Scott Dickerson

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  • Surfing a winter blizzard in Cook Inlet, Alaska

    Mike McCune surfing Alaska in a winter blizzard.
    Mike McCune surfing Alaska in a winter blizzard.

    Heavy freezing spray warnings come up in marine weather forecasts when the weatherman predicts the spray from waves will be freezing on boats at sea.  Well, boats weren’t the only things encountering heavy freezing spray today on Cook Inlet in South central Alaska.

    Mike McCune and Gart Curtis were surfing a heavy shore break near the village of Ninilchik in what the weatherman would certainly qualify as heavy freezing spray conditions. I haven’t edited the photos yet, but couldn’t wait to share this single shot of Mike surfing a vengeful looking wave with chunks of ice strewn across a frozen beach in the foreground. It looks like he’s really close to the beach. And that’s because he is, honestly my heart skipped a beat a few seconds afer this shot when the wave swallowed him as it crushed onto the steep ice covered incline of the beach.

    Air temps were just below 10ºF. Winds were around 10-20mph and snow was blowing in all direction.  More shots to come.  In the meantime, if you want more, visit SurfAlaska.net for more alaska surfing photos.

  • Nature with people – a work in progress

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    For several months now I’ve had a photo concept rolling about in my mind.

    In words it is something like this: A beautiful image of nature with a secondary element of a person actively engaged in an adventure, fitness, or well being activity. The beauty of nature is the focus, the person is just there enjoying it in a positive way. The motivation for this creative desire comes from my personal love of nature and the adventures enjoyed there. Highlights in my life are usually adventurous moments in inspiring natural settings so this, I suppose, is a way to share that.

    Danielle Thompson told me about this beatiful grass field nearby that she had hiked through a few days prior. We went back on a gorgeous December day and she got a nice running workout in and I got to work on this creative concept.  Some of you might recognize this style/concept from one of my favorite photos that I posted in my recent ‘passion in photography‘ entry. The photo of the uncurling fiddleheads with Erika running by certainly caught my fancy and helped form a love for this visual message.

    Below are a few more photos from the shoot.

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  • Surfing Alaska in icy ’09

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    It’s ten minutes before midnight, maybe I’m having a case of midnight stoke, but I can’t help but share this photo. I jumped on the computer to check email before bed and accidentally glanced over the thumbnails for a recent surf session / photo shoot.  January 5th, 2009. This shot caught my fancy, I hope it does the same for you.

    It’s been an unusually cold week for our little seaside town with temps dipping below 0º F at night. Fortunately though, with the cold weather came a few great days of surf after Christmas and into the new year giving us surfers something to really celebrate.

    Strange things start happening on the beaches when the thermometer drops like this. Take the above photo for an example.  Alaskan surfer, Jake Beaudoin, is standing on what are normally black boulders. Today they look more like marshmellows, however as another surfing buddy pointed out, they are much more slippery than a marshmellow! What seems to be going on here is the receding tide slowly draws the waves away from the very cold rocks and we have what the local fishermen and wethermen call ‘Freezing Spray’ as the splashing water freezes onto the rocks. And in case you were wondering, yes, this freezing spray does occur on the body of a surfer as well.

    There are a lot more photos to share from this last week, and I’m trying to get through editing them. Though today the cold had me distracted searching for a new wood stove…  In the meantime I have some links for the curious:
    – See a short gallery of Alaska surfing photos
    – or browse a couple hundred Alaska surfing photos from the last couple years at my online archive
    – and if you really want more of the scoop on surfing in Alaska visit another site I’m building – SurfAlaska.net.

    Stay warm out there.

  • News in the new year

    Emma Teal Laukitis pioneering into the new year.
    Emma Teal Laukitis pioneering her way into 2009

    The Scott Dickerson photography website is rolling out some updates here in the new year. Looking to the upper right of your browser you’ll see a couple new links in the navigation options – Archive and News.

    I’m excited to share the link to my growing online photo archive. This project is still young with only several hundred images online, but it is growing weekly now and I have big plans for its future. The main focus with the archive right now is editing photos from my work in Bristol Bay and getting them online. Stay tuned, lots more to come including online print ordering and rights licensing options. The archive, powered by photoshelter, has also proven to be a great help working with clients on image review and delivery.

    Speaking of clients, who are my clients? Occasionally I’m asked what I do as a photographer. I don’t have a quick simple response to this question, but as of today I do have a news section on the website where curious minds can learn more about the business side of Scott Dickerson Photography. To start things off, I’ve posted a couple dozen little blurbs about somewhat recent publications and assignments. The list is not meant to be comprehensive and was mostly formed by digging through files for saved ‘tearsheets’ (samples of my published work). I expect this news reporting to evolve over time, but generally the goal is to share the business events around here.

    Also new in the last couple weeks are links to my facebook profile, and twitter feed. I’m doing the social media, web 2.0 stuff and if you haven’t tried it yourself here’s another chance. Initially I shied away from these online social networking tools, now I’ve jumped in and it’s much better than expected. I hope you’ll take a moment to add me as a ‘friend’ on facebook and/or follow me on Twitter.

    The photo at the top is from a just-for-fun photo shoot with a few friends on the last day of December.

  • Merry Christmas – may you stomp the landing.

    Aaron Ulmer getting in the spirit.
    Aaron Ulmer getting in the spirit.

    When I called Paul Bacher to get an update on the snowboarding conditions yesterday he said they were just about ready to light the christmas tree. I wasn’t quite sure what he meant, but soon there I was climbing around in this little tree stringing lights as Paul and Aaron packed out the runway, poured water on the jump to firm it up, and got the generator ready for lights, camera, action.

    Paul Bacher
    Paul Bacher
    Aaron Ulmer. No, that's not his only move, it just looked the best.
    Aaron Ulmer. No, that's not his only move, it just looked the best.
    Behind the scenes, Paul repairs the jump
    Behind the scenes, Paul repairs the jump