What exactly is an AI “credit?”

I’ve been wondering this a lot lately, as I explore more and more AI tools that charge a monthly subscription, and then tack on extra fees in the form of un-explained “credits” you need to complete tasks.

Asking questions is free, up to a point. If you ask too many, you’ll need to upgrade to a next level plan. I understand that.

But several AI websites say that if you want specific tasks completed, you’ll need to also buy credits to get them done.

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The worst offender is Perplexity, which I have found to actually be my favorite for daily usage, but the credit thing bugged me so much, I canceled my $17 monthly “pro” plan and can’t see myself ever returning. That is, unless Perplexity and others like it want to start playing it straight with consumers.

I’ve also run into “credit” issues with YouTube related AI websites like Thumbnailcreator.com and Creatorhooks Pro. More on them in a minute.

First let’s look at rates from the big three:

• OpenAI’s ChatGPT is free until you start using it too much. Then it jumps to $8 monthly for more usage and $20 for even more.

I use ChatGPT every day and once I upgraded, have never run into a nag message telling me I’d used too much and would need to upgrade.

• Google Gemini is free for asking questions, until you ask too many, then bumps up to $4.99 monthly with “2x” higher usage limits, or $19.99 for “4x” more usage. Whatever 2x and 4 means, as its not really specified.

I have the $20 plan, and like with ChatGPT, haven’t been nagged since I upgraded. I use Gemini all day too. (As part of the $20 plan, you also get 5 terabytes of storage space on Google Drive, which is a really nice bonus.)

• Claude, from Anthropic, starts at free, then goes to $17 monthly for a higher but unspecified usage rate. I have the free version, and got nagged when I asked it to create a photo rich PDF based on one of the Photowalks episodes. I got one done, but the second one stalled due to the nag.

• Which brings us to awful Perplexity, which charges $17 monthly, and gives you “4,000 free credits” to use its “computer” feature for the first month of subscription. In the second month, after you’ve barreled through your credits, you have none, and are asked to buy more. Each $1 spent gets you one credit. Whatever that means.

There’s no rate sheet telling you what a specific task costs. How many credits do I need to create the travel PDF I mentioned? Perplexity is running a Facebook ad offering to audit and optimize your YouTube channel. How many credits does that take?

Perplexity tells me the credits are needed for creating reports, slides, charts and tasks that connect apps, like Gmail and Google Sheets. But again we need some transparency, and people like you and me to cancel their subscriptions in protest until they come clean.

I use a program called Creator Hooks Pro which also has a monthly subscription, and then issues credits when you want to start diving in more.

The program compares your YouTube channel to others to help you find good titles for the video, and now, with the “Pro” version, consults with YouTube success advice with a better knowledge than a ChatGPT or Gemini, because it’s purely YouTube.

I picked up the $19 monthly plan, which has 500 credits, and I barreled through them in several days.

Luckily, Creatorhooks has a human being who responds to questions from people like me, Jake Thomas, and he was able to explain what the credits were actually for, as there is no breakdown on the website.

“Strategy questions, attaching transcripts, etc all use credits depending on how long the transcript is or much research is required to answer the question,” he said.

I suggested he post this on his website, to inform consumers about a credit means, and unlike arguing with the Perplexity computer about the credits he said he would. Thank you Jake!

With services that aren’t ChatGPT or Gemini, you can ask away, but once you start advancing to reports, image creation and things like that, you will be dinged with the cash register asking for more.

So again, if you don’t like this approach, speak up, complain, cancel. Because the AI revolution, love it or hate it, ain’t going away.

Newsbytes:

—Samsung introduced its latest round of new phones in London this week, raising list prices by $100 on several models and also making me wonder what universe Samsung execs are living on. While much of the world is grappling with cost of living issues, Samsung is releasing its most expensive phones ever. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 starts at $1,900 and climbs to $2,500 maxed out, while the Ultra model starts at $2,100 and soars to $2,700. Samsung has been making these foldable phones, which offer a larger screen in a smaller package, for several years now. In September, consumers will get to see Apple’s answer to the foldables when it releases one as well, and yes, Apple is also expected to top the $2,000 price tag as well. Good luck folks!

—Speaking of Apple, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that the company will soon announce a leasing program to seemingly lessen the monthly costs of owning iPhones and other Apple products. But don’t be fooled. You’ll still be paying top dollar, just over time, with a difference: you don’t own the product. But it could be a way to get your hands on newer devices every year less painfully.

—Remember the issues we’ve been talking about, re the higher costs of memory that has affected the price tags of Apple products, solid state and flash drives? General Motors said this week it’s been stung by them too, and that it expects North American vehicle pricing to climb about 0.5% this year due to RAM costs.

Apple Still Has Susie’s Ipad after 20 days

If you’ve been following my saga about the brand-new iPad that wouldn’t hold a charge and its return to the Apple Store, I have an update for you.

• Purchased June 11th as a gift for my neighbor Susie.

• Returned July 5th, when it wouldn’t charge past 3%.

• Sent off to the repair “depot,” with the advisory that it would be back within a few days.

As we publish on July 25, Apple still hasn’t replaced the bum unit.

This week, I called Apple Support and tried to get to the bottom of it. They told me to go to the Store and complain. Which I did.

At the Store, they refused to replace it, but offered me a free iPad case to make up for my woes. Which I didn’t need, and declined. And they told me to call Apple Support and demand a senior advisor if I wanted to get the iPad back.

I called Support and they told me to go back and talk to the Store.

Round and round it went.

I called again on Thursday. The iPad is still at the repair depot.

I’ve tried asking every variation of the question, “How long will you keep it in repair and out of the consumer’s hands before giving up” and replacing it?

The answer: there is no answer. Apple reps couldn’t name a time frame.

Does Apple state a date in its listed policies online?

Not that I’ve been able to find out.

ChatGPT phrases the question like this: "Can you show me the Apple policy that states how long a customer should reasonably wait for warranty repair of a nearly new iPad before Apple authorizes replacement?"

Again, there’s no answer.

Imagine if this had been an iPhone which didn’t hold a charge and Apple took your communication device away from you for two and a half weeks.

At this point, I just want to remind readers again that the Apple Store is not where you should be buying iPads. The return policy for all Apple products is 14 days. Once those days have passed, you get sent to the dreaded repair Depot.

Target and Best Buy also have 14-day return policies. B and H Photo in New York has a 30-day return policy for iPads. Costco has a 90 day return policy.

Obviously you have better choices for your purchase dollar.

I’ll let you know if Apple ever does indeed return the iPad to the paying customer.

The Sights and Sounds of Summer

If you happen to be by the beach these days, you might want to take a moment, find a Pier and lean over to watch the ocean waves come in and out. Nothing screams summer like crashing waves and the sounds of kids having a ball. (I shot the above clip by standing over the Hermosa Beach Pier with an iPhone, and holding the camera steady for 15 seconds.)

Thanks as always for taking the time to read, watch and listen. Take a moment this week to find a sunset—even if it’s on a street corner instead of the beach. It’s still one of the greatest free light shows in the world.

If you enjoyed today’s edition, please pass it on and share it with a friend!

Jeff

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I was born in the “River City,” eons ago, but know very little about it, as my parents packed up and left after 3 months, as my father accepted a new job in Binghamton, NY.

I can tell you that it’s in Southern Indiana, right on the border of the state with Kentucky and so close that locals call it Kentuckiana. And I’ve since learned that about a million people live in the area, once you factor in Evansville, Kentucky and nearby Illinois. The population of Evansville itself is just over 100,000 and has been flat or declining for years.

The pictures of our life back then are few—nothing from the house we lived in, me playing in the yard, or even young Jeff with his parents at the hospital. So how do you get an episode made that weaves some of that personal history in without images?

Well, I am associated with the three months in the Hoosier city every day—at least on Facebook.

I’ve always talked about going back, but the opportunity never arose until this year, and I owe it all to my good friends at Best Western.

The hotel chain, which sponsors Photowalks, called me in January to say that its hoteliers in upper Indiana wanted me to come and do an episode about the backroads of northern Hoosier Country.

“And as long as you’re there, why don’t you continue and do something on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail,” said my rep, Bryan.

I was happy—make that thrilled—to oblige, and we talked the route. Since I would be in Indiana, I also wanted to go to Indianapolis, where my parents were born and bred, and where they lived before taking off for Evansville.

And naturally, I told them, I had to go Evansville as well.

“But we don’t have any hotels there,” I was told.

I didn’t care. Just add a day to the itinerary, and I’d stay at a Days Inn or something comparable while in Evansville.

So now we had a route: Valparaiso to Goshen, Indiana, to Indianapolis, then French Lick and Evansville, followed by Louisville and three small towns in Kentucky: Bardstown, Elizabethtown and Lawrenceburg, over two weeks.

I made plane arrangements to fly to Chicago (bad move) and drive the rental car to Valparaiso. The reason this made no sense, is I would hit the ground running in Valparaiso the next morning and the idea was to spend the night in Chicago, get some rest, and then head out. But I landed at 4 p.m., and got stuck driving into Chicago for about an hour. I could have just driven straight to the location that night.

(Also, I rented the car from Costco, FYI, where rates are a good $100 to $150 cheaper than by going through Expedia.)

Back to Evansville. This episode required some planning. First of all, I wanted to locate the key places my parents might have haunted back during the 1950s.

Start here: What was the address of the house we lived in?

My 89-year-old mother Judy had no idea. She couldn’t even remember what the house looked like, and the only detail that rang a bell was what happened at my briss. (This is the Jewish circumcision ceremony.) Once they made the snip, a mouse went running across the living room floor and everybody screamed. At least that’s her story and the only one she recalls.

So how to find the address?

Do a search for Graham family Evansville on Google and hope something pops up? That obviously wouldn’t work. Try to find old copies of the Evansville Courier from 1956 and see if there was a birth announcement perhaps? Maybe, but not from my computer screen in Los Angeles.

Going through the family archive of memorabilia I’ve held onto, I was able to locate telegrams (remember those?) sent to my parents when I was born. One of them was addressed to our Evansville home on Walnut Street with an actual street address, while the other was sent to St. Mary’s Hospital, where I was born.

Success!

I knew my (late) dad worked at one of the 3 TV stations (now 5) in Evansville, but which one? I looked through the photos in my archive, but none identified the station. Most were taken at the next station he worked at, in Binghamton, NY.

Luckily, I had done a few interviews with him about these days, and could play them back, and learn that the Evansville station was WFIE—which still exists today.

So now I knew I would visit the hospital, station and old house, while also doing the traditional Evansville photowalk, showing people the best photo spots and what to explore.

I still didn’t have any family photos from this time, but I’d make it work.

I reached out to Explore Evansville, the local tourism organization, to explain what I wanted to do in this episode, and seek any guidance on locations, but it took two weeks to get a response.

Finally, I got a call from the rep, a lovely woman named Kate, who agreed to meet me in the heart of the downtown district for a walk and talk segment in the video. It was set for Monday, June 1.

However, in the lead up to our date, I sent several confirmation e-mails to her, but never heard back.

When I arrived to town, resigned to not meeting up with her, I got a call at 9:15 from a man named Collin, who explained that Kate was no longer with the company, and he had replaced her. He had time to meet with me, however, so I dashed over to the offices, and Collin, a photographer himself, did a great job suggesting great places to photograph.

It all started with “Self-E” alley, a play on the E from Evansville, which was right around the corner. I started there, with the fantastic “Greetings from Evansville,” mural, and got busy filming my open and close segments of the show.

At this point, it was raining, but not so heavy that I couldn’t film. Remember that modern phones are water resistant, so no problem there with the iPhone 17 Pro Max, but I’ve had my wireless mics ruined by water, so I’m always a little wary of situations like this.

Once it stopped raining, I experimented with lighting, as the natural light was producing a heavy shadow under my eyes. I used a little Amaran ACE LED light that happens to be very strong, but a little too much light and it can overpower the situation. I opted for a 20% hue.

I dashed over the hospital next, where the overcast lighting was perfect for my little standups in front of St. Mary’s. I ended up returning later because I wanted to add something to my stand-up, and by now, the sun had come out, and I couldn’t stand in front of the hospital, because the sun was too intense, so I had to do the standup from the side of the building in the shade.

I had a blast walking through the historic downtown district and picking up stills and B-rolls of the old buildings, and stopped for lunch at Bru, the burger joint in an old Greyhound bus station.

Knowing that I’m going to set up my camera in the booth and talk to the camera, how do I go about this? I look for a place that hopefully won’t have people behind me that I’d pick up on camera. I have my handy-dandy Insta360 Selfie Stick, which doubles as a table top tripod, which very conveniently sits atop the table, and is perfect for shots like this. I use the Selfie camera in video mode, so I can see the shot, something I couldn’t do on previous editions of the iPhone. But the iPhone 17 Pro has the new and improved Selfie camera with a wider view and higher resolution, so this footage is usable in a professional video, unlike previous models.

I went over to Walnut Lane, home to our old family house for the next shot, and frankly, the neighborhood had seen better days. The homes looked rather run down—and I wasn’t sure how long I had to record a stand-up in front of the house before people would come out and yell at me.

If I showed up in front of your house, set up the tripod and started doing a stand-up, how would you feel?

So I acted quick. I set up my tripod and composed my shot, putting the lens at .5 for ultra-wide angle. I pretty much know that if the camera is eye-level with me, I can look direct into the lens of the back camera and be in the frame. (This is a better shot than the Selfie camera, as it’s wider and we’d see more of the house.) I spit out the “I used to live here,” rap in about 20 seconds, turned off the camera and put it back into the car.

Luckily, there were no issues—no guns in my face or harsh words.

From Walnut Lane I went to the edge of town to check out this cool, historic bridge I had heard about. I had Apple Maps direct me, found a spot on the side of the road to park, and went to investigate, looking for angles to photograph the Ohio Street Bridge and walk across her.

I used the Apple Camera app timelapse feature, starting it at the edge of the bridge, and walking slowly across it, for what is basically a speedy stroll shot.

I focused my eye on the Level on the iPhone screen and tried to keep it as steady as possible as I walked, but that’s really hard on a shot like this. We bounce as we walk. I used the shot in the video, but gosh, I wish it was steadier. (The camera was on the selfie stick.)

I loved every minute of my time in Evansville, and had planned to stay the night, but I had a 10 a.m. interview set for the next morning in Louisville. I had originally planned to just take off at 6 or 7 a.m. and drive there, but made an executive decision. I would instead get the drive over with at night for the two hour drive. I left around 7 p.m., and ended up in Louisville at 10:30.

Huh?

Travel tales: turns out there is a time zone difference between the two cities, which I hadn’t counted on. Had I left in the morning, I would have been an hour late for the interview.

So that’s Evansville in 24 hours, on a tight schedule, running from town to town. Did you enjoy this behind the scenes story? Let me know. I’d love to hear from you.

I’m fascinated by the River City for a simple reason: I was born there eons ago—but only lived there for three months. So in June, I finally took the opportunity to go home again and see the town through my Photowalks eyes. With camera in hand, I set out to explore Evansville the way I know best: on foot, one photo at a time.

This itinerary follows the route I took for the Photowalks episode, with plenty of great photo opportunities along the way. If you end up in Evansville, bookmark this for a cheat sheet about what to see and photograph.

Evansville sits on a bend of the Ohio River in southern Indiana, close enough to Kentucky that locals have their own name for the area: Kentuckiana. During the 1800s it was one of the busiest river ports in the Midwest, and the wealth generated by steamboat traffic is still evident in the handsome brick buildings that line Main Street today.

Stop 1: Snap a Photo at the “Greetings from Evansville” Mural

Kick off your morning at the vibrant Greetings from Evansville mural.

Address: 318 Main Street, Evansville, IN 47708

Inspired by the colorful postcards of the 1930s and ‘40s, this massive artwork doubles as a visual checklist for the city’s iconic landmarks. Each letter represents a piece of local pride—from Bosse Field and the Old Courthouse to the local zoo and seasonal festivals.

Stop 2: Stroll the Main Street Historic District

From the mural, head down to Main and Third Streets to begin an architectural photo walk.

Evansville’s history as a booming 19th-century river port means the streets are lined with beautifully preserved brick facades. Continue toward First Street, where you’ll find authentic cobblestone blocks and elegant Victorian homes that have survived for well over a century.

It’s an easy, enjoyable walk that immediately gives you a sense of the city’s history

Stop 3: Marvel at the Old Courthouse

Old Vanderburgh County Courthouse
201 NW Fourth Street, Evansville, IN 47708

Just off Main Street stands one of Evansville’s architectural gems.

Spend a few minutes admiring the courthouse’s magnificent dome, which dominates the downtown skyline and photographs beautifully from almost every angle. (Today the courthouse is available as an event space,

Stop 4: Walk the Riverfront

Riverfront Plaza
Riverside Drive, Evansville, IN 47708

Conclude your morning with a stroll along the Ohio River.

Evansville proudly calls itself the “River City,” and this scenic mile-long promenade offers sweeping views across the water into Kentucky. It’s peaceful, photogenic and a reminder of how important the river was in shaping the city’s history.

Stop 5: Lunch at Bru Burger Bar

Bru Burger Bar
222 Sycamore Street
Evansville, IN 47708

When hunger strikes, head to one of Evansville’s coolest adaptive reuse projects.

Bru Burger occupies the beautifully restored former Greyhound Bus Terminal, preserving much of the building’s mid-century character while serving what’s said to be excellent burgers.

Because of that, I skipped the usual Grilled Cheese and got a Patty Melt instead. The fries were incredibly salty, but I complained, and got a new order, salt free, that was just right.

Afternoon: Hollywood History and Ice Cream

Stop 6: Step Back in Time at Bosse Field

Bosse Field
23 Don Mattingly Way
Evansville, IN 47711

https://www.evansvilleotters.com

After lunch, make the short drive to Bosse Field.

Opened in 1915, it’s the third-oldest professional baseball stadium in America after Fenway Park and Wrigley Field. If it looks familiar, that’s because it appeared prominently in A League of Their Own.

Even if there’s no game, it’s worth stopping by to appreciate one of baseball’s great historic parks.

Stop 7: Grab a Retro Ice Cream Cone

Option One: Zesto

102 W. Franklin Street
Evansville, IN 47710

https://www.zestoonfranklin.com

Founded in 1949, Zesto remains one of Evansville’s classic roadside ice cream stands. Order a soft-serve cone with the famous Twinkle Kote topping. (And what’s that, you ask? Try a mixture of crushed peanuts (often shaped as a peanut brittle-style crunch) combined with rainbow or chocolate sprinkles. )

I also loved the Big Top Drive-In, another Evansville institution since the 1940s, if for nothing else than its classic sign.

Big Top Drive-In

1213 W. Maryland Street
Evansville, IN 47710

https://bigtopdrivein.com

My Personal Memory Lane

The second half of my visit became much more personal.

I stopped at Ascension St. Vincent Evansville—formerly St. Mary’s Hospital—where I was born. Yup, still standing after all these years.

3700 Washington Avenue
Evansville, IN 47750

https://healthcare.ascension.org/locations/indiana/ineva/evansville-ascension-st-vincent-evansville

Then I drove to the house on Walnut Lane where my family lived during my first three months of life.

While I obviously don’t remember living there, standing in front of that house was surprisingly emotional. I found it.

How many people can honestly say the very first home they ever lived in is still alive and well?

A Visit to My Father’s Old TV Station

My father--then known as Jerry Granowsky--moved to Evansville with his then 19-year-old wife Judy from Indianapolis after accepting a job at WFIE-TV.

1115 Mt. Auburn Road
Evansville, IN 47720

https://www.14news.com

It was his first opportunity to move from cameraman to on-air television personality.

Years later, I discovered recordings of him talking about those early days. He hosted cowboy shows, introduced movies, and often had to fill thirty minutes of airtime simply by talking into the camera.

He always said Evansville taught him how to think on his feet. Eventually he became a radio executive in New York before returning to television in San Francisco with the travel series Bay Area Backroads.

Looking back, it’s pretty obvious where I inherited my love of travel television.

The station is still there. I wish I’d asked if I could come inside.

One Last Surprise

It was in Evansville that our family became the Grahams.

When my father arrived at WFIE, management told him that Granowsky would be too difficult for viewers to pronounce.

“How about Graham?” his boss suggested.

My father agreed.

Just like that, Jeffrey Alan Granowsky became Jeffrey Alan Graham.

Years later, when I began my journalism career, I decided “Jeff Graham” sounded a little too ordinary for a newspaper byline. So I expanded it to Jefferson Graham.

Don’t you think it has a better ring?

Meanwhile, all year long, people kept asking how I planned to celebrate my birthday. They didn’t believe me when I said I’d be celebrating by going home to Indiana.

As it turned out, Photowalks sponsor Best Western had sent me on a Midwest road trip that began in northern Indiana, continued through Indianapolis and French Lick, and ended in Louisville and the Bourbon Trail. Evansville wasn’t originally on the itinerary.

But how could I pass within an hour of the city where my life began and not stop?

I’m glad I did and I sure can’t wait to come back!

(FYI: The Graham family also has a rich history in Indianapolis, which I will be exploring on an upcoming episode of Photowalks, coming soon.)

We’ve got a “very special episode” of Photowalks all cued up for your viewing enjoyment today. This week, we visit Evansville, Indiana, the third largest city in the Hoosier State, and home for the first three months of my life.

My parents decided to move shortly after I was born, and I was never able to go back and visit—until recently. This time, with my Photowalks eyes, as I explored what’s turned out to be one of the more historic cities of the midwest, and a place where believe it or not, the home we lived in still stands, as does the first thing I ever saw with my eyes—St. Mary’s Hospital. Plus, cool victorians, a burger joint in a reconverted Greyhound station, wonderful bridges and lots of great Hoosier spirit.

As always, the episode was filmed on an iPhone 17 Pro Max, with able assist in the cornfields of Indiana with a DJI Mini 4 Pro drone and Rode Wireless Micro microphones.

Special thanks to my brother Jez Graham, who was born a few years later in Binghamton, New York, for his rendition of (Back Home Again) in Indiana on the piano, along with some great original compositions.

Apple has opened up its beta of the iOS software for iPhones, offering a nice early demo of the new features which will be available not only for the next iPhone, but previous editions back to the iPhone 11 Pro as well.

I’ve been using iOS27 (which will be officially released in September) this week, and let me fill you in on some of my favorite highlights for shutterbugs:

—Two new editing features have been added to the Camera app, called Reframe and Extend, which let you alter the photo with AI tools. Which is either a good thing or a bad thing, depending upon your point of view.

—The Siri digital assistant has been added to the Camera app for visual search, to ask for information about food, flowers, historical buildings and other things. Somebody at Apple obviously thought this was a good idea, but as a camera person who scrolls between photo and video in the app all the time, do I really want to see Siri listed there as I make way up the dial to Pano for wide screen photos. (No!)

—If you screen record (and I do this a lot) direct from the phone, you can now have audio added to your video screen recording. For instance, I recorded a portion of a YouTube video, and for the first time I could watch and hear it. I love this! Isn’t that a copyright violation? Not if people don’t distribute the video.

—For the first time, you can have Apple create a photo still shot from your video frame, which is also huge. In the past, getting frame grabs from a video has been a lot of steps resulting in a low-resolution image. I’ve had to create a screen shot, and crop it heavily to take out the extra screen stuff beyond the photo.

—The layout of the Camera app has moved some things around, putting tools in new places, and using new indicators to make it easier for us to grab a hold of them.

—iOS27 has a dedicated Siri AI app, which touts a smarter, chattier, more responsive personal assistant. (You need an iPhone 15 Pro or newer model to be able to use it.) In my chats with the app this week, yes indeed, Siri seemed to be way smarter, and you could certainly have a rolling conversation with the robot, without having to say “Hey, Siri,” every time you posed a question. But it still got some things wrong, and seems to be more of a work in progress than some of the other features.

Speaking of which, let’s dive into those two new, heavily advertised photo tools in the Camera app.

Extend

Open the Camera app, click tools, and you’ll see three categories: Clean Up (which we’ve already had on later iPhones, used to erase objects you don’t want from a photo) Extend and Reframe. Extend lets you stretch the sides of the photo to add more, as you can see below. This is pretty cool stuff, especially for those who take vertical photos that might want to be repositioned as a horizontal image one day.

What’s amazing is that Apple’s AI was able to take the information and add the red umbrellas from Cafe Bonaparte in Hermosa Beach, California so perfectly.

Reframe

If you don’t like the way your subjects are positioned in the photo, you can put your fingers on the iPhone screen and move them, as I did with this selfie at the Good Stuff restaurant in Hermosa Beach, with owner Cris Bennett.

This feature will take more getting used to than the others, and a lot of trial and error. The above photo worked out pretty well, but the others I tried just basically turned the subject slightly, instead of moving them, as you can see below.

See how Hermosa realtor Lenny LaRocca’s body shifted slightly? I wasn’t able to pinch and move him to the right or left, as promised from the feature.

Other new things to look out for:

• A new visual look to the power off screen

• The iPhone clock can now be fine-tuned to the name of the city you might actually live in. For as far as I can remember, this Southern California resident has been associated with Cupertino in NorCal for Pacific Time. Now I get to choose L.A.

• If you phone someone on their birthday, balloons will fly on the screen, as they do in a text message.

• The two most important hidden tools in the Settings app—the ability to turn on the Grid and Level for better composition, are now also featured in the multi-dot menu of the Camera app in the Video and Photo sections. This is the one that also spotlights flash, the amount of blur you want in a Portrait photo, Live photos, Timer, Exposure adjustment, Styles, Aspect Ratio choice, Night Mode and whether you want to take the photo in JPG or the smaller size HEIC format. They are hidden underneath all the others, but at least you don’t have to only go to Settings to turn them on.

How to Download the iOS 27 Public Beta

For years, I’ve always recommended to download the new iOS in the summer if you don’t mind dealing with bugs, or if nothing else, try it on a second phone.

This year, so far, no bugs, no wishing I could go backwards.

Apple recommends you do a backup of your phone first to iCloud or your computer. To download, visit Apple’s Beta Software Program and sign in with your Apple Account.

1. On your iPhone, go to Settings > General > Software Update.

2. Tap Beta Updates.

3. Select iOS 27 Public Beta.

4. Return to Software Update, tap Download and Install, and follow the prompts

In other news: More on Susie’s iPad

Remember my post from the other day about the 4 week old iPad that turned out to be a lemon and how the Apple Store wouldn’t replace it with a new unit?

I have an update.

To recap: I bought the entry level iPad for my neighbor as a gift, only to learn that after 4 weeks it wouldn’t hold a charge. We brought it into the Apple Store to return it, where it was confirmed that it indeed wouldn’t charge. But instead of swapping it for a working replacement, the associate told us he had to send it to Apple repair for a diagnostic to confirm the issue and to fix it. He said Susie would have it back within a week.

We were both livid. Imagine this happening with other defective products that were under warranty?

It gets worse: After five days with the iPad, Apple wrote to Susie and said it needed more time to diagnose the problem. We brought the unit in on Sunday, they received it on Tuesday, and by Thursday they couldn’t figure out what the issue was. (I’ll make it easy for them: it won’t charge.)

Apple has a 14 day return policy. The point of the post was to inform readers that perhaps they don’t want to buy iPads at Apple Stores, as poor Susie is without the unit that I bought for her. I recommended Costco, as they have a 90 day return policy.

Our friends at B&H Photo in New York saw the post, and wanted us to remind readers that not all stores react like the Apple Store. “B&H has a 30-day return on iPads. If defective or if the customer simply decides not to keep it. If defective, B&H pays the shipping return.”

Link to buy from B&H

From one promo to another: shopping for tech gear? Be sure to check out our page at the B&H website.

Fine print: we get a small commission if you do purchase.

For the longest time, I’ve refrained from taking early morning photos of the Manhattan Beach Pier because, well, I’ve done it so many times. But hey, it’s summer. Leaving the house at 5:30 a.m. and going down to the beach (I live a mile away) in July is such a treat—we’ve had low tide all week in the morning. So yeah, can’t help myself. And I’ll probably do it again on Monday too—but perhaps with another angle!

On that note, thanks as always for taking the time to watch, read and listen. If you enjoyed today’s newsletter, please share it with a friend. And look for another one for me tomorrow, about a really special Sunday episode of Photowalks, where I go home again!

Jeff

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Now that you’ve watched the latest Photowalks episode, in beautiful Juneau, Alaska, as promised, I have the written companion for you, with more info, links and photos. How to best navigate an Alaskan adventure? I’ve got some ideas for you here.

Start here: most visitors arrive by cruise ship, sailing north from Seattle or Vancouver through Alaska’s spectacular Inside Passage, with stops in Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan, Sitka and other coastal towns. It’s an effortless way to experience Alaska. Your hotel moves with you, meals are included, unpacking happens just once, and every morning brings another incredible destination.

But there’s a trade-off.

You’re on the ship’s schedule—not your own.

The average cruise passenger spends only about five hours exploring Juneau before it’s time to head back aboard. That’s enough time to stroll historic Franklin Street, browse a few souvenir shops, grab lunch and perhaps squeeze in a whale watch or bus ride to the stunning Mendenhall Glacier. It’s a nice introduction.

But come on, you came all the way to one of the most beautiful cities in the world, the capital of Alaska and only spent five hours there?

That’s not how I’d want to do it.

During two episodes of Photowalks TV, my wife Ruth and I spent several days exploring Juneau beyond the cruise crowds. We flew from LAX to Juneau (with a stop in Seattle), rented a car and explored. We discovered historic neighborhoods, flew over glaciers in a floatplane, landed on an icefield by helicopter, searched for humpback whales, photographed bears along a lonely road, hiked through the Tongass National Forest and found restaurants we’d happily visit again.

This guide follows that same journey.

Gear!

Did I pack the big cameras for the Alaskan adventure? I did not. Since I’m such a proponent of mobile photography, I just brought three iPhones with me. Did I miss the Sony RX10IV when I encounted the young bear munching on dandelions on “the other road.” I did indeed. But with the iPhone 17 Pro’s 8X telephoto did just fine. That was the only situation where I said to myself, “Gee. I wish I had the big camera.” The rest of the time was landscape shots, peering out the window of a helicopter and float plane, meeting people on Franklin Street, and a big camera would not have made a big difference.

Plus, my bag was way lighter and my back appreciated not having to drag a heavy camera.

I also packed a drone (which I could only use on the “other road” far from town, because we were always too close to the airport), Selfie Stick, Rode Wireless Micro microphones, lots of cables, chargers, power banks and a tripod.

LISTEN TO PODCAST!

Why Juneau Is So Different

Juneau has one distinction no other American capital can claim: you can’t drive to get there.

There are no highways connecting Juneau to the rest of Alaska or Canada. Every visitor arrives by airplane or boat.

Despite that isolation, Juneau is Alaska’s capital, most visited city in the state and one of the busiest ports in the Inside Passage. During the summer season, as many as 16,000 cruise passengers can arrive in a single day—remarkable for a city whose year-round population is just over 30,000.

How Many Days Do You Need?

Five Hours (Cruise Stop)

You’ll have enough time for:

• Franklin Street

• Whale statue at Overstreet Park

• Lunch

• Shopping

or

• Mendenhall Glacier and Nugget Falls hike

• Return to ship

Trying to do both is pretty unheard of.

Two Days

Now we’re talking.

With two full days you can comfortably add:

• Historic downtown

• Whale watching

• Mendenhall Glacier/Nugget Falls

• Great restaurants

Three Days (My Recommendation)

Three days gives you time for Juneau’s signature experiences:

• Floatplane to Taku Glacier Lodge

• Helicopter glacier landing

• Whale watching

• Rainforest hiking

• Spending time Downtown and meeting locals. (You can save money and just do this bullet—that was my most memorable.)

Where We Stayed

Aviator Suites

www.aviatorsuiteshoteljuneau.com

If you’re flying into Juneau, this may be the most convenient hotel in town.

It’s directly across from the airport—you can literally walk there in a few minutes—but unlike most airport hotels, it’s surrounded by forest trails and mountain scenery.

Early morning flight? Late-night arrival? Great location.

Also Recommended

Best Western Grandma’s Feather Bed

2358 Mendenhall Loop Road

https://www.bestwestern.com

One of Juneau’s most popular locally operated hotels is a log cabin in the woods. We would have stayed there (Best Western sponsors Photowalks after all,) but it was sold out. Important to note: accomodations in the key months of June and July aren’t easy to come by. Book ahead.

Day One: Historic Downtown Juneau

If you’re arriving on a cruise ship, this is where your adventure begins.

Most ships dock within walking distance of Franklin Street, Juneau’s historic main street and the heart of downtown. At the bottom of the street is the huge Taku store (550 S. Franklin Street, Juneau, AK 99801,) where you can see local fish catches processed, buy souvenirs or catch a bite at the Twisted Fish Company restaurant next door.

From here, you can start your Franklin Street walk, where you will find an enormous number of high end jewelry stores. Keep walking, and you’ll start to also encounter mom and pop shops selling local goods and the infamous Red Dog Saloon (278 S. Franklin Street.).

Originally established during Juneau’s gold mining era, the saloon became a gathering place for miners, prospectors and travelers. Today, the Red Dog is exactly what visitors hope an old Alaska saloon will be, with swinging wooden doors, sawdust-covered floors and walls covered with taxidermy, mining memorabilia, antique firearms and old photographs.

The menu leans toward hearty Alaska pub fare, including burgers, sandwiches, seafood and chowder, along with Alaska craft beers and cocktails. You may not want to eat there, but you’ll want to see go in and take a peek.

As you continue up the street, historic brick buildings climb the hillside beneath towering mountains, colorful storefronts line the sidewalks and floatplanes buzz overhead every few minutes and as you look up, notice that staircases that go up seemingly forever. Down on the ground, you’ll find local gift shops, galleries, coffee shops and lots of Alaska-made products.

In the episode, we introduced you to Jonathan Swinton, a local photographer who exhibits his work at the Juneau Artists Gallery (175 S. Franklin Street.) Jonathan took us to his favorite photo spot in Juneau—the haunting ruins of the Treadwell Gold Mine on Douglas Island—and explained the 19th-century photographic printing process that gives his images their distinctive deep-blue appearance, called cyanotypes.

Breakfast or lunch at The Rookery Café

111 Seward Street (Right off Franklin)

If you ask locals where to eat breakfast or lunch one answer comes up repeatedly:

The Rookery.

There’s usually a wait, but trust us, It’s worth it. We actually ate here three times while filming because we enjoyed it that much. (Ruth said off camera that if she had her choice, she’d eat there every day.)

Their fluffy scrambled eggs, roasted potatoes and excellent coffee make this one of Juneau’s standout breakfast spots.

Alaska State Capitol

Address: 120 Fourth Street, Juneau, AK 99801

Admission: Free

Right up the street from the Rookery is a capital building unlike any other you might expect to see–minus the huge dome that you usually see in capital buildings.

The Alaska State Capitol is surprisingly modest—a four-story granite building completed in 1931 when Alaska was still a U.S. territory. Inside are the offices of the governor, lieutenant governor and state legislators, along with historical displays and artwork celebrating Alaska’s Native cultures, wildlife and landscapes–and those are cool to see. If you take one of the free tours of the building, you’ll pick up a lot of interesting history about the 49th state.

Sealaska Heritage Institute & Walter Soboleff Building

Address: 105 S. Seward Street

Just down the street from the capital and Rookery is this little museum. If you really want to understand Southeast Alaska—not just admire its scenery—this is a great place to begin.

The Sealaska Heritage Institute is dedicated to preserving and sharing the cultures of the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian peoples, whose history in Southeast Alaska stretches back thousands of years.

Unlike many museums that focus primarily on the past, the Sealaska Heritage Institute emphasizes that Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures are vibrant and thriving today. Visitors can learn about traditional carving, weaving, storytelling, language preservation and contemporary Native art, offering a deeper appreciation for the cultural heritage you’ll encounter throughout Juneau.

Overstreet Park & the Giant Whale Statue

Address: 301 Egan Drive, Juneau, AK 99801

As you leave the Sealaska Museum, you cross the street to the waterfront, and continue walking, in the same direction as you head to Overstreet Park and the huge whale statue, an image you’ll see on every postcard. It’s about a 15-minute walk–if you don’t want to stroll, you can always take public transportation.

Located just east of the downtown cruise docks, the sculpture honors the humpbacks that migrate to Southeast Alaska every summer to feed in the rich waters of the Inside Passage.

Make sure to stick around long enough to see the water from the fountain turned of, which makes for a more pleasing photo.

Speaking of photos, my favorite images from Juneau are directly behind the whale–namely those colorful, giant totem poles.

Day Two: Gold Rush History, Floatplanes and Glaciers

Stop 1: Treadwell Mine Historic Trail

Address: Sandy Beach Recreation Area, Douglas, AK 99824

Only a five-minute drive from downtown, you’ll find one of Juneau’s most fascinating historic sites—and one that surprisingly few cruise passengers ever see.

The Treadwell Mine was once the largest gold mine in the world. Beginning in the 1880s, more than 2,000 workers extracted over three million ounces of gold here. At its peak, this wasn’t simply a mine—it was an entire company town complete with homes, schools, stores and churches. That is, until 1917, when the mine collapsed into the water.

Today, all that’s left are haunting concrete foundations, rusting machinery and enormous walls slowly being reclaimed by the forest.

Rather than feeling abandoned, this is one of the great walks, and photo expeditions. Highly recommended.

Wings Airways Floatplane Adventure

Address: 2 Marine Way, Juneau, AK 99801

Approximate Cost: $450–550 per person

If you have the time and can swing it financially, a floatplane adventure should be on your radar. Sign up to soar over the waters and see five different glaciers from up in the skies, and then land at a remote island where a BBQ feast awaits you. How cool does that sound? You will end up at…

Taku Glacier Lodge

Built more than a century ago, Taku Glacier Lodge feels wonderfully unchanged and the setting alone is worth the trip. Guests are given about two hours to explore before flying back to Juneau.

Part of that time will be feasting on:

• Wild Alaska salmon

• Fresh sourdough bread

• Homemade baked beans

• Reindeer sausage

• Cooked apples

• Peach-cinnamon scones

Now that you’ve seen the glacier from above, when you return to Juneau, hop in the car and take a drive to the city’s no. 1 tourist spot, the only glacier you can drive over to.

Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center

6000 Glacier Spur Road
Distance from downtown: 13 miles (20–25 minutes)

The Mendenhall Glacier stretches roughly 13 miles from the Juneau Icefield into Mendenhall Lake, creating one of the easiest glaciers in Alaska to experience.

Unlike many glaciers that require long hikes or expensive flights, Mendenhall is accessible by road, making it one of Southeast Alaska’s most popular attractions.

If you’re arriving by cruise ship, dozens of buses make the trip throughout the day. Independent travelers can drive, take a taxi, rideshare or use seasonal shuttle services.

Before heading outside, spend a few minutes inside the visitor center.

The large viewing windows provide your first panoramic look at the glacier, and spotting scopes let you study details that are impossible to see with the naked eye. We also appreciated the short film documenting how dramatically Mendenhall has changed over the past several decades. Since the 1980s, the glacier has retreated roughly a mile—a sobering reminder that this landscape is constantly evolving.

Nugget Falls Trail

The paved trail to Nugget Falls may be the easiest great hike in Alaska, one with an incredible payoff.

As you walk beside Mendenhall Lake, the glacier slowly grows larger with every step until finally you reach one of the most spectacular waterfalls in the state. Nugget Falls plunges nearly 380 feet beside the glacier into the lake below. It’s pretty spectacular.

Worth the Splurge?

Coastal Helicopters Glacier Landing

Address: 8407 Airport Boulevard, Juneau, AK 99801

Typical Price: Around $400–500 per person

Here’s another way to see the glaciers, by landing on one.

Within minutes of leaving Juneau, our helicopter crossed snow-covered peaks before touching down on Herbert Glacier, a vast landscape of blue ice, meltwater streams and sculpted ridges.

Standing there felt like stepping onto another planet. Our pilot explained in the episode that while glaciers can sometimes be reached on foot after hours—or days—of climbing, helicopters make this extraordinary landscape accessible in just fifteen minutes.

The Drive Locals Simply Call “Out the Road”

One of my favorite discoveries in Juneau wasn’t a famous attraction, it was “out the road,” officially called Glacier Highway, but everyone knows exactly what you’re talking about when you say you’re driving “out the road.”

Starting in downtown Juneau, the highway winds north for roughly forty-five miles before ending abruptly at a simple sign. We took the drive because we were told we might see wildlife out there, and our friend wasn’t kidding. We did see several black bears at the side of the road, with one munching on dandelions besides the shoulder.

Another wandered into the woods moments after we arrived.

Photowalks TV Episodes

Watch the companion videos:

• Part 1: Juneau, Alaska: What Cruise Passengers Never See

• Part 2: Juneau Beyond the Cruise Ship: Glaciers, Whales & Bears (Debuting 9/13/26)

For more travel inspiration, smartphone photography tips, and behind-the-scenes stories from the road, visit PhotowalksTV.com and subscribe to the free weekly newsletter.

I purchased a new iPad four weeks ago as a gift for my neighbor from our local Apple Store, and for the first time ever in buying Apple products, we got a lemon.

The unit, our neighbor Susie said, wouldn’t charge. Upon inspection, she wasn’t kidding. We tried different cables and charging bricks, and the prognosis was the same: it was stuck at 1%, and wouldn’t go any higher.

So we brought it back to the Apple Store for a replacement. But that’s not what they offered.

The reveal of the lemon didn’t happen in the first 2 weeks, which is what Apple offers—a 14-day return policy and a one-year-warranty. Had we purchased the unit at Costco, with its liberal 90 day return policy, she probably would have a replacement today. But on returns, Apple thinks differently.

Read on.

Let me start by saying that Apple has the best tech support in the business. If you have a problem, you can always get a human on the phone, at 1 (800) 275-2273.

Try getting Google, Facebook to talk to you. With Amazon it can be done, but there’s a lot of digging that has to happen first. This service is pretty hidden.

Apple is a regular presence in the major cities with Apple Stores, so going in for answers is easy.

Returns, however, are a different story.

You can’t just waltz in, tell the clerk you’re there to return a product and see results.

You need to call the above number, tell the associate the problem, and have them make an appointment for you to visit the “Genius Bar” at the Apple Store.

I did just that Saturday morning, and got an appointment for Sunday at 1:45.

Susie and I went over, and were kept waiting until 2:15.

The associate quickly confirmed that it wouldn’t charge, but said he had to reset the unit with updated software and do a diagnostic.

About 30 minutes later, the results were the same. It still wouldn’t charge.

But the answer you would expect to hear—”Let me get you a new one,” never left his lips.

Instead he said he had to send it to Apple repair for another diagnostic and for it to be determined whether it could be fixed or not. If it couldn’t, it would then give Susie a new, working model. After about a week without access to the product that I purchased—luckily before Apple jacked up its rates in response to the rising cost of memory chips.

I’ve never had the experience of trying to return an iPhone, MacBook or other product to the Apple Store outside of the 14-day window, so perhaps they would respond the same, by insisting on fixing it instead of replacing it, who knows?

What about Apple Care, the monthly insurance program Apple offers? For $4.99 monthly, the Apple Care for the iPad promises “to ship you a replacement so you don’t have to wait for a repair,” which sounds like more of a bad thing.

Again, I’ve never had a lemon in all these years of buying and using Apple products, so this is a new experience.

So yes, a little rant, but also news you can use: I’ve returned several Apple products to Costco with no questions asked. So not only are tech products generally slightly cheaper at Costco, but the 3-month return policy is amazing. Target, Best Buy, Apple and most retailers are two weeks.

I wish I had bought the iPad for Susie at Costco. If you’re not a Costco member, yes, the membership is $65 yearly, but gas at our local Costco can be a good 25 to 50 cents per gallon cheaper, and if you just did gas and tech products, you’d come out ahead. Apple’s lowest price iPad is the entry level model at $449. Costco sells it for $439. Not a huge saving, but at least they’d take it back!

That said, Costco parking lots are jammed, the stores are crowded and waiting to check out can be a hassle. But that 90-day return policy!

And if you don’t have a local Costco, you can always shop on its website.

Readers: have you had any issues returning Apple products to Costco? Let me hear from you.

Juneau is worth exploring for days, as you will see in the episode. There’s so much to see and photograph!

Watch!

Most of you reading this newsletter have experience with the spinning disk hard drive, the slow, loud computer accessory which expands the amount of room we have to store our stuff.

Over the last five years, a new kind of drive became so popular that many of us stopped buying the spinning disk drive. The Solid State Drive (SSD) had no moving parts, and thus was less likely to crash and break, and was so tiny, we could tote it anywhere.

Then came AI.

The AI revolution has been great for helping us answer questions, look up stuff and automate tasks. But to operate the AI tools, companies have snapped up so much memory that companies have responded by jacking up prices.

The prices of computers, laptops, Solid State Drives, iPads and other products needing memory have gone through the roof. Apple recently dramatically hiked up rates of basically everything it sells but the iPhone, and in September the company is expected to start charging way more for the next iPhones. Ditto for Google with new phones it will debut in August.

But nowhere have the price hikes been as huge as for SSDs.

• In January, 2025 I purchased a Samsung T7 SSD with 2 terabytes of storage for $166. You know how much it costs now? How about a 222% price increase, or 3.2 times more than I paid a year and a half ago, now at $534.

• If you think that’s bad, how about the 4 TB Samsung T7 version I bought in October, 2024 for $260. Today it’s $899!!!

Prices have gotten so out of whack, that I began looking at the traditional, spinning disc again. Sure they always were relatively slow and noisy, but maybe not that bad after all? Maybe not for editing video, but certainly for storing video and photo files.

I’ve always liked the LaCie Rugged series of drives, which claim to be shockproof and waterproof. I bought a 4 TB version in February for $149, which was a sweet deal—perhaps Amazon was having a special, I don’t remember. Today it’s higher at $189, but that sounds a lot more reasonable than the $900 T7 with similar capacity.

I’ve turned to the LaCie for video editing, and frankly, while there’s a little slowdown, it’s just that, a little slower, not drastically unusable. For the price differential, I could live with it.

We interrupt this rant to remind you about the importance of backup. Most people now take most of their photos and videos on their phones, and just leave them there, hoping they’re protected by having them with Apple’s iCloud or Google Photos.

To which I say—what if they had a poor connection, and not all of the images were truly copied onto the cloud? (This has happened to me so many times.) What if you lost your phone?

This is why experts preach the 3-2-1 rule, which means that you should back up to the cloud, yes, and have two physical backup places as well, one at home and one offsite. That’s protection.

At $534 for a 2 TB drive, that $9.99 monthly from Apple and Google for 2 TB of cloud storage sounds pretty good, right?

But what if you upload everything you own to Apple and Google and they decide to dramatically raise the online pricing? You’re kind of stuck. Are you going to download all your images in protest?

We’ve had it good for so many years. The prices of drives went down in price, not up, as capacity also increased. That’s why I have on my desk two 8 TB drives, a 22 TB drive and a huge 72 TB NAS system. But you’re not me and I don’t expect you to need as much backup as I do.

Meanwhile, experts don’t see memory prices falling back to earth anytime before 2028 as those hungry data centers snap up everything available.

If you have a modern phone and you read this newsletter, you need a new drive. Maybe not today, but certainly in the coming months. We generate too many new images not to need a place to back them up.

Here are the best drive deals I found this week:

LaCie 4 TB Rugged drive, $189:

Seagate 8 TB drive (note: these are great for keeping on the desk and not moving the, around like you can do with the LaCie Rugged series.) $289

Lexar 1 TB SSD, $199 (if you need the speed and size of an SSD drive, this one snaps onto the back of your iPhone or Android case with MagSafe.)

The iPhone Kept on Filming

A woman on vacation in Greece was filming on a boat when her iPhone 16 Pro fell into the water, some 20 feet below the sea. A friend, an experienced diver, went in and retreived it.

To her amazement and others around her, the entire 11-minute drop and view of the fishes had been filmed. The phone just happened to land at the bottom of the sea, with camera facing up, so it was able to capture everything.

“When I received the phone, I saw that it was not damaged at all,” Lyal Farhat told an Israeli news site. “I just took a towel, dried it, and that’s it — it worked.”

Modern iPhones are classified as water-resistant, not waterproof, which basically means that you can dunk it in the water, but not much more. You’re not supposed to go deep, and in fact, Apple recommends against swimming with it.

I’ve produced two videos showing young kids taking my iPhone in a pool, and having fun taking underwater selfies. Like Farhat, I dried the phone off and it charged right up again. I’ve dangled iPhones in fountains, and dunked it in the ocean on shoots, just to show what was possible.

While you may not want to do this with an expensive $1,000 phone, clearly you can get cool underwater shots with the iPhone, Galaxy and Pixel.

Use Your Instagram Photos to Train Meta AI?

That didn’t last long! Earlier in the week Meta’s Instagram account hid a new setting in your profile that allowed the company to use your public uploaded photos to train its AI if you’re mentioned in a prompt.

There was a predictable outcry and many, many service pieces on how to turn this default feature off.

Friday afternoon, Meta switched direction and turned it off for all of us.

In a statement to Dylan Byers of Puck News, the company said, “Earlier this week, we announced that one way for people to generate images in Meta AI is by @-mentioning public Instagram accounts that they want to reference. Our intent was to provide a useful creative tool and to give people control over whether their public content could be referenced in this way. We've heard the feedback that this feature missed the mark, so it's no longer available.”

The power of the people to affect change!

We’re off to Juneau Sunday

The Alaskan Photowalks adventures continue this week with Part 2 of our series, as we visit the capital city of Juneau, the only capital city you can’t drive to on the highway—the only options are boat or flying in. Join us as we take a float plane to a remote Juneau island, go walking through the rain forest with a local photographer and best of all—meet lots of the great folks who live in Juneau for a real taste of what Alaskan life is all about.

The show debuts Sunday at 10 a.m. ET and 10 p.m. ET on Scripps News, and will be available via replay on YouTube shortly thereafter.

Thanks as always for taking the time to read, watch and listen. If you enjoyed today’s newsletter, please share with everyone you know!

Jeff

In today’s edition, I want to tell you why we recently kicked off our Alaska series with an episode from Fairbanks, Alaska’s second largest city. (Sunday, we follow up with a visit to the coastal enclave of Juneau.) I’ve got a Fairbanks itinerary for you today, as well as behind the scenes stories about the making of the episode.

Let’s start with logistics: Fairbanks is in the deep of the interior, and best known for really long summer days, really cold winters and a great home base to see the Northern Lights. And don’t forget that’s it’s also a great home base for visiting Denali National Park and North Pole, a cute tiny town that was created to keep the Christmas spirit alive all year long.

Most people who go to Alaska do so by getting on a cruise, and seeing the Inside Passage of tiny coastal communities like Juneau, Ketchikan, Sitka and others. Or, they fly to Anchorage, Alaska’s biggest city, and cruise up from there.

My recommendation for anyone reading is to book hotel rooms and rental car a year ahead of time and explore that way. You’ll see way more, have access to wildlife, and will be on your timetable, not the cruise ship. July is prime time in Fairbanks and all over Alaska, so best to book ahead if interested.

Meanwhile, on these editions, I like to offer behind the scenes stories about the making of these episodes. Let me just start with the gear I brought to a once in a lifetime trip to the Last Frontier and a link to a complete itinerary for your Fairbanks trip.

Read more

For many of us in the Lower 48, we’ve been told that the only way to do it is on a cruise ship, where you don’t have to make a decision about where to spend the night, your meals are mostly taken care of and you get limited time to explore.

Read more

We open our four-part Alaskan series in Fairbanks, the land of the Midnight Sun, where 22 hours of daylight are common in late June and July, and winters are so short and so cold (minus 50 degrees, we were told.) It’s also known as one of the best places to see the Northern Lights in winter and to pick up some awesome Pad Thai.

And might I add visually stunning, of course!

Gear used for this episode:

Entirely shot on 2 iPhone 17 Pro Max’s, mostly on an Insta360 selfie stick/tripod with Stalman Clamp atop it to connect the phone, recorded on Rode Wireless Micro microphones. I brought a Neewer clamp to connect a GoPro Max 2 camera to the back of the rental car for driving footage, but to my surprise, I couldn’t connect it to anywhere on the front of the car—not even the windshield wipers. I was able to jimmy it to the left rear view mirror for a short time—and then watched it fall right off as I was driving. (That was after I snatched the GoPro and put it back in the car.)

I’ll have more behind the scenes stories about the making of the episode in Wednesday’s deep dive, which as always, is a perk for paid subscribers. Consider supporting independent journalism and helping the cause. In honor of the holiday weekend, I’m offering 20% off a paid subscription, today only.

Holiday Sale!

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First, know that while Europe is currently experiencing a heatwave (high 80s and 90 degrees in Lyon this week), it’s not always that way. We shot the episode in the beginning of May, when the temps were in the high 60s, and in fact it rained for a good deal of time we were there. The heatwave will subside!

Lyon is France’s third-largest city, after Paris and Marseille, but the coolest part of town, Old Lyon, feels like a tiny medieval town, as it should, since the streets are over 2,000 years old.

A visit to Lyon, which calls itself the gastronomic capital of the country, takes about 2 hours from Paris on a high speed train, and as expected, food and history take center stage here.

The two highlights are the weekend food market, which has many fruits and vegetables you’ve probably never seen before, all locally grown, along with flowers, fresh chickens and the like.

It’s because of the access to so much great locally produced food, that many chefs put Lyon on the map. People come to Lyon to visit the Bouchons, the family style restaurants with many courses.

I’m there for the great architecture and back streets, but that’s another story.

The episode that just launched has its roots in the year 2022. That’s when we first visited Lyon, a city my wife Ruth put on our to-do list after a visit to Paris that ended in Avignon. Lyon was on the train trail, so we spent a few days there, and I made a short 12 minute Photowalks video, which I posted on YouTube.

Cut to 2024, when the show expanded to a 22-minute TV show for Scripps News.

I spent the first months of the Scripps arrangement mining my library to come up with full-length expanded versions of previous shows, as they had ordered 30 episodes, and it’s not like I could go out every weekend traveling to come up with new material. So what to do?

Read more

Have you been there before?

Nearly as old as Paris, but way less crowded and beautiful, Lyon is definitely worth adding to your next Europe trip. Hopefully the episode will convince you of that!

Read more

Just click the photo below to add it to your collection.

And ICYMI, here’s the Lyon episode for your viewing pleasure.

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