Spencer Glacier/Girdwood Wedding - Stephanie & Patrick

On Saturday Nick and Philip headed to Girdwood and hopped in a helicopter to photograph Stephanie and Patrick's wedding at the Spencer Glacier. The weather held just long enough to allow the helicopter to fly and everything went great as planned. A few people ended up post-holing up to their waists as the spring snow has been melting away. Fortunately no one dissapeared. After the ceremony the group flew back to Girdwood for a reception at the Community Center. Patrick is a volunteer firefighter with the Girdwood Fire Department so out came a fire truck when they got back to town, which made for some cool pics! Good job guys!

Another Bicycle Trip For Joe - San Francisco to San Diego

Another bicycle trip begins. This time I am riding from San Francisco to San Diego over about 8 days and 650 miles, which means I'll have to average 80 a day to keep on track. Shouldn't be a problem. Anyone interested in following the journey has a few methods... My Crazyguyonabike Journal (Feel free to leave guestbook comments. Always fun!) is one option. Another is to track me in live-mode during the daylight riding hours with my JoeTracker (AKA SPOT), or the occasional Facebook update if you're my friend. If you're not my friend, search for me and add me..

Anchorage Wedding - Heather & Ricky

On Saturday I got to shoot Heather & Ricky's wedding at the Muldoon Community Assembly Church and the Marriott Hotel in Anchorage. We were with them all day and captured just about every possible moment, including Heather's stressed-out-ness at the beginning, Ricky and his groomsmen's skills at the bowling alley, and even homeless people begging them for money on the street. It was a fun day and there was tons of good stuff. We've got a new second shooter this season, Degen Photo, who worked with me for the first time today, and it went well. Then Nick stopped by since his wedding was done early and did the outside photos with me.. between the two of us we totally rocked it. There was also a lot of rediculous dancing going on, but those photos will be kept private for the bride and groom to decide how much the blackmail is worth against their friends. One guy even did a whole solo dance wearing pajamas.

Anchorage Wedding - Nanette & Jin

On Saturday Nick was at the Oriental Mission Church to photograph Nanette and Jin's wedding. I wasn't there and don't know a whole lot about it, but Nick got some really cool stuff all day and it looks like everyone had a good time. Maybe Nick will fill in the blanks sometime soon so our readers know what was happening. Nick? :)

Anchorage Wedding - Ellen and Richard

On Saturday I got to shoot my first Jewish wedding in Alaska. In Detroit we photographed all sorts of religions and ethnicity's, which was pretty awesome, so it's always fun to see something "new" again. Ellen and Bob had their ceremony and reception at the Congregation Beth Shalom of Anchorage. It turns out that Richard is from Kalamazoo, where Brook and I went to school, though he went to school at the "other" school besides WMU... K-College. I didn't hold it against him too much. One of the coolest things I learned about them is that they are both really into target shooting. Apparently there's a range out near Birchwood where they spend a lot of time shooting clay pigeons and now they're almost expert marksmen. Very cool!

Big Bubbler - Ice Climb

On Friday Bryan and I snowmachined about 20 miles out the Boulder Creek drainage to climb a pretty big ice climb called Big Bubbler. It's 240 meters tall, or aproximately 750 feet. The weather was beautiful and the trail was hardpacked and bumpy. We had a few spark-plug issues with the machine I ride but we managed to get all the way out and back. The climb is the big and wide one at right, and was a lot of fun. The ice was pretty rotten on top but after some chipping and chopping we'd find nice clear ice below to put in ice screws for protection. On to the photos...

Ski, Climb, Fly

Been up down and across the past few days. First Brook and I went for a great ski on Sunday out towards the Ship Lake Valley (this is one of our favorite "backyard" ski tours that leaves from our doorstep). On Monday Bryan and I met for an after-work ice climb at the Beer climbs along the Old Glenn Highway. 45 degrees and sun doesn't get much better when you're climbing fat ice. The beer climbs are a little boring so we made it interesting with a rediculous traverse across rocks and stumps and fallen trees, all at about a 65-70 degree angle to the next climb over. Sort of like ice climbing, but a little more scary and a lot messier. Bryan pulled out his Canadian Straw (Full Post)to get some water, and then on the way out climbed a massive cottonwood tree and ended the day with some yoga moves. Today (Tuesday) I had my very first official flight lesson (after many unofficial lessons from Bush Pilot Joe D.) The instructor said I was doing great for a "first timer" and he pretty much hung out and enjoyed the scenery as I took him to some areas that were new to him as he explained some of the basic flight principles. As you can see from the pics, he doesn't fit the image of your sterotypical "bush pilot" but is a newbie to Alaska and has a lot of time flying in more calm places. After I get my basics down I'll probably look to spend some more serious time flying with some real Alaska-folk. In these shots you'll see the eastern edge of the Alaska Range including the Capps Glacier and Mt. Spurr, which we did a partial Climb of last May. More flying pics to come in the next few months!

nick goes to fairbanks for the weekend

i know that i don't post much to this blog, but i had a really good photographic day and thought that i would share.

i was up in fairbanks this weekend with my wife visiting my cousin. he is competing in the

"emerald cup" in a week or so and is really big (bodybuilding). he also has the biggest dog that i have ever seen. both of the together made for an awesome portrait.

then on the way back home we had incredible weather and i was able to get a pretty amazing view of denali.