Noctography
As I was driving home from my night of shooting the stars and Denali mountain I pulled over at a rest stop to stretch my legs. This was the view that I got to see. What you don't see is that the temperature was -8 F. I didn't know this when I got out of the car without my coat, gloves, or hat. I quickly realized that it was cold. This was taken right outside of Willow, Alaska around 12 am on 1/17/2016
City lights meet Northern Lights
The city lights of anchorage are the amber lights to the left. The Northern Lights are to the right. The little patch of white light in the middle is from Alyeska ski resort in Girdwood.
Had to hike a short distance in the dark through the thick bushes to get to this spot. Very creepy. In my head every little sound was a bear coming to get me. As you can see I got a great shot and made it out alive. This is a 8 photo panorama I light painted the foreground shots seperate from the sky shots.
When the clouds get in the way
The Northern lights were out. Unfortunately there was a thin layer of clouds blanketing the whole sky. That's the reason for the aura around the stars.
One of my last night shots from my trip last week. I remeber this lake being almost a quarter of the way covered with Portage glacier. in the winter time the lake would freeze over traping the icebergs that had broken off. We would climb the icebergs and slide off. Now the lake rarely freezes and as you can see there is no glacier or icebergs because the glacier has receded to beach at the end of the lake.
Not sure what this train depot's name really is. I just call it the Portage train depot. I remeber in the 80's this was the only way to get to the city of Whittier by land. There was a gravel ramp that you would drive your vehicle up onto a train car. Then the train would go through the tunnel in the mountain to Whittier, Alaska. This facility is no longer used for that. A road has been added onto the tunnel train track and people can drive to Whittier.