Ice Sculptures

Some awesome rewards for braving the cold of the Alaskan winter, I found all sorts of interesting ice formations in the form of frozen falls, glacial caves and lakes locked in 6′ of ice.  Granted it took about 6 months for me to regain feeling in my toes again, but at the time it seemed like a small price to pay for such wonderful and unique views.

A cave cut into a thin glacier turns the whole world blue.

Bubbles from lake bottom collect and get frozen in layers of ice at Abraham’s Lake.

A small frozen falls in Maligne Canyon, Jasper, which I illuminated with some flashlights.

A section of Wapta Falls, frozen solid.

The view from behind the frozen falls pictured below.

The falls frozen over in Johnston Canyon, Banff

Falls in Maligne Canyon make a perfect playground for ice climbers.

The Mendenhall glacier in Juneau cuts its way around the cliffside in its slow descent.

A small falls was encased in a giant bell of ice, with a hole just big enough for me to fit a lens in.

A wall of ice shows a bit of the Athabasca glacier under a winter’s worth of snowfall.

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Kennecott, Alaska

A collection of shots that I’m still catching up on from last winter’s trip, this bunch from around Wrangell-St. Elias, a remote national park in Alaska, as well as the remains of a lot of mining history and abandoned structures dotted along the Alaskan and Yukon wilderness.

The remains of an old roadhouse somewhere along the Yukon highway.

The ruins of a concentration mill, 7 stories into a hill, overlooking a serene frozen lake.

It’s wonderful the gov’t stepped up to preserve this amazing slice of American history, the Kennecott copper mining town, overlooking a massive glacier.

A trestle towards an old mining town hangs on to its last legs in the remote Wrangell-St. Elias National Park in Alaska. 

Independence Mine and Hatcher’s Pass, Alaska

I’ve been bad about posting awhile, as I’d basically been living on the road for the last year or two.  But I’m back at the computer and ready to share what’s been my most prolific period yet.  The road took me from Los Angeles to northern Alaska in the dead of winter, and then right back up the following autumn with plenty of adventures in between.  There’s so much to show I’m not sure where to begin, so I’ll just start with my favorites and see where we end up.

I was wandering around SE Alaska, restocking on supplies in Anchorage, when the cashier told me about a Independence Mine, an hour north in the mountains above Hatcher’s Pass.  What a tip! I found one of the coolest and most well-preserved historic sites I’ve stumbled upon. Even with snow shoes, it was one of those miserable hikes where every few steps I’d posthole up to my waist, but after battling the snow drifts and spending 2 hours to hike only a mile, the town did not disappoint!  I ended up making three trips here over the next week, and each night the changing weather and auroras made for a wonderful array of lighting to play with.

There’s a whole other set of images from this location, that I took when I went back to Alaska the following autumn, so stay tuned and I’ll get those up here soon.

Iceland’s Most Epic Falls

A view of a few of Iceland’s most epic, Seljalandsfoss, Skogafoss, Godafoss and Gullfoss

Dynjandi and Dettifoss

Two of the most epic falls in Iceland:  Dettifoss is Europe’s biggest waterfall, while Dynjandi has more tiers and trickles than any fall I’ve ever seen, covering nearly an entire mountainside.  It may look peaceful where I’m standing, I was drenched head to toe by the time I made it up there.  And even shooting on a 200mm more than 100 ft from the falls, I had to run back and dry off my lens after every take, but easily worth it in my opinion.