Ten-Years Ago (10-September-2009) — Alaska

Gone to See North America Road Trip. Day 20: Alaska Railroad – Denali to Anchorage, Alaska. (Day 6: Nikonians ANPAT 9).

We were very fortunate on this trip to see Mount Denali five days in a row. As the tallest mountain in North America, it creates its own weather and often is obscured by clouds for days at a time. The first set of images are of Mount Denali. They were taken while riding the Alaska Railroad train back to Anchorage from the Observation car. I didn’t posted them in the past because they were out of focus and blurry. Photographer error — I used shutter-priority mode  with a high shutter speed (1/1000 or 1/2000 sec) with the ISO set to 100. This resulted in the aperture being being nearly wide open, which meant a narrow range of distances in focus. The 45 mm f/2.8 PC-E lens is a manual focus lens, and I must have moved it off of focusing at infinity. I have reprocessed the images with Capture One Pro and Topaz Focus AI. I am very impressed with how much detail the Topaz Focus AI program was able to recover.

The next set of images are landscape views from the train. The same camera and lens, but set to aperture-priority with the aperture set at f/11, and auto ISO. These images were sharper, and did not need to be reprocessed. In some of the images you see the old telegraph poles. Although the wire had been removed years ago to recover the copper, the glass insulators are still there.

Finally, a time-lapse video (sort of) documenting the group on the train. All images taken with a Nikon D3 camera and 16 mm  fisheye lens. Two minutes in length.


Click on the above image to access my PhotoShelter gallery with the individual images in the following slideshow.



Click on the above image to access my PhotoShelter gallery with the individual images in the following slideshow.


Six-Years Ago (11-September-2009) — Alaska

Gone to See North America Road Trip. Day 21: Alaska Railroad – Anchorage to Spencer Glacier. (Day 7: Nikonians ANPAT 9).

The  group took Alaska Railroad train for a day trip to the Spencer Glacier in the Chugach National Forest.  The glacier is only accessible as a “whistle stop” on the train line.  A (sort of) time-lapse video of  images from the day including Albert’s size 13 boot.  A bit confusing and jerky because I was using two different cameras and lenses.

Six-Years Ago (10-September-2012) — Alaska

Gone to See North America Road Trip. Day 20: Alaska Railroad – Denali to Anchorage, Alaska. (Day 6: Nikonians ANPAT 9).

Stoned Beaver on the Alaska Railroad traveling from Denali National Park to Anchorage. Image taken with a Nikon D3 camera and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 450, 16 mm, f/2.8, 1/800 sec).

Stoned Beaver on the Alaska Railroad traveling from Denali National Park to Anchorage. Image taken with a Nikon D3 camera and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 450, 16 mm, f/2.8, 1/800 sec). (David J Mathre)
Stoned Beaver on the Alaska Railroad traveling from Denali National Park to Anchorage. Image taken with a Nikon D3 camera and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 450, 16 mm, f/2.8, 1/800 sec). (David J Mathre)

Six-Years Ago (10-September-2009) — Alaska

Gone to See North America Road Trip. Day 20: Alaska Railroad – Denali to Anchorage, Alaska. (Day 6: Nikonians ANPAT 9).

Time-Lapse Video (sort of) Documenting the Nikonians ANPAT 9 Group on a Train returning from Denali to Anchorage. All images taken with a Nikon D3 camera and 16 mm  fisheye lens. Two minutes in length.