Sitka part 2

As I had mentioned in my last post, my D3 had a damaged lens attachment but that is not the end of the story. It turns out, Dave Evans, owns a few old Nikon film cameras which have the same lens adapter and was willing to part with one until I get a new one from Nikon. Yeaaaa!!!! Can Dan do any more to make my Sitka trip even better??? Oh yea....Just wait until I show you some of his secret spots....simply awesome.
With my D3 in Hand and my semi working 200-400mm lens in hand, I was ready for business. We left the harbor early to spend as much time as possible on the water before heading back to land to visit the Sitka National Historical Park which houses the famous totem poles.

We first ran into what many of the local residents do for a living....fishing. These guys and gals work very hard for their living and I have the utmost respect for them.

Sadly, this harsh life style comes with its hazards and Sitka has a monument for those that died at sea.

That last picture leads me right into what we ran into next....whales. These animals are so graceful yet extremely powerful. The noises they make are surreal and beautiful. After awhile, one can actual tell by their noises when they will come up for air....so freaking cool. Unlike the night before in the big boat we were in, Dan' boat was able to get much closer.

With the last wave from the whales, we were off to capture some more wildlife. Since we did not capture breaching whales, we decided to try and capture breaching salmon. Marc, Dan and I spent an hour trying to capture one of these jumping fish in focus off of a boat and believe me, it was not easy. I have hundreds of blurry shots and the ones that were in focus, the fish were looking the other way.....man this was difficult but so much fun. Marc....of course....got a perfect shot. Maybe a few more years of practice and maybe I will capture one tack-sharp as well ;-)

Heading back to the harbor we ran into a deer swimming. Personally, this is the first time I have ever seen a deer swim and they are pretty good at it. I was surprised how fast they can swim.

We stopped off on a little island, the bennies of owning a small aluminum boat is that we can almost go onto any small island for a look around.

Within the islands are dense forest like atmospheres. The greenery is just so bright it almost glows.

Marc with his infamous pose. This is the spot Marc saw a weasel or mink...too bad he had a fish-eye on his camera.

Later in the day we went to the totem pole park but the rain kicked on so we decided to call it a day and go back to the totem pole park the next day. I will end this day with some shots of a Great Blue Heron I took on that day and a few shots of Sitka Harbor at night.

.......stay tuned for part 3