Author: Scott Dickerson

It’s true!

Iliamna Lake is home to one of two known freshwater seal colonies in the world. The only other documented seals living in freshwater are in Lake Baikal, Russia.

Update: Since posting I’ve found reference to two other unique seals living in freshwater – Ladoga Seal and the Saimaa Ringed Seal. Commenters (see below) have also claimed there are many more instances of seals living in freshwater including a small colony in Lac des Loups Marins, Northern Quebec.

The photo above was taken on March 9th as I lay on the ice of Iliamna Lake with several friends, excited to finally be seeing with our own eyes these mysterious seals. To the locals living on the shores of Iliama Lake this photo will come as no surprise, the seals have been companions for generations.

Despite their long history of inhabiting Iliamna Lake, very little is known about these rare freshwater seals. Many people I’ve spoken with have heard of them but too many questions have gone unanswered. After discussing it for a couple years, several friends and I made an expedition to Iliamna Lake to document that the freshwater seals do in fact spend their winters there. It has been common knowledge that the seals live in the lake during the summer months, but many we spoke with assumed that as winter approached the seals swam back down the Kvichak River that drains Iliamna Lake into Bristol Bay.

Stay tuned for more photos and information about the freshwater seals of Iliamna Lake. This is just the beginning of our efforts to document these seals and their lives in the often icy waters of Iliamna Lake.

A few facts about Iliamna Lake: 1,000 sq mi (2,590 sq km), 75 mi (121 km) long and up to 22 mi (35 km) wide, SW Alaska, at the base of the Alaska Peninsula. It is fed by many lakes and streams; the Kvichak River drains it SW into Bristol Bay. The lake is an integral part of the largest remaining wild sockeye salmon runs in the world, it is also downstream from the site of the proposed pebble mine, which if developed would include the largest dam in the world to hold back the toxic waste created in the hard rock mining process.

The question: “Do you have a Jazz photo you would be willing to donate to a fund raising auction?”

The answer: “No, but let’s go make one, can you help find a willing model?”

Local saxophonist, Dave Webster, made himself available for a quick photo shoot as the sun disappeared over Cook Inlet. It was cold, but he patiently made music for 20 minutes while I worked at capturing an image worthy of occupying a jazz enthusiast’s wall space. The goal was an image that not only says jazz, but also tells a little bit more – Something about jazz by the sea. The photo was framed by the Art Shop Gallery, then auctioned at a fund raising event for the 2008 Homer Jazz Fest.

The photo has grown on me, that’s why you’re seeing it posted here. Lately I’ve found that when doing an initial edit on a photo shoot an image will very subtly make an impression in my memory. Those images then quietly circulate in my mind daily. This is exciting! There has been a lot of time spent analyzing photos in the recent years- soul searching in efforts to define what type of image I love most.

What could be more satisfying for a photographer than to be enchanted by one of his own images?

Below are a few other images from the shoot:

Tech notes: Canon 1DmIII camera body, Canon 24-70 2.8 lens. We were a few minutes late to catch the 15 minutes of sunlight that day so I rigged up a 580 EX II strobe light bouncing off a 22″ silver umbrella. The strobe was triggered by the canon ST-E2 wireless transmitter and dialed down about 1-2 stops for most of the shots. All photos adjusted in Lightroom, signature added in photoshop cs3 and ‘saved for web’. The featured photo was exported from lightroom as a color image, then a layer mask was used to desaturate everything but the saxophone.

Thanks to Dave Webster for modeling.

Two new friends, Holly and Shelby, let me take their picture on the shores of Kachemak Bay this evening. Both are active dancers so it only seemed right for them to be jumping. It wasn’t until finishing the edit that I realized all this leaping was not just fun, it was timely.

This jumping around on the beach is something we’ll be exploring more as it warms up and days get longer. I suppose images like this might have stock potential, but mostly they are just for fun.

I’ve posted a temporary gallery with a few of the images here.

There is no denying it, spring is on its way. Though the days are longer now, they seem to go by ever faster. I had plans for a photo shoot on a crabber in the Bering Sea for this week, last minute the plans fell through for lack of accident insurance arrangements. That was Monday, I thought I’d have a nice slow week in the office to get lots done. Wrong. One quick flurry, and it’s Friday!

If you want to savor the days of your life, I would suggest occupying yourself with a job you don’t enjoy. This life of following your passions and doing work that you love is looking to be a speedy slip-n-slide to old age. A couple weeks ago I found out that an entire year had snuck by unaccounted for! Somehow my twenty-fourth birthday came and went, and I have spent this entire year thinking that I am twenty-three. I guess subconsciously I wasn’t ready to be so old and wise just yet. Or, perhaps I didn’t want to face the fact that I had missed my chance to reach photography fame at the age of twenty-three. The biggest problem I’m faced with now is there’s just a couple short months left to conquer the world as a tweny-four year old. Maybe I’ll just apply for another extension.

Several great photo shoots have transpired in the last five weeks since I posted aerial photos of an Alaskan bush plane (Thank you pilots Charlie Parsons and Bill Roberts). I’ll be posting a few photos from recent shoots on the blog soon, along with some other exciting news from here at HQ.

The photo at top is Emma Laukitis and Marin Lee sledding. It represents following your dreams, or maybe better said – careening down hill on something slippery, like a dream.

Finally, a reminder to all Alaska residents: Remember to apply for your permanent fund dividend. I forgot to last year (like I forgot my age) – Though I surely deserved it, no free money for me.