Ray Sachs
Legend
- Location
- Not too far from Philly
- Name
- you should be able to figure it out...
Just got back from a week long cruise of the southern portion of Alaska, from Ketchikan in the South to Skagway farther north. I don’t generally enjoy cruises as a mode of travel, but this is one I always thought would be nice to do for the easy access to some of the scenery. And indeed the scenery was gorgeous, particularly the day we spent on a slow cruise through Glacier Bay National Park.
Three of the four towns we visited, Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan are afflicted by the same disease of all small towns with a cruise dock – they’ve been totally over-run by knick-knack stores appealing for some reason I don’t understand, to many of the tourists from those ship. All three of these towns once had real economies, gold-mining, fishing, etc. Juneau is still the state capital, but you wouldn’t know it. I can’t begrudge those making money in these towns. And, as a cruise passenger myself, I realize I’m the last person to complain! But I guess that’s why I don’t really enjoy cruises – the cruise itself is a world of tacky/luxurious make believe, but the towns we visit are now too. Which strikes me as a damn shame but inevitable.
Victoria, BC is a large enough city to only be marginally affected by this disease in the area closest to the cruise docks. And, of course, Seattle is a wonderful vibrant city with enough of a summer tourist attraction that the cruise boats which launch from there just blend right in. We lived there for years and love going back – I wish we’d have spent more time there and less on the boat to be honest.
But the cruise affords the opportunity to see and photograph some incredible scenery, so onto that. I’ll organize this into separate posts arranged chronologically including sailing through the Puget Sound and Straights of Juan De Fuca (the narrow-ish waterway connecting the Puget Sound with the Pacific Ocean), Juneau/Mendenhall Glacier, Skagway/White Pass, Glacier Bay National Park, Ketchikan/Victoria, and a few from the tacky coolness of the ship itself…
First, there’s a full set of images on Flickr, including the Seattle portion of the trip (included in a previous thread here), which you can browse if interested at:
Alaska - Seattle 2015
Oh, on the technical side, I shot with the Nikon DF and Coolpix A. Most of the scenic shooting was done with the DF, but several shots are from the Coolpix A, a camera that never ceases to amaze and please me. On the DF, I used my trusty Zeiss 25 and 21, but also two Nikon zooms - the 24-120 and the 70-300. I rarely use these zooms but I keep them because sometimes you've gotta have them, and this trip was one of those times...
Three of the four towns we visited, Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan are afflicted by the same disease of all small towns with a cruise dock – they’ve been totally over-run by knick-knack stores appealing for some reason I don’t understand, to many of the tourists from those ship. All three of these towns once had real economies, gold-mining, fishing, etc. Juneau is still the state capital, but you wouldn’t know it. I can’t begrudge those making money in these towns. And, as a cruise passenger myself, I realize I’m the last person to complain! But I guess that’s why I don’t really enjoy cruises – the cruise itself is a world of tacky/luxurious make believe, but the towns we visit are now too. Which strikes me as a damn shame but inevitable.
Victoria, BC is a large enough city to only be marginally affected by this disease in the area closest to the cruise docks. And, of course, Seattle is a wonderful vibrant city with enough of a summer tourist attraction that the cruise boats which launch from there just blend right in. We lived there for years and love going back – I wish we’d have spent more time there and less on the boat to be honest.
But the cruise affords the opportunity to see and photograph some incredible scenery, so onto that. I’ll organize this into separate posts arranged chronologically including sailing through the Puget Sound and Straights of Juan De Fuca (the narrow-ish waterway connecting the Puget Sound with the Pacific Ocean), Juneau/Mendenhall Glacier, Skagway/White Pass, Glacier Bay National Park, Ketchikan/Victoria, and a few from the tacky coolness of the ship itself…
First, there’s a full set of images on Flickr, including the Seattle portion of the trip (included in a previous thread here), which you can browse if interested at:
Alaska - Seattle 2015
Oh, on the technical side, I shot with the Nikon DF and Coolpix A. Most of the scenic shooting was done with the DF, but several shots are from the Coolpix A, a camera that never ceases to amaze and please me. On the DF, I used my trusty Zeiss 25 and 21, but also two Nikon zooms - the 24-120 and the 70-300. I rarely use these zooms but I keep them because sometimes you've gotta have them, and this trip was one of those times...