Early morning sight

I was able to squeeze in a little "work" today and head up into the mountains above Anchorage to one of my favorite stomping grounds of old; the Glen Alps trailhead. With a commanding view over Anchorage it is my favorite place to await the first rays of the morning sun as they creep in between Wolverine Peak and Flattop Mountain. Today didn't disappoint and there was the added bonus of an arriving jet into the airport, what a glorious sight it must have been from that aircraft.

Enjoy.

View across the Inlet

A quick trip up to visit the property brought back to my memory a view I had seen many years ago and, surprise surprise, it was just as stunning today as I remembered. The Anchorage skyline as seen from Port McKenzie across Cook Inlet on a crisp fall afternoon.

On holiday

Lovely to be home. Jill and I are back home in Alaska for a couple of weeks. Today we went to do an oxymoronic task called "absetee in-person" voting for the upcoming Federal election. On the way to City Hall we were treated to one of Alaska's normal traffic hazards: momma' moose and her baby crossing Tudor Road. And then it snowed this afternoon.

Yes, it is good to be home. Here's an image I captured while doing a little aerial vehicle spotting near the Anchorage airport. Enjoy and look for more images in the next few days.

The Holiday Season Approaches

Yes, it's hard to believe but it is getting close to the time of the year for re-connecting with that long list of friends hidden away in your Holiday Greetings address book. Millions upon millions of pieces of mail will literally travel to and from the four corners of the globe in order to give yearly updates on what we do, the growth of our kids and the current state of our pets.

Not one to be content with the current offerings at the corner store, I decided this year to produce a line of holiday greeting cards with my own little style added to them. The first batch is out featureing a poor little eagle in a Santa hat waiting for the first glimps of morning in Alaska, scrumptious cookies, brilliant poinsettia (growing outdoors in the Azores of all places) and a couple of others.

My favorite is probably the single aurora image. When we were in Alaska the wife of our pastor saw this photo and called it the "baby Jesus" photo as once could imagine the sky looking like that on that very special knight. So Dar, THANK YOU!

The Arrival of D. Glen Elrod (esquire?)

My buddy and fellow photographer D. Glen Elrod finally sent me the link to his blog. I first met Glen when he was stationed in Alaska working in the hospital with my wife in the Women's Health Clinic. Both our families left at about the same time, Glen going to England and our family going to the Azores. He was able to visit us once on official business (ask him about playing bunko... then again, I doubt he remembers anything) and we were able to take a space-available flight up to see him for a week where we went to Caen, France and visited the beaches of the Normandy coast as well as Mont Ste Michel.

As fate would have it, we also moved to England and spent a year trying to meet up to do some work together with minimal success. I seemed to be perpetually busy here on the farm while he visited his second home of London as his family are great fans of the theatre. Now, Glen is out of the service and setting up a nice little practice in Alaska and teasing me relentlessly by asking questions like "What's that green glow in the sky?"

So if you get a moment, stroll on over to his blog and pay him a visit (he has a great Bruce Willis photo BTW) and welcome my buddy to the busy ecclectic world of blogging.

THE BOOK IS COMPLETE!

With great joy I announce the publication of my book:

"Unique Imagery From Around the World: Stories and Techniques Behind Their Creation"

Filled with some of my favorite images from Alaska, the Azores, China and Venice, Italy this book endeavors to let you in on what happens behind the scenes of a single image. Weather, culture, technical considerations, the whole lot.

More information as well as excerpts from the book are HERE!

Notecard sets now available

Mother knows best. We all have heard it over and over again but for some of us (me) it takes a couple of hard knocks to the head for me to listen sometimes.

My Mom has told me numerous times how she wished she had a certain image on a notecard. Mom is a big fan of cheering people up by sending a card with a simple message inside. In this day of instantaneous communication using modern technology the art of hand-writing a card or letter is becoming a lost art (and a sin I'm blatantly guilty of).

Finally realizing yet again of just how smart Mom is I have begun releasing a series of notecards featuring my images in full-color on the front and a "ghosted" black and white image inside. Each package contains 6 cards as well as envelopes and are available in a growing number of designs. If you have a favorite image you's like to see on a card simply let me know!

Cheers!

~James

Could it Really Be....

There's a nasty rumor floating about that there might actually be some white, fluffy-type precipitation coming our way over the next couple of days! That would be simply marvelous since I have both daffodils and snow drops blooming.

My guess is it will never equal the massive dump we saw on Saint Patrick's Day in Anchorage but at
this stage anything would be a welcome change. I should also mention that the SEE ROCK CITY birdhouse in the photo was supplied by my Mom who was kind enough to send me another one for my garden here in England. LOVE YOU MOM!

Demise of a hen harrier

I like birds. That being said, I like some better then others and for reasons which are as diverse as the hues in a 128-count box of crayons. I'm rather fond of chicken (unless its a rooster going off at times other than sunrise, had one of those just outside out bedroom in the Azores) but as you might imagine that has more to do with dinner than anything else. I'm exceedingly fond of raptors.

While in Alaska I had the chance to observe the majestic Bald Eagle on numerous occasions. One particularly grand morning in Homer my son Jordan and I sat among them at close distance and got some incredible images. That was one of those days you talk about years later in hushed voices while sitting around a campfire sipping hot chocolate out of a tin mug that has clanged down many a trail clipped to the outside of your pack.

Today was a raptor encounter of a different sort. Mowing the lawn I noticed something hidden in the uncut grass near the rear of the property. I approached and upon closer inspection found it to be some sort of bird. Couple of pokes with a stick found it to be dead so, being the kind of guy I am, I picked it up to see what it was.

It was warm first off, not dead long at all. Not wounded, malnourished or visibly distressed. Like it just fell out of the sky. Between Jordan and I we determined (as well as we could) that what I had found was likely a female hen harrier (Circus cyaneus). Jordan was hands-on as usual and held it out so I could photograph her. Magnificent. A wonderfully curved beak, massive talons of the most extraordinary yellow and a magical pattern to her feathers. An incredible physical manifestation of God's creation in front of us. Perfectly designed to fly, hunt, eat. Sad that she is no more, I'm grateful for the chance to inspect her close up. So long hen harrier. Soar high.

Cheers!

~James