This plane flight might have been my favorite activity we completed in Alaska. The previous day and morning of the flight were rainy, but for the seventy minutes we were in the air, the clouds broke just enough that we could fly. The plane is small, as only ten individuals could fit at once, which meant the flight was incredibly bumpy. However, for those seventy minutes, I took almost seven hundred images. My shutter rapidly opened and closed the entire flight as I tried to capture every landscape we passed. This piece is a composition of eight pictures stitched together in Lightroom. It looks south, towards Denali, but still many miles to the east of it.
Our camp in McCarthy was right at the toe of the Kennicott and Exit Glaciers. It overlooked a glacial lake filled with icebergs and the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. This image comes from another campsite less than a quarter mile from ours. Between our campsite and McCarthy is a footbridge that crosses the Copper River. While on the bridge, I looked north and saw this composition.
Of all the hikes in Alaska, this was easily the best. Granted, it was also the hardest hike, covering over ten miles with almost four thousand feet of elevation gain, but seeing the old mining equipment and the town of McCarthy was worth it. Of all the towns I have traveled to, McCarthy is the one I want to return to the most. It is deep out of cell coverage, with the only connection from one hotel, but the views are endless, and it is truly rural Alaska.
When determining the order of the images, I did not intend to have three pictures from Denali in a row. However, I like how the colors and composition of the pieces complete each other in the sequence. Regardless, this image also comes from the Teklanika River. One of the facts about Denali National Park is they request that visitors not follow trails. Their theory is that trails ruin the landscape, and the growing season is too short for the vegetation to regrow. By requesting that people not follow trails, they will not form, and the landscape will stay as pristine as possible. That fact was confusing, but after thinking about their logic, I think all parks should encourage that.
Further down the road in Denali, we reached the Teklanika Rest Stop, overlooking the Teklanika River. I took this image on August 18th. As someone from Texas, I thought this would be incredibly early for fall colors. Maybe it is from the filter I added, or maybe the leaves were already starting to change, but I love seeing the green and yellow leaves in the foreground. After thinking about fall in Alaska, we realized that winter would quickly follow. It is now mid-September, and only four weeks after we hiked through, and snow is already on the ground. It would be magical to see the same landscape in the snow.
One of our other stops was to Denali National Park. In 2021, a landslide shut down the only road through the park, cutting the road from 92.5 to 43 miles. However, from what we could see, the park is absolutely stunning. Like most days on the trip, the skies during our time near Denali were overcast with a few afternoon sprinkles. For this image, the sun broke through the clouds enough that the right side of these mountains shined while the left side was still in the shadow. Additionally, the light haze adds to the softness of the mountain peaks.
Welcome to Alaska! Over two weeks in August, I traveled throughout central and eastern Alaska hiking, camping, and, most importantly, photographing. This first image comes from Crow Pass Trail just to the south and east of Anchorage. It is a six-mile trail with two thousand feet of elevation gain. At the top of the trail is this cabin, which serves as a shelter for hikers overnight. Our group did not spend the night, but we were fortunate enough to see the cabin and lake behind it.
As I continued walking around one morning, I looked back at the hotel to find the different levels empty, except for these people. I immediately knew I wanted to put the image into black and white to highlight the differences between the floors and accentuate the figures. To further help achieve this, I increased the contrast and clarity and added a vignette to draw the viewer's eye to the middle.
Since October, I have not had a strong desire to pick up the camera. Maybe it was because I became busy with schoolwork, or maybe I was embarrassed to walk around with a big camera or post images that people might not care about. Whatever the reason is, I would like to capture more moments and increase the number of times I post. For example, with this image, it was soothing to stroll on the beach and look for anything that caught my eye. Using my telephoto lens, I zoomed in on this sailboat while still highlighting the vast ocean. I want to continue living in the moment and capturing images like this.
Hello again! It has been a while since I last posted. After October, I became busy with school and everything that comes with it, but now that it is summer, I have some free time to post images I have been holding onto for a while. This first five-image series comes from the beach. After that, I have a few images from Colorado. And following that, I am taking a trip to Alaska, where I will certainly take and post many pictures. The plan for the foreseeable future is to post images from those trips and continue that into the school year, posting on Mondays and Fridays. In the meantime, enjoy this image from the drone of a boat floating in the open ocean.
This is my final image for our Canada adventure. I took it on the first day we were there but posted it last since it is my favorite. We had been at the lake for about thirty minutes when a light mist rolled through. I was shooting the mountains in the distance when this group of kayakers decided to head back towards the dock. I quickly changed the lens and settings, which resulted in this image.
As my long day of hiking turned into night, I spent sunset on the shore of Lake Louise. As you can see, there was pretty significant cloud cover, which diluted the typical sunset colors, but for about ten minutes, there was a yellowish hue. To capture this, I used a slow shutter speed to slow the water's movement and create a more dramatic image.
On this hike, I also took out my telephoto lens. I started looking for bears and other animals in the backcountry, but after not seeing anything for a few minutes, I turned toward the trees. I'm not sure what it is, but I really like the simplicity of silhouetted trees. When editing, I applied a black and white filter to increase the contrast between the trees and sky, resulting in
One day, I decided to do it all. I woke up at 4 am to watch the sunrise at Moraine Lake, went back a few hours later to go on a hike, then took a nine-mile hike behind Lake Louise. This image comes from that nine-mile hike. About two miles in, I joined a random couple who was also going to the top. About six miles in, I saw these two people standing on the horse trail, which is when I took this image. The people are a little small, but I didn't want to crop in and ruin the proportion of the size of the mountains.
I typically don't post images of people, but I felt this one was too good to not share. We had just turned around from close to the top (some people didn't want to finish the uphill) and were heading back towards the lake. Using an aperture of f2.8 and shooting from the hip, I blindly took many images hoping one would turn out well.
During one of our days in Canada, we took a day-long drive along the Ice Roads Parkway. Besides the snow on some peaks, there was no ice, but this stretch of road from Banff to Jasper was incredibly, incredibly beautiful. This particular image is of Peyto Lake, somewhere between the two cities. There was an easily accessible overlook with a fantastic view, but me being me, wanted to take something more unique. We started hiking towards the top of the mountain, went off trail to a pile of snow, when I turned back to the lake. I set up my tripod and took eleven images, each of a slightly different portion of the lake, which together made this piece.
I took this image during my afternoon hike at Moraine Lake. A brief rainstorm had just passed, and some low-hanging clouds were still around. I walked down to the lake's shore and took this image. There are many reasons I like it: the subtle, soft colors, layers of mountains upon mountains that draw your eye to the back of the image, and the clouds add softness to the hard rock.
This is Moraine Lake, as the title suggests. After a short but slow eight-mile drive up a winding road, you enter a land of no cell coverage and beautiful views. I visited the lake three times, once at sunset, another on the following sunrise, and a final time during the afternoon. While it may seem crazy that I woke up at 4am for this shot, yes, it is so worth it.
One of the many things I love about Canada is the weather. The entire time, the weather was incredible. There was sun, clouds, and the occasional rain. What I loved most about it was the fact that the weather was different every day. For example, on this day, it was partly cloudy but when the sky wasn't as moody as this, there was a significant amount of harsh light.
