Palmer Wedding - Justin & Amy

On Saturday I was out in Palmer at a home wedding with Justin and Amy. They had their ceremony at the Church of a Thousand Trees and then went back to her parents' beautiful house for a reception in the back yard. The weather and lighting played along and things seemed to fall perfectly into place all day. The bride's dad even had a special "poker-room." The guys went in before the ceremony where there were some awesome colors to work with. At one point the game got so heated Justin had to wager the wedding ring to keep things rolling. Luckily he won! -nick

Parents in Town and Fishing/Glaciers in Seward

Today was one of those great Alaska days when you're just happy be living here. My Parents are in town and we went down to Seward to do some fishing and wildlife/scenery viewing. It was just the five of us, Brook, Joe, my parents, myself, plus our captain Tony. We started off the day heading 45 miles out of Resurrection Bay and made it to one of the glaciers. We actually saw a massive chunk break off just as we were pulling up to it and it created quite the wave. By the end of the trip we had seen the following critters; Humpback whales, Eagles, Puffins, Steller Seals, Black Bear, Seagulls (everyone loves seagulls, right?), and a Sea Otter. We then proceeded to catch 25 Rockfish and 2 Halibut. The fishing only lasted about 2 hours out of the whole day, which was ok because I think we ended up enjoying the other stuff just as much, if not more.

Eagle River Wedding: Hondo and Carla

On Saturday I, Nick, had a great wedding shoot with Hondo and Carla. They had their ceremony at the new church in Eagle River, St. Andrews and then went to the Alaska Native Heritage Center. Between the two, though, we took the road back up the valley to the Eagle River Nature Center and did a small shoot up there. The weather was incredible and we had some awesome views, but it made for very difficult lighting. I managed to pull it together and work out my lighting and get some pretty good stuff (if I don't say so myself). I hope they think that they are as cool as I do. At the reception, we even managed to take a photo of everyone who made it! It was a huge group but we squeezed everyone in.

East Twin Peak Climb

On Thursday Bryan, Will, Joe and I climbed East Twin Peak near Eklutna Lake. We started to the top of the 5873' peak at 1000' and made it to the top in about 4 1/2 hours and 4 miles of hiking. We were the first people to sign the register since last September and it looks like very few people actually get up there each year. Along the way we saw a bunch of dall sheep and watched the dust blowing off the Knik Glacier moraine system. The descent was steeper and more exposed, taking us down the middle of the west face through a narrow gully. We got some awesome views and had a few sketchy sections but overall it was a great climb and we were down by 6:30 eating french fries and ice cream at Rochelle's Ice Cream and General Store. Our route can be found here, drawn in red for the ascent and blue for the descent.