The Traveling Widower

Tag: photography

  • Kodiak Alaska – First Impressions

    View of a white wooden church with a blue dome and crosses on top, featuring a set of stairs leading to the entrance, surrounded by a white picket fence and green grass.

    26th Aug, 2026

    My trip out to Kodiak was uneventful for a change. No giant spiders in the SeaTac Hilton, no lost luggage, no drunks in first class, and no worries about customs not letting me into Alaska. Phew. That was a relief. This was my first time in the Anchorage airport – it was strange to see most everyone wearing hiking gear, and a vast majority of passengers carrying fishing gear. You have to be careful walking around not to get impaled. 

    The weather in Anchorage was ominous, possibly an omen for the trip. It was pouring. I’ve got a week before I’m back there, so hopefully, this weather system will move out. 

    The flight to Kodiak from Anchorage is very short – less than an hour. It was a pleasant flight, sitting next to a Kodiak resident, chatting the entire way about life in that small town. He did mention that they just had their first ever bear mauling of a resident. She survived with a few puncture wounds – she was walking her dog and spooked a mama bear with her cubs. Not a good thing to do apparently. I’m glad that Aperture is not along on this trip.

    A golden retriever stands in a shallow stream, barking at a mother bear and her two cubs on the riverbank surrounded by lush greenery.
    Down Aperture, down boy!

    Thankfully, the clouds parted as we approached Kodiak and I could see the town and bay as we landed – absolutely stunning. The airport is tiny of course, and shared with the Coast Guard. No jetways to the terminal as expected. I’m glad it was not raining. 

    A Boeing airplane at an airport, with a loading ramp attached for boarding passengers. Staff members are seen near the entrance, and green hills are visible in the background under a cloudy sky.

    I was surprised when I walked into the very small terminal building, to see someone from Natural Habitat standing there with a sign with my name – it was the trip lead, who came to drive me back to the hotel. That was nice – I was expecting to call the hotel, and stand around waiting for a while. He gave me a tour of the town, which was fast since there are only a few streets and buildings. By the time we were at the hotel, the skies had cleared a bit,and there was even a bit of sun. Time for a photo walk!

    Kodiak is a commercial fishing town – not exactly photogenic. The harbor is crammed with fishing boats, and with a large salmon cannery along the water, the place looks like an industrial park. There are a handful of restaurants, a bar or two, a couple of coffee shops and that’s about it except for a few small museums. People do not come to Kodiak as a destination point – it’s a jump off for fishing trips, hunting and photo expeditions. The town has some interesting history. Aside from starting out as a Russian outpost in the 1800’s, it’s probably best known for the tragic tsunamis that pretty much destroyed the town from the 1964 earthquake. That quake registered a 9.2 on the Richter scale, and displaced a huge amount of the sea floor – the town dropped 6 feet, while just offshore, the sea floor on the other side of the fault raised 30 feet. Multiple waves hit the town, pretty much destroying the place. Fishing boats were washed up far inland. Complete devastation.

    But they rebuilt the place, and it is a haven once again for commercial and recreational fishing. From talking with the resident on the plane, it is kind of a weird place to live in – you always have to be careful about bears since they wander into town, earthquakes are common, you have to go back to the mainland for just about anything, and then there is that long winter/long daylight thing you get in the far North. But, if you like fish and getting away from everything, this is one of those places to go. Hey, it’s got the smallest Walmart in the US, a McDonalds, and a Subway Sandwich. What more could you want?

    My first walk around town was fun – I managed to walk by pretty much everything of interest in a little over an hour. The harbor is absolutely packed with all sizes of fishing boats. Some are large commercial trawlers, with seine nets, and quite a few smaller boats for recreational fishing Some in good shape, others not quite as much. It’s fun just wandering around on the long docks, watching the crews prep the boats. The town also has a large fish cannery, which was once upon a time, a WWII Liberty Ship – one of those big merchant ships that were built in mass quantities during the war (I have a post on the one in San Francisco). This one was gutted, set in concrete, and turned into a factory. It would probably do OK with another tsunami.

    I was told that there was usually a lot of wildlife around the harbor, including otters, sealions, harbor seals, and the ever present bald eagles. Sure enough, I spotted a pair about 5 minutes into my walk.

    A sign with a speed limit of 5 mph and the words 'SLOW NO WAKE', positioned near rocky terrain, with two birds perched on top and mountains in the background.

    I also visited one of the well known tourist sites, the Russian Orthoox Church with the big, blue onion domes. Most of the former Russian towns have one. 

    My second day in Kodiak was mostly a free day – the remaining seven adventurers, including my mystery room mate for the boat, arrive on Wednesday, so I have until the evening get-together to do whatever I please. Being a glutton for punishment, I decided to wander around again, visit the museums, and maybe take a walk across the bridge to the neighboring island – there was a nice park with hiking trails. After all, there are no risks to solo hiking in grizzly bear country.

    I started off wandering the docks again – there was a lot of activity, so I just wanted to watch the crews prepping the boats for a while. I managed to not trip over anything and fall in water. There were some eagles flying around, but never in range even for the big lens I was lugging around. Good practice for our upcoming bear hikes. I next went off to a vantage point along the main channel and sat on a bench for a while, watching the boats sail off. And then I noticed a spout. And then another one! A whale??? I never saw much other than the back of something – they do get Orcas, Grey Whales and Humpbacks in the area. Probably a grey whale. 

    Next on my list for the morning was the Kodiak History Museum. This turned out much better than expected. The building is the oldest original log structure along the West coast, built by the Russians in 1847. Whoever built it knew what they were doing – it is still the original structure of logs, two stories worth, with the original moss insulations. It will probably outlast most of the homes in my neighborhood.

    That chewed up most of the morning, so I stopped for a real breakfast with real coffee, and headed back to the hotel to reset for a while. 

    After a recharge (myself, not a car), I decided to try for the Northend Park on Near Island, a short 1 mile walk across a bridge. I thought I might get some nice shots of the town from there. The road leading up to the bridge is mostly uphill, and cuts through a residential area. One house had a puffin mural….cute. The weather was absolutely perfect by then – blue skies, light breeze, temperatures in the high 60’s. Absolutely not what I was expecting. I could have worn shorts. Really. A cruise ship had offloaded hundreds of tourists, all of whom seemed to be from Europe. Lots of Norwegians. So I had a lot of company walking around. The view from the bridge was great, but they had a chain link fence along the entire length. Probably to ward off jumpers during the long winter nights. 

    Scenic view of a harbor through a chain-link fence, featuring boats and mountains under a clear blue sky.

    The park entrance was right off the end of the bridge – nothing there other than a trail map and some benches. The trial was so inviting, that I could not resist wandering down into the forest for a ways. Absolutely beautiful….maybe a bit creepy too, with filter sunlight, moss covered trees that looked like something out of a witchcraft type of film. No bears though, but I did not go too far and headed back into town.

    Close-up view of a tree trunk with thick, moss-covered branches extending outward in a lush forest setting.

    My last stop for the day was the wildlife museum, which had displays of bears (of course), and a complete grey whale skeleton. They had a dead whale wash up on shore, and buried it for a few years to decompose naturally. When they dug it up, they had an articulated clean skeleton. Better than what they did in Iceland, carving up a dead Blue Whale. Yuck.

    So, I had a pretty good start to this trip but I’ve seen enough of Kodiak. Tomorrow we go off on a wildlife cruise, and the next day, off to the Ursus to photograph the bears. 

    Oh, and there are no ice cream or gelato shops in Kodiak. But I did find a good coffee shop that sold some really good Frappuccino type drinks.  You can’t always get what you want. 

    A Sony camera with a large lens resting on a wooden table beside a backpack, and a milkshake with whipped cream in a cup positioned nearby.

    Peace

    A metal mask sculpture mounted on a rough stone surface, featuring a stylized human face with raised eyebrows and small holes for eyes and mouth.
    Colorful mural featuring puffins swimming in blue waves on a concrete wall, with a residential building and hillside in the background.
    A bustling harbor filled with various fishing boats and yachts, reflecting on calm water under a cloudy sky with distant hills.
    Fishing boat named 'Alchemist' docked at a marina, reflecting in calm water under a clear blue sky.

  • Astrophotography Redux

    A night sky transitioning from twilight to darkness, featuring stars and silhouettes of pine trees along the horizon.
    Starlight, starbright, first star…..

    August 10th, 2026

    I’ve been planning all summer to get out for a night or two of Milky Way photography again. I really enjoyed the workshop in Arches last spring, and wanted to see if I could improve upon my composition and post-processing skills with a new set of photographs. 

    Unfortunately, I never seemed to be free to travel during the new moon, or I always seemed to be too tired for late evening photography when I was in dark sky locations like Sequoia National Park. The next thing I knew, it was August – I was running out of time. I decided when I returned from Colorado that I was going to find a reasonable place to go on the 10th, which was the exact date for the new moon. The question was….where to go. I wanted to get a reasonably interesting landscape, maybe not as spectacular as Arches, but perhaps with a nice lake or mountains for the foreground. Oh yeah, and I really did not want to drive very far, requiring camping or a long drive back home at 3AM.

    I first headed up US-50 to check out Wrights Lake in the Sierra, hoping the Milky Way would be in a position to reflect off the lake. I also wanted to check out Dark Lake, a short drive north of Wrights, which seemed promising in terms of location. I did this during the day, in case you were wondering – I have an application, PhotoPills, which magically shows the position of planets, stars or the Milky Way, at any location, at any date and time. Pretty amazing. You hold up your phone in the direction you would be photographing from, and the application superimposes for example, the Milky Way as it would appear at that time. You can than swipe to change the time, and see how that astronomical feature would appear. 

    A screenshot of a mobile app displaying a star map with grid lines, indicating celestial coordinates and a visible galaxy section. The date and time are shown at the top of the screen.
    Photophills – band across the middle is the Milky Way

    Wrights Lake is a relatively short drive from where I live – about a 90 minute drive, with the last bit on a rough but paved road. It is a state recreation area – nice place for kayaking and paddleboarding with camping spots and picnic tables which can be reserved ahead of time. I was hoping to find a picnic spot on the north shore of the recreation part of the lake, so that I would have a clear view of the sky looking South. After parking the car, I hiked along the path, trying my best to avoid a picnic group with very large mean looking dogs, and found what appeared to be a good spot to set up my tripod on the 10th. I pulled out my phone, brought up the PhotoPills application and found out that I really needed to be on the East shore of the lake which is all private property. Bummer. 

    A serene lake surrounded by tall pine trees under a clear blue sky.
    Dark Lake – wish I had one of the houses

    I moved on to the other location, Dark Lake, which is a short drive down a very narrow, one lane road. Beautiful spot but almost all of the shoreline is private property. The view would have been very limited from the one spot I could shoot from. Scratch Dark Lake from the list.  I really did not feel like negotiating that road at midnight, and then taking the long road back to the highway. 

    My next, and only other choice was along a road heading up to the Ice House Reservoir, about 14 miles west of where I was. This spot, named the Ice House Observation Point 1, was listed as one of the best dark sky locations in the Sacramento region, and appears to be a favorite for star gazers. It was on the way back home along US-50, but I had nothing better to do the next few days, and saved the excitement for later in the week. I lead a very exciting life these days. I had seen photos of this site and it did not appear to be too photogenic. There was a concrete divider wall at the start of the field, which limited parking, and what looked like a rusted crane in the middle of the field. Meh. The view to the south was not as restricted horizontally as Wrights Lake, but there was still the problem that much of the Milky Way would be blocked. But still, it was better than Wrights Lake. I was not overly thrilled with the limited parking and rusting crane, so I headed down to the second observation point, which for some reason, was indicated as closed on Google Maps. This turned out to be a better choice – a very large, open field, no wall, unlimited space for parking, and no rusting crane. This spot was also a on a small side road, so there would be less road traffic. Bright headlights and long exposure astrophotography do not work well together.

    A serene landscape at dusk featuring a grassy field bordered by tall trees under a pastel sky.
    Point 1 – rusted crane on the left
    A clear sky above a clearing with a sparse grassy area in the foreground, surrounded by tall green pine trees.
    Point 2 – gravel piles, but no crane. No snakes either

    OK, let’s move on and fast forward to the evening of the 10th. Sunset started around 7:30, with full darkness around 9 or so. I planned to get to the observation point by 7:30’ish so I could find a good spot to set the tripod, get my camp chair out, and settle in to wait for the stars to appear.

    A pink car parked on a dirt area with a camera on a tripod in the foreground and a backdrop of tall evergreen trees against a soft sunset sky.
    Twilight…waiting for stars

    As expected, I was the only one there. Cool. Unless a bear shows up. After finding my spot, another car pulled up, and out came four older guys (younger than me), who proceeded to wander off into the bushes, looking for snakes. Seriously. I asked what types and what would they do if they found some. It turns out they are reptile collectors, and used to come up to this site years back, when the highway department maintained a road salt shed on the open space. A funny group of guys….no snakes though, so they went off to search another area. That was the last car I saw that evening until I left. 

    OK, enough blathering about reptiles and salt sheds. I started shooting once the first star appeared to the west, looking towards the glow of Sacramento. Pretty soon, I could make out the Milky Way, and soon after, it was dark enough to make out what appeared to be a bright section, possibly the core. As the sky became completely dark, by 9:45, the sky was beautiful – I did see a few meteors, but I think the Perseids was to the North, and I was focused more on the Milky Way as it moved from SE to SW across the horizon. I did snap a few star photos to the North for the fun of it – the Big Dipper was really clear. I also saw some Starlink satellites pass by to the North as well – never seen them before.

    A red Subaru Forester parked on a gravel surface at night, with a blue folding chair beside it and a camera mounted on a tripod.
    A dark night scene featuring silhouettes of tall trees against a starry sky, with a faint light illuminating a small rectangular object.

    The chair came in handy in the dark – once I turned off my head lamp, the only light was from the camera screen. Kind of creepy.

    I shot around 60 photos, a low record for me, experimenting with various setting on the camera. Something I never had a chance to during the Arches workshop. I also just sat back in my camp rocking chair and stared at the sky a lot. Very relaxing, and incredibly quiet. It was cool enough to wear a down sweater, so there were no mosquitoes. Or snakes. Or bears. About 11:15, the Milky Way was fading as it neared the glow in the West from Sacramento, so I decided to start the drive home. There were quite a few cars parked at the main observation point – I think I made the right choice. 

    And finally, here’s the best of the batch – it takes a while to edit them. I may add a few more. My expectations had been pretty low for this outing, so I’m not too disappointed in the results. It was good practice, and I enjoyed sitting out in the dark, watching the Milky Way slide by – beats sitting at home alone watching TV.

    Starry night sky with the Milky Way visible above a silhouette of trees.
    Best of the batch – there’s a meteor track in the middle of the Milky Way

    I get one more shot at night photography in September, when I meet some friends at Yosemite Park. I’m getting there a day before my friends, which happens to be the new moon. I intend to head up to Glacier Point, which I believe is one of the best places for night photography. We are staying close to the tunnel view, so I might be able to try that one out as well.

    Two more weeks and I’ll be in Kodiak Alaska. I’d better get back to training. I have to be faster than one person in the group.

    Peace.