Archive for the ‘Abstracts’ Category
Saturday, June 26th, 2010
Morning reflection, beaver pond, Wrangell St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Please click on the thumbnail to view a larger version of the photo.
Hey Folks
Here’s a quick shot from my recent few weeks in Wrangell – St. Elias National Park and Preserve. I’m leaving in the morning for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and will return in 2 weeks. I’ll try to post something from that trip then. Until that time, I hope you enjoy this scene.
This photo was taken maybe an hour after dawn – around 4:30 am.
Cheers
Carl
Tags: Alaska, boreal forest, Carl Donohue, Landscape features, reflections, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Wrangell St. Elias
Posted in Abstracts, Alaska, Forests, Lakes, Landscape features, Summertime, Trees, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | 6 Comments »
Thursday, February 25th, 2010
A bald eagle headshot, silhouetted against a glowing sunset, Kachemak Bay, Homer, Alaska. Click the image to view a larger version of the photo.
Hey Folks,
I read a great blog on art yesterday, by Paul Grecian. The subject was a play on the aural equivalent of the old adage, ‘if a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it does it make a sound’. Paul takes the viewpoint that art is a human pursuit, and exists only when it has a human audience. “If there is no human to perceive it and translate the experience into an emotion, then there is no art” - I’m not so sure I subscribe to that idea, for a number of reasons.
I think art is a verb; art is something we do. The results of that process might be nice to look at, or not, or nice to listen to, but the essence of art is creating. The act of creating is where art lies, not the products of that process. And we are not at all the sole creators. An American Tree Sparrow calling the tune of the alpine country is as artful as Joshua Bell playing a Beethoven concerto. The dance of the Japanese Red Crowned Crane is glorious. A Bower bird’s building her nest? The song of the wolf pack over the frozen night air is as spell-binding as Aretha or Stevie on a good day, no? What distinguishes human art from the performances of our fellow creatures, other than our own ability (and endeavours) to relate to it?
Art is essentially play. (more…)
Tags: Alaska, Art, bald eagle, Birds, Carl Donohue, humans, nature, silhouette, Skolai Images, Wildlife
Posted in Abstracts, Alaska, Art, Birds, Musings, Photography, Sunsets | 13 Comments »
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
Fluting and deep power on the St. Elias mountains. Wrangell – St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Click on the image for a larger version.
Hey Folks,
As promised, more photos from the St. Elias mountains. An aerial I shot on one of the most gorgeous days I’ve ever been out shooting. On the subject of the newly released film, Mount St. Elias:
Few people realize just how special these mountains are. Everyone knows Denali, of course, and the Himalayas, but the St. Elias mountains just don’t seem to have caught the public eye like these others. I suspect it’s because they’re full of ”seconds”: 2nd highest mountain in the US (Mount. St. Elias, second highest mountain Canada (Mount St. Elias, also known as Boundary Peak 186, sits on the US/Canada border), 2nd highest mountain in North America (Mt. Logan in Canada is in the St. Elias range). We’re a culture of competition, and there really ain’t no second prize. (more…)
Tags: Aerial Photos, Alaska, Carl Donohue, Landscape features, Mountains, National Park, photos, Preserve, Saint Elias, St. Elias, Wrangell
Posted in Abstracts, Aerial Photos, Alaska, Landscape features, Mountains, News, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
Looking down from a great height at some of the amazing escarpments in the St. Elias Mountain Range, Wrangell – St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Hey Folks,
Have you ever thought about climbing the 2nd highest mountain in the US, the 2nd highest mountain in Canada, the 3rd highest mountain in North America, the mountain with the greatest vertical relief of any mountain in the world so you can ski from top to bottom? From 18 008′ to the sea? If so, this movie’s for you. Mount St. Elias. 2 Austrian mountaineers and an American freeski mountaineer set out to run the “ultimate vertical descent” – 18 000 of skiing from the summit of Mount St. Elias to the sea, to Icy Bay. Pretty amazing stuff to watch, I can’t begin to imagine what that kind of endeavor must be like.
“If you want to achieve something great, you have to risk more than usual – that’s the way it is.” — (Axel Naglich) (more…)
Tags: Aerial Photos, Carl Donohue, Elias, films, images, Landscape features, Mount, Mount St. Elias, Mountains, movies, Mt. St. Elias, photos, Saint, scenics, Skolai Images, snow, St., Wrangell - St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Wrangell St. Elias
Posted in Abstracts, Aerial Photos, Alaska, Cool stories, Landscape features, Mountains, News, Photography, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | 3 Comments »
Monday, December 7th, 2009
Fall in the boreal forest, aspen tree trunks, Wrangell – St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska
Hey Folks,
A quick visit back to September; the boreal forest is a melange of color in the fall. The vibrancy of the Alaska woods in the fall is a function, perhaps, of the speed at which the dramatic changes take place. The green foliage of summer glimpses the oncoming winter and is gone in the blink of an eye; one last hurrah of color before settling in, nestled beneath the whites of winter.
Cheers
Carl
Tags: Abstracts, Alaska, Aspen, autumn, boreal, Carl Donohue, color, Fall, foliage, forest, images, Landscape features, photos, Skolai Images, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Wrangell St. Elias
Posted in Abstracts, Alaska, Fall, Forests, Trees, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009
Swimming naked. Click on the image for a larger version.
Hey Folks,
Here’s a quick quiz – easy, if you look close. Where do you think this image was taken?
Cheers
Carl
Tags: Alaska, ANWR, arctic ocean, beaufort Sea, Canning River, Carl Donohue, Frank, naked, skinny-dipping, swimming
Posted in Abstracts, Adventures, Alaska | 9 Comments »
Thursday, November 5th, 2009
Camera panning blurs the boles of Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) in Wrangell – St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska.
Hey Folks,
Here’s a follow up to my most recent post of this small aspen stand in Wrangell – St. Elias National Park and Preserve. Aspens aren’t doing so well in the warming climate we’re seeing in the world today. It’s more than a shame, they’re such a magnificent tree. I remember the first time I ever camped beneath the canopy of a stand of aspen, not far off the Resurrection Pass Trail in Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula. A quick dinner of pasta and tuna, some cocoa and a Milky Way for dessert, and my sleeping bag called my name; just as I settled in to that beautiful state of semi-consciousness between wakefulness and sleep, those moments when all the world is your friend, a slight breeze rustled through the forest, the indescribable sound instantly hooking my complete attention. (more…)
Tags: Abstracts, Alaska, boles, Carl Donohue, photos, Populus tremuloides, Quaking aspen, Trees, trunks, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Wrangell St. Elias
Posted in Abstracts, Alaska, Fall, Forests, Musings, Trees, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
Quaking aspen, Populus tremuloides, Wrangell – St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska.
Hey Folks,
I was looking through some older images tonight, and found this one from last fall. This is from a little stand of Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) that I’ve photographed a few times. I’d actually been looking for some wildlife to photograph, but was thwarted yet again in my quest, so, as the light faded, I headed for this stand of aspen. I had photographed them a number of times, but never really played with the camera panning technique here before. This was a situation where digital photography was a real help; I could take an image, review the frame on the LCD on the back of the camera, and see what I liked, or disliked, and figure out what I needed to do in order to create the kind of image I was looking for.
Now, generally I don’t post the ‘photo techs’ on images, because I think to do is largely useless information. (more…)
Tags: Abstracts, Alaska, Art, boles, Carl Donohue, creative process, Forests, images, photos, Populus tremuloides, Quaking aspens, Trees, trunks, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Wrangell St. Elias
Posted in Abstracts, Alaska, Art, Fall, Forests, Photography, Tech Stuff, Trees, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | 6 Comments »
Friday, October 30th, 2009
Hey Folks,
One of the photos I wanted this year was some slower shutter speed blurs of grizzly bears chasing spawning Sockeye Salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) up the river. This kind of image is difficult to do with grizzly bears; well, not difficult to do, but difficult to manage a photo that works. More so, I think, than with most other animals. The result of this is that it seems to take about 5 times as many attempts to get a decent ‘panblur’ of a grizzly bear than it might, for example, of a caribou or wolf. What I’m calling a ‘panblur’, for those of you who aren’t certain, is a technique of slowing down the shutter speed when shooting movement, so that the subject becomes blurred, rather than crisp and sharp. You can see in the image above the spashing water and the legs of the bear are not to sharp at all. By panning the camera along with the bear as it races through the water, (more…)
Tags: action, AK, Alaska, animals, bears, Brooks River, Carl Donohue, dramatic, fishing, Grizzly Bears, images, Katmai, Katmai National Park, Katmai National Park and Preserve, mammals, photos, running, Ursus arctos, Wildlife
Posted in Abstracts, Alaska, Art, Grizzly Bears, Katmai National Park, Musings, Photography, Tech Stuff, Wildlife | 7 Comments »
Thursday, October 29th, 2009
A snow covered spruce tree stands in winter, Wrangell – St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska.
Hey Folks,
Today was pretty dreary weather here in Alaska, so I thought I might go with yesterday’s theme of black and white winter landscapes. I shot this lone snow covered spruce tree one afternoon last January. We had a cold spell, with some gorgeous clear days, and not a breath of air moved.
(more…)
Tags: AK, Alaska, black and white, Carl Donohue, images, Landscape features, photos, scenics, snow, spruce tree, stillness, tree, Winter, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park, Wrangell St. Elias
Posted in Abstracts, Alaska, Landscape features, Musings, Trees, Winter, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | 7 Comments »
