Jason Soza Photography » Travel

Totem Pole

admin — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 16:12:32 +0000

This is an oldie, but I stumbled across it last night and remembered working on it years ago, so I thought I'd share it... again! I shot this photo at Sitka National Historical Park (a.k.a. Totem Park) in Sitka, Alaska. This park is Alaska's oldest national park, created in 1910 to commemorate the 1804 Battle of Sitka, and has dozens of totem poles and other totemic art lining its pathways. It's really a beautiful park to walk through and I'd highly recommend visiting it if you ever find yourself in Southeast Alaska. The original photo was shot on medium format film with my old Yashica-MAT LM camera, then I scanned it and added the color digitally based on the original colors on the totem, with a few artistic tweaks here and there.

Seattle, WA, September 2011

admin — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 16:00:50 +0000

Mostly Seattle, anyway! This trip was tacked on to the end of the trip to Washington, DC, and was done so for the sole purpose of taking my 80 year old grandma skydiving*. Oh, and it didn't hurt that Bumbershoot was happening around the same time and had some bands on the lineup that I really wanted to see. (You can see what I thought of that over at juneaurocks.com!) The first few photos below were taken during the drive to Portland, OR, and ultimately, Molalla, OR, home of Skydive Oregon, and the rest were taken in downtown Seattle. As you can see, it was sunny. It is hard to beat the Pacific Northwest when the sunshine hits and it warms up - these kind of days make up for so many gray, rainy days. Enjoy! * There are photos of both my grandma and me jumping and floating to earth from 13,000' in the air, but because I didn't personally take the photos, I don't want to represent that I did by posting them here. If you're dying to see them, let me know! [gallery columns="4"]

Washington, DC, August 2011

admin — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 05:24:47 +0000

If you ever have the urge to be humbled beyond words, just head to our nation's capital and take in as many memorials and monuments as you can. The scope and sheer size of them, combined with the deep meaning and everything they symbolize, will really bring into perspective everything that's been done in our country's history. This was my second trip to DC, but the first time I really got to see the sights and have any amount of time to really feel the emotions these monuments command. I need to go back. I have a feeling I could spend a week in DC and not cover everything I want to, which is a good thing because that's a pretty good excuse to keep going back, as if one is really necessary! (Also... you'll notice a photo of a veal chop below. That was taken inside Filomena Ristorante, right in Georgetown. Amazing food, amazing atmosphere, amazing amazing amazing. Did I say amazing?) [gallery columns="4"]

Outside Lands, San Francisco, CA, August 2011

admin — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 21:15:23 +0000

I attended the Outside Lands festival in San Francisco for the second time this past week. What a blast! So many great bands and TONS of people. There's a full review over at juneaurocks.com with some video and more photos. I'll let the photos do the talking here... [gallery columns="4"]

Southeast Alaska State Fair, Haines, AK, July 2011

admin — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 18:37:09 +0000

Great music, great food, great beer, and great people. What more could you ask for!? If you live in Juneau and have never been to the Southeast Alaska State Fair in Haines, you're missing out. Even if you go for just one day, you'll get it. You'll see understand why Juneau is so quiet the last weekend of every July - everybody is in Haines! This year's musical talent was amazing and of course, the weather helped. On Saturday, July 30, the busiest day of the fair, the clouds parted, the sun shined, and ev [gallery columns="4"]

New York, NY, June 2011

admin — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 03:50:44 +0000

Ah, the City That Never Sleeps. They weren’t kidding when they gave New York City that nickname! Anytime you want anything, you’re pretty much guaranteed to find it if you’re willing to look. Stamps at 10pm? No problem. Hamburger at 6am? No problem. Grasshopper tacos before a Broadway show? NO PROBLEM! (Yes, I ate grasshopper tacos before seeing The Book of Mormon. Want to try the best grasshopper tacos, accompanied by the best guacamole, washed down with the best tequila? Go to Toloache!)

The only other thing I want to say about NYC is about its people. I think they get a bad rap sometimes for appearing to be rude or uncaring. It’s not that they’re rude OR uncaring, there’s just a lot of people in NYC, which means there are a LOT of weirdos. What better way to screen people than to appear uninterested? Once you get past that defense mechanism, NYC’ers are the best. Yeah, there’s a different timing there, mostly rushed, but… it’s all worth it. I thoroughly enjoy New York City and its people every time I go.

Last thing – all of these photos were taken with a point-and-shoot Panasonic DMC-TS2 ruggedized camera. It’s awesome.

Kona, HI, January 2011

admin — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 03:39:49 +0000

I'm going to keep this short: if you've never been to Hawaii, go. All the good things you've ever heard about it are true. Here's proof. [gallery columns="4"]

Coachella @ Indio, CA, April 2010

admin — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 21:53:36 +0000

I attended this year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and WOW. People everywhere. 75,000 – 100,000 to be exact. Amazing to see 2x to 3x the population of Juneau all in one place. The people-watching opportunities were equally amazing – for example, I saw a hula-hooping unicorn, a blue man, and a panda bear. And I hadn’t even had anything to drink. Proof of the blue man can be seen below.

The weather was awesome and my burned shoulders are evidence of that. 90 degrees every day, sunshine, and a nice breeze in the evening.

There were a ton of great bands playing, but I won’t go into too much detail here. I’ve written reviews of the three days at Coachella over on the website for CTRL-ALT-Juneau, my radio show (which you should listen to if you like any of the bands that played at Coachella!). Suffice to say it was a great music festival – enjoy the photos!

Mt. Hood, OR, February 2010

admin — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 17:12:14 +0000

I just returned from a short trip to Vancouver, WA, for the sole purpose of getting some snowboard time in at Mt. Hood Meadows.

One word: AWESOME.

This was definitely one of the better personal trips I’ve taken. In fact, I was having so much fun that I didn’t want to come home. Great people, great mountain, great food, great scenery… Couldn’t have asked for more. (Well, maybe a tiny bit of fresh powder would have been nice, but I’m not complaining.)

I did manage to get a 360 degree panorama from about 7,000 feet up Mt. Hood, but it needs a little bit of massaging before I can post it. Keep an eye out for it next week!

Seattle, WA, December 2009

admin — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:26:52 +0000

December 30th, New Year’s Eve, and New Year’s 2009 were spent in Seattle, WA, wandering around and enjoying the last little bit of my holiday break before heading back home to Juneau. Seattle is an awesome place for street photography and the Public Market Center at Pike Place is always full of color, patterns, and interesting people. It was definitely a great place to punctuate 2009 and usher in 2010!