Back from Alaska with some pics...

Brock Samson · August 18, 2009, 02:38:46 PM

Hi Gang!

I had an awesome time and i'm safe back home.
Many hours of fun were had and I'd like to try out some test pics to see if they come out ok or if i'll need to resize them further, as this site has issues with picture loading...

anyhow here's a brief short sample...

edit: here's an added soundtrack,.. David Sancious- Valley of the Shadow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvYsJ-glv7M

Brock Samson · August 18, 2009, 02:47:03 PM

My ride for the trip...

TylerCharger69 · August 18, 2009, 02:48:05 PM

Wow!!!....that's Nobel Peace Prize material!!! Real nice shot!!!

Brock Samson · August 18, 2009, 02:53:30 PM

I need to check to see if i can post two vertical shots in the same posting...

I used most of ten GB taking pics and so I'm gonna be sorting refiling and such for a while...
these are gonna have to do till I get the other 2 thousand plus sussed out...
hope everyone is well and all your projects are near to completion...

what?..

Brock Samson · August 18, 2009, 02:55:16 PM

Alaska ROCKS!!!!

69bronzeT5 · August 18, 2009, 03:10:59 PM

Awesome pictures Dave! When you sent me that message on Facebook, where abouts were you?

Neal_J · August 18, 2009, 03:19:34 PM

Where are the Palin nude shots?

The title of this post is very misleading...

tan top · August 18, 2009, 03:25:11 PM

they are awesome pictures Brock

Brock Samson · August 18, 2009, 03:37:44 PM

hey fellas!

Cody I was steamin towords Vancouver, though we actually only went to Victoria for roughly six soggy hours,.. funny that in Alaska it was 80 and in Calif up to Wash it was only 60,..

anyhow I got you a Palin shot Neal J but i dunno if it'll clear the Mods..
yea know what?... these arn't even the real pictures - these are the fuzzy second and third choices,.. wait till you see the real pictures... OMG!
That's what i did for the entire trip - I stood around tripping over my tounge going

OMG!! OMG!!! over and over again...

like a little biotch,..

anyhow,.. this shot here - is to test widths - cause I hate it when a pic spill over the right side and i have to scroll the missing piece to see what's there...

Brock Samson · August 18, 2009, 03:40:01 PM

o.k.

I'm going for 700..

Brock Samson · August 18, 2009, 03:47:14 PM

ok folks, just how wide can i post these things?.. i'm sick of this allready,..

Brock Samson · August 18, 2009, 04:01:01 PM

WARNING:
MOVE AWAY FROM YOUR MONITORS!!
will the fabric of the internet tear?..
will global warming accelerate?
shirley i will crash the entire world wide web...

Johnny SixPack · August 18, 2009, 05:03:56 PM

It definitely does rock, man.

Great pix, Dave.

You're makin' me miss home.

AKcharger · August 18, 2009, 05:33:35 PM

You should have told me you were coming, I would have baked a cake or somthing

The70RT · August 18, 2009, 06:26:17 PM

Water & boats.

i guess when you live by the coast or on a boat water is all you see. Sound familiar ?

mopar73 · August 18, 2009, 08:49:31 PM

I like the pics, especially the sea plane

Dans 68 · August 19, 2009, 10:15:57 AM

Quote from: Neal_J on August 18, 2009, 03:19:34 PM
Where are the Palin nude shots?

Probably the same place Obama's birth certificate is....

OK, now all is even steven and this good travelogue thread can continue....

Dan

Brock Samson · August 19, 2009, 01:28:17 PM

welp, i see this might take a few days,.. 9 + Gbs of pictures is alot of pics.. i had to devide the pictures into four sections just so they wouldnt take a minute to load each time i clicked something... still takes a few seconds..
some folks might like these,.. i dunno..

starting with day one Aug 2nd and leaving San Fran...

Brock Samson · August 19, 2009, 01:32:27 PM

i took nearly a hundred pics before we got out to sea,.. so many novel views of the city I had never seen before or had the ability to capture...

Brock Samson · August 19, 2009, 01:36:28 PM

Nearly all the 1950 passengers were lining the decks of the Sea Princess as we left the city under the golden gate,..
then within a few minutes,.. everyone was at the bars,.. there were a few... most eveyone was pretty toasted...

Brock Samson · August 19, 2009, 01:46:32 PM

for two days we traveled north,.. exploreing the ship I met alot of folks,.. I wanted to take the official ship tour - but they charge $150.oo

folks tend to be older 60 and above,.. wealthy, in couples and large...
One retired CPA was on his seventy third cruise,.. it's a lifestyle for some people..

Dans 68 · August 19, 2009, 01:56:45 PM

Quote from: Brock Samson on August 19, 2009, 01:46:32 PM
...One retired CPA was on his seventy third cruise,.. it's a lifestyle for some people..

You had better believe it! I have done two cruises, the latest last year, and it is a blast. We'll keep doing them every few years. I took well over 4,000 photos during the 10 days. My family still thinks I'm a bit crazy but they don't complain when they get to see the photos. Here is one of my favorites from last year. And keep them coming, Dave....

I may have to start a cruise photo thread....

Dan

Brock Samson · August 19, 2009, 02:27:02 PM

your a CPA ain't ya' Dan?..

I'd love to see your pics,.. where'd you go?..

moving right along,..
so, after two days of cruisin up the coast in overcast breazy weather on Wends. the 4th, I awoke to a gloriously beautiful Alaskan Morning in Ketchikan...

Brock Samson · August 19, 2009, 02:36:58 PM

You wonder why they head out to sea to catch fish, when there were thousands of salmon swimming around the ship and periodicly leaping out of the water...

Brock Samson · August 19, 2009, 02:51:18 PM

Seems every two minutes there was a sea plane landing or taking off,.. i have several pics of those at various locations and will post more later, flying is pretty common to get around since the state is soooo big and soooo rugged,.. It makes perfect sense,.. many homes have many sizes of boats and sea planes tied up at their door steps,.. fishing and tourism are the dominate industrys and winters are looong, summer is when most everything gets done,... the days are long in summer, there was still light on the horizon at nearly 10:00 PM..
I've been experamenting with a couple photography tricks, one involves shooting pics thru my binoculars to get some real zoom pics,.. and another is shooting through sunglasses for various tint effects I have bought several pairs of different kinds of sunglasses in different colors but have yet to use them all or fully explore their various qualities.. Here's a shot thru the sunglasses,.. followed by some of the town Ketchikan often called the first town of Alaska because it's so far south,..

Dans 68 · August 19, 2009, 02:52:45 PM

Quote from: Brock Samson on August 19, 2009, 02:27:02 PM
your a CPA ain't ya' Dan?.. I'd love to see your pics,.. where'd you go?.. ....

Nope. A simple mechanical engineer who is now playing at being a landscaping contractor. We flew into Puerto Rico and traveled the eastern Carribean Islands, starting with Barbados, then St. Lucia, Antigua, St Maarten, St. Thomas and back in San Juan for a few days. I also went diving and have attached my favorite photo (wreck dive with a dive guide) of that venue.

Dan

Brock Samson · August 19, 2009, 02:55:52 PM

Wow! that's a truly excellent picture!

Brock Samson · August 19, 2009, 03:08:57 PM

O.K. See that first hill behind the antenna in the last pic?.. well,.. with the help of Jeff a frindly local guide we met in the parking lot,.. my pal Ed and I got off the beaten track taken by most of the cruise ship passengers and got out in nature - eventually climbing that hill to get an overview of the area,.. but first, since i wanna do these pics Chronologically I'll post some of the totems and Alaskan native handiwork,..
like this sweet bike the owner built himself,..

Brock Samson · August 19, 2009, 03:19:02 PM

...

Brock Samson · August 19, 2009, 03:26:44 PM

... files too large...
re-sizing re nameing 'n re-submitting,..

i dunno which of the four is causeing the error messeges,.. this is why i was testing earlier,..
I'll do them one each,..

now, i've allready submitted the post,.. well, like yeah..

Brock Samson · August 19, 2009, 03:29:14 PM

Brock Samson · August 19, 2009, 03:37:53 PM

Here's some pics of our climb up the hill,.. nice to be on some solid ground away from the ship,.. in and among the birch trees..

Brock Samson · August 19, 2009, 03:41:59 PM

Note that this is petrified wood,..

Brock Samson · August 19, 2009, 03:52:42 PM

Wonder if anyone can guess the make of the motor,..

but i doubt anyone can guess how it got way up there...

Ours is the second of the four cruise ships.

Our guide's grandma (a second Gen. Alaskian) sold her collection of Native crafts to the museum which he took us to see,.. said she netted 3.2 Mill. some years ago..

Brock Samson · August 19, 2009, 04:02:07 PM

a couple more then i gotta go do life,..

moparstuart · August 19, 2009, 04:04:30 PM

Quote from: Brock Samson on August 19, 2009, 03:52:42 PM

Wonder if anyone can guess the make of the motor,..
but i doubt anyone can guess how it got way up there...

Ours is the second of the four cruise ships.

Our guide's grandma (a second Gen. Alaskian) sold her collection of Native crafts to the museum which he took us to see,.. said she netted 3.2 Mill. some years ago..

?

Brock Samson · August 19, 2009, 04:13:59 PM

Funny story about this,.. I told our guide to give us the insiders' tour,.. so for a few hours we roamed around the area,.. at one point I thought it would be cool to see the graveyard and read tombstones,.. so he took us and mentioned that "Dolly" was "buried over there somewhere",.. I thought he meant "Dali" as in "Salvadore" the world renowned sullerialist,.. so i was truckin all over the place lookin for his tombstone i figgured would be some really cool melted watch,.. or something,..
and wondering why on earth he would end up planted in Alaska?..

I found out much, much later in the day, "Dolly" was the most famous whore in Ketchikan..

tan top · August 19, 2009, 06:29:08 PM

Quote from: moparstuart on August 19, 2009, 04:04:30 PM
Quote from: Brock Samson on August 19, 2009, 03:52:42 PM

Wonder if anyone can guess the make of the motor,..
but i doubt anyone can guess how it got way up there...

Ours is the second of the four cruise ships.

Our guide's grandma (a second Gen. Alaskian) sold her collection of Native crafts to the museum which he took us to see,.. said she netted 3.2 Mill. some years ago..
?

think its a VW motor out of a golf or something

AKcharger · August 19, 2009, 10:13:42 PM

OK these no way I can allow this post to go without MY AK photos...here's Alaskasuebear and I at Katmai Nat'l park last weekend to view bears...that one got within 15 feet of us

Manfred318 · August 19, 2009, 11:13:15 PM

Niiiice pics

Man Id like to go there one of these days.

jb666 · August 20, 2009, 11:38:47 AM

My God, you got some GORGEOUS shots there. Thank you for sharing them, I love the assortment!!!!

Brock Samson · August 22, 2009, 04:04:24 PM

to continue with the pictures from Ketchikan, our first day in Alaska...
This is the fishing fleet as seen upon our return,.. our home on the waves.
my intrepid pal Edward and a wild snoreaxe in disguise... kinda'..

Brock Samson · August 22, 2009, 04:07:54 PM

edward and the snoreaxe..

Brock Samson · August 22, 2009, 04:18:28 PM

anyhow,..
Here's a demo. of how with the use of the Binoculars i could get some great zoom shots,.. many of these were taken this way and and I've pretty much got this technique down now... i also use telescopes when they're Avail..
though not on this trip.
about this time, the leather strap holding the binocs broke in two places at the same time, i caught them before they went in the drink and repaired them with string Edward had brought along,..

just why the leather desided to disintigrate at that very moment i have no idea,.. but that leather pretty much turned into powder before my eyes,.. some strange atmospheric thing i guess... sure glad i caught them in time...

Brock Samson · August 22, 2009, 04:23:05 PM

We left Ketchikan and i took some shots of the airport and ferry landing,.. the ship sure makes a great camara platform...

Brock Samson · August 22, 2009, 04:33:17 PM

those pics are no big whoop,..
but soon we were on our way out via the "Inside Passage" and I will tell you now - every minute it got more and more beautiful,.. words cannot possibly express the glory of this magnificent afternoon, the weather was perfect in the upper 70s and the water was just like glass,.. I'll let the pictures do the talking, but OMG!!! a day I wont soon forget.

Brock Samson · August 22, 2009, 04:38:16 PM

At one point i had to hit the can and made an Elvis sighting..

Brock Samson · August 22, 2009, 04:45:49 PM

.

Brock Samson · August 22, 2009, 04:53:15 PM

the curvature of the earth is plainly visible in virtually every shot,.. I took many panorama shots from left to right back again and when possible 360 degrees from the very top of the ship,.. I've yet to print them all out but i suspect I've got some really great ones,...

Silver R/T · August 22, 2009, 05:02:23 PM

thanks for pics, looks like fun cruise.
Hotdogs and french fries is that all for lunch? I would've thought they'd serve something more fancy

Brock Samson · August 22, 2009, 05:07:31 PM

it's gonna take me about two or three days to post the food pics...

remember,.. this is just day one...

Brock Samson · August 22, 2009, 05:17:30 PM

This sunset was so freakin increadable... these are just some of the shots I took, before the whales started jumping outta the sea,..

Brock Samson · August 22, 2009, 05:24:31 PM

It was pretty hard to catch the whales properly, i saw them alot better then i could photograph them,.. the time lag between sighting them and getting the shutter to click was far too long to get the best moments...

the sky was so wild,.. and to top it off, there was a full moon... a perfect end to our first day in Alaska...

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Back from Alaska with some pics...