Blog (Alaska)

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A Lost Year?
A Lost Year?
January 7, 2025

It is that time of year when photographers share their favorite images and the stories behind them. Instead, I find myself reflecting on what kind of year 2024 was; in fact, what the last 18 months have been like for me as a photographer...

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Is the EPA's
Is the EPA's "Final Determination" the Final Word for Bristol Bay?
January 30, 2023

In 2010, a group of Alaska Native tribes, commercial fishermen and others petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to exercise its authority under the Clean Water Act to stop the mine. Section 404(c) of the Clean Water Act authorizes the EPA to prohibit, restrict, or deny the use of any defined area in waters of the United States as a disposal site whenever it determines, after notice and opportunity for public hearing, that the discharge of dredged or fill material into the area will have an unacceptable adverse effect on fishery areas (including spawning and breeding areas)...

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Favorites from 2022
Favorites from 2022
January 12, 2023

With 18,307 images captured (and still on my hard drive) from 2022, you might think it is a little challenging to select a few favorites from the year. But for me, selecting a core group of favorite images involves more than selecting images that I think are technically good or creatively compelling...

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Bristol Bay One Step Closer to Protection
Bristol Bay One Step Closer to Protection
December 2, 2022

Whenever I give presentations outside of Alaska, I always ask the audience, “How many of you like salmon?” Most hands in the room go up. Then I ask, “How many of you have heard of Copper River Reds?” Many of the hands still remain up...

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2020-21 Aurora Season Recap
2020-21 Aurora Season Recap
May 17, 2021

The sun is the source of the energy that produces the aurora borealis. It goes through a roughly eleven-year cycle, transitioning from Solar Minimum to Solar Maximum and back to Solar Minimum again...

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All Creatures Great and Small
All Creatures Great and Small
May 10, 2021

I am sitting on a rock, with the tripod set so that the camera is at eye-height, remaining motionless as I watch and wait. I saw him scurrying around just a few minutes ago, so I am hoping that by sitting still long enough he will come out to forage again...

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Aurora Adventure in the Alaskan Interior
Aurora Adventure in the Alaskan Interior
March 10, 2021

When it comes to photographing the aurora borealis in Alaska, I think the two best areas to do it are in the vicinity of Anchorage in the Southcentral region, and up in the Brooks Range, our northern-most mountain range...

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Why I Love Winters in Alaska
Why I Love Winters in Alaska
January 24, 2021

I see on the news and social media a general hysteria about winter temperatures and conditions in the Lower 48, and I chuckle to myself a bit. We have more often than not had unusually warm winters in Alaska as of late...

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Best of 2020
Best of 2020
January 12, 2021

Like most people, photographers take the year's end to look back on what transpired in the previous year and to look ahead. But as a photographer, this is also a practice I engage in regularly. I look back on what I have photographed to see how I have grown, to reexamine my work, and look ahead to fill the gaps of what I have not photographed yet...

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Making a Photographic Bucket List
Making a Photographic Bucket List
December 20, 2020

We are all familiar with the concept of a "Bucket List." But how many of us have actually written one down?

For years, I have had conversations with people, from friends to guests on my tours or workshops, of my Alaska Photo Bucket List...

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Ambler Road and the Destruction of Arctic Wilderness
Ambler Road and the Destruction of Arctic Wilderness
April 23, 2020

"The only words I had to say were simple after all — and only what this land has taught me. There is nothing worse they could do: for our land, for the caribou, for the people here, for our subsistence lifestyle; for our nation, and our world...

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A Decade of Discovery
A Decade of Discovery
January 7, 2020

For the past several years, I have conducted a year-in-review of my photography. Now, I take a look back at a decade. It was, as the title says, a decade of discovery. But it was also, for me as an artist, a decade of growth...

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Year in Review - 2019
Year in Review - 2019
January 6, 2020

It is a common practice for photographers, to look back on the previous year and consider where they have come. Everyone has their different approach and motivation, from highlighting trips to expounding on the artistic process of being a photographer...

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