On an early-morning trip to Eklutna this fall I made a detour to Arctic Valley. This caught my eye as I was driving through the woods -- Alaska certainly has one of the most colorful falls I've ever seen. A black and white version of this photo follows.
This photo presents somewhat of a moral dillema for me. I've always prided myself on only using image-editing software to do basic touch-ups such as dodging, contrast work, dust removal, etc. Only once have I strayed from that rule when posting a picture here (loner near Haystack Rock), and I removed an entire person from that picture. Here though, I've taken what would have been a very flat black and white (due to the similarity between the leaf and the tree trunk) and I used the hue/saturation adjustment tool to reduce the lightness of the yellows and then desaturated the whole image. This makes the leaf stand out much, much better, but.... is it cheating? I just don't know.
You're making me wish I was up in Alaska again...and Chrissa and I never even went anywhere "naturish" except Douglas Island (Juneau). I guess that's what's cool about Alaska though: the delineation between nature and city is not quite so obvious.
And the eagles that steal people's pets.
Yeah, that's what I love about Anchorage -- some of my favorite, most beautiful pictures where taken either in Anchorage or a short fifteen minute drive from my house.
I think I would be pretty pissed if an eagle stole my dog though. It would be pretty cool if an eagle or two carried off a moose by its antlers though -- who knew that eagles were the ants of the avians?
No doubt. Before we went there someone said we'd see so many bald eagles we'd think they weren't endangered...that they flock like seagulls.
It was true.
As to the eagles carrying away pets: I only heard about it one time and it was a weaner dog...so I think your pup is safe.