More Blueberry Blossoms

 

These are my latest blueberry blossom pictures.  I went back to the park on a sunny day and used a zoom lens that got me a lot closer to the flowers than the wide angle lens I used last time.  Like last time I tried using the 'color select' filter so that everything is black and white except the greens.  I really like how it comes out and it is kind of amazing how different they look from their color counterparts.  All of the photos are shown here as pairs - the color version on top and 'green select' on bottom.

I found that the sunlight made a big difference too.  It increased the contrast and I could put the white, sunlit flowers against the dark shadows.  I also could up the aperture and not have issues with blurry photos.  I mostly set the aperture around f 7.1 or so.  Enough to increase the depth of field but not so much that the background lost the blurred look.

I kinda can't decide which ones of each pair I like best.  They are so different I guess I like both of them.

Patrick

Pensive Dogs on Snow

 

Well it is pouring today and blowing a gale.  I was supposed to leave on an archaeological survey of Kiliuda Bay, but am on weather hold. We will probably leave tomorrow.  Even though I could have gone skiing I decided not to go.  I am breaking my streak after 152 consecutive days on snow.  I went for a walk in Abercrombie with Nora and the dogs instead.

These are some pictures of the dogs from a couple of days ago.  They always seem to be checking something out off in the distance.  But when I ski on off down the hill they focus on me!  And the chase is on.

All the trees around my house are swaying in the high winds and sheets of rain are rattling onto the windows.  I think it is probably snowing up on the mountain.  I am most certainly glad to be home and not hunkered down in a tent in Kiliuda Bay!

Patrick

150 Consecutive Days Skiing

 

I did it! I went skiing on 150 consecutive days.  On November 28th, 2021 we got back from our Thanksgiving Arizona vacation and I immediately went skiing.  I have not missed a single day since.

Twice in the past I have skied for 149 consecutive days (click here for 2021, and here for2018).  But both times I missed the 150th day.  In 2018 the kids and I went to Afognak for Memorial Day weekend and in 2021 I left for the South End of Kodiak on an archaeological survey.  This year I also have an upcoming archaeological survey (supposed to leave for Kiliuda Bay on Saturday), but I got in the 150 days before the firm commitment.

I realize that skiing 150 consecutive days is pretty obsessive, but the goal got me out on rainy and windy days when I would not ordinarily have gone skiing.  It got me out the door every single day.  And that is a good thing.  Living on Kodiak it is also pretty easy to ski.  It is only a 20 minute drive to the mountain; so it is basically the equivalent of going to the gym if I lived in say Rye, NY.  Pyramid Mountain is my Stairmaster!

The top 3 pictures are from yesterday while the others are all from Sunday.  On Sunday Nora and I went up Pyramid with Brent and Vonn and met Uncle Dicky up there.  The skiing right now is at its best.  This really is the best skiing of the year, and it is going to be hard to miss a week while kayaking around Kiliuda Bay.

Patrick

April Sunshine

 

Some more pictures from afternoon hikes.  

It is starting to get green.  I've noticed that the willows have budded and the cow parsnip is starting to sprout.  But I'm sure that in a few weeks I'll look back at these pictures and think, 'wow, it sure was brown back then'. 

All week it has been sunny and it has barely frosted at night.  Perfect weather.  I'm supposed to leave on an archaeological survey Saturday, and, of course, that's the day the next big storm is supposed to roll in off of the Gulf of Alaska.  In a perfect world this is the week I should be on the survey.

Patrick

A sea otter who just hangs out by the floatplane docks

Near Island hike

A fox by the road at the pass - this picture is out the window of the car

Recent Walks

 

Some pictures from recent walks.  

Lately I've been trying to take pictures of the blueberry flowers.  They are spectacular right now - little white globes with specks of green and red on the plant stems.  They are also really hard to photograph.  Most of my photos end up blurry, or the depth of field is too short and not enough of the flower is in focus.  I tried increasing the aperture to get more of the flower and plant in focus but then the background becomes grainy due to the increased ISO and loses the beautiful background blur (Bokeh).

A couple of days ago I was using my widest angle lens (21 focal length) which is usually the worst lens of all for close up macro pictures.    But I found it actually did a decent job.  Maybe because I could not get too close to the flowers!  I then tried the special filter in the camera where everything is black and white except a particular color that you choose.  I chose green and it really worked.

The blueberry blossoms are white anyway so by choosing green I accentuated the green of the new blueberry bush shoots.  I also took out all the distracting background color.  I felt it really accentuated the blueberry blossoms in a pleasant way.

Next walk I'll try and do the same thing but with a lens more suited to close up flower pictures.

Patrick

Wide angle lens (21!) and playing with color select (only green)

Big depth of field but grainy from high ISO

Short depth of field and nicely blurred background but out of focus leaves!

Max Snowpack

 

Panoramic of the North Bowl

I've mentioned more than once on this blog (sort of a theme of mine) that snow in town does not correlate to snow on the mountain.  And these days there is no snow in town and spring has most definitely arrived - my garlic even sprouted!  But right now there is more snow on the mountain than there has been all winter - it is still winter up there.  

However, these days spring is starting to move rapidly up the mountain.  Each year I sort of chart the 'snow accumulation' line.  Above this line we are still gaining snow while below the snow is rapidly melting.  Right now we are losing snow at the pass (500 feet) and still gaining snow above around 700 feet.  I've noticed in years past that starting around mid to late April that this line starts to move up the mountain at about 500 feet a week.  

So figuring that the snow accumulation line was at 500 feet on the 21rst means that it'll be at 1000' on the 28th, 1500' on the 5th of May, and at around 2000' feet by mid May.  These days the lower mountain is starting to rapidly lose snow but the upper mountain is still gaining snow.  But overall, right now the mountain is at maximum snowpack.  From now on we start to slowly lose snow.  

With this year's snowpack - and we still will be gaining snow on the upper mountain well into May - I figure we'll have good skiing on Pyramid until near the end of June.

Patrick