Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category
Travel photos, tourism and tourists, adventure and exotic photos.
Thursday, May 21st, 2009
A winter sunset over the Mentasta Mountains, Wrangell – St. Elias National Park, Alaska.
Hey Folks,
“The effort to clarify our sight cannot begin in the society, but only in the eye and in the mind. It is a spiritual quest, not a political function. We each must confront the world alone and learn to see it for ourselves”. So says Wendell Berry, one of my favorite writers, in his book “The Unforeseen Wilderness”. The book, a dearly needed plea to save Kentucky’s Red River Gorge from a nefarious plan to dam it, was written nearly 40 years ago. I haven’t read the book completely yet, as I just bought it this afternoon. But I glanced at it, and this passage caught my attention. Berry continues on:
“the figure of the photographic artist – not the tourist-photographer who goes to a place, bound by his intentions and preconceptions, to record what has already been recorded and what he therefore expects to find, but the photographer who goes into a place in search of the real news of it”.* (more…)
Tags: Alaska, Art, Guy Tal, Landscapes, photographer, Photography, scenics, snow, Sunsets & Sunrises, The Unforeseen Wilderness, Wendell Berry, Winter
Posted in Abstract Photos, Alaska, Fall, Forests, Landscapes, Photo business, Skiing, Snowboarding, Travel, Web Stuff, Winter, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | 3 Comments »
Thursday, April 16th, 2009
Hey Folks,
I’ve been practicing this one a bit. Trying to get a snowboarder’s eye view of snowboarding. It’s pretty hard. Well, I’ll be honest – for me, it’s really hard. Really, REALLY hard. I fell over more times than I want to admit. Certainly more times than I wanted to fall over. And the slope is a good bit steeper than the image appears, so I was moving pretty fast. What’s hard is lifting the camera to the eye without making a turn. On a snowboard, like a skateboard or surfboard, one turns the board by turning the head and torso. Every time I’d lift the camera up, I’d unconsciously turn my torso a bit, and the board would go with it, doing a ‘heelside turn’ effectively. Then I’d realize I was turning too far left, turn back the other way, doing a ‘toe-side turn’, over-correct, catch an edge and bust my ass. Trying to hold my camera so it wouldn’t hit the ground as I wiped out was a bit of a mission, but I’ve so far managed to do it OK. I practiced a bit on some gentler slopes, but there’s no substitute for the real deal. I’m rippin’ along here at probably close to 75 miles an hour or so. Maybe. 
Cheers
Carl
Tags: Alaska, mentasta mountains, outdoors, recreation, snow, snowboard, Snowboarding, Winter, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park, Wrangell St. Elias
Posted in Adventures, Alaska, Landscapes, People, Snowboarding, Travel, Winter, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | 1 Comment »
Saturday, April 11th, 2009
Hey Folks
Here’s what fifty five thousand feet of mountains looks like. From right to left: Mount Drum (12 010′), Mount Wrangell (14 163′), Mount Zanetti (13 009′), and Mount Sanford (16 237′). This photo is from the northern edge of Wrangell – St. Elias National Park, overlooking the Copper River basin. The Wrangell mountains come to life as the sun sinks beneath the horizon. Here’s another photo I took of these mountains a year ago, from much further south and west.
Cheers
Carl
Tags: Alaska, alpenglow, Copper River, Landscapes, Mount Drum, Mount Sanford, Mount Wrangell, Mount Zanetti, Sanford, scenics, Sunsets & Sunrises, Winter, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park, Wrangell St. Elias, Zanetti
Posted in Alaska, Forests, Landscapes, Travel, Winter, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | No Comments »
Thursday, April 9th, 2009
Hey Folks,
This is a photo of Mt Sanford, in winter, taken early one morning. In 2 weeks I had 3 mornings with some alpenglow. The first one I didn’t shoot because it was so socked in with cloud an hour before dawn that I didn’t figure the light was going to happen – and being tired, I slept in. I awoke, looked over, and saw a nice magenta glow on the face of Sanford, but there wasn’t really any kind of way to shoot it from where I was. Such is my life, it seems. I did enjoy a hot coffee and (more…)
Tags: Alaska, black and white, Mount Sanford, Mountains, Mt Sanford, snow, snowshoe, Winter, Wrangell St. Elias
Posted in Alaska, Landscapes, Travel, Winter, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | 2 Comments »
Friday, January 2nd, 2009
Hey Folks,
I hope you’re not tiring of Mount Blackburn. It’s an awesome mountain. One of the primary reasons I wanted to spend some time here in the winter is to catch this mountain in good light. In the summer time, when travel here is a bit easier and the weather much warmer, the good light is on the north side of the mountain. So here I am, running around at 50 deg below F trying to make a decent image of the mountain. I went up new year’s eve to shoot, and the light was amazing. Of course, both my camera batteries died, due to the cold, and I made 3 photos, then spent my time sitting in the cold watching the alpenglow light up the mountain as if it had a fire inside. It was something special to witness, but I’ve not a single image of the event. Since then it’s been cloudy. The weather did warm up to a comfortable 20 below though, so there’s always something positive. That and the little rubber foot off my tripod that fell off, and I thought was long gone, lost; I was wandering back to the shack just at dusk, when I saw this little black thing half buried in the snow .. I kicked it (as I’m prone to do such things), and it was my rubber foot off my tripod. Woo hoo!
You all stay warm. I’ll try to get some images of something other than Mount Blackburn here sometime soon.
Cheers
Carl
Tags: Alaska, black and white, Landscapes, Mount Blackburn, Mountains, scenics, Winter, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park
Posted in Alaska, Landscapes, Travel, Winter, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | 8 Comments »
Sunday, November 2nd, 2008
Hey Folks,
Here’s another image from the summer just gone by. This one was from near our campsite on the Canning River, in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). We’d had a nice day paddling, enjoying some sunny weather, found a sweet spot to camp, and then I wandered around into the evening looking for a composition that caught my eye. The unnamed mountain across the river is a ridge leading up to Mt. Salisbury. This is one of my favorite areas in the region, right at the edge of the coastal plain and the Brooks Mountains. Typically these kinds of terrains are interesting; (more…)
Tags: Alaska, ANWR, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Brooks Mountains, hiking, Landscapes, Rafting
Posted in Adventures, Alaska, ANWR, Backpacking and Hiking, Environmental Issues, Landscapes, Rafting, Travel | 3 Comments »
Thursday, October 30th, 2008
Hey Folks,
Here’s another from the summer, from our Bremner to Tebay trip. Brings back some nice memories.
Oh, and please add my name after Colin Powell’s in the list of those who officially announce their endorsement of Barack Obama for pres. Or his name after mine, whichever order works best.
Cheers
Carl
Posted in Adventures, Alaska, Backpacking and Hiking, Landscapes, Travel, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | 9 Comments »
Wednesday, October 8th, 2008
Hey Folks,
I’m winding down my short stay here in McCarthy, prepping for the winter. I’ve painted half the inside of the cabin, chopped a bunch of wood, and done a few other odds and ends. I also scouted out a few photo opportunities for this winter, though I didn’t get to shoot much this last few weeks.
We got a solid dumping of snow almost a week ago, and most of it is still packed on the ground – the temps have hovered around 40 deg most days, so there’s not much melting. As I write this, a few lonely snow flakes drift down from the clouds – and from the looks of things, another snow storm is not far away.
I’ll be heading back towards Anchorage in the next few days, where I’ll stay for a while to do website updates, photo editing, other office work, etc – it’s a tedious time at the end of summer. Once I get that stuff tended to, I’ll stock up on food and supplies, and return to the cabin for the winter. I’m keen to venture a little further afield this year, explore the place in more detail, and try to get some good winter shots. I think I’m a bit better prepped this year, and have a better idea of how this all works. We’ll see.
The summer is now gone, too quickly, as always. They say fall has just begun, but I’m pretty sure it’s gone too – unless by ‘fall’ they mean ‘snowfall’ – my car outside is slowly getting a nice covering of the white stuff. As always, I’m already thinking about tentative plans for next summer. I don’t know yet exactly what they’ll entail (hence ‘tentative’) but at this point, I’m fairly certain they’ll include a good deal of me wandering around the mountains of Wrangell – St. Elias National Park, looking for some sunshine.
Cheers
Carl
Posted in Adventures, Alaska, Backpacking and Hiking, Fall, Landscapes, Travel, Winter, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | 3 Comments »
Monday, October 6th, 2008
hey Folks,
Here’s another image from a few years ago – on a trip to Wolverine, a ridge high above the Chittistone River in Wrangell – St. Elias National Park, Alaska. The Twaharpies Mountains lie south of the ridge, across the river, and came out late this evening with some gorgeous light. The peaks are pretty cool – classic alps. Just east of this peak lie the University Range, home to Mount Bona and Mount Churchill. Wolverine is a local name for the (officially) unnamed ridge on the north side of the Chittistone River, and a great spot for a basecamp or a point to point hike – I usually hike from Skolai Pass west to Wolverine, but some folks like to do it in the other direction. It’s a classic alpine walk, through some of the most magnificent scenery I’ve ever stumbled my way through. There’s a crazy butte on the north side of the ridge, like something out of the desert southwest, but all around are jagged craggy peaks, like the Twaharpies.
Maybe I’ll continue on with a short series of images from years gone by, rather than continually posting new photos. This counts as 2.
Cheers
Carl
Posted in Abstract Photos, Alaska, Landscapes, Travel, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | No Comments »
