I’ve said it before, and I’ll keep saying it: Yosemite is the crown jewel of the National Park System, and it never shines brighter than in winter.

Very nice shots!

It's the internet, MrBob: everybody reads, but nobody comprehends. :)

But for more examples? How about dialing a phone number. Or hanging up the phone. Rewinding a video. Pretty much all of the editing tools in Photoshop are named after physical tools and techniques that don't really apply in digital photography: the same applies in video editing.

Find the specific computer you're looking at on ifixit.com. This site has really simple-to-follow instructions on pretty much any type of field repair/upgrade for Apple products (and a bunch of other stuff, too, these days). Their instructions will give you a generic difficulty rating, as well as a list of specific tools you'll need, from the commonplace to the obscure. You should get a good idea with how comfortable you will feel adding memory down the road if you decide to do so. Generally speaking, it's much cheaper for you to add memory than to have it done at a service center or even the factory.

Nice. I had a cab ride in 2010 from an elderly gentleman who had been driving cab in Fairbanks, Alaska since 1944. He did his 25 missions as a tail gunner in a B-24, got his discharge, and then came up where a buddy of his had been working on the brand new Alaska (or Alcan, is it was then-known) Highway. Never seen one of these planes in person, not even in a museum.

It depends on how much protection you want for your gear. My dad has shot for decades, carrying his gear in a regular backpack or duffle, just enough to keep things contained but offering no protection. In all that time, I think he's lost maybe a single filter due to the bag being dropped inappropriately. But if you worry about damage, you're going to have to search for something more substantial, with padding, etc.

Rain protection can be had cheaply with 2.5 gallon ziplock bags. Or, if you prefer a less disposable method, outdoor stores like REI carry very lightweight and sturdy waterproof stuff sacks in a variety of sizes. A big advantage of the ziplocks is that you can tear the corners out, feed the neck strap through it, then have something that'll easily and quickly fold over a camera that's out: we used that method for protecting our cameras in Antarctica when out on the Zodiacs.

When it comes to the motor coach, I wouldn't worry too much about the size of your camera bag, within reason. Unless you have some pretty ungainly gear, you should be just fine carrying your camera in your lap, with bag under the seat or in the overhead. You should assume that anything that gets checked into the main luggage compartments will be basically inaccessible during the day. All of the motor coach operators in Alaska will keep your time between rest stops to less than 2 hours: typically, they'll shoot for something closer to 1 to 1.5 hours between stops.

On board the train, there is no overhead storage and extremely limited luggage storage in general. This will vary somewhat between companies. I'm not sure about the luggage space on the Midnight Sun Express (Princess Cruises). The McKinley Explorer (Holland America Line) has some very limited luggage space on board its train cars, but that luggage is totally inaccessible during the ride. Wilderness Express (pretty much everyone else) has no luggage space on board the train cars. That said, the seating arrangement is quite a bit more spacious than on board the motor coach, or even on board commercial aircraft, so keeping a camera bag at your feet probably isn't a big deal. All of these operators have full-dome cars that sit somewhere between 16 and 18 feet high, with kitchens and dining facilities on the lower levels: hence the no luggage space. The absolute longest you will be on the train would be 8 hours, if you are traveling between Denali National Park and Anchorage in one leg.

I've worked for multiple of the major tour operators in Alaska for more than a decade. I started as a motor coach driver and am now a manager at one of them. Unfortunately, I do not have a lot of experience with the various flight seeing operators, and none at all in the Kenai Fjords area. My limited there experience suggests that you should be ready for a cramped cabin, but your mileage may vary by tour.

Hope that helps! Enjoy your trip.

In that case: bring a tripod. You will be in Fairbanks at the beginning of aurora season, and you will need the extra support to adequately capture that if you get to see it. Your 24-70 is just barely wide enough to capture that, even on a crop sensor, so that lens will stand you in good stead for the trip.

We aren't New England, but you'll get some good colors in Denali National Park at that time of year.

At a guess, you are probably signed up for either the Denali Natural History Tour (DNHT) or the Tundra Wilderness Tour (TWT). If not, you should check those out. By preference, I'd recommend the TWT over the DNHT: it's longer, and goes deeper into the park. If you're signed up for the DNHT and can upgrade to the TWT, do so.

Have fun. The fall is my favorite time of year, and is an excellent season for photography.

I concur: the 24-70 and then something longer than the 70-200 if you have it. When I wander around the state, I prefer to carry a 24-70 and a 100-400, and never mind the gap in coverage. I'd carry longer if I had it.

I've not done the cruise, but I live in Fairbanks and have been out to Denali National Park many times: a longer lens is a must.

What time of year are you coming up?

Maybe a wind charger, if solar is sketchy? This is something you'd have to set up each night as you camp, which does involve bringing more gear. It may be easier to just bring more batteries. New batteries, fully charged, are easy to protect and don't really take up much room. Ditto for memory cards. Bring more. More more more.

Ditch the laptop: leave that at home.

Each night, if you have been shooting a lot, review photos that are obviously junk: out of focus, wrong subject, disinteresting, whatever. You'll need to do another cull later, when you have access to a full screen. But I imagine that space on board the kayak is of greater concern than photo editing during the trip.

https://www.amazon.com/Cutting-Edge-Power-Turbine-Generator/dp/B078ZN9XRD/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1523900984&sr=8-2&keywords=portable+wind+charger

You should try to find out about venue and time of day as soon as possible so you can make plans around the environment. Daytime shooting on a clear day sounds great, but this is generally considered to be a tough environment to work in: shadows are very sharp and distinct, and the people will be probably wearing sunglasses and hats. Taking off their glasses may lead them to squint. You will want to think about communicating with them about sunglasses, even reminding them that they should not bring photochromatic prescription glasses to the session.

Consider pushing them for an early or late session. If you aren’t familiar with it, look up information on the Golden Hour. Start taking practice shots around the time of day you expect the session to happen so you can become familiar with how the lights and shadows will behave.

Shoot early. Shoot often. Change the settings. Repeat ad nauseum.

Yeah! How dare they insist that you help to support your local community! Outrage! Harrumph! Burn everything!

Typically, going from warm to cold isn’t an issue. Condensation happens when moving from cold to warm. I’ve even had this problem in a Southern summer: camera inside overnight in an air conditioned house, then everything fogged up when I went outside to shoot some portraits.

Here in Alaska, I’m pretty carefree about taking the camera outside in the winter. But I bring a padded camera bag out with me that I set on the ground, open. When I’m done shooting, I stuff the camera into the bag, seal it up, and then bring it inside to sit for hours. Overnight, if I can afford the time.

The key here is to warm the camera up as slowly as possible. Any insulated container will do. I’ve known people who stuff their cameras into small coolers, seal them up, and then bring them inside. A friend carries an extra parka to wrap around his camera. The ziplock back works, too, since it seals atmospheric moisture away from the camera as it warms.

Batteries will depend on mileage. In general, warm batteries have more energy than cold batteries. Most (all?) camera batteries are lithium, which are typically more cold tolerant than other types. I always keep a spare battery in a pocket of an inner layer, but I don’t generally need it. Just once, when I was outside shooting the start of the Iditarod in -20F temps for several hours.

I'll be in Kauai in early-mid march. What can I expect to find available for photography there? Plants? Animals? Landscapes? Astronomy?

What kind of lenses should I pack?

Thanks in advance!

I’m going to echo nikonbug: check out the Alaska Marine Highway. This is a ferry system that we use, mostly operating between Bellingham, WA and up all the way through the Inside Passage. In the summer, they bring naturalists on board. You can bring a tent to camp out on the aft deck, if that sort of adventure appeals to you. They also have staterooms, if that’s more your style. You can bring your own food, or eat in the ship restaurants. You can change your sailing plans, if something catches your eye in Sitka, or wherever.

Don’t bring your car: that’s a very expensive addition, and it will be impractical to use it anywhere along the Inside Passage.