A year ago I started planning this great trip on board the m/v Delphinus with my friends from Dolphin Charters. We boated from Sitka up the outside coast of Alaska, cut into Cross Sound, and headed to Juneau via Icy Straits. I just came back from the trip about a week ago, and while we had a grand time, I returned with almost no useable images because the entire time the sky and mountains were smothered in a smoky haze. The haze was caused by the current wildfires roaring through Alaska and Canada in one of the hottest, driest stretches of time I can remember. Southeast Alaska experienced about three weeks without rain while temperatures soared into the 70’s and low 80’s. I don’t think of Alaska as a smoggy place. I like to shoot the white, snow covered mountaintops against the blazing blue sky. Anyhow, this is the one shot that was the best I could do considering the circumstances. The smoke is actually responsible for the great separation between the mountains. I photographed this small boat coming into smoggy Pelican. Thank you for visiting, enjoy – Camera: Nikon D850, Lens: Nikkor 80-400mm, Handheld, ISO 100 ©Mark Kelley
