Alaska - August 2008
In August 2008 my wife and I took back-to-back small-boat cruises on CruiseWest boats, the “Spirit of Columbia” in Prince William Sound and the “Spirit of Yorktown” through the Inside Passage. The trip was memorable for both its intense beauty (especially on sunny days), and its intense sogginess (on the days when it rained the most).
The photos pretty much tell the story. I have left out many photos of interest primarily for their travelogue style. These are the photos that are striking either in terms of subject matter or for some artistic reason, and in some cases both.
We spent two nights in Anchorage, permitting some time with friends, who drove us along the Turnagain Arm that runs east from Chickaloone Bay. From the other side of the Arm we looked back on the Chugach Mountains.
Chugach Mountains -- (Looking back from the road to Seward. A High Dynamic Range photograph.)
Grasses -- (Gusting winds off the Turnagain Arm and slow shutter speed.)
Prince William Sound - First Evening
We started our first cruise from Whittier, across the Passage Canal from which we saw mountains and glaciers along the Passage Canal, Blackstone Bay, Beloit Glacier, Blackstone Glacier, and Tracy Falls.
You may recall that Prince William Sound was site of the Exxon Valdez disaster, something that figured heavily in the cruise as we neared Cordova.
Passage Canal -- Shoreline, glacier and mountains along the Passage Canal leading from Whittier. An HDR image. I found HDR to be a useful technique when confronted with scenes containing a dramatic range of light, from highlights of snow fields to deep shadows of trees and rocky crevices. All HDR images were captured on monopod or handheld.)
Beloit Glacier -- Our first significant glacier, at the head of Blackstone Bay. Also the first of several panoramas, which of course is an effective tool in capturing the grandeur of Alaskan landscapes.
Bald Eagle in Esther Passage -- Look closely -- believe me, it was not much easier even with my telephoto lens.
Steller's Sea Lions -- A colony that we approached, but not too closely.
Iceberg
Sheridan Glacier -- Seen only by those of us who went on the rafting trip out of Cordova. A panoramic view. Sheridan Glacier -- as well as Sherman Glacier and others nearby -- were named by a couple of lieutenants surveying the area shortly after the Civil War -- and U.S. purchase of Alaska. A little brown-nosing, you think?
Cordova Harbor and Fishing Boats near Cordova
Cordova Harbor -- We spent the better part of a day in Cordova, although for my wife and me that included a four-hour raft trip. Cordova is an isolated fishing community whose herring fisheries were wiped out by the oil spill from the Exxon Valdez. They still fish for salmon. Our ship, the Spirit of Columbia, may be seen through the pilings at the right.
Fishing Boats from Cordova -- Cordova fishing boats will be found throughout Prince William Sound, although ships from other ports, including as far away as Seattle, will also be seen.
Juneau, Skagway, Bears on the Chilkoot River and Lake and Ft. Seward Tlingit Meeting Hall
St. Nicholas's Russian Orthodox Church -- In Juneau. It may not at first appear to be so, but this is a panoramic composite of at least six individual frames, illustrating the power of Photoshop's photo stitching algorithm.
Skagway was such a tourist town -- unrelentingly and unabashedly so -- that I could find only this single image to catch my artistic attention. This, by the way, was the first stop on our "Spirit of Yorktown" cruise of Alaska's Inside Passage -- all photos henceforth are from that cruise.
On the Chilkoot Lake outside of Haines. We encountered three bears over the course of about an hour, resulting in over a hundred photos. I chose this as typical of the more humorous side of bear encounters.
Tlingit Meeting Hall -- Ft. Seward, outside Haines -- A resident Tlingit carver whose name I did not record and cannot find through research, carved the totem pole and painted this design. We did not visit the Sheldon Museum & Cultural Center on the Ft. Seward grounds, but wish we had had time.
Wildlife in Glacier Bay, Sitka National Historical Park, Morning in Stevens Passage and Tracy Arm and Sawyer Glacier
Steller's Sea Lions -- Glacier Bay National Park.
Sitka National Historical Park
Morning in Stevens Passage -- Glacier Bay had been beautiful and mostly sunny, so much so that our National Park Ranger guide told us we had one of only five days so far this year when the snow-covered mountain tops could be seen. Stevens Passage dawned with high broken clouds, making for dramatic early morning photos -- this and the one following -- and augured well for the day in Tracy Arm to come. Both photos used HDR.
Tracy Arm, at the head of which lie the North and South Sawyer Glaciers, can be misty, rainy, moody and just plain crappy. For our visit, however, it was gloriously sunny -- in fact, the most beautiful day of our entire cruise. It was so warm and sunny that they served a barbecue lunch on the sun deck as scheduled.
South Sawyer Glacier
Petersburg Harbor
Purse Seine
Crab Pots
Petersburg Boys -- (A Norman Rockwell moment.)
Petersburg Harbor
Metlakatla Dancers
On our next to last day we visited the Native American reservation of Metlakatla, the only reservation in Alaska (due to other natives opting in under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act). As with other communities in SE Alaska, Metlakatla is totally isolated except by sea or air. In addition to a bus tour of the reservation, we were treated to a dance performance. I might have used a flash to try to capture the dances, but I wanted to capture their "feel" more than photos of costumes and faces, so I opted for 1/2" and 1" exposures, creating in some cases very abstract blurs.
Misty Fjord
Lighthouse Rock
Kayak Ranger -- At the entrance to Misty Fjord. The story is too long to relate here, but this was an amazing encounter, even though thoroughly anticipated by CruiseWest and the ship's personnel -- two "kayak rangers" who patrol the Misty Fjords paddled out from land to meet us, come aboard, and provide commentary for our trip up the fjord. They literally live the summer in the wilderness. The biggest surprise -- although it more dates me than should be surprising -- they were both young women. Just amazing.
Misty Fjord