The two Arctic Alaska photo tours that I co-guide with Hugh Rose were full of weather adventure and logistical challenges this year. They were also filled with some fantastic photo opportunities. We always proclaim that the trips are different every year, and this held true once again. The first October, trip was slammed with a blizzard for three days in Kaktovik, which made for some wild photography.
The second trip following that had high winds that trapped us in Kaktovik for two extra days. The tours encompass the great Arctic experience, including photography of landscapes, the aurora, the Brooks Range, wildlife and polar bears.
In general, I shoot very little on these photo adventures compared to my normal photographic pursuits, as I’m busy doing a number of different things. But I’ve pulled a few images to share here in the gallery below.
What is missing from this gallery is whole bunch of photos that are currently, and hopefully successfully, undergoing a rescue process through a data recovery service. The compact flash card was corrupted when attempting to import images onto my MacAir laptop. The degree of corruption was beyond the average disk recovery utility, and as I learned, it would likely need a “clean room” for proper recovery. If you are wondering what a clean room is, so did I. I learned that it is a special dust free lab where the card is disassembled, and reassembled in a way that enables data recovery. It is not a cheap process. I hope to know more about that soon and will give an updated report. I’ve never had anything like this happen in my entire photography career, but I am led to believe that recovering the images is highly probable.