Ok, this will catch things up for a while.

In the latter half of June I was fortunate to be able to join my brothers and some of my nephews in our third trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness Area in Northern Minnesota. This has turned in to an every other year trip for us and is a great time to get away, relax, enjoy good company and great fishing. This year we spent 9 days on the water. Our route covered about 75 miles with about 10 miles of portages. If you include all our side trips and fishing we easily covered 100 miles. The weather was wetter than we have experienced before, but nothing we hadnt prepared for. (Seems to be a common theme wherever I go this year.) We carried all our food and gear for the 9 day trip except for the fish we caught to supplement dinner. I managed to lose a fishing rod and reel the second day when the fish I was trying to let go flipped the wrong way and knocked the rod in the water. Fortunately we learned a few years ago that extra gear is a good idea, so I fished with my backup gear the rest of the trip. To prevent camera gear getting wet I used my trusty Lowe Pro Dry Zone. It easily held my 1Ds Mk III, 24-105 and 70-200 lenses, a 1.4x extender, extra battery, cards, and filters. It did mean I had two packs to carry each time we portaged – along with taking my turn carrying the canoe. I also brought my Gitzo 1227 tripod with an Acratech Ballhead and leveling base.

This is primarily a canoeing and fishing trip with a few opportunities to take pictures. Its often a bit dicey trying to get the camera out while in the boat, so I didnt do much of that. The result is not nearly as many images as I would usually take in a 9 day trip. We had lots of good times and are all looking forward to doing it again in two years. The images from this trip are in Boundary Waters 2010. Hopefully you can get an idea of what a beautiful place this is.

Jeff

Lower Part of Upper Basswood Falls

Heres the second installment of the week.

In early June my friends, Gus and Gary, “dragged” me down to Moab for some photography. (They actually only had to mention it and I was ready to go.) The weather is usually getting quite warm by June in Southern Utah, but we were blessed with some cooler weather. Of course, the only way to cool the desert in the summer is to rain on it. The rain and clouds worked to our advantage this time, except for one sunrise where we sat in the car and talked for a couple of hours while it poured at Dead Horse Point. We also nearly regretted our choice of sitting on the covered patio for lunch one day as we watched the streets fill up with water during an especially violent cloudburst. We did some hiking while the weather was better as well. We discovered a “scenic” route to False Kiva that involved a lot more up and down and prolonged the experience considerably. When we got there is was well worth it. The clouds in the sky really made a nice background. We didnt have time to get to all the places we wanted to go, but it was a very worthwhile and fun trip. We are going to try to go back next year a few weeks earlier in hopes of getting there before most of the wild flowers have dried up. The images from this trip are posted in Moab June 2010. I hope you enjoy viewing them as much as I did taking them. Your comments are appreciated.

Jeff

False Kiva with Cloudy Sky

I havent been slacking off in the taking pictures department, but updating my web site has certainly suffered. Ive got images from three different trips to share with you. Ill start off with the oldest one first. Hopefully well be up to date by the end of the week.

In February I went to Yosemite with my friend Gus. We kept watching the weather and figured we had picked a perfect time as a storm was scheduled to come through the night after we got there. The storm arrived on schedule. The only problem was the temperature. It was too warm for snow in the Valley by 4-5 degrees, so we spent the next two days in the rain most of the time. Our last night it made a feeble effort to appease us by snowing a couple of inches, but not really enough for what we were looking for. To some degree or another, most photography trips are that way. You have some plans and hopes for what sort of shots you expect to get, but we are at the mercy of the weather and many other things and end up making the best of the cards were dealt. We had a good time anyway and the rains gave us time to peruse the Ansel Adams Gallery and walk through the museum visitors center and even watch the film there. After all, 3 days in a rainy paradise is still better than three days of work.

The images from this trip are posted in Yosemite Winter Feb 2010. I hope you enjoy them. As always, your comments are appreciated.

Jeff

Mr. and Mrs. Coyote