Alaska

Desperately working to finish my edits on my last trip to Alaska in the winter of 2015.  Hoping to get those posted over on my stories site in the next week.  Editing images always makes me long for more adventure...

Winter Bikepacking in Alaska

My latest photo essay is now live from last years trip to Alaska.  A two month tour of the interior by Fatbike.  Read more about it at stories.glenncharles.pro

Alaska Slide Show

I have updated a large number of images to my Flickr account from my Alaska Winter tour.  Head on over to check out the show.  More images will come as the summer progresses along with a full write up on what I learned and what I will change for my next winter tour.

Be and Do

You must never stop believing in yourself. You can be whomever you want to be and you can do whatever you want to do. Simply believe! 1800 miles, solo paddle up the inside passage. Seattle to Alaska.

Metaphors

Metaphors for life are all around us if we look hard enough.  This image, captured during my paddle up the Inside Passage, is a study in patience. Not only is the bear deeply entrenched in waiting for the absolutely perfect salmon to swim by, but I am also executing a great deal of patience.  I watched this bear for quite a while as he would stand in the stream, paw on the rock, patiently waiting.  When the perfect salmon would come by he would dip his large snout into the water and retrieve a huge, and quite animated salmon.  ​Only a short stroll away was the shoreline where the bear would take the fish, consume everything but the bones, and then return back to the exact same spot in the creak and repeat the process all over.  I watched him do this for an hour, in which time he repeated the process more than 4 times.

Not only did I have to be patient in waiting for what I felt was the right moment, but from a technical perspective, I had already composed the image in my head, I knew what I wanted to capture.  It was bright outside and I wanted the water to be flowing, which meant I had to shoot at F10 in order to get a slow enough shutter speed to slow the water down.  I was hand holding the camera which required its own element of patience in order to get a sharp image. ​

So the lesson is that we need to slow down, look around us, see what is out there and pay attention to the metaphors of life.  Of course the safety of a blind when shooting grizzly bears in the wild from 20 feet away also helps!​

Complex Images

I love when I am able to capture an image that is not only a great photograph, but also a great photograph with complexity to it.  I think in large part this is a critical element to finding our own unique vision.  Once you have a vision, the challenge is then learning the craft of photography so you can ​accurately capture and share that vision with your audience.

An example of this is the image above of the Fat Bikers riding back down the beach, supposedly to where they came from.  The scene is complex with riders, sand, mountains, tracks that are not filled in and tracks that are.  You can make this image about so much more than biking.  I am still debating on color v. black and white because I feel each portrays a different 'primary' message.  One is about mountains and beaches, water and sand.  The other is about lines and abstraction, with a few metaphors of life thrown in to the mix.  I would love to hear your thought on which one works best for you.​

View fullsize

When an image stands on its own

View fullsize

Down Time

I am working my way back east and will be using this as some much needed down time. Tons of images to backup and edit, a couple of presentations to prepare, and an article to be submitted. After I get those taken care of I will post my lessons learned, new images, and some important thoughts on winter touring gear.

Thanks to all for following on this amazing Alaska tour.

Playing with the little Fuji X10

I had the chance to play with a Fuji X10, the small, single lens camera that really kicked off the Fuji revolution. The X10 was followed closely by the successful release of an entire line of X Series cameras including the X100, X-1 Pro, XE-1 and now the new X100s and X20.... Whew, that was a mouthful. One thing is for sure, Fuji has found a niche that is built around nicely retro styled cameras, outstanding optics, and very good image quality. No camera in their line has caused more of a shakeup than the X100 and X100s, but that story is for another day.

The X10/X20 interests me as a camera that you could carry with you all the time with its small body, solid build and wide to tele zoom. The question I am asking myself is does this little camera scratch the itch of a small do it all portable camera. I will write up my complete thoughts over the next couple of days after looking at more images, but in the meantime here are a couple of images, JPegs with only slight processing. These images represent the types of captures I have increasingly been getting with my cell phone, simply because i don't have a really small camera with me at all times.

The B&W is straight out of the camera using the B&W film mode.

You can help support the site and my adventures by purchasing items through my Amazon links. It costs you nothing and I get a small percentage of each Purchase.

Fujifilm X10 12 MP EXR CMOS Digital Camera with f2.0-f2.8 4x Optical Zoom Lens and 2.8-Inch LCD

Fujifilm X100S 16 MP Digital Camera with 2.8-Inch LCD (Silver)

Looking back -- the process begins

The fun now begins anew as I start looking back on this amazing trip, collecting my thoughts, editing images, and sharing. In that spirit, here is an early image from a rare sunny and relatively warm day at the beginning of my trip. My carrots and hard boiled eggs had frozen in a mere 3 days but my Reindeer sausage was still soft. Oh how that too would change soon enough....

Knik Glacier

I had a couple of 'must do things' on my list for this Alaska Fat Bike tour and riding out to the Knik Glacier was right up there at the top. Yesterday, Dan Bailey, his wife Amy, and myself braved the barren ice and a bit of early morning snow fall, to ride out, explore and photograph the glaciers.

The trail out is a collection of beach, frozen river, glacier moraine and overgrown bush, making it perfect for the go anywhere role of my Salsa Mukluk. I would say it took us a bit more than an hour of riding and falling to snake our way from the parking lot to the frozen lake that is the frozen Knik Glacier playground.

From what I understand, each year is different, depending on weather and how much ice breaks away from the glacier face. After riding around it was clear that some of these ice bergs have been here for quite a while. We spent our time riding, slipping, falling, laughing smiling and photographing this winter playground. Once again, one of the few things that I would have done differently on this trip is to have brought either 45Nrth Dillinger or Escalator tires as well as having drilled some machine screws into my 45Nrth boots.

The ice was definitely treacherous especially with virtually no snow cover to ride on. We all took major spills, with me having a spectacular backwards fall off my bike that I am still not quite sure how I managed . Dan, to his credit, managed the most number of ground falls that quite often involved getting air. Amy who took a hard early fall riding out to the glacier won the award for the worst or prettiest looking bruise. Even with all the pain involved, it was a spectacular ride and a highlight of my trip.

Below are a few pictures, with more over on Flickr.

Imagination

Some images don't need to tell the entire story, instead, it can be rewarding to leave the viewer to their own imagination. This image was captured in Denali National Park at the sled dog kennels. I deliberately shot it this way, purposefully leaving out some details.

In Front of the Lens

I have spent the better part of my life photographing people places and things, with more than 20 years as a professional. However, during all that time I rarely, if ever, get to be the subject. The first time, on my Bike Around America tour, I had the honor of working with my good friend Andrea, of Andrea Johnson Photography. She and I met up in Oregon and did a fun shoot about touring wineries by bike. No offense Dan, but she was prettier.

Now, almost two years later, I got to be a subject for Adventure Photographer Dan Bailey. Dan is a master teacher of photography and needed a subject for a Photoflex flash course he is teaching. We decided to grab the fat tire bikes, my Mukluk and his Fatback, two small backpacks of gear, and head out into the Chugach mountains at sunset for some shooting.

Dan had us ride for about 45 minutes or so, scouting locations and light, before deciding on the appropriate place to shoot. We found this lovely stretch of tree lined single track with the glow of sunset beaming down on us. It was a beautiful spot to be, independent of the actual shoot. With his super light and compact Photoflex gear, it only took Dan a couple of minutes to set up the soft box and light. My role during that time was to shoot some stills with the fabulous little Fuji X10, a camera that is on my must purchase list for UL travel photography. The B&W pictures below are from my little Sony NEX system.

I have to say, after being a model twice, I have great respect for models that do this full time. Dan was patient with me as I rode back and forth along this 50 foot stretch of trail. At the end of each run I would un-clip, flip my bike around and do it all over again. Dan worked steadily, adjusting lights, switching lenses and contorting himself Into some crazy positions on and in the snow. We joked and laughed and just had a fabulous time.

Myself, well I am a natural light photographer, rarely, if ever using flash, so for me this was a great education. Dan on the other hand really knows how to light up the action. Below are some of the pictures I took from a behind the scenes perspective. The bottom color images are from Dan and the actual shoot.

To see the images that Dan captured head on over to danbaileyphoto.com. More of my pictures from last night are up on my Flickr page.

For more on Dan check out his website, www.danbaileyphoto.com and by all means pick up his latest Ebook, Behind the Action (http://danbaileyphoto.com/blog/get-my-brand-new-ebook-behind-the-action/)

riding the Chugach State Park Trails

Beautiful single track, blue skies, stunning views and new friends.

Patience

This is one of my favorite images from my trip up the Inside Passage.  I had worked my way to the National Park that was teeming with black and brown bears feeding on the salmon making their run upstream.  I watched this Brown Bear as he patiently stalked his prey.  For long periods of time he sat in the middle of the streem, paw hunched over a rock, watching the fish swim by.  I guess years of practice had taught him that patience was a virtue, and he was willing to wait for the perfect salmon to swim by. 

This image shows what happens when you stare at a bear long enough. Here he glances up and stares right into my eyes.