Glaciers, mountains and all things nature
Today proved to be an amazing photographic venture. I woke at 5:00am to an amazing aurora display, and only had time to snap a few pictures before traveling north to the arctic coast for polar bear photography. Our group arrived just in time to catch some golden sunset light on a female polar bear with…
Before leaving for another 10 day venture in the arctic, here is one photo taken during my previous trip last week, late one evening when the aurora spilled across the sky. It was taken about 2:00am, in the Brooks Range, on a nearly new moon evening. In retrospect I would have shortened the exposure a…
If you have followed this blog at all, you will see that the Brooks Range mountains that arc across Alaska’s arctic are a common subject. The range is massive and equally amazing visually, in its diversity of geography and geology. After a successful photo session with the polar bears along the coast, our current photo…
Cloudy skies, although not good for aurora, offered some good light for afternoon photography of this family of polar bears. The sow with two cubs take shelter from the winds common to the north coast of Alaska’s arctic. Shooting directly into the wind with lightly blowing snow at temperatures around freezing present some problems with…
The arctic photo tour I’m guiding was off to a good start on the first evening as clear skies eventually revealed some aurora activity. What was particularly interesting about the display was not it’s brightness but rather the color reflection in the Koyukuk river. It’s been a busy few days and hopes are high for…
Every year in early October I co-guide a photo tour to Alaska’s arctic with friend and colleague Hugh Rose. We do two trips back to back actually, taking 8 photo and nature enthusiasts on a venture for the magic of the emerging arctic winter. While we are omnivorous regarding subject material, the aurora borealis, polar…
The cool weather and colorless landscape is the exit sign for autumn in Alaska’s interior. Fairbanks had an unrivaled stretch of clear skies and balmy weather for much of September. As the transition now moves quickly into the darker and cooler months of the year I’m posting this colorful photo as a goodbye to that…
A few days ago when I left my home for a trail run through the boreal forest, I saw a grouse in my front yard. But not the usual grouse, i.e. spruce or the roughed grouse, both commonly observed. But this one looked a little different. It was a sharp-tailed grouse, which has been seen…
Based on my last post and some interest in the process of applying split grads in LR3, I decided to show a simple illustration of that process with this landscape photo that I took in Polychrome Pass, late one night in August. A video might be better to explain all this, but there is some…
Why do I like the mountains so much? Because they deliver such quickly changing weather. The Alaska range arcs across the south central region of the state and tends to serve as a moisture block forcing the dump of precipitation on its southern side, leaving the interior of the state a more dry climate. This…