Alaskan Glacier Wedding

The long awaited pictures of the wedding I shot in Alaska are finally done! 

Whew. There are over a thousand edited images in all, which means about 50 hours of post processing (at least). I was going to write a cool narrative to go along with them, but quite honestly... I'm too tired!

I've been looking at these photos for so long I have no idea if they're rubbish or not (all you photogs out there know exactly what I'm talking about), so I'd love to hear your opinions and critiques!

peace,
k.

One Cold, Two Glacier

Well, apparently my busy life finally caught up with me-- I'm sick and it's rocking my freaking face off. Anyone who cures the common cold right now gets three gold stars and my soul.

Here are some edits from Alaska I did tonight while waiting for my medicine to kick in. I shot both photos from a helicopter window, which is a little easier said than done.

Blogger's compression makes things look lame, but I'd love to hear your thoughts? Which do you like better?

peace,

k.

Alaska | Part 3 - The Point and Shoot Tourist

The day after the wedding, Jason (best man/awesome pal) and I had the day to ourselves. We wandered around downtown Anchorage most of the afternoon.

 For lunch, we ate at the Glacier Brewhouse. The soup nazi would have been proud of that lobster bisque.

 Then we stopped at the Modern Dwellers Chocolate Lounge for some delicious beverages. I am a hot chocolate connoisseur, you see, and must try hot chocolate in every place that I visit. So how did Modern Dwellers of Anchorage fare? VERY well. I got an iced dark chocolate with soy milk and cayenne pepper which pretty much changed my life. Possibly the second best chocolate drink I've ever had (which is saying a lot with my connoisseur status and all). Modern Dwellers also had a wide variety of unique truffles. Among the most unique were the anchovy and salmon topped dark chocolate ones. Whenever you see something like this, it must be tried regardless of how gross it looks. Surprisingly, it was actually really satisfying. I'm not a big fish fan, but something about the salty and the sweet flavors mixing really hit the spot!

 After a couple more hours of wandering, shopping, and lounging, we decided to try a reindeer hotdog from one of the street vendors. I'm a big fan of street food, but not a big fan of hot dogs so I only tried a bite of Jason's. That bite turned into another bite. And another. This was a little bit of a big deal because I hate hotdogs. I want to like them, but they are gross, so I can't. Reindeer hot dogs are a lot less hotdogy I guess, because I could eat like four enjoyable bites before I felt a little queazy. Totally something I'd eat at a game. Huzzah.

Then B + D met up with us later in the evening and took us to Beluga Point where I introduced Jason to Sigur Ros (who just so happens to be a perfect soundtrack to Alaskan wilderness). Jason and I also scaled the fierce (not really) wall to the top and took far too many silly pictures of ourselves. 

The view was gorgeous AND we saw a double rainbow (all the way)! What does it mean?

 The groom's parents took us all out to dinner that night before Jason and I boarded our red eye flight back to Utah.

All in all the trip was a wonderful success! I'll blog more about the wedding part in the coming weeks, but for now I am just trying to keep my head on straight. I'm in verifiable zombie mode from the Alaska trip, finishing finals, shooting 2 more Utah weddings, and breaking an extremely expensive lens (first time ever). Also, I just was informed that I'll be teaching the lesson tomorrow in Gospel Doctrine.

Whew!


peace,
k.

Alaska | Part 2 - The Wedding (Preview)

After the wedding morning rituals of hair, makeup, and dressing, the guests arrived in shifts to the Knik River Lodge to await the helicopter transportation to the glacier. Because I spent the morning with the bride, I was in one of the last waves; the anticipation grew as I waited for my cue to approach the helicopter.

Ever since I was first asked to shoot this wedding, I did what I do for every shoot and tried to envision the location. This helps me be prepared and keep focused in what can be an otherwise hectic environment. I go through what different lighting I might be challenged with and how to deal with it, what my limitations for poses are, how much time I have, and anything else that will have me shoot efficiently and beautifully. Since I had only been to a few wimpy glaciers in my life, I mostly pictured a rocky terrain with a little bit of dirty ice sliding down a mountain. I knew it would be beautiful, but I wasn't expecting breathtaking.

I think it's safe to say B + D (from this post) got married at one of the most amazing locations I've ever been to. It was otherworldly. I had to snap myself out of awestruck and back into focused more than a few times during my time on the glacier. I just got back home a couple of hours ago, so I haven't had time to go through and edit pictures, but I thought I'd give you a little h'orderve.

After the ceremony and pictures, we helicoptered back to reality and drove to the reception held at a lodge on a lake about a half an hour away. The reception was such a great contrast from the monochromatic and chilly nature of the ceremony's location with it's rustic and home-like theme. The food was chili, cornbread, and cobbler (a welcome treat after a few cold hours on a glacier) and was accented with wildflowers in jars tied with burlap and ribbon. The night went off without a hitch AND I learned a secret to making delicious chili... a melted chocolate bar!

MUCH more to come!

Alaska | Part 1 - Getting Here

It's rainy, green, and breathtaking here in Alaska. But, getting here was a little rough. As much as I love airports, I hate flying. Like really. Hate. Fiery death variety. My passionate love for travel outweighs this hate slightly, so I deal. Sort of.

The flight out of Salt Lake was delayed which was fine, it just meant more airport time. Delayed flights never bother me, in fact. They are just another part of the journey and the journey is half the fun of travel. The flight out of Long Beach to Anchorage, however, was a little more... interesting. Just as we sped up on the runway, about to leave the ground, the pilot suddenly slammed on the breaks. This, my friends, is kind of an intense moment in one's life, even for a seasoned flyer. Apparently one of the engines had a failure, and after sitting on the plane for a little while, we were ushered back into the gate to await for another plane to take us to our destination. By the time we finally took off (this time with working engines) it was about midnight Utah time. It's probably important to note that I was running on very little sleep as it was. The week prior to this departure, I was in crazy zombie mode trying to finish everything before I left. I was beat and desperately wanted to sleep, but I have never been a good napper (doubly so on airplanes). By the middle of the 5 hour flight, and in my hazy non-sleep sleep, I silently cursed Alaska for deciding to be so far away from real America. How dare it be part of the United States. If Alaska was united, we wouldn't be flying over Canada to get there. At least Hawaii has an excuse! It's an island! I hated Sarah Palin so much more than I ever had, and I even sorta wished that all the bears and wolves in the whole world were dead. This was a very dark time in my life.

But, as always, my personal tantrum eased as we pulled into the gate and got off the plane. Soon I was curled up in my warm bed listening to percussions of the precipitation outside, remembering the opportunity I was being given by being here. I didn't hate Alaska quite as much after that.

Tonight is the wedding dinner and tomorrow is the big day. The forecast is stormy, but I'm at least hoping for (and feeling slightly entitled to) some good dramatic clouds if it's going to be wet. The groom showed me some snapshots of the location, and sheesh, all I can say is you all better stay tuned for pictures. I can't wait to get out there and shoot. The flight was definitely worth it!