Arizona to Alaska

I made it to Anchorage but the journey there was quite interesting. Our flight out of Phoenix was delayed an hour due to our pilots arriving late but while we were waiting on the tarmac, I saw this interesting sight. After a quick text of this image to a pilot friend of mine, I found out that when a captain retires, he receives this welcoming reception of the water tunnel from local firefighters as he finishes his last flight. What a special and emotional honor. I was glad our flight was delayed so I could witness this touching event. We then got underway and as we left Phoenix in the darkness, I spotted an orange glow off to the east. For those of us who live in the valley, we are very away of the huge wildfire burning up the Superstition Mountains. As of June 20, it was over 50,000 acres and the valley was filled with a haze. From the sky, it was heartbreaking to see the actual fire from so far away. You can see it in my iPhone image as a orange dot on the left side of the image.

The 5.5 hour flight after that was uneventful and as we approached Anchorage, I took some quick phone shots at midnight of the spectacular sunrise/sunset. I’m not sure which one to call it but it was beautiful in between the clouds and over the snow-covered mountains below.

Once we descended through the clouds, I got a better view of Anchorage and a rain storm off to the left of the image. It was beautiful and the island in the foreground had windmills dotting the land.

The next day was a day to explore Anchorage, meet the group and prepare for the next 5 days in Lake Clark. Lake Spenage behind the hotel was beautiful and served as a runway for all the sea planes!

Since I haven’t been around sea planes, I was fascinated and walked around part of the lake to get some shots of the planes docked along the edges of the lake.

There were even little shacks and houses next to the lake where the planes were docked. They looked really cozy and all of them had beautiful flowering plants!

I watched several of the sea planes taking off and landing. Please click on the video below to see one of them take off.

We are heading to Lake Clark soon to go find some grizzlies! Stay tuned!

From Antarctica to Alaska

Image: Emperor penguin chick, Snow Hill Island, Antarctica. Nikon D500, Nikkor 200-500mm at 500 mm, f/8.0, 1/1000, ISO 400, hand-held.

As I prepare to leave for Alaska today, I wanted to share one more post on the Emperor penguin chicks before I turn my attention to the Alaskan wildlife–grizzlies, eagles and more! The Emperor penguin chicks spend a lot of time on their tummies while on the sea ice and were a pleasure to watch.

Great Gallery Reception and Exciting News!

The past three days have been some of the best this year! Two amazing events happened that I wanted to share with you all. Art Intersection, a very nice fine art gallery in downtown Gilbert, Arizona, hosted an artist’s reception for their All Art Arizona display. My last blog detailed this event and my work that was chosen for it, and it turned out to be a huge success. Hundreds of people showed up to look at all the art. I was so touched to see many friends and followers of this blog show up and surprise me. It was hard to hold back tears at times so I just jumped up and down instead. 🙂 .

Art Intersection Gallery Reception June 15, 2019–Come Visit!

I’m very excited and honored to share that one of my Antarctica Emperor penguin photos was chosen to be part of a juried exhibit at the art gallery, Art Intersection, in Gilbert, Arizona!!! The exhibition features Arizona artists on a variety of mediums including painting, drawing, printmaking, mixed media, photography, ceramics and more. I was one of the lucky ones chosen and will have a 24″ x 30″ metal print of this baby penguin sleeping on display. The exhibition will go from June 12-August 3, 2019, but this Saturday, June 15, 2019, there will be an artist reception from 5-8pm! I will be there with my work to share and discuss it as well as my other photography. This piece will be for sale and I have some other penguin and puffin metal prints available upon request. To see some of my current inventory for sale, visit https://www.amysimpressions.com/Photos-to-display/ .

Here is the link to the gallery and exhibition: https://artintersection.com/all-art-arizona-2019/

Please come visit and ask questions!

Arizona’s Salt River Wild Horses

Salt River Wild Horses, Arizona. Nikon D500, Nikkor 200-500 mm at 500 mm, f/8.0, 1/500 sec, ISO 640, hand-held.

For those of us who live in the Phoenix, Arizona area, we have a gem right in our backyard. The Salt River wild horses roam the lower half of the Salt River in the Tonto National Forest in Mesa, Arizona and have been subject to much controversy in the recent years. In 2015, a notice was given to the public that federal officials would begin rounding up the horses to remove them from the area. The Salt River Wild Horse Management Group rallied up support for the horses and was able to get a statue passed in AZ State Congress to protect the horses and to allow them to roam the Salt River.