Alaska Summit and land tour pictures

[JPCruising]

Hello Everyone,

 

I had posted this pictures awhile ago, but recently had to repost my album to my website so I re-invite you to see them. My family and I cruised on Celebrity Summit northbound on June 4, 2004 and then took a 5 day landtour #13 with RCT. We had a fantastic time and I can't wait to go back again. You can see my pictures at: www.jprphotos.com Let me know it you like them :D

 

JPR

[robbinsca]

Take a look at http://rrobbins2.photosite.com/Alaska2004/

 

I don't pretend to be as good of a photographer as JPCruising, but Alaska can make anyone look good!

[clopaw]

JPR, those pictures are fabulous! I was mesmerized.

[kimba_99]

Great camera work and outstanding pics! Simply beautiful.... thanks for sharing them with us.

 

Kim

[JPCruising]

RRobinsca, you have some great pictures on your photosite, and you are right, Alaska makes us all look good. Another thing that helps a lot is using a program like Photoshop Elements. Shoot me an email if you would like some information on how you can easliy enhance some of your photos.

 

JPR

jprphotos@bellsouth.net

[clopaw]

My husband would like to know what kind of camera you use.

[JPCruising]

I use a Canon Digital Rebel SLR with two Canon lens: 18-55m which usually comes with the camera and a Canon 75-300m IS zoom lens. I carry 2 - 512mb flash cards, and a 1 gig card which allows me to shoot little over 600 pictures. On the Alaska trip I took along my laptop computer and downloaded pictures every day. Going to Alaska was a lifetime dream so I knew that I wanted a good camera to record the trip. I purchased this camera in 03/04 to allow me enough time to learn how to use it effectively. Having two weeks in Alaska to use the camera extensively everyday really helps you to become familiar. Let me know if you have any other questions.

[fuzz]

I take a few photos on occasion but I will say you have quite an eye for composition and light. Thanks for sharing what obviously was a labor of love

[clopaw]

We've been using a Fuji Finepix 3.0mp for the last 2 or 3 years. We're going to the Panama Canal is December and Alaska next May so we will take a look at the Canon. Are you self taught in photography or have you taken classes? Was the Canon hard to learn? I have used an SLR in the past, but I really don't have a whole lot of experience.

[JPCruising]

I am self taught primarily just going out and shooting pictures. I started out over 20+ yrs ago with a Minolta SR201 SLR which I used for several years but then got busy with life and quit using it. Back then I read some books but that was the extent of my formal learning. Over the last several years I had a point & shoot Kodak digital camera to take snapshots. This March when I got the Canon Digital Rebel SLR it brought back memories of my early college days with the Minolta. I started using the Canon in the fully automatic mode, basically just point & shoot. Because their is no "film" to develop and review is almost instant you can learn quickly. I read the manual several times and visit several websites looking for knowledge. Currently I am using the manual & AV modes more often to give me better control. I would recommend this camera to the novice or anyone else who desires to step beyond the basic point and shoot cameras, although this camera can be used in that mode. As far as composition and lighting I try to put a little thought into each picture. I like to capture the typical travel pictures, but then I look for more unique pictures. Often times I ask myself, "what do I want to convey with the picture I am taking?" or is it just another boring picture. Sometimes the answer is: okay, this is just another boring picture recording that I was at such and such place, and there is nothing wrong with that. I think just about everyone who goes to Skagway for example captures a picture of the Snowplow, usually with a friend or family standing in front of it, and that is fine. But I don't consider those spectacular shots. The real challenge to me in Skagway was trying to capture the deep blue skies and yet correctly expose the mountains and other objects in the pictures. In a lot of my pictures I was looking for the "postcard" shots, which I did capture. My friends keep asking me how I was able to get my name put on the bottom of the postcards (Photoshop Elements 2.0). Other small details help contribute to improving on pictures such as: keeping the horizon level in your pictures and not always putting everything dead center in the pictures.

 

I hope this has been helpful, I enjoy photography and it is a new found hobby that I really enjoy. I am always learning and trying to improve on my abilities and knowledge. Keep an open mind and go have fun.

 

JPR

www.jprphotos.com

[tennlady]

JPCruising

I have looked at your photos many many times and love them all. In fact, your site convinced me to attempt doing my own web pictures and use PhotoSite. I am still working with my album and chapters, but find their site to be fairly easy to use. Thanks for the photography tips. Getting a new 4mp Olympus digital for our July Alaska cruise/tour was my first experience with digital. So far I'm really enjoying the freedom and fun it provides.

 

Robbinsca

I think your pictures look great! Saw many familiar scenes. You're right - Alaska is so scenic that it's hard to make a mistake.

[JPCruising]

Tennlady, let us know when you have your pictures posted. I always enjoy seeing pictures of Alaska.

 

JPR

[carmzav]

Wow! Great pictures!! I love looking at everyone's pictures from Alaska. :D

[JPCruising]

Carmzav, thanks for sharing your pictures with a great commentary. As you said "I love looking at everyone's pictures from Alaska" I couldn't agree more with you.

 

JPR

www.jprphotos.com

[CRB#33]

JPcruising! Your pictures are just wonderful! Did you get the picture of the eagle blown up? That would make an awesome portrait!!!

 

Thank you for sharing them!

Robinsca, I'm going to look at yours now!

[CRB#33]

Robin! You have a portrait or two in there also!

 

The sheep on the top of that hill are just beautiful! (Can you tell I like the wildlife?) :p

 

Thanks to you both!

[robbinsca]

CRB#33-

 

That picture of the Dall Sheep was in Denali. I have talked to a few different people who have taken almost exactly the same picture in the same spot. That hill is right next to the road in Polychrome Pass, and is separated just enough for them to be comfortable. They were sitting there when we were going out, and still there when we went back. That was my best wildlife shot of the trip!

[Jem4life]

Amazing pictures! We went in May and didn't see hardly any wildlife. Guess it was too early for whales as they were still migrating from the Hawaiian waters. We did see bald eagle (although we have many here in Wisconsin) and we did see dall sheep a couple times. Thanks for sharing your pictures... it was like being back again! I loved that trip!

[rollingstone]

JPR,what great pictures!!! My husband and I booked our cruisetour today on the Summit so this was ideal. We are going on July 29th. If my pictures do not turn out as well as yours, I may cheat and use yours instead! Also, I have been looking at the Cannon Rebel. I now have a Minolta 35mm and have a small fortune invested in lenses. The camera store will buy both my camera and lenses if I buy another camera. I like the idea of being able to use other lenses and it was great to hear a good review of the Rebel and see the fantastic pictures (of course the photographer has something to do with that also). Thanks for the pictures and the review.

Nancy

[JohnQ]

JP

Nice pictures. Didn't you have some posted on Webshots as soon as you got home? Or am I thinking about someone else?

 

Robin, You have some nice shots too, and it does take more than luck. For one thing you have to cart that camera gear around all day long for the whole vacation, so we earn our photos.

 

I have posted a few shots from our two weeks in Alaska on the Summit in early Sept. As you can tell JP, I haven't learned how to use Elements II yet, but it is on my urgent list to better display and enhance some shots that are almost good. So if you are interested, I have some below and will be adding more as I have time and expertise. Enjoy.

 

http://community.webshots.com/user/jq4653

[JPCruising]

Nancy, you don't have to go with the Canon Digital Rebel as Minolta has just released a digital camera body that will use your existing lenses if they are not old manual focus type. Alaska offers great photographic opportunities and allows you a lot of time to learn and experiment with your camera. Having my laptop on the ship allowed me to download my pictures and spot problems. I still enjoy sharing them and viewing them as it takes me back to Alaska.

 

JPR

www.jprphotos.com

[JPCruising]

JohnQ, you have some great shots on your summit flight around McKinley. Looks like you had super weather for your flight. I think the McKinley flight with glacier landing was the highlight of a fantastic Alaska trip.

 

JPR

www.jprphotos.com

[JohnQ]

JP

Thanks, we did have a great day. We were booked for Fri, 8/27, but it was rainy and not clear at Talkeetna. We rebooked for our return from Denali on Sunday afternoon, and the weather was great. We even got to fly between the two peaks which our pilot, John, with Talkeetna Aero, said they don't get to do very often. The Summit Flt, our Hallo Bay and a great whalewatching day at ISP were all three our highlights and much better than our trip in 2002.

Did have lots of reflections in plane windows and lots with pieces of plane in picture. I may crop some, but we took so many pictures, I think we captured our experience. I'm ready to sign up for your elements 2 or 3 course now. I need it yesterday. I am also trying to figure out how to best edit digital video and take highlights off to a new digital tape, converting 5 hrs into two or less. I know even less about that than Elements!!!

[alaskaobsessed]

JPCruising,

 

My fiance and I are absolutely enthralled with your shots from Alaska. We just bought a Nikon D70, although he is more the technical photographer, he is teaching me. That is good to know you used the Photo Elements program. Your photos convinced us that we needed to do two flightseeing tours - one at Mt. McKinley and one in the Misty Fjords. I want to apoligize, I think I've been monopolizing your bandwidth, I've visited your site so much! We cruise the last week of July, 2005 and we will be sure to post our pictures when we get back!

[SEPyle]

JPR, I haven't even taken a look at your pics this AM because of time; I've loved looking at them before and will take a peak tonight just to get my "Alaska fix" since two weeks from today we'll be boarding the Summit for our Northbound CruiseTour #13!

 

I too love digital photography, and view your beautiful results as a goal to strive for! I have been using Photoshop 5.0 until last fall when I learned about Photoshop Elements on the Century. It's a much more user friendly program and I know when I return home it will be a challenge to learn more about using it so I can tweak my pictures! I think a lot of people look at the pictures that come out of their digital camera and think of them as what comes out of a roll of film; getting what comes out and that's it. The way I look at it, by using digital, you have the opportunity to "play" with the picture and make it so much better! I am by no means as advanced as you are into the hobby of photography, but reading your comments makes me want to go to the next level! I've mostly had "fun" with my editing.

 

I consider myself pretty good at editing - enhancing shots of people - starting with ME! People are surprised when I tell them I can switch heads. I can't help that that one family pic on a cruise was better of everyone else but me! The other pic was better of me. OK, in the old days I would be stuck...Not anymore. I simply took my head out of the one and put it into the other! The best part is that I'm the "shortie" in my family. When I switched heads, somehow my neck got just a wee bit longer...I loved it! In pics from a cruise out of San Juan, I had such fun taking their telephone wires out of a pic. They simply have too many wires in that city! Then one day I was having fun with a beautiful picture of Curasao, on of my favorite islands. All those picture postcard pastel painted shorefront shops and then the city ruins it with the customs house at the end...off white cement block. What to do...I painted their Customs House to match the rest of the pretty painted storefronts! Oh yes, one of my most fun projects: When we were in San Diego Old Town I asked my husband to get a shot of the beautiful church. He said he would on the way back. What do you know: On the way back there was an ugly Uniform truck parked right in front trying to ruin my picture. Instead of getting mad at my husband every time I would look at that pic, I just removed the truck! That one was fun, because I had to re-create the church steps...and oh yes, I had to create new landscaping at the house next door! The results: Altered reality, but a pretty picture and I sure did have fun! Oh yes, we now have a solution to the husband controlling the camera. He bought me a digital of my very own for Christmas!

 

Have a great day, and thanks for sharing your beautiful pictures! By the way, early on when I first booked our cruise, your pictures were the ones that really got me excited about our cruise to Alaska! It was my husband’s dream, and I was coming along because I knew Alaska was his dream. Now I think I'm even more excited than he is! No, don't think that's true, let's just say, this trip may not be our last!

 

Sharon