Wednesday, April 9, 2014

A moose on the loose

Earlier this year I was taking out the ashes from the fireplace and decided to look at some of the tracks out back. We're on 5 acres of primarily wooded land. Most of the tracks were dog, most likely ours...but I did see some small moose tracks as well. They looked pretty old but it was fun to see the moose sign. Last Sunday we were having a lazy day around the house, Gus was outside as usual, enjoying the break in rain/snow. When all of a sudden I hear him barking. Now Gus being a husky he doesn't really bark, and he's not very good at it. He likes to howl, and we like to howl back at him. I looked out the bedroom window and saw him at the back corner of the garage barking at something in the woods that I couldn't quite see. Once I moved to the next window I could see a large black creature move just behind a couple of trees. A moose! I was very excited. I ran downstairs to bring Gus inside, we don't need the moose getting aggravated and angry at him, and we didn't really want him to get trampled. Once he was inside I quickly grabbed my camera with the zoom lens and quietly went back outside to take a couple pictures. Keep in mind I'm a horrible judge of distance, so I think I was about 50ft away from her once I got crouched down under some trees. I had a great view of her and she just stood there, very still, as though if she didn't move I might not see her. I took pictures for probably 20 minutes and she just stood there, moved her head around some but didn't walk away. After I decided I should probably let her be, she turned into the woods and walked away as soon as I got inside. I now find myself constantly looking for her in the woods. Partly because I want to see her again and the other reason is to keep Gus from pestering her. Well, this morning after I got up I looked out the window and caught some movement in the woods. It was the moose again! She would walk a few steps and stop and stand still. It's really amazing how camouflaged they are, you could hardly see her when she was standing still. Gus was upset with me for a little while since I wouldn't let him right out, but he got over it. I have been calling the moose a "she" since I didn't see any sign of antlers on her. I also looked up when moose give birth, and it's mid-May to early June. I obviously have no idea if she's pregnant but it would be fun to see her with a little one in a month or two. Here are a few pictures that I took on Sunday.

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Aurora February 18, 2014

We've been getting some cold clear weather here and one of the good things about that besides seeing the sun, is the potential to see the aurora. I had heard that there was potential to see the aurora all over Alaska and the Northern lower 48 but I didn't expect to be watching them at 8:00PM AKST. Usually if you want to see the aurora you need to get up in the middle of the night and look North to see them from Southeast Alaska, not on the 18th. Jeremy and I were on our nightly walk with Gus and Jeremy goes, "Is that the aurora?" "I think so" I responded. And sure enough it was. Right over our heads. We decided to go for a little drive to a place with a better view north to watch and so I could take some pictures. This was hands down the most active I have ever seen the aurora. I also haven't seen it a whole lot but this was impressive. It's a fun feeling being able to watch something that leaves you awe struck. We watched the lights dance across the sky for at least an hour. Until I decided I was getting cold and my camera battery was close to dying. That night my "Aurora Buddy" app was constantly going off saying that the aurora was at a KP6, ect. The forecast was for another strong aurora show again on the 19th. Again we went out on our walk with the dog and got to watch the lights over our heads. This night we decided to just watch and enjoy. It was fun standing in the road watching the lights move over head, the light pollution from the street lights didn't even make a difference. One thing that I am working on as a photographer is balancing the want to "get the shot" and just enjoying what is going on. I can easily get wrapped up with trying to get the perfect picture that I forget to just watch and enjoy whatever it is that's going on, whether its the northern lights, whales bubble net feeding, or a brown bear fishing in the river. Sometimes it's nice to just sit back, relax and enjoy natures show. Here are a few more pictures from the 18th. I'll also be putting some on my facebook, check out my fan page if you haven't already. www.facebook.com/EcStephensPhotography Enjoy!

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Watching the Aurora

A quick peek at what we got to watch last night. The show was amazing! I don't think I've seen the Northern Lights dance like they did last night. I'll get a few more edited in a couple days and share some more. Enjoy!