Sunset pastel

This is right out of the camera. I love this place.

Love it!

:silly:

So... how far are you from Katmai National Park? I'm reading this article last night on it. Gots' Falls and Bars' and stuff. Apparently it gets really congested with photographers. A real snappin' paradise.

Yet another stunning sunset.
:applause:

where a sight like this is only about five minutes from my house.

Katmai National Park is west of here, I believe, somewhere you can't drive to (like most of Alaska). All these photographers you're talking about must be the rich kind who can afford to get flown in. I've never been in my 30 years here, but I understand it's really phenomenal.

I checked that. You have to hire an air taxi. Like $550 a person. Bummer. When it says that insects are intense during the summer just what does that mean? Is that anywhere in Alaska during the summer? Recommend wearing headnets?
:wtf:

it's referring to mosquitoes and these really annoying little black flies we have up here, and, sadly, yes, they're everywhere. We actually bought mosquito netting SUITS to wear on our trip next month - pants and jacket with elastic at ankles and wrists, with a hood that goes all the way over your head and face and tucks in in front. Otherwise, you have to lather on the Deet, which I really can't stand over a period of days when there are no showers. We just bought these mosquito suits so I'm anxious to see how they work. I think they should be pretty effective though ... the netting is really fine.

The reason there are so many mosquitoes is because the whole state is very, very wet -- rivers, lakes, lots of marshes and spongy tundra.

I do hope you get to make the Katmai trip sometime. We've been thinking that with fuel costs so high these days, we'd be better off staying in the state and flying out somewhere to camp for our vacations. At least then we wouldn't have to pay for a rent-a-car and all that gas.

Oh, one other thing, if you ever plan to come up here, September is a really great month. Most of the tourists are gone by then, the bugs have died down, and the weather is usually gorgeous, if a bit nippy at night. That's my favorite time of year. May's not bad either. Mosquitoes are worst in June, the black flies come a little later.

(even though it's far south of there) it means if your are hitching a ride and step out of the car to take a piss, you will be immediately find yourself in the middle of a dense black swarm of tiny bloodsuckers whose only interests are food (you) and sex (each other.) However, later in the summer, closer to fall, they will have done their thing and you can do your business, whatever it might be, without that kind of attack.

And to Blue: your photos are stunning and, before carpal tunnel hits, you have very good odds of making a decent living with them, and also earn a little good Karma by making them available to others. If interested, you might find some resources here: http://www.nanpa.org/books_business.html

...and the vote of confidence. I think you guys have just about talked me into it. I guess I tend to not take myself too seriously since I was never a film photographer and haven't had any training or whatever, and still feel like I have so much to learn, but your encouragement means a lot to me. I think after this next trip I'll definitely have some things to work with. The idea of cutting back on my hundreds of pages of court transcripts every month (actually closer to a thousand) to spend my time playing with photographs -- and making money doing it -- really appeals to me. These old typing fingers won't be able to keep up this pace forever.

As I'm posting, I can hear her fingers flying from down the hall. Reporters are the unsung heroes of the justice system.

(It took me 12 minutes to type the above...)

Or both? Up here our court proceedings are recorded onto CDs (no live court reporter in the courtroom, just a clerk who makes sure the machine is recording properly), and then we can just play them off our computers using a special program and a foot pedal like a dictating machine, starting and stopping as necessary. So I am a transcriptionist, transcribing verbatim off the CDs. The court reporters mostly do depositions using that little machine, whatever it's called, and then converting it into words. That's all foreign to me.

I appreciate that you recognize the important work we do. Since we're more or less invisible we don't usually get much credit, but the court system would be in big trouble if they had to type all these trials themselves, because EVERYbody appeals, and they all need their transcripts. I really enjoy the work -- it's kind of like real-life "Law & Order" in my ears and out my fingers.

She very seldom does criminal stuff, sadly. A lot of patent disputes, civil cases, pharmaceutical suits and so on. I've done some transcript scoping myself (and I'm eager to do more) so I've gained more insight into how it works than I used to have. Nance is interested to hear about the lack of actual reporters there. Various jurisdictions have tried this, with what I gather have been mixed results.

It would be very entertaining to see lawyers have to produce their own transcripts for a week. If it ever happened, rates for reporters & transcriptionists would be hiked the week after, IMO.