ALASKA!

Hey guys!

Sorry it has been so long since I've posted, I've been crazy busy with my location photography. Ever since the pending SAG strike ended, people are making movies and such like crazy, which means more work for me!

Thanks to a more efficient editing process (thank you Lightroom!) and a fever that has kept me indoors for the past couple days, I had time to finally go through the photos I took on a trip this summer to Alaska. Just a disclaimer, this post is for all of you landscape/nature photography lovers out there. For those of you who are more into wedding/portrait photography, please know that my next post will be exclusively that, as I have shot a few "people" sessions recently (which turned out incredibly!) and have a handful coming up soon.

Now, back to the story. This trip was special for me, because it was kind of a returning to a place in my history. A total of 9 years ago, I went on a cruise to the Caribbean, carrying with me the very first camera of my own. When I saw the first photo (which was an old Cathedral on Margarita island) of the 14 rolls I had developed (yeah, I was using film back then!), I was struck and had a sudden realization that photography was going to be something I was connected to for many years to come. As I boarded the cruise ship this time around to cruise Alaska, I was amazed at how far I had come. I never thought I would have been able to "make it" as a professional photographer, and yet, here I am! (I was also amazed at how much larger my camera bag is in comparison to what it was!)


Anyway, so enough of the trip down memory lane. Now to Alaska!

Alaska can be described in 1 word: BIG! Everything is massive, from the bodies of water, to the tides, to the grandiose mountains. To get a piece of this massive state, we took a 7 day cruise that started in Seward (A day trip south of Denali) and ended in Vancouver.

We started by flying into Anchorage. We got there at 1:30AM and it was sunset! I woke up the next morning with the sounds of float-planes buzzing over our small hotel and landing in a lake-pond right next to us. I knew immediately that this wasn't Southern CA anymore!


We spent the day there and left early the next morning for a 4 hour train ride south to Seward through absolutely beautiful savage/wild territory. I'm confident that if I fell off the train and walked 10 minutes away from the track, I'd probably never find civilization again.




I stood between the cars of the train and bore the chilly air to get those, whatever you gotta do to get the shot!

*Photo thanks to Dan Bathauer*

We arrived in Seward, a charming little fishing village.


At one of the small, local spots, I ordered a caribou burger with a side of reindeer sausage. The crazy thing is that that meat was probably far more fresh and bountiful than had I ordered beef! It was delicious...I also may have hummed the Rudolph song once or twice while eating the sausage. :)

As we boarded and headed out, I realized that this trip was going to get my shutter finger buff. I had a 360-degree view of gorgeous-ness non-stop, and it stays light out till 2AM at times, keeping me up snapping away far later that I normally can. I felt like a photo junkie! A taste of the first sunset I saw (mind you, this is about 1AM):

-I was stoked to put my new wide angle lens to work!-


Our next stop was the Hubbard Glacier, what was one the fastest growing glaciers 20 years ago, and one that is still growing in size. It was insane when I first saw an iceberg floating by, definitely something you don't see everyday! We navigated through the ice and got pretty darn close to the glacier, it was incredible.



-Navigating through the ice patch. It sounded like crushed ice getting stirred up in a glass, but these were very large chunks of ice! This is from 14 stories up.-

*Photo thanks to Dan Bathauer*

When the glacier calved, you could feel it in your chest. It sounded like a thunder storm on a bright, cloudless day!


After a day at sea, we landed in Juneau, the capitol of Alaska. Honestly, even knowing it was Alaska, I was expecting a larger city. Juneau is a quaint, little town at the feet of ginormous mountains. No roads in or out; the only way from the outside world is by plane or boat.

-Note the float plane landing.-



It was originally an old Alaskan Gold Rush town, and the feeling/character stuck around. Just up the road and behind the city, we found a trail that was on top of an old mining shaft. The surrounding area was gorgeous, almost jungle-like. From icebergs to dense forest in one day was quite a change.

-My first spotting of a bald eagle close-up. How rad is that!?-


With all the cool stuff in Juneau, I was also blown away by a glacier nearby. It was in the low 90s that day, which was totally strange by itself. I remember standing on a beach next to this massive waterfall (note the size of the people in comparison):

*Photo thanks to Dan Bathauer*
-I am on the bottom right. Definitely got my lenses soaked!-

I was standing where those people were standing, and around me were some people tanning, a few swimming in their bikinis and board shorts, and yet, right there in front of me was a massive glacier with a bunch of icebergs in the water. Too strange for my mind to fully comprehend, so here are pictures to show it.



Rad, anyway, the next stop was Skagway, another old Gold Rush town (this one kept in its original state) far north of Juneau...the graduating class was made up of 8 students! It served as the railroad hub and start for many of the miners that had the guts to head into the Yukon over the dreaded White Pass. Here's a brief view of the tiny town:




The next port was definitely my favorite. Icy Strait Point is an island inhabited by a native tribe, kept in its full Alaskan goodness! Well, almost. They allow one cruise ship in at a time (brought to shore on smaller boats because of the small size of the docks). Eventually, I know this beautiful land and people will be commercialized because of this practice, but I was stoked to get there when I did (they opened this port less than 2 years ago). Bald eagles like crazy, humpbacks spouting right off the shore, large unadulterated forests, bears that outnumber people 5 to 1, etc. Here is a taste of Icy Strait:







Besides all of this, they also had the longest zipline in the world that I got to ride on! Such a rad ride! Here is a video I took on a little point and shoot:

So stoke-worthy. Anyway, moving on, we reached our last Alaskan port, the town of Ketchican. Again, Ketchican is another old town that is accessible only by plane or boat...or jetpack, i guess, if you had one.


-The old Red-Light District...Looks different than you'd expect, huh? A bit too quaint perhaps? The river was used for fleeing bootleggers and rum-runners during prohibition, and it was called "Married Man's Route"-


We wandered out of town to get some more views of the coastline and found some very lush areas. We also came across a small Native American town that specializes in carving Totem poles.



Then came our last day at sea, a slow cruising through the inside passage (the area between Vancouver Island and mainland British Columbia). There were some beautiful sights, but it was the last sunset that did me in!


The sun reflecting off of the glassy water made me point my lens downward to capture the wake of the boat. Gorgeous thing water is, isn't it?

And that was the last night. We hung out in Vancouver for a bit to see some Canadian beauty...
...and then took the flight home. When I looked out the window on the approach, I knew that we were far, far away from the rugged, unprocessed, and beautifully wild world of Alaska.

Thanks for reading/viewing, I hope you enjoyed this post. Let me know if you did by commenting or e-mailing me!
And like I said, be watching for a portrait post, it'll be going up very soon.

Thanks again for your support,
Brandon Bathauer

Welcome to Belize.

Hey all!

My friend recently brought up to me the fact that, in a previous post, I promised a full story about my (not-so-entirely recent) trip to Belize. So here it goes:


* To Expand or Decrease Photo size after it has been clicked on, simply hold CTRL and scroll with mouse wheel*

Around October or November last year, I was starting to get a lot of photography jobs doing all sorts of different things, from locations to gallery work to engagements. With all of the great opportunities I had been offered to use this passion of mine, I wanted to balance it by doing something with my photography that could actually help people who desperately needed help. It was then that I came across an awesome non-profit organization based out of Belize called PathLight International (http://www.pathlight.org). I knew nothing about Belize, except that was was in Latin America somewhere. As I looked into it further, I realized I was heading with my camera into a legit jungle environment with a hodge-podge of cultures, heritages, and lifestyles. From British occupation to Creole/Carribean influences to Mexican leanings and a rich Mayan history, I was amped to get immersed in something completely different than me.

A little visual overview of the country of Belize:







I got in contact with the organization and was stoked to hear that there was some need for photography for advertisements, brochures, etc. I grabbed my ticket and, in January, headed down with a crew of college students from William Jessup University (a small Christian college near Sacramento). The purpose of the trip was to teach in the mostly forgotten, underfunded, and under-resourced primary/elementary schools that were outside of the reach/awareness of the larger cities, but mostly, largely outside the reach/awareness/support of the Belizian government. Many people who lived in the small villages that fed into these schools lived on less that $2 a day.

Seeing as how I was down there anyway, I figured I'd take part and teach a photography class on top of taking photos. Belize's largest industry is tourism, and with tourism comes the need for photography. With some training, I figured some sort of photography could likely be a trade for some of these children as they grow up. Believe it or not, Wal-Mart donated 30 simple, little digital cameras for my classes. I taught at three different schools, showing 5th and 6th graders the joy of photography. Most of these kids had never used a camera before in their lives, so I taught the basics; the best I could do while speaking to classes that understood English like I understand Spanish....not muy bien.



photo thanks to Alyssa Gluck
photo thanks to Jennifer Marple


After a lesson on what buttons to push to turn the camera on, how to frame things, the difference between action and portrait and landscape, etc., I sent them out to shoot around their school grounds, trying out the five different genres I taught them about: Portrait, Nature, Action, Landscape, and Abstract (PS- trying to explain "Abstract" to 5th graders who fluently speak English is hard enough!). Here are a few photos showing what went on. Imagine, most of these kids had never used or even held a camera before.




-What I think was one of the best attempts at an action shot! :



-Mr. Eco, a 5th grade teacher seemingly in his early 40s, taking the first photo of his life.-

And my personal favorite:
After a couple photo shoots for each student, we took the digital photos back with us, got them developed and printed in the States, and had them sent back to each of the remote schools. Each child received 10 printed photos they had personally taken: tangible objects that would be among the most valuable treasures in their households. Furthermore, seeing as how the cameras were donated to us, and to help support some frame of sustainability, we decided to donate the cameras to the individual schools to continue this photography program. (*Batteries and upload capabilities for the program are being handled by PathLight, in case you were wondering*)


Throughout our stay in Belize, we stayed at PathLight's headquarters: a place called Jaguar Creek. This place was friggin awesome! Surrounded by miles of dense equatorial jungle (Bear Gryllis did a special on these Belizian jungles the week I got back...Yeah, its that hardcore) and accessible only by a long, narrow, rocky road covered by the jungle canopy, Jaguar Creek was easily one of the coolest and most savage places I've ever stayed. This place came with all of the fun things that makes a legit jungle actually legit: jaguars that could pounce out of the dense bush at any moment, a good-sized local population of fer-de-lances (one of the most deadly snakes in the world), and mosquitoes that lay their larvae under your skin. My camera bag was packed with newspaper to soak up the moisture from the incredibly thick humidity, yet long sleeves were very welcome to ward off those mosquitoes.

Here are a few photos of Jaguar Creek:

Main Headquarters:


So much growth and life, a plant sprouted out of a broken piece of wood 3 ft off the ground. It was actually and literally growing out of it!

Being so far in the middle of nowhere, along PathLight's sweet perspective on God's creation and how we should treat it as the beautiful-special thing it is, Jaguar Creek was fully self-sustained with a constantly running river that was purified and lights-fans-outlets (all electricity on the grounds) fully powered by solar panels. Awesomely sweet.
-Kinda looks like a LOST set, huh?-

Where I stayed. The windows were open screens, so the night was filled with noises of rain, jungle birds, and howler monkeys. It sounded like the jungle-book-sleep-soundtrack.

What decided to stay with me...
I was told by a local Belizian, "No, no. They don't bite much." That's refreshing when all you have to protect you while sleeping is a thin strip of mesh!


Besides teaching photography to 5th and 6th graders and fighting off jaguars, we also stopped by The King's Children Home, an orphanage in Belmopan (the capitol), to give some love to the orphans there. I was sent to get some photos to support a fund-raising campaign for this specific orphanage. One woman cared for over twenty kids here, it was incredible to see such supernatural love coming from one person... I found God to be very evident in her and her home. The children had lost their parents and possibly family, but had developed a new family that was hard to ignore. It was strange for me to balance being an observer (the role of the photojournalist) and being an active person, involved in the childrens' lives. It gave me a struggle, but the photos seemed to turn out showing a certain connection that I hadn't quite gotten before. I still play with that balance as a photographer in different contexts, but I definitely learned something from this experience.





Laundry for 20+ kids.

It wasn't all heart-grappling though, I got a couple days to enjoy some of the sights of Belize. Of note, I first got to travel to Xunantunich, an ancient Mayan ruin. After crossing an old hand-cranked ferry, a loud rumble came from a bush and this came running at me:


I almost lost it, but I held myself together enough to switch lenses and snap this one off.
Besides the ancient ruins, I also got to spend a day out at the South Water Caye, a tiny island off the coast of Belize. Check out this gorgeousness:




And, of course, the pelican Narcissus:

Thank you all for reading/viewing my story. Let me know what you think, and if there are any questions about any of the organizations I worked with, any of my photos, or anything that has to do with what I'm all about, please don't hesitate to e-mail me. (BrandonBPhotography.gmail.com) Thanks again for viewing, I hope you enjoyed it, and there will be plenty more to come (I'm going to Alaska in T-minus 7 days!).

And now for a last few images of Belize that have stuck with me.





Have a sweet weekend,
-Brandon Bathauer-