Here’s a long-ish podcast episode about the NASA Tweetup I attended back in May.  Oksana wasn’t able to go with me, so this video ending up being a one-man show.  There’s some good stuff in there, I think, but I ran into some problems during the production (not the least of which was overexposing my “narrator” shot… grrr!)  My intent was to convey my own experiences at, and thoughts about, the NASA Tweetup.  I hope I managed to at least do that.

Originally I thought I’d post it in June, but packing for our backpacking-around-the-world trip got too crazy for that.  Then, I thought I’d post it on the first week of the trip, but the trip itself got too crazy for that!

Oksana and I are finding ourselves facing down the Traveler Blogger’s Dilemma: How do we budget time for webpage work when there’s a whole exciting world out there to see?  Turns out that’s especially hard when you’re visiting friends and family!

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While driving down the Alaska Highway in British Columbia, you can’t help but spot some wildlife.  We expected to see some deer (and we did, two), hoped to see a bear (four of them; three black, one grizzly), and sort of doubted we’d see any moose (but we saw two, anyway).  It never even occurred to us that we might run into some buffalo.

The first two we spotted were slowly lumbering along the side of the road, munching on the grasses that grew on the huge shoulder between pavement and forest.  We stopped the car on the other side of the two lanes of traffic and tried to get some good photos despite the rain.  Unfortunately, those two bison were not exactly interested in us and didn’t even look up from their meals.

As we drove from Watson Lake to Dawson Creek, we kept a running total of buffalo going.  Nine, ten, eleven, twelve… and still no better opportunity for a great photo. That is, until we rounded a curve and gave up completely on our count.  Spread across both sides of the road, a herd of at least 40 bison were slowly walking the shoulders.  We saw bulls moving among the cows and newborn calves; a whole social dynamic was on display for us.

We took a lot of photos out both windows.

When one lumbering bull approached my side of the car, I focused in close on his head and snapped a few like this one.  Look into his eye.  I think he’s wondering what sort of a dent he could put into our Jeep…

Canon 5D Mark II
Date: 1:40pm, 3 July 2010
Focal Length: 200mm
Shutter: 1/160 second
Aperture: F/2.8
ISO: 250
Photoshop: Auto Contrast