Caribou in the Brooks range mountains

Caribou on the mountain ridges of the Brooks range--all the little brown dots in the foreground, I'm guessing perhaps 1000 in this group.
Click on the image to see it larger.

Thanks to a generous friend, colleague, pilot, Hugh Rose, I spent an afternoon flying over the Brooks range looking at caribou along the mountain ridges. These are reportedly from the Porcupine caribou herd that migrates across the Brooks range and eventually reaches the calving grounds of Alaska's arctic north slope. Aggregations of 100 to 1000 animals could be seen feeding on the windswept mountain ridges where I presume access to food was a bit easier than the heavy snow-laden lowlands. The Brooks range is always an experience of immense wilderness. The mountains go on and on, with scarcely a node of human habitation. Conditions were far from optimal from almost every perspective but I grabbed a few photos that show how mobile and hardy this animal is, able to trek the high and low country and travel for miles. The vista of a large group of caribou migrating in a long line eluded us, although we saw many tracks revealing amazing photo ops if the timing was right.

The never ending mountain ridges of the Brooks range mountains.

Trucking on the Haul road

Truckers travel the Haul road north of the Brooks range, arctic, Alaska.
Canon 1Ds Mark III, 500mm f4L IS, 1/500 sec @ f8, ISO 400

The James Dalton Highway was built as an access road to the Arctic ocean during the days of the of the Trans Alaska Pipeline construction. It still serves the main purpose of supplying the oil fields of the arctic north slope coast. Its a rugged road, and passes through some formidable country, particularly in winter. I often hear weather alerts of road closures due to wind and snow, and flash floods in the summer months. Before travel, checking current road conditions is essential.

The truckers that navigate this route routinely (500 miles between Fairbanks and Prudhoe Bay) do so in all types of weather. There is often a dramatic scene of a trucker cruising the road, which helps depict the emptiness and ruggedness of this region. The highway traverses the Brooks range via Atigun pass, the highest road pass in Alaska.

Nearly every trip north for me results in a cracked windshield, and my last trip was no exception. Heavy snow and high winds can quickly obscure and diminish the road to one lane, or simply impassable. Snow drifts, once plowed, can rebuild in a matter of minutes. This was the case recently but I could find no place to pull over to position myself for good photography, and it was too dangerous, with limited visibility to just stop in the road. So, you don't see any of those cool-could-have-been-photos. Plus, it was minus 20 degrees and ripping wind.

Oddly, ice is purposely put on the road during the winter to stabilize surface material, arctic, Alaska.
Canon 1Ds Mark III, 16-35mm f2.8L , 1/320 sec @ f18, ISO 200

Road markers help distinguish the shoulder during snowy conditions, arctic north slope, Alaska.
Canon 1Ds Mark III, 100-400 (220mm) mm f5.6L , 1/500 sec @ f18, ISO 400

Caribou trek across the tundra as a trucker passes through Atigun canyon, arctic, Alaska.
Canon 1Ds Mark III, 100-400mm f5.6L (130mm) , 1/400 sec @ f7.1, ISO 200

Trucker climbs the road through Atigun Pass of the Brooks range, arctic, Alaska.
Canon 1Ds Mark III, 100-400mm f5.6L , 1/640 sec @ f10, ISO 200

Heavy winds create drifts in seconds on the Dalton Highway, arctic, Alaska.
Canon 1Ds Mark III, 100-400mm f5.6L , 1/640 sec @f9, ISO 200

Weathering the weather

Bull Muskox in blowing snow
Canon 1Ds Mark III, 500mm f4.0L IS, 1/500 sec @ f7.1, ISO 400

I just returned from a week of photography in Alaska's arctic. Surprisingly, late March and April still deliver significant sub zero temperatures in the far north, even as the sunlight rushes back at a rapid pace. I'm finding, as time goes by, that waiting out long periods of weather becomes increasingly more difficult. Mainly due to the boredom of waiting for light, which can be considerable in length of hours and days. This is when Podcasts on the IPhone become real valuable--no radio in that country.

I'm usually dressed in many layers, capped off with a big down parka and fur hat. On one excursion in very strong winds, I was hot from trudging around on snowshoes and pulled off my parka hood and hat for a second. That resulted in a light frost bite to my left ear. It only takes seconds in those conditions.

Below are a few photos from the venture. In 6 days, I took less than 1000 pictures, pretty slim shooting. But, I captured a few keepers, and actually photographed the aurora borealis, which has been an elusive subject this winter due to the absence of solar storms. This was also my first chance to test out Canon's new 24mm 1.4L II, which in quick summary, seems immensely improved over the previous version for sharpness. I'll explore that in a later post.

Crescent moon over the Brooks range
Canon 1Ds Mark III, 500mm f4.0L IS, 1/10 sec @ f4.0, ISO 800

Boreal Chickadee
Canon 1Ds Mark III, 500mm f4.0L IS, with 1.4x, 1/1250 sec @ f6.3, ISO 400

Male Pine Grosbeak
Canon 1Ds Mark III, 500mm f4.0L IS, with 1.4x, 1/250 sec @ f6.3, ISO 400

Aurora borealis and star trails over the Brooks range mountains.
Canon 1Ds Mark III, 24mm f1.4L II, 15 min @ f8, ISO 800

Aurora borealis over the Brooks range mountains.
Canon 1Ds Mark III, 24mm f1.4L II, 20 sec @ f1.4, ISO 1000

Semi tractor travels the Haul road in high winds and blowing snow
Canon 1Ds Mark III, 100-400mm f5.6L, 1/640 @ f9, ISO 250

Wind blown snow and spruce trees
Canon 1Ds Mark III, 16-35mm f2.8L, 1/800 @ f11, ISO 400

Polar bear photos

We have added a few new polar bear photos to the website from a trip in October to Alaska's arctic coast of the Beaufort Sea. Additionally, we made a polar bear gallery to supplement our polar bear information page.

Zastrugi

Zastrugi: wind blown snow patterns, Barter Island, Alaska

Canon 1Ds Mark III, 24-105 f4L IS, (45mm), 1/60 @ f/20, ISO 400

Zastrugi or "sastrugi" is a term used to describe patterns in the snow that coincide with the direction of the wind. In ground blizzards, snow patterns can actually serve as a compass if one knows the prevailing wind direction. They are also fantastic shapes to photograph. This was taken on Barter Island on Alaska's northern coast, looking off into the Beaufort Sea.

Snow drift art 2

Snow drifts, Barter Island, Alaska.

Canon 1Ds Mark III, 500mm 4L IS, 1/13 sec @ f/32, ISO 400

This is the same scene as the previous post just looking at a 90 degree angle on the snow drifts. I used a super telephoto to compress and isolate the interesting linear dimension sculpted by the wind and snow. Bright overcast skies gave a beautiful wrapped-lighting quality.

Snow drift art

Canon 1Ds Mark III, 28mm (24-105mm f4L IS) 160 sec @ f/22, ISO 400
Snow drifts, Barter Island, Alaska

I guess most nature photographers are opportunists and a bit omnivorous in their visual endeavors. I certainly am, and although I spend a fair amount of time photographing wildlife, my history depicts a gravitation towards landscapes. A snow fence caused these large drifts which presented a playground for a landscape photographer. In this composition, the wind-blown lines take one right into the scene. The linear pattern on the ground is nicely contrasted with the circular pattern in the sky. Most wide angle photographs have a strong foreground dimension. Although not mandatory, you will see it as a general rule.

Polar Bear Tracks

Polar bear tracks on wind-blown snow, Barter Island, Alaska.
Canon 1Ds Mark III, 24-105mm f4L IS, 1/50 sec @ f20, ISO 400

The strong winds of the arctic blow the snow vigorously across the tundra creating patterns on the hardened surface. The pressure of a polar bear foot upon the fresh snow remains as the snow around it is blown away, leaving a set of footprints that are raised upon the surface rather than depressed. Even the slight weight of an Arctic fox is enough to change the surface composition of the snow, and a track will remain as the snow around it is eroded by the wind. The shadows from the low angle light provide the necessary depth to distinguish the pattern details.

Cryptic Willow Ptarmigan

Willow ptarmigan in Atigun Pass, Brooks range, Alaska.
Canon 1Ds Mark III, 500mm 4L IS, 1/500 sec at f7.1, ISO 800

Willow ptarmigan turn a cryptic pure white in the winter to blend in with the snowy landscapes. Their black beak, rings around their eyes and tips of the tail are the only other distinguishable markings. This bird, photographed along the freshly covered snowy slopes of Atigun pass in the Brooks range is in the final few days of turning completely white. The former rusty brown phase of autumn has just a few remaining feathers. The bird seemed to know this somehow, as it moved quickly between the willow branches while feeding. I took hundreds of photos, each time getting a little closer as the bird became more comfortable with my presence. In the end, it walked so close to me that I could no longer focus on it with my camera lens.

White on white

Photography in Alaska's arctic, particularly in the snowy months, presents many subjects and scenes filled with white, and often a white subject on a white background. While traveling with a photo tour group, one of the sharp-eyed guests (thank you Skip) spotted this arctic fox curled up in a snow drift on a frozen lake.

Arctic fox, first frame from some distance.

arctic fox looked up occasionally during approach, taken on tripod

Alaska's arctic north slope is flat, and there are few geological features of relief. We decided to try to approach the fox, moving slowly. It seemed remarkably unconcerned by our slow approach, and we continued to photograph at each successively closer location.

closer yet, but lacking contrast

The white on white scene shows the effectiveness of the cryptic color phase that this fox adopts as the ground turns white with snow. However, I wanted more contrast. The only way to achieve this was to basically put the camera on the surface of the ice, as low as possible, in order to include some of the gray sky in the background. After some time, and many photographs, the fox gave us a few occasional glances, but eventually curled up in a ball and went back to sleep.

Canon 1Ds Mark III, 500mm f4L IS, with 1.4x (700mm)
Arctic fox, camera positioned on the ground to include the sky as contrast. 1/800 sec @ f6.3, ISO 800

The frames show the progression of photos from the first shot quite some distance away, to the final frames utilizing the sky for some contrast and color. There is usually an evolution in the process of shooting any given subject, and thinking about foreground, background, light direction, exposure, etc., all play into the challenge.

Caribou in taiga

Caribou in taiga, arctic, Alaska

Canon 1Ds Mark III, 500mm f4L IS, 1/500 sec @ 6.3, ISO 500, vertical crop

Most of my winter photography of caribou has been in the treeless arctic. The snow covered spruce trees make this image a little unique to my experience. This year on the north side of the Brooks range the caribou herds moved west and virtually none were visible along the Dalton Highway road corridor. This scene was captured near Finger mountain, from a group of perhaps 50-75 animals, a mix of cows and bulls.

Arctic photo tour

Polar bear on the sea ice, Beaufort Sea, arctic Alaska.
Canon 1Ds Mark III, 500mm 4.0L IS, 1/500 sec @ f5.6, ISO 800

Earlier in my photography career I guided a variety of photo tours throughout Alaska. I've recently scaled back to just one trip, which I co-guide with friend and colleague Hugh Rose. Hugh is a talented photographer and an extremely knowledgeable natural history guide. It is a foray into Alaska's arctic with a focus on the Aurora borealis and Polar bears, but other wildlife and landscapes of the arctic as well. We had a trip filled with photo opportunities, a little shy on the aurora this year, and lots of snow! I'll be posting a few images from that trip in the upcoming posts with a few comments regarding the nuances of the photos.