Happy Autumn

At 9:21 am CST yesterday, the sun was directly over the equator and autumn arrived in the northern hemisphere. In south central Alaska, it arrived with a vengeance. After a few days of heavy rain and high wind, the skies parted this morning to reveal a blanket of fresh snow across the mountains or as it is known in Alaska, "termination dust."

Heritage Falls and another moose encounter...

Day 3, Crow Pass Trail with Tyler Howie, the final stretch. Heritage Falls in autumn glory. Following our encounter with two bull moose at the river crossing the night before, we set up camp at Thunder Gorge, roughly 11 miles from our destination - Friends of Eagle River Nature Center. While packing up our gear the following morning and getting ready to make the final push home, we suddenly noticed another bull moose next to Thunder Creek, staring in our direction. My first thought was the two bulls from the night before were pursuing us, until it was apparent that this was a different moose and was on the trail of a cow, both were headed down the trail toward our camp. Tyler grabbed Freija’s collar and we darted back into the brush, just in time for the two moose to charge through our campsite and down the trail in the direction we were going to be headed. Fortunately nothing was damaged, nor did we encounter them on the way out. We arrived at the Nature Center just before 10 pm after nearly 8 hours of hiking from Thunder Gorge.

Sparring Bulls

Day 2, Crow Pass Trail with Tyler Howie. Without time for a proper breakfast, we grabbed handfuls of mixed nuts and hit the trail, trying stay ahead of the looming rainclouds that were billowing over the pass and heading our direction. After hiking all day and stopping periodically to satiate on ripe blueberries, we reached the point where we were to cross Eagle River only to be greeted by these two sparring bull moose, exactly where we needed to be. After observing and photographing them, they crossed the river and chose to hang out on the opposite bank, again right where we needed to cross. With darkness looming, they wandered off after a short while and we forded the river. While warming our feet from the ice-cold glacier water and sipping a cup of hot tea, the two bulls returned and drove us out of their turf. Still in my water shoes, we threw on our packs, grabbed everything that was scattered on the ground and hightailed it down the trail.

 

 

 

 

Crow Pass

A couple shots from our way up to and on top of Crow Pass on Tuesday. Approximately 3 miles and 2,000 vertical feet to the top, each step a brutal reminder that I was carrying more than 25% of my body weight in my pack, half of which was camera gear. I was happy to have used all the gear I carried throughout the trek, thereby justifying the extra effort.

Today's Photography Class

Just got in from leading an all-day fall photography workshop at the Nature Center. We had good weather along with nice colors and a great group of people. I truly enjoy teaching these classes and I hope my students gain a bit of knowledge as well. I offer at least one beginning class each season along with aurora photography classes in winter, so please stay tuned for the next session if you are interested.

Raven Glacier

Tyler Howie and I returned late yesterday evening after completing the Crow Pass Trail from Girdwood to Eagle River. Three days, two nights, 23 miles with 2,000 feet of elevation gain followed by a 4,000 descent and one river crossing. The colors were spectacular and wildlife was abundant - we had a couple of close calls with rutting moose, which I will describe in more detail later. Here is Tyler with our fearless leader Freija sporting her K-9 Pack from Mountainsmith, passing by Raven Glacier. I will have more to share soon. 

Colin

Crow Pass Trek

I was planning starting the Crow Pass Trail today with my good friend and trekking partner Tyler Howie and his faithful dog Freija, but we decided to postpone until tomorrow due to high winds and heavy rain. If all goes as planned, we will start in Girdwood tomorrow, hike over the pass (to the left of the mountains pictured here) and spend two nights camped near Glacier Lake, right below Eagle Glacier, which is the source of Eagle River. The trail is 23 miles total with a 2,000-foot elevation gain going up to the pass followed by 4,000 feet down the other side to the river, plus we'll be adding the extra trip around the lake to the glacier. Autumn colors should be peaking at higher elevations and I hope to return with new images and stories to share.

Have a great week, everybody!

Colin

Everyone is "raven" about the new iPhone 7...

Seems everyone's "raven" about the new iPhone 7 and its 12-megapixel camera. Might be wise to invest in a good, bird-proof case.

This raven was unusually curious and obviously looking for food, it's likely been conditioned to receiving handouts from people. The photo was taken with a 17mm wide-angle lens at very close range - within a couple feet. iPhone (unintentionally) provided by Jean Cheng/\.

Behind-the-Scenes

Here is a behind-the-scenes shot from early Thursday morning. I spent the better part of two hours hopping out to this rock and back to my camera, experimenting with different exposures and compositions, adjusting the intensity and direction of light from my headlamp to illuminate the water and backlight myself so I would show up against the dark foreground. I got it all dialed in just before the sky erupted with aurora around 2 am, when I took the shot that was in Alaska Dispatch News on Friday. I almost fell into the water on at least five different occasions and after hiking the roughly 1.5 miles out to this spot and back at night, alone, knowing full well there were bears in the immediate area, I returned home shortly after 4 am, edited through the images and picked my favorite one to post. Needless to say, it was gratifying to have landed a photo on the front page of Alaska’s largest newspaper just 24 hours later.

PS – if you look closely, you can see two salmon next to the submerged log on my right.

Auroras and Salmon

Aurora chasing and salmon gazing, there is a lot going on right now with the changing season. It's been a long but productive evening and I shot from a new location that I've had in mind for some time. Salmon were splashing all around me and thankfully I did not encounter a bear on my nighttime hike. Now I must get a few hours of sleep.

Namaste,

Colin

World Photography Day 2016

Happy World Photography Day 2016! The world's first known photograph was created 177 years ago today. The process has changed considerably since that time, even since I began shooting twenty years ago. I resisted the digital revolution and continued to shoot film until 2007, when I finally broke down and got my first digital SLR. As an artist, I love the possibilities that newer technology provides, making it possible to produce images that simply could not have been captured using film. At the same time, you might say it has been a double-edged sword as the stock photo market has been saturated with low-priced, royalty free images and in many cases businesses and publications have come to expect photos for no cost at all. That being said, change is inevitable and the only way to survive is to adapt. Social media provides a platform to do just that.

This is one of my first and most memorable photographs - aurora borealis and the Big Dipper over North America’s tallest mountain, Denali, taken on Kodak slide film in 1998. It is still among my best selling images to date and has landed in several publications, including Alaska Magazine and was also used by the US Postal Service on a commemorative stamp sheet. I’m excited to see what the next twenty years will bring in the way of photographic technology and business pursuits; the possibilities are endless.

Colin

The Sun is Setting on Summer

After a break in the weather, it is apparent how quickly summer is drawing to a close. Since June 21, we've lost nearly 4 hours of daylight. During the longest days, evening sunlight bathes the valley until almost midnight, now the sun drops behind the mountains to the west shortly after 8 pm. This was taken around 9:45, with the last rays of light entering the valley.

Monday's Moose Fact

 Moose antlers are 95% grown by the first of August, which stands to reason since they will soon be shedding the velvet tissue layer that nourishes them as they grow throughout spring and summer. In other words, this guy isn't going to get much bigger this time around. He should drop these antlers in mid-to-late winter and will perhaps be sporting more impressive headgear at this time next year. 

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High Water

I’m fairly certain I’ve never seen Eagle River this high before. What was dry land just a few days ago is now completely underwater. When I saw this partially submerged dwarf fireweed, I instantly envisioned a photo. As usual, getting the shot in my mind’s eye meant getting my feet wet. By using a two-minute exposure, I was able to accentuate both the moving water and the flowers bouncing in the current.