This post is the second and final part of my contribution to 2011 retrospective pieces. (See Part 1 here.) As I sorted through my images from the year, I realized that I was surprisingly unproductive. All three of these next images were made on the same trip, suggesting I didn’t get out nearly enough. So here is my New Year’s Resolution: Photograph more, lots more. Cheers!
During early August I led a spectacular trip down the Noatak River in the Brooks Range of northern Alaska. The Noatak is a west-flowing river, dropping out of the western portion of Gates of the Arctic National Park, through the wild and remote Noatak National Preserve and then finally out into the north Pacific near the village of Kotzebue. We floated the upper portion, from the point where there was just enough water to paddle the canoes to right around the border between the park and the national preserve. I was co-leading the trip with my friend Garrett, another Arctic Wild guide. This was one of those trips where everything just went right. The clients were the most enthusiastic, best-humored people I’ve ever had the pleasure of taking out into Alaska’s wilderness, the weather was perfect, and I mean perfect. We felt hardly a drop of rain in ten days on the river. It was as though there were a bubble around us that just didn’t allow us to get wet. Storms would roll up the valley, and I’d feel that for sure, this time, we’d get drenched, but the squalls would pass us by, or peter out before they reached us. More than once, we took hikes up on the nearby ridges just to look down and watch our tents being soaked by a passing shower, but by the time we made it back to camp it was sunny, with only the water droplets on the flies of tents to betray the rain. It was eery, and remarkable.
Stone Monolith above Noatak River, Brooks Range, Alaska (Top Image)
The top image I made our first night on the river. We’d been flown into a tiny gravel bar, barely long enough to accomodate the DeHaviland Beaver that carried us from Coldfoot. We paddled a short distance and set up camp on a lovely riverside bar where a tiny, clear stream, trickled down from the drainage above. After dinner we walked up the slope and onto the steeper terrain of a nearby mountain. We climbed steadily. Near a saddle, within moments of the sun disappearing behind the mountains, we found these strange pieces of granite that had been forced out of the tundra by the freezing and thawing of the earth. This particular rock was fifteen feet high and nearly vertical. Other smaller stones were scattered around this patch of tundra like stone chess-pieces, but none quite so grand as this. I had just moments to compose a few images before the sun slipped behind the ridge. While I like this image a lot, I wish I’d had a few more minutes to work. I’d have gotten lower, found some more foreground elements, stepped back and gone wider… Ahh well, it’s the memory of that glorious evening that makes this image one of my favorites of the year. (Canon 7D, 17-40 f4L, handheld).
Coming Storm, Kugrak River valley, Gates of the Arctic National Park, Alaska
I made this image on a long day hike up the Kugrak River (a tributary to the Noatak) from our camp along the main stem. We stayed three nights at the mouth of the Kugrak. It was a beautiful spot where chum salmon ran up the crystal clear water of the Kugrak and bears appeared, almost constantly on the river’s edge to fish. On this hike we walked up (and across) the Kugrak a few miles to a tundra bench which we followed for another mile or so before dropping back to the gravel of the valley bottom and heading back to camp. The sun came and went during the hike, and squalls of rain rolled up the Noatak, but never touched us. I made this image of three of our group, topping a small rise as an isolated downpour soaked the mountains on the far side of the valley. I like the repetition of curves in this image. There is the small hillock on the right foreground, then an almost identical curve to the dark mountain the background, and then the curve of the rain squall above. (Canon 7D, 17-40 f4L, handheld)
Camp and Kugrak River Valley, Gates of the Arctic National Park, Alaska
On yet another remarkable evening, I made this image of our camp. The Kugrak river valley reaches up into the mountains in the background south of camp while the broad valley of the Noakak stretches out around our tents. I have other similar images where I moved closer to the tents, but I like this one better because it shows, at least in part, how small our little camp was in this vast space. The arctic has spectacular light, which lingers on the mountains for what seems to be hours. As I look at this image, I’m already looking forward to summer, and the glorious Brooks Range evening sun. Can’t wait to get back.. (Canon 7D, 17-40 f4L IS, handheld).
Today and tomorrow are all that are left of 2011. Still time to create a new favorite image. I’ll let you know if I do.