Break-up in Alaska's arctic. Aerial of the south side of the Brooks Range, north of Bettles, Alaska. Canon 5D Mark II, 16-35mm f/2.8L, 1/320 @ f/8, ISO 200, taken through the plane window.
It’s been a long time since I’ve photographed in Alaska, 4 months to be exact. International travel and surgery have kept me busy but it felt good to venture into one of my favorite places over the weekend, the Brooks Range, a massive range that arcs across Alaska’s arctic. I was doing an assignment for Cessna magazine, and the destination was a wilderness lodge in the Western Brooks range, and the Gates of the Arctic National Preserve. I can’t say too much about the project prior to publication, but it was filled with the usual logistical challenges of flying in bush Alaska. It was my first time to use the 5DII for assignment video, which will be included in an online version of the magazine. Shooting both stills and video divides the focus considerably!
Break-up, that transitional period that takes us from white snow to brown earth and flowing rivers is just about complete in the interior, but is still underway in the Brooks range. We landed the plane on wheels, on an ice covered lake, but that means of access is just about finished. The ice is beginning to soften and become too unstable, and pontoon floats will be the landing gear for future trips.
I find it very cleansing to the soul to fly over this vast and remote area, filled with lake after river after mountain, for a long, long time. The light in general was nothing spectacular, but the big space did me well, and it was wonderful way to re enter into photographing back in Alaska again.
