The Traveling Widower

Tag: nature

  • Travel Photography – A Slightly Different Focus

    A man with gray hair holds a smartphone and a camera near a shoreline, surrounded by wildlife including a brown bear, a moose, a puffin, and a bald eagle. A sign indicating 'Alaska Coastal Wildlife Refuge' is visible among the trees and mountains in the background.
    Phone or camera….which should I use?

    July 14, 2026

    I’ve been back for a couple of weeks now, and I’m finally over the cold (or whatever) I caught on the Iceland trip. I’m glad the worst of it came after I got home. That would have been miserable on the trip for myself, and everyone else on the trip. Yuck – sharing a bus with someone performing volcanic sneezes would not have been pleasant. 

    Since I’ve been home, I’ve managed to go through all the photos and videos I shot on the trip, and I’ve been giving some thought on my approach for upcoming trips. I did have a plan of sorts for Iceland photography – I brought only one of the Sony A7’s, along with just two lenses, the 25-200 for everyday/landscapes, and the 50-400 for wildlife. I knew that there would only be a limited number of opportunities for wildlife, and that most of the photography would be landscapes and waterfalls. There were also two underground activities – the volcano and lava tube, and was planning to just use the Pixel phone and GoPro for those. That was the plan at least…seemed pretty good.

    As it turned out, I used my phone for the majority of the images I captured. It rained quite a bit, sometimes very hard, and it just did not make sense to use the Sony with the rain cover, especially if there was hiking and scrambling involved. I came close to a bad fall while trying to pick my way through some slick rocks, while holding the camera in one hand and my phone in the other. That was one close call too many 

    I did carry the camera along on most hikes in the new (and wonderful) Think Tank sling bag that I bought before the trip, but quite frankly, I still used my phone most of the time – it was a lot easier to pull it out of my pocket to snap a shot when we stopped for a breather. I also used the new GoPro camera quite a bit since it fit in my jacket pocket. The only times I relied on the Sony camera were for wildlife related activities, as I had planned. 

    Fast forward (forward or backward…I’m not sure which direction) to a week or so ago – I had a photo club competition coming up, and started going through my most recent photos to find something to submit. I reviewed the collections I made from Iceland, and came to a rather depressing conclusion – I had a lot of really nice shots of puffins and whale tales, interesting ones from the volcanic related features we visited/hiked, and some fantastic images of waterfalls but nothing that would be judged favorably in competition. I wound up submitting a penguin colony image, and one from the birds of prey workshop I attended a few months ago – neither one did particularly well. What really bothered me was that one of the competition winners was a beautiful, perfectly composed shot of a church in….. Iceland. What am I doing wrong?

    No, I did not sell my cameras, and take up a new hobby. I did think about it for a minute though. What I realized instead, was that I need to spend even more time setting my expectations for each trip – for example, am I just focusing on capturing photos to support the blog stories – composition and perfect settings are not as important, and in most cases, using the phone makes more sense. Did I really need to lug the Sony along on the “Inside the Volcano” hike? Nah….lot’s of strange and spectacular pictures, great for the blog or a travel slide show, but nothing worth spending time curating for competition. So where should I have been more serious about capturing competition worthy images? The Heritage Museum would have been a good choice – the old church with a great background, or spending more time looking around the sod houses. Maybe the old cathedral at Holar, or some of the buildings on Hrisey. There were a few spots where I could have worked on composing a better image. I really do  need to learn more about city photography – there were probably a lot of opportunities with the interesting buildings and murals in Reykjavik, and I had plenty of time on my own before the group arrived. And I did have some wildlife photo opportunities – birding in Myvatn, and the whales and the puffins. But one thing I have learned is that static “portrait” shots of animals do not do well in competition. Judges are looking for images that tell a story. It is not always so easy to work on photo composition in the field, especially when you are jammed into a small boat, or rushed on a hike. I guess the bottom line is that I have to make up my mind as a trip progresses, on whether I’m taking photos for blog stories or to share on Facebook and Instagram, or to create images to curate for competition. 

    So with my latest self-appraisal and plan for refocusing my photographic efforts, what should I be looking for on my next trip to Kodiak Island and Anchorage? The town of Kodiak has a lot of potential photo ops, just by wandering around the two harbors – wildlife (otters!! ) and a lot of interesting buildings and fishing boats. It might be a good place to work on my street photography, so I may just pack the long lens in my sling bag, and be more selective on what I shoot as I wander around. I’ve got a full day on my own before the tour group shows up.

    The Grizzly Bear trip will be all about wildlife – I will be focused on getting action shots of the bears, landscape shots from the boat, and whatever other wildlife we see – Bald Eagles, Otters, Puffins (yay!!!!), and maybe even whales. This will probably be four days of using the Sony A7, and the phone will stay in my pocket. I probably will not bother with the GoPro on this trip.

    The three days in Anchorage will be a mix of wildlife (moose!!!) and extreme landscape photography – I’ve scheduled a small plane tour around Denali. I’ll probably be taking some shots with the phone, but the Sony with a wide angle lens will be my primary. I’ve seen some spectacular photos taken from these flights, but that all depends on the weather and lighting. I’m going to do some research before I go so I have some idea on what to focus on, and the best way to photograph from a small plane.

    So once again I have a plan. This trip will also be way different than the Iceland trip, since it is targeted towards photographers – no rushing to grab a camera and fire off a few images. We will be setting up in a group for safety, sitting on our orange buckets, while the bears do their thing. It’s not like I’ll be asking them to pose for a shot. Hopefully they will be cooperative….and not get too close. Or too hungry. 

    And speaking of my upcoming trip to the land of giant bears, I decided that I absolutely, positively need to enlarge my collection of outdoor gear, and need to travel to what is arguably the adventure outfitter mecca of the West – Denver. Aside from having the second largest REI flagship store, which I have written about in the blog, most every major manufacturer has a store there – Patagonia, North Face, Arc!teryx, Kuhl, Black Diamond, Fjallraven and many smaller companies, are in one or two locations around Denver.  I’m planning to bring a large suitcase. I’ll stay away from the camera stores though – I’ve done enough damage this year.  

    Peace

  • Whales and Gnomes

    A whimsical whale with a Santa hat and a beard, adorned in a colorful sweater, leaping out of ocean waves with a backdrop of pine trees and a coastal village.

    1st July, 2026

    It seems like I neglected to post two days worth of photos and activities, so now that I’m almost over the crummy chest cold I brought home from Iceland, I’m finally getting around to post them. 

    —————————

    Our last full day of the trip was all about whales, usually one of my favorite activities but after the crummy tour I had in Reykjavik my first day here, I was not overly thrilled about the prospect of 3 hours riding around in the cold, with nothing much to see. But as usual with this trip, my low expectations were greatly exceeded.

    We left the Hotel Kea in Akureyri early in the AM, and headed up the coast to Husavik, a bustling harbor village which is a center for whale watching tours. Before heading out on a boat, we first made a stop at the local whale museum – this small building housed one of the most informative and interesting exhibits on whales and whaling that I’ve ever seen. Really. The tour guide was an interesting character, who has worked on whale tour boats before, and was a literal fountain of knowledge on whales and the whale hunting history and politics. He spent a great deal of time discussing the recent issues related to the start of hunting again in Iceland, a very controversial topic which I won’t get into, but you can if you want here. The tour moved up to the second floor of the museum to view a kind of spooky but incredible collection of complete whale skeletons, including a blue, sperm and humpback. The blue whale had died, likely of old age, and washed up on shore in 2010 – the story behind processing the carcass for the bones was interesting and a sort of humorous (not humerus) – think of the effort to cut up a Thanksgiving turkey, and then try and imagine one 85 feet long, weighing 150 tons. Yuck.

    An exhibit displaying a large whale skeleton in a dimly lit room, with modern lighting and a blue backdrop.
    A large whale skeleton on display in a dark exhibition space, with a man walking nearby. The bones are arranged prominently, showcasing the ribcage and vertebrae against a blue background.
    A detailed display of whale skeletons in a museum, showcasing the skull and ribcage structure against a backdrop of ocean and mountains.
    A mounted whale skeleton displayed in a museum, featuring the skull and elongated jaw structure, with a scenic background of mountains and water.
    A large whale skeleton suspended from the ceiling in a museum, with displays of marine life in the background and a visitor observing the exhibit.

    Husavik Whale Museum

    On the bus ride in, our trip leader (I usually do not include names of real people in my blogs) told us about a rather unbelievable, but true story, about Husavik. Apparently, the town competed in a European song contest (I’m not sure if they won), and Netflix filmed a movie with Will Ferrel, about the effort. I still don’t fully understand it. But the town has an exhibition at the main hotel to commemorate the effort and the movie. I’m not making this up – you can find the movie on Netflix. I’ll pass – I’m not a Will Ferrel fan.

    The whale watch tour was scheduled after an interesting lecture from a researcher at the Whale Institute and of course, we had to have lunch.  We never missed a meal on this trip. It’s going to take me a while to work off the weight I’ve gained on this trip – way too many desserts. Back to the whale watch…this one was much more pleasant, and a bit more successful that the one in Reykjavik. Our boat was quite a bit different from what I’m used to – no cabin. Just a pilot house, and a lot of seating. Plus an entrance to a bathroom below the deck. One other big difference – you had to wear a protective, waterproof overall. Not a bad idea given how cold the water is, assuming you might wind up overboard. The suits were nice protection from the wind and rain as well. The scenery was stunning as we cruised across the bay. – tall, snow capped peaks, with a lot of streams and waterfalls. A nice backdrop if we had a few breaching whales. 

    A scenic view of a harbor with various boats moored, against a backdrop of snow-capped mountains and a cloudy sky.
    Passengers and crew aboard the Nattfari boat in Husavik, surrounded by scenic coastal views and cloudy skies.
    A scenic harbor with several boats docked by a wooden pier, against a backdrop of mountains and cloudy skies.

    I did not get that particular shot, but we did have a few humpbacks blowing and diving near the shore, and one whale did breach but it was too far off even for my 400mm lens. But, I did get a couple of good fluke shots, and some nice scenery images as well. No complaints – it was a nice way to spend the afternoon.

    Scenic view of mountainous terrain with snow-capped peaks reflected in calm water under a cloudy sky.
    A whale's tail emerging from the water, splashing as it dives beneath the surface.
    A scenic view of a waterfall cascading down a rocky hillside, surrounded by green grass and rugged terrain, with a calm water body in the foreground.
    A humpback whale's tail partially submerged in calm ocean waters, with a clear sky in the background.
    A whale partially breaching in the water near a rocky shoreline with green vegetation and a small waterfall in the background.

    The coast we were sailing along was along a mountain range, with no obvious access other than by boat. No docks along there. But there was this nice looking house, all by itself. A place to get away from it all.

    A solitary house surrounded by lush green hills and small waterfalls, viewed from a body of water.
    Look closely – the house is close to the shore.

    The tour lasted about 3 hours, including the slow ride back to the harbor. We were given the option of another geothermal bath soak on the way back to the hotel, but I opted out in favor of a search for a t-shirt to wear on the way home. Shopping. Not my favorite thing to do, but I just did not feel like going through the hot tub ritual again.

    I did find a shop that sold t-shirts, but more importantly, had an entire room dedicated to one of my peculiar obsessions – gnomes. They were not the type you put in gardens, but I had branched out quite some time ago to include the indoor variety, and I was like a kid in a toy store. Complete gnome overload. 

    A retail display featuring a variety of decorative gnomes and holiday ornaments, arranged on shelves. Products include gnome figurines in red and white, plush holiday decorations, gift boxes, and puzzles, all set against a minimalistic background.

    Eventually, I found one that was small enough to fill the limited open space in my luggage, and fit in with the rest of the indoor gnome population. I’m sure the others will welcome their foreign brethren. They probably all speak the same language. Gnomish. It’s sort of Scandinavian – lots of strange letters. 

    A decorative grey gnome with a tall pointy hat adorned with snowflake designs and a white beard, sitting on a black textured case, with a lamp and other items in the background.

    We had our farewell dinner that night at a surprise and welcome change in restaurants – a very high-end sushi house. We each were given a wonderful and large platter of assorted sushi, some of the best I’ve had. Plus a wine pairing, which I did not participate in (that darn heart thing). Not a bad way to end the really great trip.

    Just one more night in a really uncomfortable hotel room (Hotel Kea), and I’ll be on the long way home.

    Peace