JDW Photos and Life

Click on READ MORE for the full post. Click on the blog photo to see full size and detail.  If leaving a comment, please provide a hint who you are. The landscape orientation clips with great mountain views are at the link below. Kodiak Float Plane - 2 0:00 - Clip 1 Mountains 0:33 - Clip 2 Mountains (close) 0:58 - Clip 3 Mountains (close) 1:31 - Clip 4 Valley 1:57 - Clip 5 Returning to Kodiak landing 3:20 - End Thanks, Doug White

Click on READ MORE for the full post. Click on the blog photo to see full size and detail.  If leaving a comment, please provide a hint who you are. I decided to share the videos different than yesterday. I have combined and uploaded the portrait (vertical) videos into YouTube. I set chapters for you to easily navigate to a part you like (hopefully). Kodiak Float Plane - 1 0:00 - Clip 1 Taxi before takeoff 0:40 - Clip 2 Taking off 1:34 - Clip 3 Flatlands and rivers 2:24 - Clip 4 3:35 - Clip 5 At Katmai over glacier 5:28 - End These are some great views from the airplane. I received nice feedback from several of you with the glacier photos. I am certain you will enjoy the video at the end as we flew over the glacier. That clip starts flying over the flats where we viewed the bears. The glacier comes into view about 4:10. Thanks, Doug White

Click on READ MORE for the full post. Click on the blog photo to see full size and detail.  If leaving a comment, please provide a hint who you are. Does it get much prettier than this? The lush green and terrain we saw on this trip did not match my imagination when we first heard L&J were going to be stationed in Kodiak. Amazing countryside. Thanks, Doug White

Click on READ MORE for the full post. Click on the blog photo to see full size and detail.  If leaving a comment, please provide a hint who you are. As seen with the glacier photos, I am working my way through photos taken with my phone. The next few days will be shots and videos from the float plane trip to and from Katmai. As we left Kodiak, the pilot kept the plane well below surrounding mountain tops and provided great views of the Kodiak landscape. The photos will have a bit of window glare and possible motion blur but they still provide perspective. Thanks, Doug White

Click on READ MORE for the full post. Click on the blog photo to see full size and detail.  If leaving a comment, please provide a hint who you are. As the pilot began navigating to leave the glacier, he flew "down" the mountain and we saw another view / variation of the glacier. You can see the ice sheet in the middle where the sun did some work at these lower elevations. Thanks, Doug White

Click on READ MORE for the full post. Click on the blog photo to see full size and detail.  If leaving a comment, please provide a hint who you are. Here is another photo of the glacier as the pilot worked to give us a great view of the texture. I'm sure we were really fortunate to have weather conditions that the pilot could safely manage this flight. We never felt a single bounce in the aircraft flying this close to the mountains. Thanks, Doug White

Click on READ MORE for the full post. Click on the blog photo to see full size and detail.  If leaving a comment, please provide a hint who you are. Did I mention that our pilot flew us in for a CLOSE look at the glacier? The brown in the ice is not the bottom of the glacier. That is the debris the glacier is carrying as it gouges it path down the mountain. Thanks, Doug White

Click on READ MORE for the full post. Click on the blog photo to see full size and detail.  If leaving a comment, please provide a hint who you are. The pilot flew low and close to the mountain so we could get a great view of the glacier. Pardon the window glare on the right side. You can envision the glacier movement with the ripples in the surface. The pilot stated that the glacier is definitely shrinking in the past few years. Thanks, Doug White

Click on READ MORE for the full post. Click on the blog photo to see full size and detail.  If leaving a comment, please provide a hint who you are. After our day photographing the bears at Katmai National Park, the float plane picked us up to go back to Kodiak. As we took off, the pilot flew near the mountains to see the glaciers and mountain terrain. These mountains were adjacent to the flatland where we viewed the bears. It was a beautiful site on a perfect weather day. Thanks, Doug White

Click on READ MORE for the full post. Click on the blog photo to see full size and detail.  If leaving a comment, please provide a hint who you are. This is the view from Lauren and Josh's front porch looking at Old Woman's Mountain. It's not very big or aggressive but it is still a great hiking trail virtually at their front steps. I think they are getting spoiled with such beauty all around them (until that winter stuff hits)! Thanks, Doug White

Click on READ MORE for the full post. Click on the blog photo to see full size and detail.  If leaving a comment, please provide a hint who you are. We flew into Seattle from Houston on our way to Kodiak. The air traffic pattern gave us a pretty good view of Mount Rainier. I asked Donnice to roll down the window so I could get a better view but she couldn't find the control before we passed it. On our return trip, all we saw was the typical Seattle overcast. Thanks, Doug White

Click on Read More to view the video. A view of my "office" at the university. It is a privilege to have an experiment like this to teach the real-world aspects of chemical engineering. I need an updated photo that does not show the construction mess! This is a 20 foot distillation column separating methanol and water. It is controlled using a state-of-the-art DCS (distributed control system) and industrial instruments and valves. The system is indoors and spans about 50 feet in height accessed using industrial grating. It is a world-class experiment where students start up the process, bring it to steady-state, and shut it down inside a 3 hour lab period. I do not touch the controls - it is all them (with a little coaching)!

Click on READ MORE for the full post. Click on the blog photo to see full size and detail.  If leaving a comment, please provide a hint who you are. One afternoon, we went down to the Buskin River to watch Josh and Lauren do a little fishing. Josh practiced his fly fishing technique to start. I had a long lens on the camera thinking about wildlife and I missed some good people-shots. I walked up the river a bit as Josh was working the bank the other way. I captured one frame that matched my desired shot. I have since purchased a mid-focal length lens that should serve this purpose much better. A great reason for a return trip! Thanks, Doug White

Click on READ MORE for the full post. Click on the blog photo to see full size and detail.  If leaving a comment, please provide a hint who you are. This is a small beach located on the Coast Guard base. It is one of Penny's favorite places to take Lauren and Josh to search for sea glass! For a dog that hates baths, Penny loves wading (oftentimes belly deep) in the water at this beach. This photo is Donnice and Lauren with Penny. Thanks, Doug White

Click on READ MORE for the full post. Click on the blog photo to see full size and detail.  If leaving a comment, please provide a hint who you are. We had an absolutely beautiful morning with great light and clouds. The clouds below the mountain tops were great. Oftentimes, those clouds are associated with fog and overcast. Not this day! This location is adjacent to the Coast Guard base entrance with the base on the far side of the water. The docked Coast Guard cutter provides additional beauty to the shot. Thanks, Doug White

Click on READ MORE for the full post. Click on the blog photo to see full size and detail.  If leaving a comment, please provide a hint who you are. As you come into Kodiak from the south (airport, CG base, kid's house), there is a pull-off on the road that provides a view of the inner harbor and town. Catching the light and weather just right proved more difficult that anticipated and this is the best I captured. The island is completely dependent on outside supplies (no agriculture, mfg, nothing outside of fishing). This container ship dock is a BIG PART of life support on the island. Thanks, Doug White

Click on READ MORE for the full post. Click on the blog photo to see full size and detail.  If leaving a comment, please provide a hint who you are. Enjoy this panoramic view of an early August Kodiak sunrise with a light low-level fog adding some texture above the water. This is a different kind of photo than I have shared in the past. It is a composite of 11 photos taken from the back porch of Josh and Lauren's house on Aviation Hill. Given the width of the photo, it is saved to a much larger size than any of my previous photos. You will want to look at this photo using your zoom function of your device. What a beautiful location (though those winters can get a little rough). Thanks, Doug White

Click on READ MORE for the full post. Click on the blog photo to see full size and detail.  If leaving a comment, please provide a hint who you are. We made several trips to the Buskin River (just around the corner from the kid's house) during our visit looking for the start of salmon and possibly bears. We were just too early for this river. It was still enjoyable to walk the shore of the river. On one trip, we saw this fellow grabbing a little dinner late one evening. This was shot at 8:00 at night but there was still a lot of daylight left! I believe this is either a Lesser Yellowlegs or a Greater Yellowlegs. Both have breeding ranges into the Kodiak area. The meal looks like some version of a glass fish with a near-transparent body. You can also see the bird's tongue though it is a bit motion-blurred. Look close at the full size photo and you will see water droplets in mid-air. Beautiful colors in the water, a bird catching prey, and a reflection - just about perfect! Thank...

Click on READ MORE for the full post. Click on the blog photo to see full size and detail.  If leaving a comment, please provide a hint who you are. After the eagle announced his/her claim to this rock and surrounding area, it took a quick survey to see if there was anyone that needed an additional reminder. Thanks, Doug White

What a terrible preview crop.... Be sure to: Click on READ MORE for the full post. Click on the blog photo to see full size and detail.  If leaving a comment, please provide a hint who you are. As mentioned yesterday, the eagle at Ft. Abercrombie was making very loud calls. We wanted to get a little closer to the eagle so we hiked down the trail a bit. The vantage point was not quite as good but we we definitely closer. We had not disturbed the bird so he/she stayed there screaming at the world that this was his/her territory. Enjoy the close-up detail of an eagle! Thanks, Doug White

Click on READ MORE for the full post. Click on the blog photo to see full size and detail.  If leaving a comment, please provide a hint who you are. First, I apologize for the photo yesterday. It did NOT look good when I read it in e-mail. I updated the photo in the blog post. As we continued our hike in Ft Abercrombie, we could hear the screech of an eagle close-by. A couple coming off the trail told us where it was located. As we peaked around the bend, we saw the eagle perched on a rock - still at a bit far away. This is the best photo I have from that vantage point and you can see the green blur of branches in the foreground. The photo still turned out nice with good focus on the eagle and the ocean in the background. Thanks, Doug White

  Click on READ MORE for the full post. Click on the blog photo to see full size and detail.  If leaving a comment, please provide a hint who you are. The day after our boat trip, we made another trip out to Fort Abercrombie. This is a favorite hike location for Penny (grand-dog) so we made many visits there! Off of the same point that I photographed the horned puffins in the rocks, I captured this fishing boat with some pretty rocks in the background. As I edited this photo, I noticed what looks to be a cormorant standing proud on the island. I can no longer see a cormorant without thinking of my friends Spencer and Pedro. Spencer holds such a special place in his heart for these birds (yes, sarcasm)!

Click on READ MORE for the full post. Click on the blog photo to see full size and detail.  If leaving a comment, please provide a hint who you are. This will be the last of the photos from our boat trip. After the bears, this was my favorite photography experience of the trip. I have so many photos from that day but they get a bit redundant. This oystercatcher was walking across a tide-exposed kelp bed making a colorful frame. Thanks, Doug White

Click on READ MORE for the full post. Click on the blog photo to see full size and detail.  If leaving a comment, please provide a hint who you are. Every once-in-a-while, I have to post something slightly inappropriate (in some people's view) so today is the day. It's just nature. When photographing birds, you begin to see certain habits/characteristics. If a bird is perched and I am waiting for it to fly to capture an in-flight shot, I look for anything that might signal it is about to take off. Oftentimes you will see the bird rid itself with excess baggage weight (poop) just before flight. It seems that the larger the bird, the more likely you are to see this behavior. You know to get your camera focused and ready. Other times, the bird just takes off and realizes in flight that they are feeling a bit heavy. Anyone that has been under a flock of seagulls knows that they are in this latter category of in-flight relief. This photo is the most spectacular example I have ever c...

Click on READ MORE for the full post. Click on the blog photo to see full size and detail.  If leaving a comment, please provide a hint who you are. This photo is a continuation of the photos the past two days showing a puffin coming in for a landing in the rocks. You can recognize the rock features as a fun comparison. Once the puffin landed, his/her mate came out after hiding under an overhang. They adjusted themselves to be able to see each other and traded several glances as if checking on the other. In this photo the handsome couple is posing for me to show off their beautiful colors. Thanks, Doug White

Click on READ MORE for the full post. Click on the blog photo to see full size and detail.  If leaving a comment, please provide a hint who you are. This is the same horned puffin as yesterday as he gets closer to landing on the rocky ledge. With the overhangs and such, navigating these rocks just seems more tricky that other birds navigating tree branches. Thanks, Doug White

Click on READ MORE for the full post. Click on the blog photo to see full size and detail.  If leaving a comment, please provide a hint who you are. After wrapping up our boat trip to Puffin Island and surroundings, we picked up Penny (their dog) to take her on a walk after we left her alone most of the day. We headed back to Fort Abercrombie to see if any whales were in the area. Spoiler - we never saw whales but we were never disappointed in our trips to Fort Abercrombie. A bit to our surprise there was nice colony of horned puffins on the rocky point. They were actively flying in and out and were in pairs nestled into some of the rocky voids - assumed scouting for nest sites. The photography angle and lighting were difficult but I was able to grab a couple of photos good enough to share. You see the puffin making his approach into the nest in this shot. Thanks, Doug White