Road trip with a good keen man

Ya know road trippin is for you when you hop in the truck and all you do is grin. Silly I know but Yes! Road Trip!!

It was just a short trip to Haines, Alaska from Valdez. It feels like it goes up and over and in reality, at least on a map, it is! The frost heave heading up to Tok, a small ‘meeting of roads’ town, had us bouncing like a 1/2 ton child on a trampoline. Unfortunately, it was my inquiry to learn about frost heave as we drove this ongoing rolling hill of a road that started the elocution lessons. The freezing of water in the soil causes it to heave up…”its watER” said the good keen man, I repeat “water [watah]”, “no try again, watER…” so I repeat in a bad American accent “watER…Yeah-no, I am a kiwi for goodness sake, and 20 years away from my home land, New Zealand, has not changed my accent too much. And so started the often ongoing elocution of watah into water, wish it was water into wine!! I needed some after that.

As the road moved so did the clouds, and amazing they were!

Crossing the boarder into Canada felt like coming home, not sure if it’s that I have family in Canada or if it’s the commonwealth connection, whatever is is, it was another reason to smile. Especially when the roadside brings so much bounty!

It’s grass eating time for the bears as they wake up from the winter. Although in the carnivores category Bears actually spend most of their time feeding on vegetation and insects. Although, Alaska and Canada bears do love their salmon when they are in.

When spring is out so are the cubs. These cubs and their mother were eating the fine roadside grass feast, the black bear was enjoying.

They say that bear cubs play as a means to learn how to protect themselves. Like many

Other animals each has a personality and these two sure did. One of these wanted to play long and hard, the other not so much.

Haines Junction, is exactly what it says a junction of two roads, the Alaska Highway and the Haines Highway. Those two highways bisect 2 Countries and 3 States, Alaska, Yukon and British Columbia.

Onward through Canada has ya looking out in awe at the beauty. Lakes Dezadeash and Kluane – stunning!

Road squirrels! Prairie dogs? Look! Was the exclamation coming from a good keen man. As we drove over the mountain pass toward Haines, many of these little creatures did imitations of meerkats, standing on their hind quarters.

Haines is a quaint seaport town, not a quiet sleep one but a bustling mini-meca of business and people from all over, thanks to the road and marine highway.

What to do while waiting for the ferry, with the boat? Mmm maybe a museum I say, “oh look there’s a Hammer Museum!” A good keen man states…I am sure the other breakfast eaters in the restaurant thought my laughter a bit on the odd side.

The sun was wonderful and the wait for the ferry was delicious! Although I think I relaxed more that man did ? he was to busy thinking about the arrival.

Goods received and after ensuring all is tied down we began the slow cruise back.

She’s a beauty, said a grinning good keen man.

The trip back to Valdez was pleasantly uneventful, with the obligatory elocution lessons over the frost heave after Tok. And like the way over the vistas are some of the best ever.

There’s something about black and white…

There is something stoic and passionate, raw yet peaceful about black and white photos.

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Valdez Boat Harbor, Alaska

Whether it is the layers of gray or the contrast between shapes and lines that appear so defined compared to color photos, or perhaps it’s that the lack of color, it is not there to distract the eye from other facets of the photo we may not perceive. Some think of it at an art form that takes away the distracting colors and lets the foundational portions of the photo (shape, form, lighting, texture) come to the forefront. Sometimes it’s the grainy image that brings my mind back to the beginnings of photography and its dense textures.

 

Traditional black and white photograpy was monochromatic, where there was different amount of light but not different hues. Where the photograph contains variations of one color. This was the only way there was back then before 1936 and the invention of color in photography. Exploration of the variety of black and white styles gives a different meaning of color, sepia (warm tones), cyan (cool tones)…just to name a few .

Today, black and white photography can be done the more traditional way and shoot in monochrome (most cameras, have this setting) or you can shoot in color and choose black and white in post-processing.

Black and white portaits let the focus be on the face and eyes instead of the colors that are there. It lets the smaller things, like freckles, show more than they may have in color format.

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While not every photo you take will look better in black and white, many themes can look stunning in black and white. No matter what theme, it comes down to composition, mood, and personal perference. Landscape and looking for active skies or capturing architectural texture of the buildings, or travel photography to seal that moment in time in grayscale or sports shots.. all can thrive in black and white styles as their shape, form, textures and tones emerge to show us their full potential.

 

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Liam, diving “The Pier”, Bonaire.

 

 

 

For the Love of Traveling

Although traveling is not a career for me [I actually like my current one] It is something that is in the heart, something in the mind and very probably something in the blood.

I have always loved it, had a fascination with it. The places, the process – the planning, the getting there and enjoying the ‘being there’ … wherever there may be this time. And I have been lucky to have the opportunity to have been traveling all my life. Thanks to parents that had it a part of their lives, now I do the same for my kids.

Most of us probably start to get excited as they plan to travel. Where to go? Sometimes where “not” to go makes the choice for you, with the world doing it’s best to be wild and unruly. Oh wait that would be us humans making the world an unwelcoming place at times. But you can still travel into the wild of the world and have a peaceful yet full on adventure trip.

So where to go? Somewhere you have been and are comfortable with? Somewhere that stretches the imagination and knowledge or somewhere that has no boundaries or expectations, or somewhere where the ‘Wild Things Are’? (yeah I loved that book as a kid). It could be other countries, oceans and mountains, inner city or your cousin’s backyard…that is what traveling is all about. It doesn’t really matter, we travel for many reasons. And all of them are typically good reasons.

So why do I travel? for the sheer love of it, even if I go for work or other obligations, there is still something exciting, potentially unexpected, a heightened awareness of going somewhere – traveling!

Traveling with A Good Keen Man

Traveling with a good keen man takes traveling in an altogether rather interesting direction most times.

First let me tell you What a good keen man is, then I can continue with chatting about traveling with one.

A good keen man was first described and is the title of a New Zealand book by Barry Crump. A rugged kiwi (New Zealander) who’s life was being in the native bush (old growth forest to you non-down-under folk).

I see him also as an “attitude about life” – living/ playing in the outdoors to it’s fullest, sometimes off the grid, sometimes enjoying the company of others on his journey’s. It is always with a mind and heart open to whatever to life will bring.

A good keen man is seen as an ordinary ‘bloke’ who enjoyed tossing the urban rat-race aside to ‘go-bush’…someone who can survive and thrive out there, someone who sees the small and large of it’s wonder and someone who needs to be outdoors because it is what makes them who they are. Could a good keen man be a female…absolutely, in fact I know several.

So back to traveling with a good keen man. It is always an experience. One, that more often than not, has the outdoors as a major participant – go figure.

Countries and oceans, mountains and beaches. From New Zealand to Alaska, the Caribbean’s Dutch Antilles to Australia and beyond. Islands with crystal waters and old growth forests. My travels are filled with wonder, painful muscles, fun & laughter, and grumbling about needing to have a rest day for the tired body.

It involves history & living in the amazing worlds moment…yet saying no to the 10 mile hike that started “just a short one”. Then there are the outstanding under ocean views which out-weigh the walking next to sewers in unexpected places, all with only minor grumblings about finding enough power to charge the cameras batteries. Traveling can be an excellent way to see if you can not just get along together but survive together in and out of the ‘bush’.

With that being said, It is easy to continue to smile, be grateful for each day because to quote my Dad… ‘I’m living the dream’ and I am doing it with MY good keen man and life couldn’t be much better than that.

Winter Adventures

What a wonderful world we live in…Alaska and Valdez in particular has a variety to sports adventures that far out weigh the number of people that live in this small community. To get here you can take a 35 minute flight from Anchorage or drive one of the most beautiful road trips you ever could do. 

I had the opportunity this Winter to be able to capture some beautiful photos of this stunning landscape, as well as some of the amazing sports that this town offers. Valdez Ice Festival is a climbers dream, both rock and ice saw some action. With world class Canadian climbers Nathan Kutcher and Rebecca Lewis, and Ice and Rock Magazine Hayden Carpenter climbing, along with local Nick Weicht, photos were a fun adventure.

Nathan Kutcher, world class climber from Canada
Rebecca Lewis, Canadian world class dry tooling

 

Teal Rogers

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then and then you have some fun…aerial silk performance art.

 

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