Break-up in Alaska's arctic. Aerial of the south side of the Brooks Range, north of Bettles, Alaska. Canon 5D Mark II, 16-35mm f/2.8L, 1/320 @ f/8, ISO 200, taken through the plane window.

It’s been a long time since I’ve photographed in Alaska, 4 months to be exact. International travel and surgery have kept me busy but it felt good to venture into one of my favorite places over the weekend, the Brooks Range, a massive range that arcs across Alaska’s arctic. I was doing an assignment for Cessna magazine, and the destination was a wilderness lodge in the Western Brooks range, and the Gates of the Arctic National Preserve. I can’t say too much about the project prior to publication, but it was filled with the usual logistical challenges of flying in bush Alaska. It was my first time to use the 5DII for assignment video, which will be included in an online version of the magazine. Shooting both stills and video divides the focus considerably!

Break-up, that transitional period that takes us from white snow to brown earth and flowing rivers is just about complete in the interior, but is still underway in the Brooks range. We landed the plane on wheels, on an ice covered lake, but that means of access is just about finished. The ice is beginning to soften and become too unstable, and pontoon floats will be the landing gear for future trips.

I find it very cleansing to the soul to fly over this vast and remote area, filled with lake after river after mountain, for a long, long time. The light in general was nothing spectacular, but the big space did me well, and it was wonderful way to re enter into photographing back in Alaska again.

On average, I do a handful of assignments a year for Alaska Magazine. One of those, featured in the May 2009 issue, is about the community of Delta Junction, just 90 miles south of Fairbanks. Delta has an interesting history, dating from Alaska’s pioneer days, but of recent development as well, including agriculture and military influences. Kevin Coughlin wrote the article.

I thought I’d write a little about the making of the image used for the opening spread. As is typical with editorial features, the photography often happens well in advance of publication. In this case, I shot in Aug/Sept of 2008. It was an overcast day, which is generally appealing for portrait lighting, but sometimes challenging for the inclusion of a landscape. The strident challenge with location photography is to perform rapid assessment of both the subject and the environment and come up with a compelling composition while you dialogue and get acquainted with the person. Sometimes things fall together easily, sometimes not. Certainly, knowledge of the article’s content can help immensely, but that is not always available at the time of the shoot.

Opening spread in Alaska Magazine story on Delta Junction. Barley farm Bryce Wrigley, Delta Junction, Alaska. 16-35mm at (21mm) with soft box illuminating subject from left.

Original capture: Bryce Wrigley, Barley farmer in Delta Junction, Alaska.

In this case, Bryce Wrigley, a part time barley farmer in Delta drove me around his fields of ripening grain. I had him step into the field for a pose, feeling the setting appropriate for his portrait. The light was pretty blah, and to help with this I set up a small soft box just barely out of the frame, on his left side, in the general direction of the obscured sun. The flash was triggered remotely by a master on my camera. The added light really falls nicely on the subject and adds just what was lacking. I used a 16-35mm lens at 21mm, 1/100 sec @f9, ISO 200. The sky was slightly darkened with a brightness brush in Lightroom v2. The brush allows for non-global adjustments, in this case, to darken just the sky and not the subjects face as well.

The “opening spread” image is generally a simple one, that leaves some room for introduction text. This is an important consideration to keep in mind when framing. I tend to shoot tight rather than loose, by habit, so it helps to envision the end use on the front side. Alternatively, getting a close up, tight shot, always rounds out a photo essay, and I shot some frames of the grains of barley, one of which was used for the intro table of contents page.

Original capture

Table of contents page. 16-35mm at (16mm) 1/100 sec @ f9, ISO 200

Last weekend the Interior Freight Dog Association had a preliminary practice for the upcoming weight pull competition to be held in North Pole on Saturday December 20th. Dogs in three different weight classes pull a sled loaded with cement blocks. This dog, anxiously waiting for its turn to pull, has one brown eye and one blue eye, a striking visual feature of sled dog breeds.