Picture Perfect in Alaska

I admit I’m a tourist, but I refuse to send postcards.

Inside Passage, Tracy Arm (Brrrrrr)

When you travel, postcards mess up the travel itinerary.  Think about it.  You take the time to shop for them, and if you don’t already have stamps on you, you’re going to spend more time looking for a post office.  Or, if you do have the proper stamps, you’re trying to find the post office, the nearest mailbox, or you're asking the nice man or woman at the hotel desk/store to mail the postcards for you.

 So what do postcards really say?

I’m here, and you’re not.  It’s that simple.  I’m having a wonderful time, you have to work, and I’m on vacation in some desirable paradise.  Ha, ha, ha.

At the Helm in Ketchikan, But Don't Tell Anyone

On a cruise, you’ll have pictures taken of you all the time.  As you leave the ship, you’ll get snagged to pose with cruise staff dressed as dolphins, bears or maybe one those Alaskan prospectors.  Cruise ship photographers will snap pictures of you in the ship’s restaurants and as you walk the deck.  Yes, those pesky photographers are everywhere. 

With Mama and Baby Bear

Bear Happy in Juneau

At Sea

You can tell how many times a person has been on a cruise by observing them as they avoid photographers.  Last week, I walked by a woman who had bought every photograph of her family during the cruise.  She sat in a lounge and was proudly arranging her photographs in a special, fat album to commemorate this particular cruise.  It would have been cheaper if she invested in salt shakers.

Me and the Gov

With My Buddy the Musk Ox in Skagway

Trying to Stay Warm, Prince Rupert, BC, Canada

So last week, I took my point-and-shoot camera and made my own "postcards" from Alaska.  Anywhere you go, you will always find cheap, but creative, photographic opportunities.