David's Images of the Day Photoblog
Views of the sky. Sunrise, sunset, clouds, and weather
I love visiting Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Lots and lots of birds as well as an alligator hiding in the swamp to view and photograph.
Individual images in the slide show can be viewed here.
On the sixth day of the northbound Hurtigruten coastal voyage, the MS Nordkapp stopped in seven ports: Øksfjord (02:00-02:15); Hammerfest (05:15-06:45); Havøsund (09:30-09:45); Honningsvåg (11:45-15:15); Kjøllefjord (17:30-17:45); Mehamn (19:30-20:00); and Berlevåg (22:30-22:45).
On the previous night, the ship went to the narrow entrance of Trollfjord and shined high-powered spot lights to show the narrow passage and high walls. In the summer the Hurtigruten ships go into Trollfjord as part of the northbound voyage. In the winter they only go to the entrance due to avalanche danger. After the ship turned the lights off, I thought that I got an image with a glimmer of green from some low northern lights. The ship staff told me that it was just a reflection on a cloud from one of the fish farms. I went out again early in the morning and got an image that does show some faint northern light activity. Later in the evening, I got some more images showing some northern light activity. Several passengers asked why my camera was able to see the northern lights as bright green where they could barely see anything with their eyes, let alone with point and shoot cameras. The tour director on the ship was not yet making a ship wide announcement that northern lights were visible since he didn’t want folks to go away and say “is that all there is?”. Before beginning this trip I debated not taking a DSLR. Now I am glad that I did. These images were taken at ISO 1600, f/1.4, and 4 seconds. I didn’t have the tripod out with me so I held the camera body against my chest. You can see some camera motion in the stars, but it is not as bad as I thought it would be. For white balance, I used 3500 °K as a starting point since that is what I use when photographing star trails.
Sunrise at Playalinda Beach, then spent the day roaming Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Early morning spider web, lots of birds, and an alligator sunning. Many of the birds had captured a fish.
Individual images from the slide show can be viewed here.
The sky was clear, so drove from Boulder to Rocky Mountain National Park. The roads in the park were open, so I spent another day taking pictures in this great National Park. It is cold, and the river is frozen. I got good use out of my Golden Eagle Pass that year.
In addition to transporting passengers, the Hurtigruten ships carry freight, mail, automobiles, and fresh food between several ports along the Norwegian coast. Many of these stops occur during the night, and only last for short (15 minutes to 1 hour) periods of time. The schedule for the first full day of the northbound voyage stops at the following ports: Florø (04:30-04:45); Maløy (06:45-07:30); Torvik (10:20-10:45); Ålesund (12:00-15:00); Molde (17:30-18:30); Kristandsund (22:00-23:00).
We were able to spend a bit of time for a walkabout in Ålesund. It was snowing so I didn’t have a chance to climb Mount Aksla for a view of the harbor like I did in 2007. We did hear the drone in the sky that the German TV crew was using follow us as we walked through the city. I was surprised that they would fly it with limited visibility.
Individual images in the slide shows can be viewed here.