Sea Planes in Juneau

Sea planes lined up at the Wings Airways floatplane dock on the Juneau waterfront in Alaska, photographed on a clear day in June. I made this photo from the harbor side near the busy docks downtown, with the mountains rising behind the city.

What I liked here was how everyday and specific the scene felt. The planes are the clear subject, but the whole setting matters just as much: the floating dock, the bright blue waterfront building, the ferry tied up farther back, and the dark green slopes with patches of late snow still hanging on above town. June in Southeast Alaska has that mix of summer light and leftover winter, and I wanted to keep all of that in the frame instead of isolating a single aircraft.

I shot it from an angle that let the nearest plane sit in the foreground while the rest of the dock recedes into the distance. That gave the picture some rhythm without making it feel too formal. The water also does a lot of work here. It adds space on the left side of the frame and keeps the docked planes from feeling crowded. The green color in the harbor contrasts nicely with the white planes and the blue building, which helped the whole scene come together in a simple way.

I used a mid-range zoom for this because I wanted a natural perspective. Wide enough to include the dock, ferry, and mountain backdrop, but not so wide that the planes started to look stretched. For me, this photo says a lot about Juneau. Boats, floatplanes, working waterfront, and steep forested mountains all meet in one place, and that is exactly what drew me to stop and make the picture.