Scott Dickerson

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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

  • Talent. Do you have it, or does it have you?

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    To succeed as a photographer you gotta have talent they tell me. Ok, talent, what are you and where do I go for a second helping? I turned to the dictionary and here is what I found: Talent is a natural aptitude for a thing. Aptitude is a natural ability. Natural is something that exists or is caused by nature, not made by human kind. Read– out of reach, unattainable by human kind.

    This search for talent looks like it might be a short one that already ended. But, I’m still curious how talent is defined in a photographer and where this natural ability makes its appearance.

    Some have told me that I have talent for photography. I believe that they say this because they find a photograph I created engaging, beautiful, or surprising in some way. When I look for the mysterious talent amongst the process of creating those images I’m hoping that there will be an ‘ah hah’ discovery that will unlock the floodgates of talent in my future image making. I’m also hoping to find proof that little me is actually Mr. Big Time the bearer of great talent. Instead I see that these examples of talent are merely the product of countless unimpressive little details all coinciding in a moment that I looked through an electronic gadget and pushed a button. Surely there must be more to this! There are two areas within this process that I suspect talent may be hiding.

    1. In the previsualization of an image. In order to be considered talented, I believe it’s necessary for an image maker to have images flash through his mind. These are ideas that are later created as photographs. I would define these visualizations as something that naturally exists beyond our control. As an artist I think we can make room for them, but really they come in from outside our minds. Think about food . . .did an image of pizza appear? If so you might have a talent there!

    2. The visualized images is just that, nothing more, without the production process. These are the countless little things that must happen for a photo to be created – organizing logistics, finding a location, arranging the subjects etc..These things are important no doubt, but I don’t think such individual feats as remembering to bring the camera battery is what we consider talent. However, the collection of all these things with the required focus, motivation, and dedication to bring them together into a photograph might be.

    The way I see it today – Talent is something that others say we have and something that we say others say we have. Really, in my humble opinion I think talent is a perceived and mysterious possession of an artist. The artist himself also finds this natural ability somewhat mysterious, but knows that if he does his work and sets the table, talent might just show up again.

    Unfortunately I couldn’t find any unquestionable examples of talent in my archive, so I’ve settled for a few aerial photos of a sunset over Kachemak Bay and the Kenai Mountains that I enjoy. Many things came together for these photos, actually ‘taking’ the photo was just another one of the countless required details. I could just as readily claim that I have a talent for living in a beautiful place as I do for photography. They are both things I thoroughly enjoy, but don’t claim ownership or title to.

    PS if you were hoping for the secret to success, I can show you where to find it. It’s here in a 3 minute video from TED.

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  • Air to air photos of MD 530 helicopter

    air to air aerial photo of MD 530 helicopter in flight

    I remember walking out of the post office and looking up to catch just a glimpse of the small yellow helicopter zipping by overhead. For the months since, anytime I’ve heard the beating of helicopter rotors I jump up and scurry to the windows with binoculars. This little fixation started before the MD 530 came to town, and it’s not just limited to helicopters. I love flying, and not surprisingly, some of this passion for flight splashed onto the machines that make it possible. I think it’s well understood that I’m always very excited by the opportunity to create aerial photographs. This particular shoot was a real treat being able to watch and photograph this incredible helicopter in flight. Special thanks to George and Charlie Mandes for working with me to make this a reality.  As an aerial photographer I’m very dependent on the pilots to help bring all the pieces together into a photograph.  As you can see, they both did a great job.

    Ingredient list for a big smile and some exciting aerial photos:

    • One fan of flight
    • One passionate photographer
    • Two skilled pilots with good communication
    • One beautiful winter sunset with mountains and alpenglow
    • Two cameras
    • One aircraft with opening windows (Husky A-1B)
    • One aircraft to model (MD 530F)

    Toss the ingredients for approximately 45 minutes. More results displayed below.

    air to air aerial photo of MD 530 helicopter in flight

    air to air aerial photo of MD 530 helicopter in flight

    air to air aerial photo of MD 530 helicopter in flight