June 2023
This month I got to travel to Anchorage for a few days and even visit Dillingham as well! It’s always nice to spend time with my parents and sisters, and now my young niece. While in town I also got to see some friends from California and of course, made time to hang out with the radio crew there as well.
Kodiak has been rainy though most of the month yet again, but there were a few more bursts of sun than May and I got to tan a bit and just feel the light hit me. It’s nice to remember what my shadow looks like.
Summer is finally getting started and next month I’ll hopefully get to see why this place is called Alaska’s Emerald Isle. Make sure to tap on images to see them full screen.
Swan in Darkness
I saw this beautiful white swan at Boyscout Lake early this month. The bright bird with the dark background was great to have in single images with minimal edits.
Joint Project between Museums
The Kodiak History Museum and the Alutiq Museum announced a joint project to catalog about 1,100 artifacts from the mid 20th century — the largest processed collection the Kodiak History Museum has. Read the story here.
Little Susitna River
To be fair, I’m not exactly sure if this is the Little Susitna River or the main one. I just loved the curves of it as we flew by and how the clouds looked around the river. I shot these on my flight to Anchorage.
More photos from that quick flight to Anchorage.
The City Between the Mountains and the Sea
It was a brief trip, just over my birthday weekend early in the month. My niece was born just a week before I arrived and it was so wonderful and sweet to hold her for the first time. I shot this panorama from the plane on the way back to Kodiak.
Fog and Rain in Kodiak
The sun doesn’t seem to pop out very often here. Instead I’ve done my best to make good images in the fog and isolate some trees.
Fairy Spring
My favorite image from that day. It’s so much fun to look for these intimate landscapes, especially as the trees just start to bloom.
Low Clouds
I love a good moody and cloudy day with drama in the sky, but a bit more direct light would do my mental health wonders.
The middle image of this gallery had just a hint of light, but it faded well before I could have gotten there.
First Light of Summer
I couldn’t find a lot of good landscape compositions that day but I was able to get these lovely portraits of my partner, Amelia. Sometimes it’s nice to just hang out and take photos of her, she wears some lovely skirts and outfits.
View from a popular overlook on the east side of Women’s Bay.
Infrared Leaves
I feel that the top image in this set especially feels like a Japanese peace garden. I really love using my infrared filter. I even ordered a full light spectrum converted camera to shoot infrared more often, however as of writing this that filter is cracked. It still mostly works, but I’ll need to replace it soon.
Trip to Chiniak
A bit of light meant the road out to Chiniak wasn’t too muddy!
We didn’t make it all the way to the end of the road because we got hungry and turned back but I was happy to get some quick photos of Amelia exploring some rocks at the end of this beach.
Anton-Larsen Bay
We finally made our way out that road on another day of sun!
Watching the trees slowly turn green makes me so happy. It feels like summer has just been late for Alaska this year.
Gibson Cove
A grand scene and a small detail from Gibson Cove. That yellow on the rock is actually pollen from all the Sitka Spruce that washed from the ocean as the tide went down.
Okeanos Explorer
I got to tour this ship for work! We had to submit IDs for security clearance since it docked at the Coast Guard Base here in Kodiak.
The Okeanos Explorer is an exploratory vessel ran by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. They’re part of an international effort to map the entire sea floor by 2030, see the full story here.
Heading to Dillingham
We had a four hour layover in Anchorage on the way back to Dillingham. There’s a little horizontal escalator in the ANC airport that has great views of these mountains, so when I saw how great the clouds looked I just went back and forth on it enjoying the view.
The Mighty Wood River
The Wood River in Dillingham is one of the most abundant sockeye spawning rivers in the world. The fishery there is one of the most sustainable with millions of sockeye spawning the grounds there.
Dillingham Boats
A few boats around my hometown. KDLG often uses my photos for the Bristol Bay Fisheries Report and I’ve often photographed boats around the harbors and docks specifically for them when I reported for the radio station. I’m always glad to help out my old station.
Minimalist in Aleknagik
A rainy drive out to Aleknagik Lake
Mountains in Dillingham
An infrared photo of Warehouse Mountain, another unnamed mountain with light rays, Warehouse with a nice house, and an iconic view of Warehouse in full color from Vortac. Can you tell which is the most iconic mountain in Dillingham?
Ultrawide with Epic Skies
While at home there were a couple of gorgeous sunsets and I was lucky to come away with a few wonderful compositions.
It was ridiculous how long I had to walk to find a tree in the grass for foreground like this.
Fox!
A little friend joined us for our walk on Kanakanak Beach.
My favorite trees
I’ve photographed these trees back home so many times I’ve lost count. It’s so easy to get to and makes a great composition. I realized this trip though I didn’t have one with dramatic skies like this yet so I made the time for it.
Bonfire with friends
It’s always great to spend time with friends at a bonfire, and we got to hang out with folks at two of them. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the images and feel free to let me know which ones you liked best.
