This was taken inside the Denali National Park just right off the park road at one of the pull offs. Our driver was very good at stopping. I think this was looking the other way from Denali. You know what they say some times the great shot is behind you or beside you. I liked the group of fire weed along the road against the vista. I tried to get them to align with Denali in the back ground but they were not in the right place. The grounds keeper needs to do a better job at planting it next year so it frames Denali.

Yes it was I caught that right as I hit the send button.

I posted a few of the shots I took in Alaska this past August in a topic I started back in June of 2021 as a follow up to that post. It was a great trip our second to Alaska, first to the 'interior' though. We have been back almost a month now and keeping working through the photos and have found a few more that I would like to share. We were very fortunate and had 3 weeks of just amazing weather. These were taken with the Sony A7RV w/ Sony 24-27 F/2.8 GM II.

I wanted to follow up on this post from a couple of years ago. We finally we able to go on this trip. Following some of the suggestions here I moved the trip to August, started on Aug. 9th and returned on Aug. 29th. We did the 10 day land tour actually we arrived in Fairbanks 3 days before our 'tour' started to allow for any issues in flying. We started in Fairbanks, Denali, McKinley Lodge, Kenai, Copper River, then 7 day cruise on the Grand Princess. I ended up taking Sony A1 and A7RV with a 100-400 f/4, 70-200 f2.8, 24-70 f2.8, 14mm f 1.8, and 1.4x tel. I did take a laptop and 2 (2tb) SSD drives to backup the cards, well backing up one night on drive dies so you know what they back up in threes so I had one drive and the cards when I go home. I ended up (9) 160gb cards and (2) 128gb cards. In Denali the 100-400 with the 1.4 tel worked good in the bus not to long but not enough reach. Even if I had a 600 with a 1.4 or 2x teleconverter I do not think that would even be enough. They were way to far away. Now on the whale watch the 100-400 worked great.

When I read this I thought ok did I have a senior moment and write this? And now cannot remember doing it. Has dementia set in? I do the exact same thing, down to my wife helping / doing the Shutterfly book. I have kept every photo and have 3 (20) terabyte NAS units set to mirror each other, remember backup in threes, why I do not know I cannot hit the delete button. It is fun to go back to photos taken years and years ago and re-edit with the new software we have today. The other day I fiddled with a photo I had taken with a D100 ran it through the latest version of Lightroom it was amazing the difference in the original edit I had done so long ago. It was also a great trip down memory lane of that trip and made wonder, dam where has the time gone. When we went on that trip it was just our 3rd cruise and we thought we were on top of the world, wondering if we would ever take another to such a far away place. It gave us our desire to want to see the world. Sorry ramblings of and old man. The moral of the story is it was fun to go back through all the thousands of photos I took and relook through them some that I must have thought were not good today I was like wow why did I not pick that one. That is why I keep every shot.

Very nice, beautiful shots, I too like number 2 but also number 1. I am fixing to go in August and these make me anticipate our trip more. I am curious as to what you took in camera gear ? I am being forced to reduce what I am bringing due to falling and breaking my elbow so big lenses are out, a 70-200 or 100-400 might be all I can pick up and hold.

I will chime in here. I have 5 acres and put the array in the side yard, the array is huge a little over 60’ long but my electric bill for all of last year was $400 and that was for a 5300 sq.ft. house. The budget payment 2 years ago was running around $450/ month but the ‘pay off’ month was over $800. System will pay for its self in another 3 to 4 years with the tax credits and savings on electricity. We are basically off grid 9 to 10 months out of the year. I did not want it on the roof for reasons mentioned here about if the roof needs to be replaced what happens, snow sliding off, causing leaks, if a panel goes out how to replace it, etc. also if on the ground to get snow off I only have to clear off one panel it then heats the rest up and the the snow slides off.

I hear people complaining about the utility costs here going higher and higher, friends that are like me retiring cannot afford to keep large houses and having to down size. So for me is it / has it been worth it yes.

I have the G7X Mark iii for years and love it as a pocket camera. I have really loved the photos it produces. Only thing is after years of use is the screws come loose on the back flip screen and have to tighten them up now a lot more often. But I think it is about 4 years old now.

I am in the process of planning a trip to Africa and was looking at Pangolin Photo Safaris for the Great Migration in the Masai Mara. Has anyone any experience with them? Everything I can find seems everyone have loved the experience. My wife is concerned about being eaten by either a loin, truck tipped over by a rhino or elephant and that is just in the truck and not to mention at night back a camp.

I have not personally been but a friend went on a cruise line called Hurtigruten they do Antarctica / Galapagos island cruises that I have been looking at. It is not a ‘bird’ focused cruise but might be an option for you, they have ships built and designed for cruising to Antarctica. My friend said they have photographers that help with settings, suggestions for shots and have talks while not in port. He said the ship was fairly new with balconies and several dining choices and it held about 500 passengers so not small but not super big. I know a couple major cruise lines have ships that go there too but those are much larger ships with thousands on board and I do not know if they have any “landings” while in Antarctica other than just cruising by places.

Great shots! I would love to go back there some day it is an awe inspiring place. I remember the first time I saw it was from the balcony of the hotel inside the Mesa Verde National Park which was miles away from it. Just incredible, I feel the first shot really captures it.

Sounds like you did the land part too if you went to Denali, if so I am curious as to “the bag size” everything on Princess’s site gives a dimension for “carry on” as 17 x 14 x 4 and you only get one bag. I am not finding a bag that meets that. The 17x 14 yes but most bags are thicker than 4”. ( I am not getting a 200-600 in there either it is like 5” in dia.) But I notice this is the same dimensions that were given to my in-laws 16 years ago. The bag I have and would like to take, because I would not have to buy a new one, is 19.6x 11.6x 6.1 (Shimoda Actionx30) I know it fits on a plane with ease. Just do not know about the bus or train. Is this too big? My DW will kill me if I get another bag she says I have more camera bags than she has purses or shoes.

I too am going to Alaska in August and have the same issue; 100-400 or 200-600. I have been before and know longer the better, but since we are doing a land tour first I am very limited on space and size so leaning to taking my 100-400 only with my 1.4 tele. If I was only doing the cruise only I would definitely take the 200-600 because from the ship everything is very far away. You mention going on hikes; to me carrying the 200-600 while on a hike and trying to use it in the woods has two problems the size and weight of the 200-600 gets to me real fast. Some say take a tripod or mono pod by the time you set that up the wild life will be gone. Tripod would be useful for landscapes but it would only work on land not on the ship the ship is moving up and down, side to side, vibrations through the deck; people walking, engine etc. making hand holding where you can maintain the object in the frame. Also use a faster shutter speed to account for the movement. So for hikes for me the 100-400 is a better choice, lighter, more compact and easier to handle, also in the woods the focal range of 100-400 is a little better for if I want to do a landscape shot I do not need to change the lens because I am not changing the lens in the woods. (Pan and stitch the shot if needed) or carry two cameras one for wild life the other landscape shots.

It rains so if you are going thinking you will not be out in the rain at some point, you might not get off the ship. So take a rain cover of some sort for the camera. I know it is ‘weather’ sealed but the rain in Alaska is like penetrating oil it seems, I learned the difference between water resistant and water proof on our last trip; water resistant means it will resist direct exposure to rain for maybe 3 to 5 minutes after that it is another layer to dry out. You need everything to be waterproof. Yes the weather sealing is ok if you take the camera out of a bag shoot a couple shots maybe walk to a different position but then wipe it down and put it in a bag or better yet have a rain cover a plastic bag works or ThinkTank just something.

Have fun!

Here is what I have in the Guru bag there is still room for more stuff. 2 bodies, 1 with grip, 14mm, 24-70, 70-200, 600mm, both teleconverters, 6 batteries, 1 charger, Anker Power Bank. What I like about this bag is the butterfly opening so the whole bag is not open at once, a feature I like for my up coming trip to Africa. But camera bags are like a pair of my wife's shoes she says; "shoes you can never have too many and each one is for a different use / occasion". I also looked at the ThinkTank Airport Accelerator it indicated it will hold a 600mm f/4. It has the same dimensions as the Guru bag and looks to take a laptop and might be a future addition to my bag collection.

This will bag not work for a carry on bag for a plane. The airlines require 22"x14"x9" international is all over the board and need to check which airline you will use but are close to the dimensions above. Some bag manufactures use around a 20.5"x14"x9" as an international size. The 9" number seems to vary between manufacturers. I know others have said they have ben able to get this on but it all depends on how much the gate personnel want to stick to the rules. Which I seem to always get the most unyielding tyrants, if does not fit in the luggage size thing has to be gate checked.