Archive for the ‘Forests’ Category
Monday, August 16th, 2010
The Copper river and Mt Drum, from Simpson Hill Overlook. View of the Copper River basin and Wrangell Mountains, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Please click on the image thumbnail to view a larger version of this photo.
Hey Folks,
OK, enough with the waterfalls already! Here’s another image from my spring trip earlier this year, from Simpson Hill Overlook, off the Richardson Highway, near Glennallen, Alaska. This is a scene I’ll never tire of; looking down the Copper River, with the Wrangell Mountains in glorious sunshine. The mountains you can see in this image are Mt. Drum on the left and Mt. Wrangell the broader, dome-shaped mountain on the right in the background.
Just out of sight to the left of the frame is Mt. Sanford, and Mt. Blackburn to the right. How many vantage points do you know of in North America where you might choose to exclude from your photo two mountains both of which stand over 16 000′ high? That speaks volumes, in my opinion, about how amazing this viewpoint is. The 5th (Blackburn) and 6th tallest peaks (Sanford) in the US and they don’t make the photo? Craziness!
The Copper River is pretty grand too. Not to get bogged down by meaningless numbers and superlatives, but the Copper River is 300 miles long, and the 10th largest river, by volume, in the US. The Copper River is also the north and western boundaries of Wrangell – St. Elias National Park and Preserve, coolest park in all the world! It’s perhaps best known, however, for its nearly infamous Red Salmon run, usually over 2 million spawning salmon, loaded with fatty Omega-3 oils that make for some delicious supper.
I was really hoping for some sweet delicious alpenglow on this particular evening …. but ….. alas, such wasn’t to be my fortune. The light faded soon after I shot this – the boreal forest in the foreground grew dark, and the mountain light ebbed and dwindled; distant dim clouds low on the northwestern horizon thwarted my efforts at capturing some rich color on the snow-capped peaks, as seems to be the case all too often.
This scene is one of the very few ‘roadside‘ vantage points from which to photograph some of the big mountains in Wrangell – St. Elias National Park and Preserve. Willow Lake is another. The views on a clear day from these places rival anything I’ve seen anywhere else. The problem, I guess, for photographers is that the clear days are few and far between. Enjoy ‘em when ya can! 
Cheers
Carl
Tags: Alaska, boreal forest, Copper River, Copper River basin, Glennallen, Landscape features, Mt Drum, Mt Wrangell, Richardson Highway, scenics, vistas, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Wrangell Mountains, Wrangell St. Elias
Posted in Alaska, Forests, Landscape features, Mountains, Rivers, Springtime, Travel, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | 5 Comments »
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 »
Wednesday, March 31st, 2010
View of Mt Blackburn from the Nugget Creek outhouse, winter, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Please click on the image to view a larger version of the photo.
Hey Folks,
How’s this for a view from an outhouse? 16 390′ tall Mt. Blackburn towering over the Wrangell mountains. I took a little spring soiree recently over to Wrangell – St. Elias National Park and ventured up the Kuskulana River and Nugget Creek area. I’ll be back there this summer hiking a couple of routes in the area, one of which I did last summer. There is a great public use cabin at Nugget Creek, which I stayed in for the week. The outhouse, which you can see here, looks directly at Mt Blackburn. It’s kind of a nice view to take your mind off things, so to speak.
Unfortunately, I chose a week of cloudy crappy weather, which I meant not a lot of great photo opps for me, but some good skiing and snowshoeing time in the area. Me and my Karhu skis went up the hills, down the hills, up the river, down the river, over the glacier, over the moraine and through the woods. I really enjoyed the trip.
I’ll try to post a little over the next week and catch up a bit; it’s always kinda weird coming back from the quiet of the woods to the social media world of blogs and facebooks and tweets and whatnot. Rather than come back inspired to write, I often come back inspired to “not write” - the quiet and stillness of the northern winter seems to steer me in a direction that is a little more ‘internal‘ and a lot less ‘external‘. It doesn’t do a lot for my blog, but it does a grand job on my soul.
Anyway, I hope you all had a great March, and here’s to spring!
Cheers
Carl
Tags: Alaska, Carl Donohue, Mt Blackburn, outhouse, photos, Winter, Wrangell St. Elias
Posted in Adventures, Alaska, Backpacking and Hiking, Forests, Landscape features, Mountains, Musings, Skiing, Winter, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | 2 Comments »
Thursday, January 28th, 2010
Snow covered spruce trees in the boreal forest, Wrangell St. Elias National Park, Alaska.
Hey Folks,
This photo from my most recent trip to Wrangell – St. Elias National Park and Preserve, over the Xmas- New Year. The note below was penned one beautiful evening last winter, by candlelight in a tiny cabin in the Alaska. There’s nothing quite like the silence and the cold of the boreal forest in an Alaskan winter.
The Paradox of Silence and the Cold
Silence is the aural equivalent of stillness. Both appear related to time, or at least our perception of it. Winter in the north seems to be abundant in both. The northern winter, often so harsh and unrelenting, is also the time when the place becomes still and silent. (more…)
Tags: Alaska, boreal forest, Carl Donohue, Landscape features, scenics, Skolai Images, snow, Winter, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park, Wrangell St. Elias
Posted in Alaska, Forests, Landscape features, Trees, Winter, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | 5 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 »
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
Winter landscape of sunset over Mt. Wrangell and the Copper River Basin. Mount Wrangell, Mount Zanetti and snow covered boreal forest of the Copper River Basin, Wrangell – St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Click the image to view larger version.
Hey Folks,
“We had a remarkable sunset one day last November .. It was such a light as we could not have imagined a moment before, and the air also was so warm and serene that nothing was wanting to make a paradise of that meadow. When we reflected that this was not a solitary phenomenon, never to happen again, but that it would happen forever and ever an infinite number of evenings, and cheer and reassure the latest child that walked there, it was more glorious still.
The sun sets on some retired meadow, where no house is visible, with all the glory and splendor that it lavishes on cities, and, perchance, as it has never set before, …. so pure and bright a light, …. so softly and serenely bright, I thought I had never bathed in such a golden flood, without a ripple or murmur to it.” – Henry David Thoreau, “Walking”.
For those of you perhaps unfamiliar with this essay, my advice is to read it carefully; those who’ve read it previously will do well to re-read the piece; it’s a classic. (more…)
Tags: Alaska, alpenglow, Carl Donohue, Copper River, Landscape features, Mount Wrangell, Mt Wrangell, national parks, scenics, Sunsets, Winter, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Wrangell St. Elias
Posted in Alaska, Forests, Landscape features, Mountains, Musings, Reviews, Sunsets, Winter, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | 6 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 »
Monday, November 2nd, 2009
Hey Folks,
As I said in a recent post, on my recent trip to Katmai National Park and Preserve I really hoped to make some images that featured not only the great grizzly bears, but also the awesome fall colors of the boreal forest . The Black Cottonwoods of the area provide the perfect background for photographing grizzly bears, but rarely do photographers seem to combine the 2. Most folks come up to Alaska and shoot the bears in the summer, and I think they’re missing out. The classic shot of a grizzly bear fishing for salmon at Brooks Falls is nice, and only generally possible mid-summer, of course, but there are a lot of other opportunities around in the fall that can be equally exciting. Great fall colors make stunning backdrops, and can really bring a vibrancy to the image. Stepping back, zooming out, and letting the scene dictate the photos is often the key.
In this photo I enjoy the sense of relationship between subject and environment – the dichotomy is largely only a function of our thought processing. The idea that the “environment” is something other than everything is a little peculiar; the subject IS the environment, as equally as the environment is the subject. There is really no difference between the bear and his habitat. (more…)
Tags: Alaska, animals, bears, Brooks River, Brown bears, Carl Donohue, fishing, Grizzly Bears, hunting, images, Katmai, Katmai National Park, Katmai National Park and Preserve, mammals, photos, predators, Ursus arctos, Wildlife
Posted in Adventures, Alaska, Fall, Forests, Grizzly Bears, Katmai National Park, Photo Tours, Travel, Trees, Wildlife | 6 Comments »
Sunday, October 18th, 2009
Hey Folks,
Here’s a photo I took last spring, just at start of the season Alaskans call “breakup”. This photo is taken from the roadside overlook just south of Glennallen, at Simpson Hill. Simpson Hill is rapidly disappearing, as the Copper River (in the foreground) erodes and cuts away at its base. Soon enough the spot may be known as “Simpson Mound”. This is probably one of the very few (maybe 2) iconic viewspots for Wrangell – St. Elias National Park, the largest (and way coolest) National Park in the US. There are certainly many other grand views to be had, and amazing sites, but few that are so frequently photographed from.
The mountains, viewed from this spot, are simply awesome. From left to right, the mountains are (more…)
Tags: AK, Alaska, alpenglow, breakup, Carl Donohue, Copper River, images, Landscape features, Mountains, Mt Drum, Mt Sanford, Mt Wrangell, Mt Zanetti, photos, scenics, Simpson Hill, spring, sunset, Winter, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park, Wrangell St. Elias
Posted in Alaska, Forests, Landscape features, Mountains, Rivers, Springtime, Travel, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | 5 Comments »
