Ok, here's a sampling of the main course from my saltwater fishing "dream trip" to Alaska. The place I visited for my fly-fishing article is called Jumping Salmon Lodge. It is on its own island deep in the heart of the pristine Prince William Sound Wilderness. The closest town is over 60 miles away - by boat or plane. There is one native Alaskan village of 50 people across the bay, and that's where our plane landed to drop us off, but it's barely a blip on the map. The area is actually a sub-arctic rainforest - the northernmost rainforest in the world. The mountains here get over 600 inches of snow per year! Of course, I packed my heavy-duty raingear, but it barely drizzled and temps hovered in the 50's to mid 60's with partly sunny conditions. As you'll see from the photos, this place is amazing with scenery and wildlife. We saw humpback whales all over the bays, pods of orcas, sea otters, sea lions, bald eagles, puffins (neat little sub-arctic birds with toucan-like beaks), black bears, and caught lots of fish.

Special thanks to our lodge hosts, John and Doreen. They run a top-notch outfit at Jumping Salmon Lodge, so if you're wanting the dream Alaskan fishing wilderness vacation, I highly recommend this place. You won't leave disappointed (or empty-handed - I brought home lots of yummy halibut for the freezer!).

Here are some of the pics....

A shot from the charter plane ride over the Chugach mountains (note the incredible ice fields)

A tidewater glacier as it "flows" into the ocean below (the "blue" ice is the oldest ice and can be thousands of years old)

The island and the lodge (bottom-middle, cabins and docks)

Our fishing boat is the bigger one in the foreground (with the twin outboards and cozy heated cabin)

Jumping Salmon Lodge

Fish on!

Humback whale breaching

Sea otter and baby on its lap

Beautiful (and brightly colored) yellow-eye rockfish

Our fishing grounds - the stunning Prince William Sound

The day's catch

A beautiful silver salmon

A colony of stellars sea lions

A rockfish caught on fly - a unique fishing opportunity, only in Alaska!

I really enjoyed last night here in Anchorage. I got to go to the World Eskimo Indian Olympics, and cover the opening ceremonies, thanks to the wonderful hospitality all-around for this leg of my trip by Shelly at the Anchorage Convention & Visitors Bureau. If you're visiting Alaska, make sure you check out this organization to help you figure out your trip. Anchorage is a great place, with plenty to do (as you'll see in these pics, and the ones in the last two blog entries).

I enjoyed capturing images of these beautiful tribal peoples at this particular event, as they proudly came together to dance, play music and compete in village games. One of the most amazing events was the blanket toss, where they gather 50 people to hold the ends of a big leather blanket and throw competitors high in the air. Its purpose in the villages is to sight over the horizons for whales to kill for food (since there are no trees in the Arctic north coast). Here the purpose was just for fun, and the competitors would do flips and leg-kicks for the crowd.

Check out some of the images...

My second day in Anchorage I went to the other side of Chugach State Park, to a lake called Eklutna. This glacier-fed lake supplies the drinking water to the city, but it's far from civilized. The peaceful, scenic lake has a campground and also an outfitter called Life Adventures. The owner, Dan, took me on his "Paddle-Pedal" tour, and by the end, even the Ironman in me was worn out. First, we did a brisk kayak paddle from one end of the lake to the other - which is 8 miles. Then, we had a snack after we beached our boats and jumped on mountain bikes for 16 miles of rocky, rolly lakeshore. We even hiked another mile or so up to a 250-foot cascading waterfall. So I guess I did a mountain-man triathlon yesterday.

I got some amazing photos that I'm hoping to be able to sell to travel magazines and local tourism. Check 'em out...

My Anchorage stop has been non-stop activity (just how I like it). First, I met up with local athlete Dave Bass for a run up a 33%-grade trail (that would be VERY steep in layman's terms) that goes over 1,600 feet up. It turned out to be a very challenging hike up, then a dicey run back down, at least for the flatlander that I am. The spot was called "peak 2", and it's next to Flattop mountain in the 4+million-acre Chugach State Park. The views from the top, looking down at Anchorage and the Cook Inlet, are amazing.

Check out the quick shots we grabbed....

The second stop on my Oregon tour was to visit my former wedding clients, now good friends, Bill and Melissa, in Beaverton (just outside of Portland). I've been looking forward to visiting them for over a year now, so we could go tour the wineries in the nearby Willamette Valley, and taste the best Pinot Noirs in the world (my favorite wine). We had a blast that day, then followed it up with a very unique game of par-3 chip-and-putt golf, where we went to this public golf course called the "Pub Course." It was WAY laid back. How laid back? Put it this way, when you check in for your tee time, you check in at the pub. When you play the course, you play in flip-flops. When you tee off, it's best to just go barefoot. How great is that for a bunch of golf hacks?!

Here are some of the highlights....

I'm in Anchorage, Alaska, about to transfer to the fishing lodge in Prince William Sound tomorrow. Time to get caught up with blogs from the past 10 days. I'll make this post about my time in Oregon. I covered a story in Lane County, Oregon (Eugene), for Boating Life last week. My brother lives in Eugene, so we visited him, and while covering the lakes, we also snuck out to the famed Oregon coast. It was my favorite part of my trip out west so far. We went to the largest sea dunes in the U.S. at Sea Dunes National Park (there were ATV's and dune buggies everywhere). Then we went to the famous Sea Lion Sea Caves a bit north of there. This sea cave is the largest in the world, and is home to the only mainland colony of Stellar sea lions. And from there, we had a great view of the world's most photographed lighthouse at Heceta Head. It's as stunningly beautiful as advertised, and worth the drive for any Oregon visitor.

Check out a few of the shots from that excursion....

I'm finally getting a morning to do some editing while on my crazy-busy west-coast trip. A few days before I left Florida, I met up with my good friends, Pam and Delton, to get some fun portraits of their daughter Amber before she loses her "little-girl looks", as Pam put it. Amber's a really cute girl and we had a blast getting some fun shots in the park. Check out a few samples...

The past week has been a whirlwind of lots of driving in Washington and Oregon. The end of last week I went to the Olympic Peninsula to cover a story for Boating Life magazine. We stayed at a beautiful, quiet lake in the rainforest called Lake Quinault. They get an average of 12 feet (144 inches!) of rain per year, and last year they got nearly 14 feet. Fortunately, July is the driest month, so we had blue skies and moderate temps. My parents, my brother Joe and his girlfriend Sam joined me there and we had some really cool hikes through some big old-growth forests. We saw the world's largest red cedar (310 feet high, 20-feet wide, 63-foot circumference, and hollow in the middle), and the largest spruce (160 feet tall and 15 feet wide). It was truly a profound spiritual experience, one that left all of us in awe of the beauty and majesty of our creator-God and the works of His hands.

The lake we covered for the story is called Wynoochee, and as beautiful as it is, it's very remote and quite an adventure to get there. We went down a single-lane windy gravel logging road and between dust kicked up from the trucks that reduced visibility to nearly zero and pot-holes that could swallow a bus, it was crazy driving (kind of fun, actually). But once we got to the lake, it was totally worth it.

We're in Eugene, Oregon, this week, for another Boating Life story, and also to spend some more time with Joe. More updates to come soon....

Lake Quinault

Me and the hidden jewel of the Olympics, Lake Wynoochee

Lake Wynoochee

My mother in her element (bright clothes, bright flowers)

Our crew hiking in the "sunny" rainforest

Rainforest creek waterfall

Looking small in front of world's largest red cedar tree

Looking up into the cavity of a 1,000-year-old living giant

Kid's paradise - playing at base of world's largest spruce

Small kid, Big tree

"Let the fields be jubilant and everything in them. Then all of the trees of the forest will sing for joy..." Psalm 96:12

WEST COAST 'O7, DAY ONE:

I landed in Seattle yesterday, in time to capture the infamous firework show (rated at one of the top 5 in the country) at Lake Union. Hundreds of boats sit in the middle of the lake as the display goes off. The weather couldn't have been more perfect, as skies were clear and temps were pleasant (upper 60's). I found a great spot on a dock extending out into the lake, to capture reflection of the fireworks and outlines of boats in that reflection. Afterwards, thanks to the wonderful folks at the Seattle Convention and Visitors Bureau, and the very cool and hip HotelMax for helping me with my accommodations for the night. If you're ever in Seattle and love original art, you've gotta stay at this hotel, as every room, lobby and hallway is graced with beautiful work.

Well my favorite time of year is finally here. Summer is time for me to go out west and shift my photography focus from weddings and portraits, to high-profile travel, editorial and commercial assignments. Over the course of the next five weeks, I'm going to be all over the West Coast, with shoots in California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska.

On a personal level, I will also be competing in my annual destination long-distance triathlon, with a half-ironman just north of beautiful Seattle. This season has already been a huge success in my triathlon racing, as I've qualified for the national championships in both short-distance and long-distance events.... I'm excited, too, about getting to visit and spend some time with my brother Joe, who lives in Eugene, Oregon, and also visit and hang out with several formal clients, now friends, who live in Oregon and California.

I'm so blessed get to express my passion and follow my dreams in this photography business. Thank you all for your prayers and support. I hope you'll join me in my journeys by checking in to my blog weekly to keep up with the great adventure.

God bless you all!
-jason

Last weekend continued a really crazy stretch for me, as Sunday marked my 7th wedding in 4 weeks. Sunday capped it all off, as we enjoyed the very special privilege of joining Jules and Martin for their beautiful beach ceremony at the Belleview Biltmore's Beach Club. We were having so much fun on the beach for our portrait session. The kids went all the way into the ocean, and I ventured in a little bit with them to get some cool photos, soaking my slacks in the process. I think you'll see that in spite of the heat and humidity of summer outdoor weddings in Florida, we all enjoyed celebrating with Jules and Martin, and helping capture memories that they'll never forget. God bless you guys!

And I want to also send a special thank you to the top-notch event planners at the Belleview Biltmore Hotel. If you're considering a destination wedding on Florida's west coast, contact them and you will be taken very well care of. Thanks, Dina and Kim for all you do to put together amazing events at the resort!

Also, thanks once again to Mike Buoy and Brent Schmierbach for your help making Cannonfire Photography wedding-day photo experience the best there is! I appreciate you guys.

Hope you all enjoy these outtakes and the slideshow: Jules&Martin