Category Archives: Landscapes

Mountains, glaciers, waterfalls, rivers, etc

Mount Blackburn Photo

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Hey Folks,

Winter in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Kuskulana River, Alaska.

Mount Blackburn – Winter in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Wrangell Mountains, Mount Blackburn, Kuskulana River, Winter, Alaska. Please click on the image above to view a larger version of this photo.

Mount Blackburn, the 5th highest peak in the US; a grand mountain!

Sometimes those moments in the mountains are just too grand to describe; This is one of those views that is beyond the sublime. The Great Horned Owls hooting behind me only added to the ambience. The more time I spend in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, the more impressive the place appears.

As the light faded, I quietly breathed my “thank you”, turned the skis around, and eased toward the night.

Cheers

Carl

Mount Blackburn Photo

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Mount Blackburn Photo, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

Mount Blackburn Photo, Wrangell Mountains and the Copper River Basin, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska. Please click on the image above to view a larger version of this photo.

Hey Folks,

Here’s a view of Mount Blackburn and the Wrangell Mountains, at sunset.

One of the hassles with shooting in Alaska in the dead of winter is, of course, the cold. We all understand how that’s a hassle, right? Cold fingers, batteries that die, and so forth. The list goes on.

Getting a vehicle started at 40 below zero deg F is itself an art. An engine block heater for your car helps – well, it’s pretty much a ‘must have’. But at minus40deg, even that won’t get you far. The engine block heater helps warm up the mechnical parts of the engine block, but at these frigid arctic temperatures, even the oil thickens up so much it doesn’t flow; problematic for a car engine. So , an Oil Heater works well. Another useful tool is something to warm up the battery.  The 3rd item that’s a good tool to have is a battery heating pad – cold temperatures can dramatically affect the cranking power of a battery, so heating it up will help get your car started. Continue reading →

For Martin

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Kuskulana Glacier, Wrangell St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

An ice cave on the Kuskulana Glacier, in the Wrangell Mountains. Winter snow and freezing temperatures ice up the water of the Kuskulana River, and the this wall of ice is a myriad of patterns, colors, and textures. Kuskulana Glacier, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Please click on the image above to view a larger version of this photo.

Hey Folks,

“Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.” ? Martin Luther King, Jr.

Thank you, Dr. King.

Cheers

Carl

Skiing, Wrangell-St. Elias

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Skiing, Wrangell-St. Elias Alaska.

A backcountry skier stands above the Kuskulana River, near Mt. Blackburn. Cross country skiing in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, winter, Alaska. Please click on the image above to view a larger version of this photo.

Hey Folks,

A quick photo from Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.

Skis: cheap
Pack: not very much $$
View: free

Temperature: Minus 40 degrees.

By the way – if you want to see some great work – check out Jim Goldstein’s blog post, including links to  over 160 photographers’ favorite photos from 2010.

Cheers

Carl

Editing art

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Backcountry skiing near Mt. Blackburn, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

Winter is a great time for backcountry skiing in Alaska. Cross country skiing and ski touring in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, along the Kuskulana River, near Mt Blackburn and the Wrangell Mountains, Alaska. Please click on the image above to view a larger version of this photo.

Hey Folks,

Happy New Year, and Welcome back to the blog. I had a somewhat mixed couple of weeks, which I’m sure I’ll tell you all about here soon enough. Before I get all that together however, I’ll post a short note about this news I saw, an article concerning a new publishing of the Mark Twain classics: “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” and “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” edited by Professor Alan Gribben of Auburn University at Montgomery. It differs from other editions of those books because Mr. Gribben has turned the word “nigger” — as used by Tom and Huck — into “slave.” Mr. Gribben has also changed “Injun” to Indian.

This is interesting to me. I’m a huge fan of Twain, particularly those novels, and the idea of editing (i.e., rewording) such great work is almost ghastly .. on the surface. On the other hand, we live in a world where art, including ‘great art‘ is constantly being ‘adapted‘ for presentation: consider films presented on television, for example. How are bleeps, voice-overs, cuts and blurred body parts any different to a publisher swapping out words that might be offensive or inappropriate? Or updated versions of Shakespearean classics, making them infinitely more readable for kids? How about song lyrics bleeped for radio play? Or, better yet, literary classics like Nabokov’s “Lolita” banned from schools altogether?

How about the outcry over John Denver’s “Rocky Mountain High”? The US Senate held a hearing in 1985 to deal with explicit lyrics in pop music. So we’re not talking about anything new here at all. Indeed, one of the most popular shows on TV in recent times is American Idol, where countless classic tunes have been butchered by this generations’ most current attempts to throw its own heros up the pop charts. 🙂 Continue reading →

Click This

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Jacksina Glacier and Wrangell Mountains, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

Jacksina Glacier and Wrangell Mountains, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Taken on our fall backpacking trip to Mt Jarvis, on the northside of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. Please click on the image above to view a larger version of the photo.

Hey Folks,

Sorry, all – it’s December, the holidays, and I’m in the mountains. I suggest you click on your computer’s power button, turning the dang thing off, and head outside somewhere nice. 🙂

Seriously, Happy New Year, and I’ll see you all when I return.

Cheers

Carl

Mt Wrangell Photo

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Mt Wrangell, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

Mount Wrangell and reflection in a small kettle pond, fall, boreal forest, tundra, Mt Zanetti, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Please click on the image above to view a larger version of the photo.

Hey Folks,

I had to step out for a bit.

I’ll be back in January, sometime.

Mebbe.

Until, enjoy this noisy, grainy picture I shot of Mt Wrangell last fall. ISO 1600, for no good reason other than my own stupidity. Read about that disaster here.

Gone, like a Nixon file, gone, gone away.

Cheers

Carl

Jingle This.

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Hey Folks,

A lil’ holiday spirit. As this is published, I’m probably somewhere right around here:

Black and white photo, boreal forest, Wrangell-St. Elias, winter, Alaska.

A black and white photo of the boreal photo in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, wintertime, Alaska. Please click on the image above to view a larger version of the photo. And Happy Holidays, everyone!

Cheers

Carl

The Art of Science

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Skiing, Chugach Mountains, Alaska.

Backcountry skiing on a ridge on Flat Top Mountain, Glen Alps, near Anchorage. Chugach State Park, winter, Alaska. Please click on the image above to view a larger version of the photo.

Hey Folks,

I recall a conversation or 2 on the subject of art and science; essentially, what differentiates and what connects the science and art. Art is exploration. Science is similar process with maybe more strictly defined boundaries. Certainly they’re both forms of creative expression.

I think the critical illustration of their differences is very simple; artists are so often WAY cool, and scientists way nerdy. 🙂

Cheers

Carl

Art; an exploration of the unknown

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Backcountry skiing on the Root Glacier, Wrangell St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

Backcountry skiing, exploring the Root Glacier, with Stairway Icefall in the background. Springtime brings melt, opening a small pool of water on the glacier’s surface. Cross country skiing, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Please click on the image above to view a larger version of this photo.

Hey Folks,

I think art involves exploration, the process of stepping into the unknown, and taking a journey of sorts. In this way, I think we might relate the idea of art to the idea of “icon photography” discussed earlier. Seeking out the new is a vital fragment of making art, in my opinion.

At some point, we delineate art from craft. Art, to me, involves a greater element of the unknown, while craft is more a process of refinement and control. One hones one’s craft, but I don’t think that’s necessarily the case with art. Art might simply involve turning a new direction with each step (though maybe it doesn’t have to do so). We don’t have to refine anything.

On a trek through the mountains, I enjoy the exploration, the wander itself. Though I guide hikes in places I’m obviously familiar with, I make an effort to reserve at least a trip or 2 each season as an exploratory hike. This summer, for example, we’re heading to the Arrigetch Peaks in Gates of the Arctic National Park, a park I’ve visited once, my very first remote hike in Alaska (wow, what a great memory that is). Venturing into the unknown is an artful process; a game of chance. I don’t know what we’ll find on the trip, and that itself is motivation for the undertaking; to simply experience that gift of the hidden.

Jazz musicians understand this, every time they step to the mic to improvise a solo they do exactly this. That’s the beauty of jazz. That’s also the beauty of art. The other is artifact. Continue reading →