The fireweed in my front yard is half way done with its annual bloom. To an Alaskan that means summer is soon coming to a close. To an Alaskan photographer that means the fields are turning magenta and I only have so long to work with this amazing natural color event before it passes. The weather has not been so great for the last week, but I wanted to start scouting some locations to visit again when the light is right. Stephanie and I hiked up the local ‘homestead trail’ last night and played. I’m also practicing with a new lens I purchased last week – Canon TS-E 24mm. It’s a ’tilt-shift’ lens that does some funky depth of field tricks that many of you are probably familiar with. These shots are a continuation of my work connecting people with nature.
Stephanie Haynes (Anahata-Alaska.com) practicing Yoga at the edge of Cook Inlet.
The thing about Summer in Alaska is – It’s here and very real, but not to stay. I’ve been busy making the most of it, which leaves little time to talk about it. Less talk, more fun. The pleasures abound: Taking photos, surfing, harvesting wild plants, kayaking, flying my paramotor (there’s a story to tell), and occasionally sleeping for a few hours between sunrise and sunset.
I’m continuing to explore the ‘nature with people‘ concept. Below are a few recent images resulting from this desire. Thanks to Stephanie for helping create these and many more.
So, maybe this one was really from spring, but it felt like summer to us.
A couple weeks ago I posted a very brief note about a photo shoot I had just completed in Prince William Sound, Alaska documenting the crude oil that is still present on the beaches there. This was done on assignment for the World Wildlife Fund who is working to bring attention to the sad fact that 20 years after the oil was spilled, 19 years after the cleanup was ‘completed’, this toxic substance is still there, still contaminating this particularly beautiful environment.
Twenty years is a long time.
I got to thinking about this.
The place where we photographed and collected some of this oil was several feet below the high tide mark. Every twelve hours the ocean rises up to high tide and washes that beach, sometimes vigorously with wave and currents. I did a quick calculation – It’s been 20 years, 7,300 days, 14,600 high tides and the oil is still there just a few inches below the surface layer of rocks. This is truly amazing. It’s hard to comprehend the effects this oil must still be having on the environment in Prince William Sound as it slowly and constantly leeches out of the gravel into the water.
This sobering thought has changed the way I look at the oil industry that we collectively support. As long as we are buying oil in its myriad of products the tankers will keep transporting it. Shipping is safer now than it was in 1989, but by no means is it without risk. As we watch gas prices climb I hope that it will act as a reminder to us of the real cost of oil. What is paid at the pump is a drop in the ocean of the real costs associated with this industry, and we all bear it in many ways. Some sly ones such as health issues from pollution, others are obvious such as the devastation of the environment in such a precious place as Prince William Sound.
It’s clear that the oil industry is not good for us. What can one person do? I think we each need to answer this for ourselves. My approach is two fold: First I’m improving my awareness of consumption. What do I do that consumes oil or its byproducts? How do I minimize this consumption? Secondly, I am working on alternative energy sources to replace my oil consumption.
Below is an embedded slideshow of the 138 images from this trip that I’ve uploaded to the online photo archive. Mostly what you’ll see is a lot of beautiful scenery, mountains, glacier ice, whales, sea lions, sunsets and moon rises, then some documentation of the oily rock collection.
Special thanks to David Janka with the charter vessel ‘Auklet’ who made this trip not only possible, but also a very comfortable and productive three days in Prince William Sound. If you are looking for a boat to charter in Prince William Sound I can strongly recommend the Auklet with David as captain.
This photo is another in an ongoing concept I’m working on – Photographing nature with a secondary human element. If you’d like to read more about this concept see the previous post Nature with people.
The shot is compliments of chunks of ice on the shoreline of Kachemak Bay, Alaska and the lovely model Stephanie Haynes. We only had a few minutes, due to both schedules and the fading light. As much as I like the shot above, I’m certainly not finished with this idea. Hopefully I’ll have more to post sometime soon.
I’m in the Anchorage airport on my way home. But don’t tell anyone . . . I’m smuggling hazardous waste on the flight. The toxic waste is 80 pounds of rocks from the beaches in Prince William Sound, Alaska. The photo above tells the story quicker than I can with words. Let me just tell you that it wasn’t hard to find more than enough rocks covered with stinky crude oil. I could have sunk the boat. Gotta run for now, more later.
