Glaciers, mountains and all things nature
Alaska’s big landscapes are hard to fit into a 35mm 2:3 ratio format. Sometimes, they beg for a 3:1, or more commonly referred to as a panorama format. I used to use a Fuji 6x17cm film camera especially designed for this, but now I simply blend images with a stitch program. Currently that is Photosphop…
I watched the summit of Mt McKinley (Denali) slowly clear off one evening in Denali National Park, while the lower portion was still enshrouded in clouds. So I set my telephoto lens up on a tripod and thought I’d shoot the summits. Many are not aware that there are two summits to the mountain, the…
It can be a challenge to photograph in the late morning on a sunny day. The light gets hot and harsh. However on this morning, the sunny foreground was complimented by some dramatic cloud action in the distance and the perpendicular lighting, although contrasty, made for some drama in lighting. At 10:30 am, this bull…
On a short visit into Denali park early this week, I had the good fortune of some clear skies revealing that amazing mountain top–Denali. In this particular scene, the clouds slowly cleared from the peak as the morning unfolded. And as you may know from my previous posts, I like some clouds for art and…
Photo gallery from my July 2010 float trip down the Marsh Fork of the Canning River, in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Veterans of river travel know that waterways can be a creature of movement in more ways than one. In mountain country, rainfall in the hills all goes downhill by gravity and ends up ocean-bound via the river system. In Alaska’s arctic specifically, most river flow is dominated by snow melt or rain, unlike many of…
Contrary to what many non-photographers think, the bluebird day, cloudless skies are generally not welcomed by the landscape photographer-not me anyway. They might ensure first and last light upon the land, but there is little art in the sky without some shapes and lines offered by broken clouds moving dynamically overhead. It is these latter…
I mentioned my trip into the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in a recent post, and I have a few more photos to share from that journey. In a land that exhibits dramatic and distant vistas, it is not surprising to find compelling subjects close at hand as well. While hiking along the Marsh Fork of…
On Sunday, July 25, my eyes slowly opened at 4:00 AM. The temperature read 33 degrees. If you have spent any time in the outdoors in Alaska, such a chilly temperature in July is a telltale sign that the skies above are clear. I checked the sky (the first thing every landscape photographer does upon…
On the final evening of my Marsh fork/Canning river trip in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, after a wild and windy storm squall of rain passed through, the skies cleared to the north and that long sought after golden summer sunshine poured across the landscape. The mosquitoes however, were abusive. After setting up camp in…