - it is not all distorted.

This is the same pan as only one row of 5 vertically stacked pictures stitched together - it lacks height

This is another pan - 2 horizontal pictures stacked vertically into one