Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center

I am a member of the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. It allows me to visit the center throughout the year by just showing my membership card. I love checking on the animals and this is a great time of year to watch them. The summer brings lots of guests, in the winter and spring it is not uncommon for me to be the only one there.
You can find a variety of animals at the center including moose.

AWCC Moose

AWCC Moose

Caribou can also be found.

AWCC Caribou

Muskox

AWCC Muskox

Elk

AWCC Elk

AWCC Elk

Bison

AWCC Bison

There is even an eagle...although last 2 times I was there an owl was in the eagle cage.

AWCC Eagle

My favorite, by far, are the brown bears. They are a blast to observe and when there are active make great photo subjects.

AWCC Brown Bear

AWCC Brown Bears

AWCC Brown Bear

AWCC Brown Bear

If you find yourself in the Portage area, you owe it to yourself to stop in to check out the wildlife. The center's website is: http://www.awcc.org/home.html

Mike

Steady Cam for 5D mark II

As I get more into video, I realize it is a whole different set of tools needed. Not only on the software side(Premiere Pro has been a steep learning curve), but on the hardware side too. One of the things I really needed was some kind of steady cam. Some of the steady cams out there are terribly expensive. I found Johnny Chung Lee's site http://steadycam.org/. Here he goes through detailed instructions on how to build your own. I built mine today...grand total of $22 here in Alaska. Here is a shot of it holding my 40D.

I am looking forward to trying it out tomorrow. I will let you know by posting the resulting videos.

Mike
www.akphotograph.com

2009 Iditarod Video

Took some video while at the Iditarod this year. Putting this together makes me wish I would have shot more video and less still shots...oh my did I just say that?
All clips shot with my Canon 5D mark II. Getting to know and appreciate the video feature of this camera.


Mike

http://www.akphotograph.com

Mountains and Metallica

This is my first video I edited a few years back. I was sitting in the back seat of a helicopter while flying through some very rugged terrain, the Alaska Range...you will see.

Moose on the Loose

Dogs found a couple moose wandering on our property yesterday. After getting them gathered and in the house, I pulled out my Canon 5D. Instead of snapping more shots of moose, I have plenty, I decided to video them.

I wanted to try and shoot them with the lens wide open(f2.8), so I used a technique I read about from Tyler Ginter.

This was shot with my Canon 5D mark II with my 70-200mm IS f2.8 lens


Moose on the Loose from Mike Criss on Vimeo.

Mike

http://www.akphotograph.com/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/alaska48/

Canon 5D video of Bald Eagles

I recently purchased a Canon 5D mark II and have been practicing taking videos with it. It is a steep learning curve for a still photographer like me. I believe the video function of this camera will be improved on, but right now it is not the easiest to master.

Processing and rendering the video is a whole different story. I have another piece of complicated software to learn...Premiere Pro CS4. It is a very powerful program, but has a steep learning curve as well. Once I master it, I will blog about how I process my videos. For now, this is my first video taken entirely with my Canon 5D mark II.


Alaska Bald Eagles from Mike Criss on Vimeo.

Mike

http://www.akphotograph.com/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/alaska48/

Las Vegas

Just got back from Las Vegas, what a great trip. It is a fun place to visit, but would not want to live there. We were there 4 nights and saw 3 shows so our nights were pretty busy. I hiked with my tripod the first night and did not want to go through the hassle again so I started to use the high ISO rating that the 5D mark ii is touted to have.

New York, New York

Here is a shot of New York, New York shot at ISO 1600. 1600 is for wimps, I pushed the camera to 3200 to see what it could do.

Caesar's Palace

Caesar's Palace

Caesar's Palace

Caesar's Palace

All the above photos were taken at ISO 3200 with my 5D. Although they are noisy, for my personal use these photos do just fine. I was happy not carrying my tripod through the busy streets of Vegas.

MargaritaVille

I even tried some difficult indoor shots. We had a couple margaritas here and listened to a great band. If you want to listen to a classic rock band this is the place to go.

The ceiling of the Venetian

The Venetian

Caesar's Palace

More inside shots. I was pleased with the way these turned out. I used my Brno balens a lot to get the white balance correct. I just had to remember to take it off custom white balance when we went outside.

The Palazzo

The Venetian

While in Las Vegas we stayed at the MGM Grand and we walked everywhere.

MGM Grand

During our stay we saw the Blue Man Group, Phantom of the Opera and Ka. If you want my opinion, email me and I will share my experience.

Mike

http://www.akphotograph.com/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alaska48/