Shadows become very long under the low-angle arctic light in Alaska. Tundra wetlands along the Nigu river, National Petroleum Reserve Alaska.
Landscape photography in Alaska poses some interesting “angle of light” dynamics. Because the location of the setting sun is continually changing, seeking a photographic angle perpendicular to the sun becomes restrictive to a certain orientation, and time of year. For example, midnight golden light in the arctic shines out of the north, rather than the west. This means that if you are in a mountain range that transects on an east/west plane, your landscape subject will be front lit. This is generally, a less appealing situation. Take the exact same scene in mid September and you will have decent sidelighting, and would shoot the same scene around 7 or 8pm instead of midnight or 1:00am . So, when scouting out landscapes, one needs to make some notes about the time of year–due to the great variation in the locatoin of the sun, and the time of day–in which to shoot.
Tundra wetlands along the Nigu river, National Petroleum Reserve Alaska.
For this shot, I had to move close to the tundra pond and put my shadow just to the right of the frame, although my preference was for a little different composition, the angle of the sun dictated the framing.
