RoxnDox

We had a family reunion in Yellowstone last summer, I ended up with about 1400 pics over 4 cameras. Your count sounds about average :-)

Jim

Question - do ginger capsules leave you with any sort of aftertaste or anything? My wife (the one who will be seasick...) gets horrible headaches from scop. patches, we're not sure if Bonine will be effective, and hates the taste of ginger... We are also going to give the sea bands a shot and planning on green apples as well. This is going to be our first cruise, so not sure what will or won't work for her.

Jim

If they provide a wetsuit or better yet, a drysuit, then you should be warm enough... Lots of us dive down here in Seattle area, and the water temps aren't all that much different. Our dive club has a bunch of folks that dive Alaska regularly, too.

As far as what you can see, oh yes it would be worth it... Cold waters host a huge variety of life, just as colorful and gorgeous as any tropical reef.

Jim

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Oh, nice captures! As long as you can stabilize it, more reach is always desired when it comes to wildlife… I've got a consumer-grade 70-300 I use today, but seriously considering rental of a high-quality 300 prime for our Alaska trip. Nice thing is having the shake-reduction in-body vs in-lens, so I get it on *all* my glass even the old ones. :cool:

Jim

Its $20 but just so happens that the day I would be going they are closing the glass house and will take off $4 from admission. She said the glass house is about 10% what I would be missing. The glass house is what I want to see. Is it still worth going or should I see it when the ship returns instead of the day before the cruise?

That I can't answer because I've never spent the $$ to go inside :-) Seen enough Chihuly pieces I refuse to pay that much for a few more...

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Poll needs a "bah humbug!" Option :-)

Jim

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Decided to just shop and walk around ketchikan. I printed out what they call a WALING MAP of Ketchikan and its all numbered and tells you what all is. Going to go to Creek street. Will do the Duck Tour in Seattle. So many people said its great and almost 1/2 the price of the Alaska one. I will be at the space needle anyway. So, doing lunch at space needle, then the duck tour, then going across the street to Chihuly Garden & glass. Im not much for these kind of things and museums and stuff but this looks so cool and I cant miss it. anyone interested go to www.chihulygardenandglass.com I never saw anything like this in my life. Thanks all

Chihuly's glass work is gorgeous, keep in mind you can't see much of anything from outside. They want your $$$ admission to get inside and see the art...

Jim

Fair enough. Risqué probably isn't the best word to use. The point I was trying to make was there are surely more common things to ask about before nude sunbathing.

Perhaps all those more common questions were already answered now that the Search is working again :-)

Princess - Suites only

Full suites only, or mini as well? Did not find that on the Princess site when I looked...

Jim

I haven't been on an AK cruise yet (June), but I just upgraded my DSLR to a newer model along with some new glass. Pentax in my case, though. After lots of research and conversations with other Pentaxians, I am getting an 18-135 for the same reasons you folks have listed. I am also considering rental of either 55-300 zoom or a *300 or 400 prime. The deciding factor in my upgrade is the desire for a weather sealed system for excursions - both body and lens. Plus a much newer sensor, image processing engine etc.

Tripod, monopod, etc will be as much a factor in good shots as your glass.

Jim

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Toothpaste, same as regular masks...

Jim

I just took a closer look at it and the ships have the "whale tail"...LOL

Website: http://www.davidcareyinc.com/alaska-camp-shirt.html

 

Have fun!:D

Ooh, another thing on my "Gotta Have" list!

Jim

Thanks for the super informative response!

 

Just curious regarding fogging, when my mask fogs up I just pop my head up, rinse it out, and put it back on. I'm just snorkeling and it's only an annoyance taking me out of that magic water world I'm in for a minute or so. What happens when you're hundreds of feet down scuba diving and your mask fogs up? Is there anything you can do?

 

I don't think I'm breathing with my nose, I have the snorkel in my mouth but I suppose it's possible some air is coming out of my nose? I wasn't intentionally trying to breath through my nose or use the purge because i wasn't even sure what it did.

 

Here's hoping for great conditions when we get down there. 150'+ visibility must be amazing.

Part of dive training is learning how to clear your mask underwater... You take it off (which of course floods it and takes care of the fogging), then put it back on, hold it so the bottom edge is slightly open and the top is sealed against your forehead, and exhale thru your nose. The air fills the mask and pushes the water out the bottom where you have it opened, when the water's out you seal the bottom back against your face.

My one warm-water dive was in Kauai. The charter called me a few days before we flew out there, to shuffle my arrangements because of the "terrible viz" they were getting after a big storm. "Terrible" for them, it turned out, was 50-60 ft... All the rest of my diving has been in Puget Sound around Seattle - anything above 15 ft is considered good, and above 30 would be terrific! Some of my dives have been pretty much end-of-my-arm viz... The time of year makes a big difference up here (algae/plankton blooms), no idea if that is an issue down there in the tropical waters.

Jim

Geologist and physician… Works for car tags and other user names all around the Interwebs too.

Jim

I have a Kodak easyshare cd1013

Most cameras today do not have a view finder to look into.

At a beach in Carribbean with bright sun I could see nothing on the camera. Did not know what exactly I was shooting. What do you do when the sun blocks out what you see in the camera? Why did they stop making view finders?

Use a hood loupe, shade the screen with a hand/hat/something, or get a camera with an optical viewfinder, I'm afraid. As to why - it's cheaper to put an electronic screen/viewfinder into a small camera than it is to try and shoehorn both an optical VF and a screen into the space. The great majority of camera users nowadays seem to value small size over having an OVF. In some cases I'd agree, but bright sun is not one of those cases!

Jim

We're taking our first ever cruise to Alaska on Princess in June, I don't know about how crowded the pools may be but I am for certain taking my suit along!

Jim

I hope and pray we don't ever have to go through that again.

In this lifetime, a 9.2 is unlikely to repeat up North. It will take a while for the stresses and strains to build up again. Smaller ones will happen, of course, but you are in pretty good shape for a biggie for a while.

Washington and Oregon, on the other hand, are about due for a mag 9 quake on our local subduction zone. It's been 314 years and it seems to run about a 300-350 yr cycle for this region... *When* (not if) it happens, it will be pretty bad.

Jim

I wonder about the water in SE Alaska if there's a large one nearby, or in Anchorage or Fairbanks. Would this cause huge waves?

 

 

(a naïve, probably ignorant question)

 

:o

Ignorance can be cured by asking questions, though! :)

What happens with the water depends on a number of things. The size of the quake, the direction of motion, the depth, the location, etc, all play into it, as does the local topography of any given point you're interested in.

When a fault line 'pops' and produces a quake, it moves along with the built-up stresses between two plates of rocks. If the motion of the earth is side-to-side, you might get some effect on the water, but not much. When the motion of the rocks is up-n-down, then you have to worry more about it. IF the quake moves a region of the seafloor up or down, the water basically sloshes back and forth to adjust itself to the change. That's what causes tsunamis, the sloshing around... A big quake, down deeper in the earth's crust, can move a LOT of water (think Japan). A small quake, at very shallow depths, can move water too, but these are normally much smaller scale effects.

When you get into the fjords and narrow channels between islands like SE Alaska has, there is another thing to consider. If a quake should trigger a landslide on a steep mountain above a fjord, that material can create some really really large waves within that confined inlet. In some cases, large landslides have created waves that scoured off the shores several hundred feet above sea level along the inlet. The inlet's confined nature actually shapes and sometimes magnifies the waves as they bounce around. Fortunately, these too are rare events :)

Any tsunami wave, whether locally created or coming across the ocean from the other edge, can be shaped and focused and possibly magnified by the local undersea topography, too. The landforms' shape will affect the waves as they approach shore, which will help determine the height as it actually gets to landfall. Some shapes would dissipate the waves' energy, while other shapes would focus it and raise them higher than otherwise. It's a very complex subject, and every event is different and gives the researchers more data... And speaking of the researchers, there's the main Pacific basin center for warnings: http://ptwc.weather.gov/ and the Alaska-focused site at http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/, which tie in the seismic data from the entire Pacific basin with a net of sensor bouys and computers that automatically analyze the motion of any quake and send out automated warnings. They do this even before alerting their on-duty humans to look at the data and update warnings, because in many cases, every second of warning could count...

And, of course, if you're on a ship out at sea, a tsunami would probably pass right under your vessel without being noticed. They only become noticeable when approaching the shores.

Jim

No only the new ship the Royal.

Thanx :-)

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Does the Golden Princess have those as well? We're taking our first cruise on her this summer...

Jim

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You'd be surprised how many great photos were taken with non-stabilized 70-210 f/4,.5-f/5.6 zooms mounted on cameras limited to a usable maximum of ISO 1000 (usually ISO 200-400). The move from film to digital has us so very spoiled.

 

I did a little poking around and the D3200 kit in that range ($609 on Amazon) comes with the 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G AF-S DX VR and 55-200mm f/4-5.6G ED IF AF-S DX VR lenses. Both are stabilized and both show excellent sharpness on SLRgear's test, though the 18-55 is best at f/5.6 and up. The D3200 itself shows high-ISO performance similar to the Canon 7D on the DPReview comparitor and looks good up to 3200 and useable to 6400 (max 12800). One of the benefits of the megapixel and ISO arms race we've had for the last 15 years is that even the entry-level handily trounces pro-level rigs of only a few years past. True, the D3200 won't take a hit like a an old Canon 1D MIII and the viewfinder won't be as bright but the image quality of the Nikon isn't affected by either of those.

 

Even at the $600 price point, it's a great time to be a photographer!

 

Dave

If we're sticking just to the entry-level DSLRs, keep in mind that Pentax has options that will probably fit in the budget, will provide you with both weather-sealed WR body/lenses *and* in-body SR (IS if you want to use that term) that will work on *ALL* lenses, and will allow you to use just about any pentax K-mount lens made for hte past 50 yrs... The OP is encouraged to search on reviews for the K-30, K-50, K-500 DSLRs, and the Q or MX-1 mirrorless ILCs. Good image quality, good price (especially if willing to buy used). I myself am upgrading to a K-30 or a K-5iis and WR glass for an Alaska trip in June...

Jim

Well, you can see all the EQ data pretty much worldwide at the USGS National Earthquake Information Center (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/neic/) which is part of our Hazards program, and we work closely with the state and regional programs, one of which was already linked to. Another site of interest may be the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network at http://www.pnsn.org/, though that one's more a Washington/Oregon focus. Lots of links and info are available. :-)

Jim

.... It still is a good camera but with all the new technology it's out dated and want something new.

...

This may seem like a snark, but it isn't. In all seriousness, cameras don't get out dated. Newer models might *add* something useful, but your camera will still take pictures just as well as when it was new. Do you want a new camera because of something your current one lacks? Or just because it's "old" and you want something new? If you need new capability, go for it. If not, keep using your old one and spend the $$ on something fun :cool:

Jim (still using an almost 8 yr old DSLR)

Well, your best bet is to go to a true camera shop, and get some different models from different makers into your hands! All major brands (Canon, Nikon, Sony, Pentax, Olympus) are available in entry-level models that are capable of taking great photos. Each has a different "feel", and some will like one brand over another. The controls, the control menus, the size and weight - all of these are highly subjective. Then you have to factor in the lens selections available for the brand and model, since you're moving out of the one-lens-all-the-time zone. Some brands will make you buy lots of pricey glass, others will let you pop on a 40 year old lens and use it...

If that sounds OK, then some research time online and in real life is your best bet. You may also want to consider a Bridge camera, less hassle in some ways than a DSLR, but very capable. Or, a "micro 4/3rds" system, with interchangeable lenses but generally smaller and lighter. Olympus and Sony excel in this, if your budgets allow a bit of stretch.

Some models you may want to investigate

Pentax (Ricoh now) K-30, K-50 or used models of K-5 or earlier

Used Sony Nex (new may be too pricey)

Whatever the current Canon or Nikon entry-level model is

Canon G10 bridge

The important thing, tho, is pick a camera that feels right to you. Don't let advertising sway your choice - they ALL take better photos than most of us can manage.

Jim

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Not so much a concern of dryness but a concern of where to keep the valuables. Women's swimsuits do not have pockets.

Neither do a lot of mens :-) For electronics, waterproof's a necessity, along with some way to keep it on your person. Cash and plastic, no waterproofing needed, so it's more the convenience thing... Although I'm sure *all* of could find somewhere to umm, tuck things away, we don't necessarily want to be seeing that ;-)

In the kayak, I do use a small Dry Seal bag for my phone. Hangs around the neck, allows touch screen operation, waterproof to 10m. Similar items are widely available in sporting goods stores or online. If i ever do a warm-water trip I'd use that but only if something electronic goes to the beach with me.

Jim

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