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I returned from a 5 day trip to Juneau and Sitka, Alaska this week.
I have uploaded photos to my blog and gallery.
Gallery:
- Juneau
- Whale watching
- Sitka Ferry
- Sitka
Panoramas:
- Whale flip 1
- Whale flip 2
- Whale flip 3
- Juneau ferries and mountains
- Mountains of Juneau
We visited Alaska for a brief 6 day tour during July, 2005. This is a travelogue filled with many photographs, some tour tips. If you are planning a trip to Alaska, this could be very useful information.
We travelled with a 15 month old toddler and I, as an amateur photographer carried with me 18 lbs of camera equipment, both of which added many interesting twists to how we travelled. Some information here might help you if you fall into either of these categories.
Please send me an email if you find this information useful.
If you don’t want to browse through my blog but just want to see the photos, you can see the photos in my gallery.
If you are an amateur photographer, what lenses should you carry?
Phillipe Roger said it best in a nikoncafe forum. All you need is your widest lens and your longest lens. With digital SLRs, that means that you need a 12-24 range lens and a 400 mm range lens.
Long lens:
On the nikon mount, you could do away with the 80-400 VR lens. Most of the wild animals I saw moved slowly (but for flying eagles), you will do just fine with the 80-400 VR lens. Incidentally, I saw many many folks with the Canon 100-400 IS USM lens. In most places, I would be shooting with the 12-24 and they probably thought I was crazy. 
The only shortcoming of the long lenses I mention is speed. They hit f/5.6 pretty early in their zoom range. Even though there is plenty of light all the time in Alaska, some times, I had to shoot wide open at ISO 1600. This image was shot at f/2.8 at ISO 1600
For the first time, I realized one could use as fast a lens they can afford / carry. I would strongly recommend a lens with VR / IS built in the lens. Most of the times you would find yourself shooting from a moving platform, a bus, train or a boat. You need all the support that you can get from the lens system. I had very less number of failed shots in this trip due to camera shake and that is pretty amazing considering the fact that I was on unstable platform all the time.
For this reason, I would recommend you to take a 70-200 f/2.8 lens with VR / IS on it. I would definitely add a 1.7 TC / 2.0 TC on it, you get the reach when you need it and you have the speed when you need it. I sorely missed the extra reach in many places. I had decided to use the $$ to get the 12-24 lens instead of the 1.7 TC, I wish I could have taken both.
Wide lens:
If there is only one lens you could carry with you to Alaska, I would recommend any 12-24 range lens. There is no other lens that will get used as much as this lens. Personally I was very impressed with the Tokina 12-24 lens. You don’t want to land in alaska and quickly feel the pinch of not having a wide angle lens.
Street zoom:
While I seldom used my 18-70 DX AF-S lens, I could have done without it. This range was very useful when I was inside the bus in Denali so I could quickly grab some shots like this one:
but there is no reason why I could not have used the 70-200 lens instead.
Filters:
I don’t know what I would have done without GND filters for this trip. I strongly recommend testing out a set of GND filters before the trip. Same with circular polarizers. I have learnt when to use one over the other and it is pretty useful.
I am planning to get a few ND filters as well. These days, I rarely take the camera out in bright sun. Even if I do, I usually hide it behind a circular polarizer, but I am learning when not to use the polarizer. A ND filter would help.
Memory:
Take plenty of film / memory cards. I travelled with 2 GB of cards (don’t laugh, thats all I have), but I also carried a 40 GB Cintre Datasync storage device with me. Once, I had to sync the cards before the day ended, but with this combination, I was able to survive the trip.
Support:
As an ardent advocate of tripod, I was surprised I did not use mine much during the trip, since most of the time, I was on the move. With the benefit of hindsight, I should have taken my monopod, just to take the weight off my hands.
Bag:
Trust me, get a bag with good padding and good lumbar support. The bus inside Denali rattles quite a bit. You want to protect your gear as much as you can. Good lumbar support is a must since you would be carrying all this gear with you on your back. My trusty Lowepro Mini Trekker Backpack AW just fit the bill perfectly.
Cleaning equipment:
I used my Rocket Blower to clean my mirror and sensor a couple of times. I never travel without a lens pen, couple of lens cleaning cloth and a soft white cloth. During the cruises, when it was raining, I was probably cleaning / wiping the lenses and camera more often than I was taking photos.
Hope this helps, folks.
