Author: Scott Dickerson

I just posted a gallery of photos from Bristol Bay, Alaska. A friend is heading to Washington D.C. in a few days and will be talking about the current status of the Bering Sea and Bristol Bay in particular. I have enjoyed photographing there for the last three years, so I put together some images that could help as my friend explains the unique wonders of Bristol Bay. The photos cover a range of topics including wildlife, scenery, and commercial fishing, all three of which are potentially at risk from proposed industrial development in the region. This is a big topic that I am looking forward to writing more about, but not tonight. My bags are packed and I’m heading out to photograph the Iliamna Lake area for 7-10 days first thing in the morning. Till I return, please take a moment and enjoy the photos of Bristol Bay as it exists currently, soon I’ll write more about the oil and gas leases and the proposed pebble mine that could have a large impact on this area.

Written by Scott Dickerson for the Black Star Rising Blog, thanks to Scott Baradell for his advice and editing on this post.The Alaskan summer, all four months of it, has passed by once again in a flurry of magnificence. It’s the end of August, my favorite time to photograph here. The days have shortened enough to make it reasonable to shoot the sweet light of the mornings and evenings. It’s 9:30 p.m. as I type — and the sun has only now fallen beneath the tops of the glaciers and mountains outside my office window.

Alaska is in many ways an outdoor photographer’s wonderland, offering a lifetime of inspiring photo subjects. Should you find yourself here on assignment or vacation, I’ve assembled 10 tips you may find useful while visiting us in the last frontier.

Tags: Alaskan photography, travel photography, assignment photography, landscape photography, wildlife photography, outdoor photography, Scott Dickerson

1. Take note of sunrise/sunset times.

The daylight hours have a significant impact on how a photographer can work in Alaska. Use an online sunrise/sunset calendar and plan accordingly. You may find you have 24 hours of daylight — or as few as five hours — depending on the timing of your visit and your latitude.

2. Know the specific climate(s) of your shooting locations.

Alaska encompasses several radically different climates. Educate yourself on the specific locations you’ll be photographing so you can be prepared.

3. Make the most of cloudy weather.

Alaska may be known for its scenery, but more than a few visitors have spent their stay looking into the clouds for the mountains the locals insisted were “just right there.” Don’t sit around waiting for the weather to clear; instead, head for the nearest glacier and you’ll appreciate the overcast skies — which make the ice appear a richer blue.

4. Incorporate aerial photography.

With relatively very few roads, much of Alaska is only accessible by airplane. Thousands of small planes available for charter make it easy to photograph areas that are otherwise very difficult to reach. If you are visiting in summer, ask if you can charter in the late evening or early morning.

5. Know where the wildlife is.

Alaska is a huge place, and much of the wildlife is not easily found along the road system. If you are coming here to photograph certain animals, research beforehand to identify the best places for each species as well as the right season. The humpback whales of Southeast Alaska are a long ways away from the caribou herds of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

6. Prepare for delays in air travel.

If you venture out of the big cities, especially north or west of Anchorage, be prepared for the airline to tell you that your flight has been delayed, and the next plane isn’t scheduled until tomorrow. A friend was recently stuck on an island serviced by large jets for over two weeks due to weather and mechanical delays. While that was an exception, multi-day delays are not uncommon.

7. Don’t expect to find a camera shop on the corner.

Don’t plan to buy professional camera equipment in any local camera shop, unless you are in Anchorage. Usually, the best you can do is overnight shipping with UPS or FedEx — and because Alaska is one hour behind California, you’ll need to order early in the day, and even then your delivery may still require an extra day.

8. Can you hear me now? Nope.

Don’t be surprised if your cell phone is quiet for most of your stay in Alaska. Unless you are on the main road system, it’s likely that you won’t have any service.

9. Keep your equipment warm.

If you find yourself photographing during an Alaskan winter, remember to keep spare batteries inside your coat pockets where they’ll stay warm. I’ve noticed the LCD displays are the first things to go as the camera freezes up. When you bring your cameras and lenses back indoors, let them slowly warm up inside your camera bags to prevent internal condensation.

10. Focus, focus, focus.

Alaska has a lot to offer — but can be logistically and financially challenging. If you are on a mission to shoot stock images here, I suggest keeping your focus on a few subjects and making sure you are well-prepared for these shoots. There is far too much to photograph in one visit (or one lifetime), so it’s better to do a couple of things well than become overwhelmed by the endless opportunities. That said, flexibility is paramount, since the weather and travel issues can often force a change of plans.

I hope these recommendations are helpful should you come up for a visit. A week of cloudy, rainy weather has just broken up in my area, so I better get my rest — lots of photo shoots to catch up on before the snow flies.

[Scott Dickerson, based in Homer, Alaska, is a professional photographer whose specialties include aerial, outdoor adventure, lifestyle, and wild Alaska subjects, offering assignment work for both commercial and editorial needs as well as stock photography. For more information, visit Scott’s blog.]

“Did you see those guys parachuting with waterskis?! Or where they kayaking with a hang glider?”

Kitesurfing is a real attention getter, rubbernecker and comment generator. The first time I saw someone kitesurfing a few years ago I didn’t know what to say either, I just knew I wanted to find someone to blurt out some excited nonsense to: “I saw this guy and he was doing this thing on the water with a parasail and ripping super fast and flying up in the air spinning and then I don’t know what else but it looked incredible.”

It may have become commonplace in many coastal towns in America by now, but when kitesurfers are spotted in Alaska they still arouse outbursts of excitement. Lots of people in my hometown have surprised me with descriptions of UFO’s seen last weekend when they were walking their dog on the beach. I usually have the pleasure of asking them if they saw the little floating head with the big camera in the water as well. So far I seem to go mostly unnoticed, or they don’t hear my question because they are talking over me trying to explain this crazy thing they saw.

So what is kitesurfing? Basically it’s flying a huge kite that is so powerful that it can drag you around, up, and down. The kite has 4 lines attached allowing you to control its flight, it has a ‘control bar’ which you steer with, and it attaches to a harness you wear that. The surfing part happens when you get out on the water and stand on your board which is a cross between a wakeboard and a surfboard. The kite then drags you to and fro, lifting you off the water when you fly it certain ‘zones’ above you. This tangle of lines and fabric, which easily fits in a backpack, launched into a 15 mph wind will amaze anyone with its Hummer like horsepower. One of the greatest and most magical things about kitesurfing is this incredible power available without the consumption of fossil fuels; a non-motorized sport that can thrill even a diehard motorhead. Kiting brings a whole other level of excitement with it’s reliance on wind, especially when you sense that maybe your not in total control of the situation- similar to riding in your girlfriend’s car when the roads are icy.

These photos were taken in Homer, Alaska; where every sunny summer day brings a daybreeze onshore creating ideal kitesurfing conditions. A growing number of the locals have started making the most of this setting, allowing me some good opportunities to shoot Alaskan kitesurfing photos. We have been discussing plans to pioneer a few of the countless ‘unkited’ locations around Alaska, so stay tuned for trip reports from the Kite Alaska team. If you are interested in getting involved post a comment below.

Surf in my Alaskan hometown is a seasonal event. Seven months of the year our surfboards would sit collecting dust if we chose to sit and wait for the weather patterns to shift and the swells to surge our way again. This spring with a long summer of no surf approaching, I was excited to get the call from Don (a.k.a. Iceman)-  Alaska Airlines is having a sale . . surf trip to Yakutat at the end of May!

Some creative thinking brought about a plan to send Iceman’s four wheeler down to Yakutat on the Alaska marine highway ferry with our 12 surfboards. The 10 of us would follow along a week later in the jet. This worked out great, saving us hundreds of dollars in excess baggage charges and as a major bonus we had a beach buggy waiting for us in Yakutat. Iceman put his carpentry to work and slammed together an African-safari style rack for the wheeler that made it possible to put all those boards on the poor thing and still drive it onto the ferry.We were very excited when we found the four wheeler in Yakutat still upright despite it’s top heaviness from all our surfboards on the surf-safari rack.

Once in Yakutat we rented a suburban, piled in as many surfers as would fit, then crammed a couple more in, then exhaled all together and slammed the doors. Thirty painful minutes, and 30,000+ jarring potholes later we burst from the suburban at our beachside resort  a soggy stand of trees with a nice spongy undergrowth of moss. We later learned that notoriously rainy Yakutat had actually broken a rainfall record the day before our arrival. The next couple hours were spent trying to find dry wood for a fire, before we finally gave up and used the four wheeler gas instead. With our domestic chores out of the way, we scrambled into our wetsuits, waxed our surfboards, and headed for the water.

So began a four day surfing marathon. I am still in shock at the amount of surfing a few mid-fifty year old diehards can do. Of course, they may credit it to the handfuls of anti-inflammatories they would eat for desert each night, but pills and whiskey aside, that was still astounding feat of surfing dedication. There must be something about Alaskan surfers and the challenges that they must overcome to surf the last frontier that drives them to another level of addiction. I used my photography excuse to take rest breaks on several occasions while my surfing buddies/models just kept going, and going, and then it would get too dark to photograph, and they are still surfing. This is really saying something during an Alaskan summer where the sun doesn’t even set until after 10pm.

The surf was great for our entire stay, each day the wave faces shifted between chest high to a few feet overhead depending on the stage of the tide. We felt fortunate with very little rain and even some sunshine during our stay. The views of Mt. St. Elias were few and fleeting, but I did manage to get a couple photographs of it one gorgeous evening as we walked the beach to our campsite at sunset.

For most of us, this was our first surfing trip to Yakutat, but I doubt it will be the last. Everyone had a great time, and I don’t think I’m alone looking forward to the next time the phone rings and Iceman says Pack your bags, Surf trip to Yakutat- Yahooo!

If you have your own story to tell or questions about surfing in Yakutat (or Alaska in general) leave a comment below.

To see images from the trip – click here for a Surfing Yakutat, Alaska photo gallery.