Well....... it's official today. We will be taking a vacation of a lifetime (for us). I'm hoping for photography opportunities beyond my wildest dreams. We will be going to Alaska. It will be fall there when we go, so there should be color in the tundra.

We will fly into Anchorage a few days before the trip starts and stay with a good friend. We will do a cruise to 12 glaciers, getting quite close as it is a small ship. I will be looking for some shot of reflections and sunsets there too. The trip starts with a bus ride to a lodge near Mount McKinley. There we will do a 3 hour hike with great views (so we are told) of the mountain and landscapes. The next day we take a bus ride to another lodge in Denali Park. This stay will be 2 nights, 3 days. From there it's a scenic train ride to Whittier where we pick up a cruise ship.

The cruise will be 7 days stopping at several towns and glaciers in the Inside Passage. The destination is Vancouver where we fly home.

I will be trying to learn all I can to take my photography up a couple notches as I may never get back to Alaska. I could never forgive myself if I came home with mediocre pictures. The last thing I want to do is get home , look at my pictures and think of the 3 ugly sisters (shoulda, coulda, and woulda). My dream is to be a great photographer, not just a photographer.

We enjoyed Savanna, Ga. so much, we stayed 2 more nights. It is a beautiful city and a photographer could go crazy there. We visited Tydee Island with its incredible beauty.

In Savanna, we went to Forsyth Park with its famous fountain. Needless to say we had to take pictures of it. In the near future they will be on our website www.bjrimages.com. While there, a couple asked us to take their picture with their camera, in front of the fountain. I put my flash on his camera as they were lit from behind and to expose for the fountain, they would have been dark. The picture came out great. A couple was getting married by the fountain and after watching for a bit, I saw a man kneeling in front of a lady then they hugged. We went over and congratulated them. We took his cell phone and got a few pictures of them and her new sparkling ring.

One the way to Little Tybee Island we stopped at Fort Jackson. It is a small fort on the Savanna River. At closing time, they had a cannon demonstration. I got a picture but it came out a bit blurry. I guess it was louder than I expected.

The trip home included a 8 hour drive an overnight in Fredricksburg, Va. From there an 8 1/2 hour drive to home. We had been in temperatures of high 70's to low 80's. Last night when we got here, it was in the 50's. Today a blizzard hit and we have 18 inches of snow so far and the morning temperature is predicted to be about 7 degrees and dropping.

I managed to get the birds fed so they are happy now. I know Spring can't be far away.

We had a wonderful tip to Florida. On the way home now. We had temperatures in the high 70's to low 80's while back home they had temperatures of -12.

Got to see Emerson Point Park with their nature trails and history. http://www.mymanatee.org/home/government/departments/parks-and-recreation/natural-resources/preserves/emerson-point.html. There are Indian mounds there created very long ago. For unknown reasons, the Indians would tear down their structures, burn them,  then cover the ground with a layer of shells, then dirt, and rebuild their structures. Some of these shells are visible in the undergrowth. Hugh Conch shells. If caught removing them, it is a minimum 5 years in jail and a hefty fine.

Spent some time by the docks watching the Pelicans diving for fish and looking at boats.

On our trip back home, we have stopped in Savanna, Georgia for the night. Here we will plan tomorrows adventures and a place to spend the night. Heading back to the cold and snow. 

Jean and I are on our way to Palmetto, Florida. This is the first day of our driving trip, and after 10 hours on the road, we're in Fredricksburg, VA. Tomorrows leg should take us to Savanna, GA.

The route here took us past some impressive mountains in VA. We chose our route to avoid traveling thru the mountains due to the possibility of bad weather. When we left Rochester, it was 12 degrees and here it's 48. We like 48 a whole lot better. Tomorrow night in Savanna, I might be in short sleeves. Hopefully in Savanna, we can get some evening pictures that I can post. In Florida I'm hoping for some sunset pictures over the Gulf of Mexico. It will be a short trip, but I hope to get a load of great pictures to share. Got a beautiful sunset picture over the Gulf taken many years ago with my first digital camera, a Canon Rebel. With my current camera, a Canon 5D Mark 2, the pictures should be phanom..... phanome....... great.

I'm new to blogging so tomorrow I will find out if I can add to this post, or if I have to do a new post.

A quick addition to my post from the Zoo. We had a wait a good amount of time for the Tiger to come from the back of the cage where we could see him. I was using a Canon 5D Mark 2 with a Canon 70 - 200 f4 lens. It doesn't have image stabilization so I had to keep my shutter speed above 1/200. The lens was set at 163 mm as the full 200 mm didn't give me good cropping. I was using a monopod to steady the camera as if gives me the ability to be more mobile when my target is moving. I shot these pictures at f4, ISO 800, and shutter of 1/3200. Didn't want that bugger blurring my picture. This also gave my the ability to blur out the fence in front of me. I had to do a manual focus as the fence kept fighting for attention.

With all this going on in front of him, he just had to have a real good laugh.

 

We went to the Seneca Park Zoo yesterday as it was warm enough to take pictures without gloves. It was cool enough that the bigger animals were outside moving (except the Polar Bear). Hard to get a picture unless they slow down a bit. Did get some great shots of the Amur Tiger.

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The Golden Lion Tamarin tried to cooperate but they just don't sit still.

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I will keep trying to get the Polar Bear.

My wife and I went to Niagara Falls on 2/9 - 11 to relax, celebrate Valentines Day, and take pictures of the falls. The temperatures were between 0 and 15 degrees and the ice was incredible. The trees on Goat Island, on the American side, looked like pure white works of art. The mist from the Horseshoe Falls drifts over the island creating an ice wonderland.

The Niagara River was almost frozen completely over. Some of the water going over the Canadian Falls looked more like slush and there was a massive amount of ice at the American Falls.

All in all, it was a wonderful trip.