Bee hive

I'm here in Papua New Guinea and just starting to get into the groove of
things. So far I've been working on learning the language (which is
going very slowly) and recovering from jet lag. I still don't feel like
I'm back to 100%, but I'm sure I'll get there eventually.

In the time I've been here I've been trying to be useful. One thing I'm
good at is breaking stuff, so when we decided to repair a rotted out
part of the house, I was eager to lend a hand with the crowbar.
Unfortunately, before we could get too far we had to remove a bee hive
that was blocking our progress. This hive was under the siding of the
house and had to be removed. In order for us not to get stung like
crazy from the bees, we tried to smoke them out, which turned out not to
work very well during the day, but it was a valiant effort anyway. The
picture here (50kb worth of it) is a picture of me trying to remove the
siding to let the smoke fill the hive. Eventually we gave up on this
approach and came back that rainy night and use a spatula to scrape the
bees into a big pan, cover it with a towel, and throw the whole thing
into the freezer. Bye-bye bees!

Now I'm working on making a honeycomb/fruit squeezer to extract all the
wonderful juices we have. I'll try to post pictures of that contraption
when it's finished.

Oh, and you should note that I got stung once... Darn bee crawled up
the spatula... grrrrr.

Alaskan Life (Sound fixed?)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqkfK_ACa7Q

Alaskan Life

This is a video that I wanted to give to my mom just before I left the hemisphere, but I didn't have time to complete it until I was stuck in Singapore at two in the morning.  Guess what I do when I'm bored...  I hope it gives you a clue what it's like to be an Alaskan.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcNinsWzT9Y

Mass picture posting completed

Well, this should about finish up my mass picture posting project over
the last month or a little more. I'm sitting in the airport in
Singapore waiting to fly on to my next destination of Port Moresby,
Papua New Guinea, which should offer it's own unique photo experience
opportunities. Alaska has had some great photo chances, and I know that
I haven't always been ready with one eye behind the lens and a finger on
the shutter, but that's what makes it such a great place to visit.

Whelp, I'm off to see what else is out there in God's green earth...
(and I mean green this time, and not white...)

Aurora's

My friend Aninna and I went up to Ester Dome because there was supposed
to be a good light show that night in late October. Turns out it was!
And there were also a lot of moose out. Aninna had never seen a Moose
before, and she was amazed how large they were... then I told her those
were two year old calves... They get much bigger. "Nice moose." lol

The Aurora's that night were short lived, but absolutely spectacular!
It was hard to take a bad shot of them. Here are my two favorites... I
can't pick between these two though, I like them both for vastly
different reasons.

Cook Baptism

A great photo of a loving father. His twins were being baptized and his
wife asked me to take photos of the event to commemorate it. (They paid
in beer!) This was one of those half second events that coincided with
the push of the shutter. I'd rather be lucky than good, or at least
that's how the saying goes... ;-)

Tea Party

Open Arms has fundraisers of all kinds, and this one was a tea party.
There were some great themed tables like a men's table and a china
table. This one's theme was fishing, and I really liked that frog.

Moose Hunting

September is Moose season in Alaska, and I went hunting for them. Turns
out I had much better luck with the photo shooting than the actual
shooting because we only saw one bull moose and he was farther away than
we wanted to go after. Hard to have a bad day though when you've got a
view like this one to step out of your tent and see first thing in the
morning.

LAMP Navajo

Dan took me up for a little run in his plane (well, the LAMP plane) just
before he had heart surgery and all that good stuff. I think it was the
last time that he flew solo. Nothing spectacular, but I didn't have a
good picture of the plane from before.

Angel Rocks

Ahh, trail photos... Something about them is just impossible for me to
resist. I just can't pass them up and when I go back and look at them,
I always like them. There's something mysterious about the leading
lines and wanting to strap on my pack and see where this particular
trail will take me. Maybe that's how come I wander so much... I keep
finding another trail to go down.

Sarah Palin

Since I was in Fairbanks, and had nothing better to do on a Sunday
afternoon, I figured I'd go down to Pioneer Park and see the Governor
hand over all her duties. I wasn't expecting to take as many pictures
as I ended up taking (strange how that ends up happening hu?) but I
figured I was taking pictures for some of the other people who where
there that couldn't get as close as I could with my lens. Turns out to
be a decent photo, but my mom pointed out the blue jeans... Alaskan
formal... ;-)

Midnight Sun Run

How many times have you seen a Storm Trooper come walking down the road
straight at you? How about Optimus Prime??? Well, I saw them both at
the same time during the Fairbanks Midnight Sun Run. It's kind of a
crazy time, as you can well imagine. Good memories though.

Homer, AK

I went to a Pastor Circuit meeting in Homer and we had a couple very
rainy days there. But there was a short time in one of the evenings
where the clouds lifted for a short time. In that brief moment I
captured this image. However, it wasn't the clouds breaking that made
me literally run and grab my camera. It was the Bald Eagle being
attacked by a raven (or some black bird) that landed in the tree right
outside the window.

You may have to expand the image to see it clearly, but it's a nice
little hidden feature of the picture in my opinion. If you zoom all the
way in you can see the Eagle's beak open as the black bird swoops by.

Eventually the Bald Eagle flew off, but I still got an amazing shot out
of it.

Arctic Circle (part 2)

Proof that I've been to the Arctic Circle!

We went up to the camping place at Coldfoot and had a really nice
campground to stay in. There was one fatality though. Somehow this
little bird couldn't see my dirty car in it's flight path and sometime
during the night went all Kamikaze. Car 1.... Little Birdie 0.

Arctic Circle Trip

Kat, Lydia and I went up to the Arctic Circle at the end of last May and
saw some pretty incredible sights. The pipeline goes over the Yukon
river... Over it... The Yukon is a pretty big river and the bridge
that you take over it is impressive in it's own right, but to go over
the river with the pipeline is just crazy. This picture is just past
the bridge looking away from the river.

We had stopped to do a little exploring and the bank of the road was
pretty steep, so to get above it we had to do a little climbing. This
is a photo of Kat's boot as she's scraping her way up the side of the hill.

Real Macro

I found plans online to take an old bellows and make it fit onto your
camera using those lens and body caps that you have stuck together in a
catchall and 'can't throw away' box. I like finally having a use for
all that stuff. I attached my 17 - 85mm lens and took a picture of my
keys. This picture is not cropped at all... it's the full frame of my
larger than life photo... I still haven't had a chance to put it to
good use yet, but I'm sure that time is quickly coming.

Kutless Concert (part 2)

Another couple shots from that same concert. Turns out I really should
start wearing hearing protection more... I ended up standing next to the
speakers and because I wasn't expecting to be that close to the stage
taking pictures, I didn't bring any ear plugs with me to this one...
yeah, really stupid.

I must like bass player photos because this one is cool too.

Ok, what is he doing? The lead singer from Kutless is jumping over his
bass player... that's right... over him. The lead singer jumped up on
the drummer's platform and I just happened to get the action through my
lens. A lucky shot... ;-)

Kutless Concert

Ok, got a few shots here from the Kutless concert back in May of last
year. I didn't go into this concert expecting to take any photos, but
when I got there and I had my camera, I figured why not and there are
some great shots in this batch.

This first shot is of the lead singer from Kutless as he walked out on
stage before the concert started. The 2nd shot is of the base player
from Nitengale (Nightengale? I forget) a local Fairbanks band. Good
band as well. This shot though is possibly my favorite shot ever, but
at least in the top ten or so. I even love the lens flare from the
tuner key on the left side of the image. The focus is also really sharp
at the base of the strings and softens up towards the keys a lot. It
was shot at 200mm at F4, 1600 ISO... Isn't it pretty???

Kutless Concert (part 2)

Another couple shots from that same concert. I guess I like pictures of
base players because the base player from Kutless looked pretty sweet in
this lighting effect.

The second shot... wow... The lead singer hopped up on the box that the
drummer was on and I knew something crazy was about to happen and
happened to just catch the top of the jump as he went all the way over
his base player! I'm not sure I could get that shot again if I tried...

Kutless concert

I got a couple really cool shots at the Kutless concert in Fairbanks
last May. It was a pretty cool concert, but I was really into taking
pictures at this concert and hopefully you'll like some of the pictures.

The first one is of the lead singer of Kutless as he was coming out
before the concert.

The second one is of the base player from the opening band: Nitengale.
They're a local band from Fairbanks that's getting to be pretty good.
And this photos is one of my favorites... ever. I love the lens flair
from the tuning key and the softness of the neck of the base.

Truck Touch

Open Arms sometimes has fund raiser events and things for families.
This event was called the Truck Touch, and it was just get get kids
exposed to some of the big equipment around town. Buses, loaders,
cement trucks and semi-trucks, all great things that kids can get
excited about.

Pinata

Ohh... so you don't think you'll get hit in the face... do you pinata?
Well, we think otherwise!

This was a UCM spring event. The pinata did not survive. ;-)

PET

This is a device called a PET: Personal Energy Transportation. It's
fairly ingenious. It uses a hand crank and a bike chain in order to
propel the person forward and it has enough room on it in order to carry
some supplies. Here's the info from the info on the card: "A
hand-cranked cart providing mobility for those suffering from polio,
birth defects, war amputations and injury from land mines...distributed
free over 60 nations...a fully qualified charity." And there's a
website http://www.giftofmobility.org/

Zion Lutheran - Fairbanks, AK

Just a simple picture of the cross in the back of Zion Lutheran Church
in Fairbanks. In retrospect, I should have moved the chair, the papers,
and lined up the cross better. I've tried changing some of that stuff
by changing the perspective, but it's never quite right so this is what
we've got. It's only an ok photo in my book... but worthy of note.

LCMS - World Mission

Almost a year ago I went to LCMS (Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod) in
order to get all the information together to become a longterm
missionary. That progress is now just about finished as I'll be getting
on a plane tomorrow to fly to Papua New Guinea. It'll be a long trip
with 30 hours of wheels up time in airplanes before I get to my
destination. That doesn't include a 23 hour layover in Singapore, or
any other hops-skips-and-jumps to other planes... Yeah, long journey.
But the kinda fun part is that I won't have a Feb 14th this year. I
take off on the 13th and land in Singapore on the 15th.

Iditarod 2009

The UCM (United Campus Ministry) group took a spring break trip to
Anchorage and saw the start of the Iditarod last year. It was a pretty
spectacular sight and there were a lot of people sight seeing with us.
There were plenty of opportunities to see the dogs run by and we were
also able to get really close to the track so there were some cool
photos taken too. I like the toughs flapping out of the dogs mouths.

Coffee

While we were in Anchorage to see the Iditarod, there was a little
section about the history of the race and there was an example sled
inside. On this sled was a bag that was labeled with 'Papua New Guinea'
and 'Coffee Beans'... well, I just couldn't pass up a photo like that as
I'd just found out that I'd been accepted to the mission trip.

Ice Park (part 2)

While in the Ice Park, you have to visit the kids section where there
are all kinds of slides, tunnels, mazes and bowls to go on, through, in
and on. Even for big kids it's a great time.  And yes, I'm biting ice...

Ice Park (part 1)

Here's a couple shots of the Ice Park in Fairbanks. It's a competition
that brings people in from around the world to carve designs in blocks
of ice. Some of the sculptures are quite elaborate and it's amazing how
thin some pieces of ice can get. It's a great time to get out in winter
and see some really amazing things.

V-Day Shooting

What do a bunch of single people do on Valentines Day in Fairbanks?
Why, go shoot stuff of course. I caught the .45 ACP ejecting this
casing as my friend Kat squeezed the trigger. Cool shot.

Coke

Just an interesting closeup of a Coke glass in a restaraunt when I was
board waiting for food... Hey, it happens... but I liked it.

Third Day Concert

So, there was another real concert in Fairbanks that I went to...  This one was Third Day, a band that I hadn't really listened to since I was a kid, but was somewhat happy to hear that they haven't changed their sound very much in all those years.  I recognized way more songs than I thought I would and over all it was a pretty good concert.  This photo though really surprised be when I opened it up on my computer.

When I took it, I never saw this rainbow with my eye, or through the lens, but somehow it was there perfectly around the lead singer.  Since they had the fog machine running it must have had just enough water vapor in it to refract a little light and the sensitivity of the CCD picked up on that fact.  However, even with that light still shinning in other photos, none of them had anything even close to a rainbow in it.  Very cool shot.  One for the books.

New years fireworks

It wasn't something I thought about before I moved to Fairbanks, but
since it's so light during July, they can't have Independence Day
fireworks, so they have them for New Years, and boy are they some good
fireworks. It's a little chilly to stand out side and watch them
though, so we found someone who had access to the closest building on
campus and watched them from inside the building. Much warmer... ;-)

UCM Fundraiser Dinner

Over the past couple of years I've been involved with UCM (United Campus
Ministry) on the UAF campus. It's a pretty cool organization, but it
runs completely off of donations from the community to do activities and
other things for it's members on campus. Anyway, while attending the
fundraiser, I shot this still life at my table. The background is a
little busy, but I like the photo otherwise.

Harding Lake

Yes, another path picture. This one is out at Harding lake on the road
that goes around the lake.

Beaver, Alaska

Beaver is a little town on the Yukon River that was started by a
Japanese guy that walked down from the Bearing sea. This is a shot
looking at the Yukon River where a cross was put up recently. It's a
pretty impressive monument. My folks and I got to fly up here with Dan
on the LAMP plane (Lutheran Association of Missionaries and Pilots).

Knotty Shop

There's a little tourist shop on the highway in Salcha that's called
"The Knotty Shop". It has great ice cream, and all kinds of trinkets
inside for purchase as well as a bunch of stuffed animals from around
Alaska and other places. It also has a great example of the state
"bird"... the mosquito.

Sewing Machine

This sewing machine is in Pioneer Park upstairs in one of the buildings
(cabins). I was trying to be artsy, but I'm not sure it worked the way
I had envisioned. Close enough though.

Water water everywhere

There was something up this summer. The river. We kept getting rain
all summer, so by the beginning of August the water had risen to crazy
high levels. The fence on the right is about six feet tall all the way
under the bridge, and usually the water level is way below the fence.
There were some jet skiers on the river that had to duck way down to get
under the bridge.