Has anyone been flight-seeing at Denali?

[Christal1664882414]

<p>If you've been flight-seeing at Denali, could you please respond? I have several questions......among them.....<br>

1. How extensive of a flight-seeing trip did you take?<br>

2. Which company did you use?<br>

3. Did you do a glacier landing?<br>

4. I'm prone to motion sickness.....how rough was the flight?<br>

5. Any particular hints/tips for successful picture taking if it's a sunny day?<br>

Thanks to anyone who can help!<br>

Christal Steele</p>

[vivid_earth_photographics]

We took an hour or so ride round trip from the airport at the end of the park road. We were staying inside the park at

Skyline. Weather is variable but we lucked out and had a clear late August evening (about 6pm). Doors off was an

option for more money but i was happy to pass. 6 sweater was little bumpy but not remarkable. Imagine it varies a lot

though. Polarizer could help with reflections in window. Long lens will be tough to manipulate. I got mostly snapshots,

not great art. That's just me of course. No landing on glacier. Totally worth the experience. Loud. You wear headset

whole time. Shoot a lot because keeping horizon straight is nearly impossible due to movement. Loved Skyline btw

given the options available. Staying in park 2-3 nights is amazing opportunity very different than a bus in and out in one

day.

[SCL]

<p>Several years ago I took a helicopter trip to Denali....as I recall it was about an hour. Can't remember the company...but good experienced pilot. The weather there is tricky...my recollection is that on that day we couldn't get closer than 13 miles, but we did do some amazing vertical ups and downs the faces of cliffs, saw bears and a variety of other wild animals. Earlier my wife and I had flown over Denali in a small plane on a clear day...really rough winds in spite of our being very well distanced...we could see climbing parties, but they were specks. We separately took helos in Juneau for about 15 miles down the length of the Mendenhall Glacier toward its face and thenlanded on it and hiked around (supervised) for about 1/2 hr...it was really neat. This particular flight wasn't rough, but it was sort of twisty following the path of the glacier. From a photo perspective, timing and weather is everything. I sat in front but only got off maybe 10-12 shots. The key was to prefocus at infinity, the highest shutter speed to dampen vibration, but dialing in f8 or so. Wide angle lenses rule due to the enormity of it. I'll try to attach a shot I took of the base camp from the helo and another one on the glacier. If you do any glacier walking....the blue ice is gorgeous...but remember the cracks can open and close any time as it isn't stable, and some of those cracks go down 8-900 feet, so rescue is impossible...I'm thinking about the yahoos who straddle a crack for their pictures.</p><div></div>

[SCL]

<p>The 2nd shot of the smaller cracks</p><div></div>

[hemtripathi]

<p>Hi Christal, I did a flightseeing tour over Denali a few years ago. I had purchased my first DSLR before the Alaska trip and I had kit lenses with me. Photographed using a canon xsi and 18-55 lens. The day was sunny which I thought was perfect for sightseeing.<br>

I used a company from Talkeetna, called Talkeetna Areo Services. You can google and search tripadvisor for this and other companies that do these tours. I remember picking a longer flight with a glacier landing. The glacier was just snow only! I guess the glacier would have been many feet below the snow. <br /> I do not remember the flight being rough but that can depend on the weather. The tour that circles Mt McKinley does reach high altitudes so you should be ok with that. <br /> I did not use a polarizing filter. Maybe using one would help. Also wearing a light colored top/t-shirt should reduce reflections.</p>

[Hector Javkin]

<p>When I visited friends in Alaska many years ago, I hired an experienced pilot based in Talkeetna to fly two of us around Denali in a high-wing four-seater. Did not ask to land on a glacier. Taxiing and the take-off run were bouncy enough to make a lot of people queasy, but the flight was smooth once we were in the air. I don't remember the pilot's name, but I'm sure he's retired by now.</p>

<p>If you suffer from motion sickness, get medicine for it before your trip, make sure it is effective for you, and tell the pilot before you go up.</p>

[Christal1664882414]

<p>Kyle, I guess next time we could consider staying inside the park. I'm sure it would be better. We'll be traveling with another couple this time and we already have our reservations outside the park, so I'm afraid we're stuck with having to take the bus into the park. Also, I had wondered about a long lens......yes, it would be difficult for me to handle with any turbulence. Thanks for your input!</p>

<p>Stephen, Hey, thanks for the pictures......they're really beautiful! You people are really stupid enough to straddle those cracks? Amazing! Hadn't thought of a heli ride.....may check in to that. At least at Mendenhall. Last time we were in Juneau we took the Blue Bus (public) out to Mendenhall and could stay as long as we wanted. I'd like to see it another way this time. Thanks so much for your help!</p>

<p>Hem.....I guess I just assumed there would be open windows to shoot out of. If not it would be difficult to avoid reflections! I wonder if I'd be successful at that. I'd sure hate to pay all that money and not end up getting clear shots. We actually were thinking of taking the trip all the way around the mountain, but we may reconsider. We're just gathering info right now before making any reservations. Thanks so much for your help!</p>

<p>Hector, I usually wear sea bands to prevent motion sickness. If I take Dramamine it makes me sleepy. Wouldn't want that! :-) I guess we can just hope for smooth sailing (er....I mean, flying!). :-)</p>

<p>The bottom line.......do all of you think the experience was worth the money? Would you do it again? </p>

<p> </p>

[SCL]

<p>Christal - I'd do it again in the blink of an eye!</p>

[vivid_earth_photographics]

We circumnavigated the peaks as close as 2 miles or so, maybe less. Stunning to see it all. Lighting obviously better

early or later in the day. Scale is really tough to convey.<div></div>

[Mary Doo]

<p>Kyle, exciting to see Mt McKinley up close like that!</p>

[Christal1664882414]

Kyle....really great shot! Do you happen to remember what lens you found most useful? I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to hold a very long zoom still

enough because of plane vibrations.

[jairorodriguez]

<p>Christal, </p>

<p>we flew Denali at the beginning of September in 2008. We just stoped in Talkeetna and got the flight on the spot (sorry forgot the company's name).<br>

Some thoughts: <br>

It can be, and usually is cloudy up there. So be prepared for the possibility that you may not be able to fly on your desired day.<br>

It's shaky. This means that you will have to do some extra to get sharp photos, specially if weather is overcast. Quite high speeds will help. This also means getting motion sickness is likely.<br>

We could not open the windows, so I had to shoot through them. I learned it's a very bad idea to have a polarizer on. Remove it. I am nt even sure I would like to be able to open the windows... could be unbearably cold.<br>

We did not land on the glacier, mainly because it was a lot more expensive. But I bet I would have enjoyed it!<br>

If you get a sunny day just remember to compensate for all the bright light coming from the snow and glaciers... your photos will tend to look grayish unless you compensate exposure.</p>

<p>I recently put together a blog post on this trip to Alaska that has tips on many other locations besides flying Denali:<br>

http://www.jairophoto.com/blog/alaska-photography-travel-guide/</p>

<p>Have fun! this is still by far one of my favorite trips ever!</p>

 

[Christal1664882414]

<p>Jairo,<br>

Wow! This goes way beyond any info I expected to receive! First of all, your images are great, even though you said you were somewhat of a novice with DSLRs at the time you took these. I can't wait to look through your portfolio and look at your other images. I'm just short on time now because we travel tomorrow and have much to do before we leave. (Have been visiting my daughter in Edmonton, although we live in the States)</p>

<p>I think perhaps the most helpful info is about the polarizer. I really wasn't sure about that. And since this trip is so expensive and we'll only do it once, I really don't have the luxury of going back and checking my images to learn what I did right/wrong. Also, yes, I'll do everything I can to get as fast shutter speed as possible because of the turbulence. Much will depend on the weather. I'll use my 24-105mm lens and/or my 70-200mm lens (although that one I sometimes have trouble holding still). I'll put my husband on that lens, although he doesn't understand much about aperture/shutter speed/ISO combinations.</p>

<p>I was blown away by your blog. Interesting to view it because that's exactly what I want to do when I retire......travel by RV and write a travel/photo blog for others. It will also serve as a way of journaling my trips. Both the pictures and tips/hints and other info were great!</p>

<p>I'm so glad to know your work, and again, thank you so much for investing so much time to help me. I know it will result in better pictures. The other main thing I worry about is capturing true colors of the snow/ice. I tend to get blue or gray results sometimes. I need to explore that a little more before we get to Alaska. We'll be there the 19th-Sept. 2nd. We'll cruise for 1 week and then spend 6 days traveling by car up to Denali. We already have an RV, and the next time we go to Alaska we want to take 6 weeks and drive the RV. A dream of mine!!!</p>

<p>Thanks!<br>

Christal</p>

 

[jairorodriguez]

<p>Christal, <br>

I am glad you found the post useful. And thanks for your kind comments!! About the polarizer. I just found out about it once I was on the plane. As I started playing with it the windows started turning all sorts of colors! The same thing happens with windows on big planes. I just learned this is caused by a plastic layer on the windows that causes them to be what's called "berefringent". This property is exacerbated by using a polarizer, so leave it out. You can look the term birefringence up online for more technical info! I am no physicist!<br>

I have to say that even though I ended up leaving the polarizer out, shooting through the plane windows still produced some color casts. I guess that's inevitable as you are shooting through many layers here. This did not affect all images to the same extent though and I guess it had to do with the relative angle of the camera with respect to the window. But this is just my guess. I was shooting raw and so this made for a somewhat easier color cast correction in post processing. This is specially problematic as you say when shooting at the snow. Try to overexpose a little bit to compensate for that. <br>

I have been blogging for over a year now and I can definitely say it makes me very happy to share with others what I learn and discover. So I hope you can do the same thing and start blogging soon!<br>

Have a very nice trip in Alaska!</p>