Hey Folks,

A great talk on creativity by John Cleese; definitely put some time aside and check this out.

I’ve often thought it’s no coincidence we use the word “play” when we talk about making music, for example. That’s what we do, we play.

So enjoy.

Cheers

Carl

A brown bear male, ursus arctos, stands in the first light of the day, backlit by the morning sun, as he looks around for breakfast. Brown bear, Katmai National Park, Alaska. Please click on the image above to view a larger version of the photo.

Hey Folks,

” What strikes me is the fact that in our society, art has become something which is only related to objects, and not to individuals, or to life. That art is something which is specialized or which is done by experts who artists. But couldn’t everyone’s life become a work of art? Why should the lamp or the house be an art object, but not your life?” – Michael Foucault

What a great sentiment! Foucault wrote some great stuff.

An examination of what ‘art’ is could well be an artful endeavor itself. What are your thoughts? Is life art?

Cheers

Carl

Aurora borealis, or northern lights, over spruce trees, White Mountains near Fairbanks, Alaska. Please click on the image above to view a larger version of this photo.

Hey Folks,

Apologies for the long delays in getting back to the blog. I’ve been busy working on a new website (details coming soon enough, I hope), and then the last couple of weeks over in Wrangell – St. Elias National Park for a snowshoe trip, and then a week in central Alaska looking for the aurora borealis.

Now I’m back for a couple of brief days before heading out again to the park for another trip, snowshoeing and photographing. So I won’t be around much at least for another week or so.

This shot was from last night in the White Mountains, just north of Fairbanks. The aurora rocked all night long. We got back in the cabin at a little after 5, then up at 9, breakfast, and on the road back to Anchorage. I was hoping to go back out tonight, but I don’t see that happening at this point. I’m tired.

People tend to underestimate how difficult it can be to shoot the aurora. It means long nights, and often little sleep. And very often, very little good photographic fortune. But sometimes we get lucky.

Hope you enjoy this image of the aurora.

Cheers

Carl

Black and white photo of wind blown snow on a snow covered ridge, winter, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park, Alaska. Please click on the image above to view a larger version of this photo.

Hey Folks,

Sometimes black and white just seems to work. And usually it’s apparent before I even set up the camera. Rarely do I convert images to black and white after I’ve shot them if I hadn’t planned on doing so beforehand.

This photo I shot a few winters ago, high on a ridge in Wrangell – St. Elias National Park. I like the backlit snow, and a slight breeze kicked up, blowing snow over the ridge.

I’m looking forward to getting out and shooting a bit more over the next couple of months; this winter has seen me tied to the computer more than I hoped, but hopefully that’s almpost past and I can go shoot a little bit more. Some of these old photos from past winters have inspired me to go do it some more, and I’m looking forward to getting out soon.

Cheers

Carl

A bald eagle snatching up a fish, from Kachemak Bay, Alaska.

Hey Folks,

Sorry for the long delay in posting here. It’s been busy here, with different things going on. The main reason for the holdup in writing a blog has been, of course, hassles with the website and webhost. I’ll write some more about it later, but suffice to say, Skolai Images is now on a new webhost, and hopefully the hassles are left far, far behind.

Hopefully.

Cheers

Carl

A black and white version of Mt Sanford and reflection, from one of my favorite viewpoints in Wrangell - St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Please click on the image above to view a larger version of the photo.

Hey Folks,

The secret to a productive day of creative work on the computer, for me, is Command Q. Tweet Deck, closed. Mac Mail, closed. Fetch, closed. Safari, Firefox and Chrome, closed. Dreamweaver, closed. Capture NX2, closed, Photoshop closed, Text Edit, closed. iTunes, open, and Photo Mechanic, open. 35 minutes of initial photo sorting/editing and keywording and I get an awful lot done.

Then, Command O and Capture NX2 opens up. Select the images from Photo Mechanic, and hit Command E. Those images open in Capture NX2. Command Q again, and Photo Mechanic shuts down. I do my basic RAW editing, conversions, etc, and open the images in Adobe Photoshop. Command Q and Capture NX2 shuts down as well.

A little more work in Photoshop, then save the tif files, send the various resized jpegs to their respective folders for internet uploading, blogs, etc, and Command Q slams it’s iron fist down once more.

Next up, I might write for my blog, or something in my journal, or work on a few other things I’m writing, articles etc. I usually use Text Edit for that. Then, as I wind those down, boom, Command Q relentlessly fires again.

Dreamweaver for some website work; either writing new pages, or tweaking content in current pages, there’s always something there that needs attention. And thanks to the voracious appetite of Command Q, I can give those pages my full attention. My email box doesn’t Bing, I don’t see the little red square of death at the top of my Google plus page, Tweet Deck doesn’t force its popups over the top of everything I’m doing, and I can actually focus on the work I’m doing; which, of course, thanks to this wonderful world of digitization, is never  close to completed.

Multi-tasking simply isn’t a productive process for creative work without a real schedule and set of boundaries. Distraction and interruption means losing focus, and that’s not a useful way to channel creative work.

And for now, that means Command Q and a cup of tea upstairs.

Cheers

Carl

Snowshoeing and backcountry skiing in the Mentasta Mountains, winter, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Please click on the image to view a larger version of this photo.

Hey Folks,

I thought it’s probably about time I mentioned it on this website. I’m running an offer on Expeditions Alaska for a free trip in Wrangell – St. Elias National Park this march. All the details are here. This is a pretty sweet offer, if I have to say so myself, so do check it out. It closes Jan 17, and the winners will be drawn the morning of the 18th. 10am Alaska time. Feel free to enter, but do read the stipulations first; it just makes the sorting and collating of emails into a list for the drawing much easier that way. And if you think you know of someone else who might want to enter, either let them know pronto, or enter for them. Only one entry per household though. Don’t enter if someone has already entered for you.

Sorry about the late notice here.

Cheers

Carl

I’ve yet to have a single creative idea come to me

whilst I sat in front of the computer.

Hey Folks,

I hope you enjoy this. Be sure to turn up your sound.

Sorry if you an’t view this on an iPad, but Flash was the only way to make this happen.

cheers

Carl

A large male adult brown bear, or grizzly bear (Ursus arctos), stands and stares at the camera. Male brown bears may reach weights of over 1200lbs and easily stand 9' tall. Brown bear, Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Please click on the image above to view a larger version of this photo.

Hey Folks,

One of my main goals last year, photographically, was to shoot more ‘bears in the landscape’ style shots; images such as this one were what I was really after. Of course, that doesn’t mean I would pass up an opportunity to fill the frame with a bear like this, either.

This kind of image is all about the bear; power, size and vitality. The bears in the landscape speak a little more about place. Fascinating subject, place.

I just got back from a trip to Denali National Park and Preserve, where I spent some time in a cabin in the woods, by a fire, trying to stay warm. The day we skied in to the park, the temperatures plummeted, from the 0 to – 5 degreeF range to minus 40 and minus 45. The experience of the Alaska backcountry at that kind of temperature is something else.

It was a  cool experience, hanging out with my friend, Erik DeLuca, music composer from Virginia, while he concentrated on doing some soundscape recordings and trying his best to experience a ‘sense of place’ in a landscape like this. We chatted a lot about what that means, what it does for us, and why it might be important. I commandeered Erik’s book, “Place: A Short Introduction“, (author: Tim Cresswell) and read over it during the long dark nights. It’s interesting stuff. 

Place isn’t about location; it’s about a culture. A life. Lives. A set of experiences. This image above is all about place. The place of the grizzly bear; the top of the food chain. Lord and sovereign of the wilderness. And this bear put me in my place.

It’s a humbling experience to see, so clearly, something so much greater than ourselves. I still haven’t sifted through half of my photos from this fall’s photo tour to Katmai National Park, the bears’ place, and I can’t wait to go back to the realm of the great bear.

Cheers

Carl