Glaciers, mountains and all things nature
I spent the fourth of July weekend trekking across one of Alaska’s, and the Nation’s least visited National Parks. Gates of the Arctic is situated in Alaska’s Arctic, and is not accessible by road, making for light visitation. I accessed the park on a float plane and then hiked the region with a pretty hefty…
I just returned from an 8 day trip into Alaska’s Brooks Range with Heath Sandall, Jay Cable and Tom Moran. We spent most of the time in the Arrigetch Peaks in the Gates of the Arctic National Park. In due time, I’ll write a little more about that trip and the place. But since it is…
This time of year in the mountain regions of the Alaska Range, there are huge fields of blossoming wild sweet pea. They cover the gravel areas of river drainages, and hit their peak bloom about summer solstice. I took this photo last week while driving to Anchorage. The wild sweet pea is very fragrant, and…
Human powered adventures in Alaska’s Brooks Range are always just that…an adventure of sorts. I mean “adventure” in a wilderness context, i.e., a human powered travel mode that takes you across trail-less country, up and over mountains, while route-finding, problem solving and embracing the discovery of new sights all the way along. I shared a few photos in my…
There is a window of time in Alaska’s early summer where one can get out and explore after the snow has melted, but before the waves of mosquitoes emerge. It is a narrow time frame, and in the Southern Brooks Range mountains, it is usually before June 15. But the change in seasons is still in…
In the field with the Canon 11-24mm f/4L My preference for landscape photography may suggest that acquiring the Canon 11-24mm f/4L would be an easy question for me to answer. The price tag of $3000 slowed me down a bit but I finally bought the lens and had a chance to test it when recently photographing in Utah (Zion National Park) and Arizona…
If you live in Alaska, or have visited this March in pursuit of photographing the northern lights, then your opportunities have been abundant. With record warm temperatures, combined with clear skies and tons of electromagnetic activity in the atmosphere, it has been a banger month for aurora photography. And for anyone who has spent time…
I’m often asked what the correct camera exposure is for the northern lights. And, like many answers to broad questions, the answer could be equally broad due to the many variables involved. However, there are some basic starting points, and I’m including an excerpt here from my eBook on How to Photograph the Northern Lights,…
Picking 10 top photos from any year is an impossible task. But the process does provoke some fun reminiscence and thought. My last post included 100 favorites, but drilling that down to 10 led me on a path which resulted in all vertical images, and those that had a particular experience attached to them. Unfortunately, much of…
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…