Air to Air aerial photo of a Homer Air Cessna 206 bushplane over the Kenai Mountains.

When traveling in the ‘lower 48′ states one thing that has always surprised me is how the roads just seem to stop at nothing. Driving through the national parks especially I can hardly believe the places you can go without stepping out of the car – thinking especially of Glacier National Park and Yosemite. Those roads etched into the cliffs winding up and down the mountains.  Arguably there are some impressive feats of road building in Alaska too. But for me, I’ll always try and find a way to glide past the peaks in the air before I beat my subaru up on some potholed gravel road through the mountains.

A bushplane flying past the end of the road in Homer, Alaska.

Ahh, the Alaskan bushplane. The answer to accessing the road-less expanse of the Alaskan wilderness.

The New York Times travel section recently hired me to illustrate a story about flightseeing and traveling to remote locations in Alaska by air. Flightseeing is a popular tourist attraction in the summer, but for the other 9 months of the year these planes are mostly taxis hauling villagers and supplies to and from their villages. On occasion they are also known to haul some desperate alaskan surfers to remote surf breaks. It was a nice surprise to have an aerial assignment in the winter, and the photos show this winter wonderland in a season that few experience.

The deadline gave me ten days to spend the budgeted two hours in the air. I was working with the local air service that was mentioned in the story – HomerAir.com. Looking at the weather forecast we decided to move quickly and make the best of the great weather we were having the same day the budget was approved. That evening we left the Homer airport with two Cessna 206 planes flying in formation. The plan was to fly the course of a typical flightsee Homer Air offers. We headed out over the spit (see above photo) across Kachemak Bay into the Kenai Mountains just as the sun was setting. Sometimes it all comes together. I was photographing out of the front airplane through the open space created by removing the two rear doors. With two experienced pilots in control and  my ability to give instructions through a headset it was hard to let go of the shutter button. The planes locked in formation the background  a quickly changing scene of grandeur.

The next day brought more fair weather so we made hay and flew over the Kenai Mountains into the Kenai Fjords to capture some more scenic images and do an off airport landing to show the sort of access the bushplane and its pilot can provide. We landed on a relatively smooth beach in Harris Bay right next to the particularly awe inspring Northwestern Fjord. While the lighting wasn’t as rich the second day, the scenery certainly didn’t let us down.

Alaskan bushplane (cessna 206) beach landing in the Kenai Fjords.

Aerial view of Northwestern Fjord, Alaska

Aerial view of hanging glaciers in Northwestern Fjord, Alaska.

Aerail closeup of McCarty Glacier

You can see the article online at the New York Times website here, and the accompanying slideshow here.

See more photos from the aerial assignment in my online archive.

After a long journey I have arrived. The ideal tool for my style of aerial photography – The powered paraglider. At least for now.

For those unfamiliar with eccentric forms of flight Wikipedia does a really nice job of explaining what this contraption is:

Powered paragliding, also known as paramotoring, is a form of ultralight aviation where the pilot wears a motor on his or her back (a paramotor) which provides enough thrust to take off using a paraglider wing. It can be launched in still air, and on level ground, by the pilot alone — no assistance is required.

After pursuing my passion for aerial photography in a wide range of situations from Coast Guard C-130s, helicopters, bush planes and airplanes owned by friends to piloting my own ultralight I was still searching for something more – or less, depending on how you look at it.  Each aerial platform has its own set of benefits and limitations and it really comes down to finding the right balance that matches my style and priorities.

Scott Dickerson flying a paramotor while photographing over Kachemak Bay, Alaska.

The benefits of the paramotor system are many but I’ll list a few of the stand-out ones: It  is very portable and can be transported by car, boat, or bush plane (especially important in Alaska). The cost of operation is very low. As the pilot it’s just up to me and the weather, no more trying to convince a pilot to wake up at 4:30am to catch the best light. The paramotor is a very slow and safe form of flight. There are no wing struts, helicopter blades, floats or tires to get in the way. In fact the only thing that I have to work to keep out of my composition is my own legs.

After happily flying an ultralight for a couple years I began looking for an even more ideal self piloting solution. shortly after starting to consider the paramotor as a viable option I stumbled across an interview with George Steinmetz that really confirmed my suspicion.  The paramotor would work, and not only that, George had already ready been used it with great success. Before long I was in Salt Lake City, Utah to get flying instruction and help with gear selection. I’m a learn-it-yourself kind of guy and it was hard to convince myself to actually go for the professional instruction, but since my focus is more on photography and I don’t want the piloting to be a hindrace I decided to treat it like business and invest in my abilities and safety. Turned out to be a great move.  Chris Santacroce from SuperFly is an excellent instructor and I left Utah with all the equipment and knowledge needed to start putting this idea to work.

It has now been about 18 months since I first imagined what you see in these photos and I’m thrilled to report that after flying for the last 8 months it has proved to be everything hoped for. I have photos to share and a few stories to tell but they’ll wait for another post. Now that I have introduced the paramotor to the blog you can expect  more soon.

Jake Schmutzler of Five Foot Fotos has worked with me to capture the images in this post -  Thanks Jake!

Aerial photography from a powered paraglider. Here I am with the Kenai Mountains.

Paramotoring over the Homer Spit in Homer, Alaska.

The fireweed in my front yard is half way done with its annual bloom. To an Alaskan that means summer is soon coming to a close. To an Alaskan photographer that means the fields are turning magenta and I only have so long to work with this amazing natural color event before it passes. The weather has not been so great for the last week, but I wanted to start scouting some locations to visit again when the light is right. Stephanie and I hiked up the local ‘homestead trail’ last night and played.  I’m also practicing with a new lens I purchased last week – Canon TS-E 24mm.  It’s a ’tilt-shift’ lens that does some funky depth of field tricks that many of you are probably familiar with. These shots are a continuation of my work connecting people with nature.

Stephanie Haynes (Anahata-Alaska.com) practicing Yoga at the edge of Cook Inlet.

The thing about Summer in Alaska is -  It’s here and very real, but not to stay.  I’ve been busy making the most of it, which leaves little time to talk about it. Less talk, more fun. The pleasures abound: Taking photos, surfing, harvesting wild plants, kayaking, flying my paramotor (there’s a story to tell), and occasionally sleeping for a few hours between sunrise and sunset.

I’m continuing to explore the ‘nature with people‘ concept.  Below are a few recent images resulting from this desire. Thanks to Stephanie for helping create these and many more.

So, maybe this one was really from spring, but it felt like summer to us.

]]> http://scottdickerson.com/blog/2009/connecting-with-summer/feed/ 6 http://scottdickerson.com/blog/2009/connecting-with-summer/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/scottdickerson/~3/TS5rN8WVArg/ http://scottdickerson.com/blog/2009/exxon-valdez-oil-spill-20-years-later-more-photos/#comments Sun, 01 Mar 2009 21:25:27 +0000 Scott Dickerson http://scottdickerson.com/blog/?p=355

A couple weeks ago I posted a very brief note about a photo shoot I had just completed in Prince William Sound, Alaska documenting the crude oil that is still present on the beaches there. This was done on assignment for the World Wildlife Fund who is working to bring attention to the sad fact that 20 years after the oil was spilled, 19 years after the cleanup was ‘completed’, this toxic substance is still there, still contaminating this particularly beautiful environment.

Twenty years is a long time.
I got to thinking about this.  

The place where we photographed and collected some of this oil was several feet below the high tide mark. Every twelve hours the ocean rises up to high tide and washes that beach, sometimes vigorously with wave and currents. I did a quick calculation – It’s been 20 years, 7,300 days, 14,600 high tides and the oil is still there just a few inches below the surface layer of rocks. This is truly amazing. It’s hard to comprehend the effects this oil must still be having on the environment in Prince William Sound as it slowly and constantly leeches out of the gravel into the water. 

This sobering thought has changed the way I look at the oil industry that we collectively support. As long as we are buying oil in its myriad of products the tankers will keep transporting it. Shipping is safer now than it was in 1989, but by no means is it without risk. As we watch gas prices climb I hope that it will act as a reminder to us of the real cost of oil. What is paid at the pump is a drop in the ocean of the real costs associated with this industry, and we all bear it in many ways. Some sly ones such as health issues from pollution, others are obvious such as the devastation of the environment in such a precious place as Prince William Sound.

It’s clear that the oil industry is not good for us. What can one person do? I think we each need to answer this for ourselves. My approach is two fold: First I’m improving my awareness of consumption. What do I do that consumes oil or its byproducts? How do I minimize this consumption? Secondly, I am working on alternative energy sources to replace my oil consumption.   

Below is an embedded slideshow of the 138 images from this trip that I’ve uploaded to the online photo archive. Mostly what you’ll see is a lot of beautiful scenery, mountains, glacier ice, whales, sea lions, sunsets and moon rises, then some documentation of the oily rock collection. 

Special thanks to David Janka with the charter vessel ‘Auklet’ who made this trip not only possible, but also a very comfortable and productive three days in Prince William Sound. If you are looking for a boat to charter in Prince William Sound I can strongly recommend the Auklet with David as captain.

This photo is another in an ongoing concept I’m working on –  Photographing nature with a secondary human element. If you’d like to read more about this concept see the previous post  Nature with people.  

The shot is compliments of chunks of ice on the shoreline of Kachemak Bay, Alaska and the lovely model Stephanie Haynes. We only had a few minutes, due to both schedules and the fading light. As much as I like the shot above, I’m certainly not finished with this idea. Hopefully I’ll have more to post sometime soon. 

I’m in the Anchorage airport on my way home. But don’t tell anyone . . . I’m smuggling hazardous waste on the flight. The toxic waste is 80 pounds of rocks from the beaches in Prince William Sound, Alaska. The photo above tells the story quicker than I can with words.  Let me just tell you that it wasn’t hard to find more than enough rocks covered with stinky crude oil. I could have sunk the boat. Gotta run for now, more later.

Mike McCune surfing Alaska in a winter blizzard.

Heavy freezing spray warnings come up in marine weather forecasts when the weatherman predicts the spray from waves will be freezing on boats at sea.  Well, boats weren’t the only things encountering heavy freezing spray today on Cook Inlet in South central Alaska.

Mike McCune and Gart Curtis were surfing a heavy shore break near the village of Ninilchik in what the weatherman would certainly qualify as heavy freezing spray conditions. I haven’t edited the photos yet, but couldn’t wait to share this single shot of Mike surfing a vengeful looking wave with chunks of ice strewn across a frozen beach in the foreground. It looks like he’s really close to the beach. And that’s because he is, honestly my heart skipped a beat a few seconds afer this shot when the wave swallowed him as it crushed onto the steep ice covered incline of the beach.

Air temps were just below 10ºF. Winds were around 10-20mph and snow was blowing in all direction.  More shots to come.  In the meantime, if you want more, visit SurfAlaska.net for more alaska surfing photos.

In words it is something like this: A beautiful image of nature with a secondary element of a person actively engaged in an adventure, fitness, or well being activity. The beauty of nature is the focus, the person is just there enjoying it in a positive way. The motivation for this creative desire comes from my personal love of nature and the adventures enjoyed there. Highlights in my life are usually adventurous moments in inspiring natural settings so this, I suppose, is a way to share that.

Danielle Thompson told me about this beatiful grass field nearby that she had hiked through a few days prior. We went back on a gorgeous December day and she got a nice running workout in and I got to work on this creative concept.  Some of you might recognize this style/concept from one of my favorite photos that I posted in my recent ‘passion in photography‘ entry. The photo of the uncurling fiddleheads with Erika running by certainly caught my fancy and helped form a love for this visual message.

Below are a few more photos from the shoot.

It’s ten minutes before midnight, maybe I’m having a case of midnight stoke, but I can’t help but share this photo. I jumped on the computer to check email before bed and accidentally glanced over the thumbnails for a recent surf session / photo shoot.  January 5th, 2009. This shot caught my fancy, I hope it does the same for you.

It’s been an unusually cold week for our little seaside town with temps dipping below 0º F at night. Fortunately though, with the cold weather came a few great days of surf after Christmas and into the new year giving us surfers something to really celebrate.

Strange things start happening on the beaches when the thermometer drops like this. Take the above photo for an example.  Alaskan surfer, Jake Beaudoin, is standing on what are normally black boulders. Today they look more like marshmellows, however as another surfing buddy pointed out, they are much more slippery than a marshmellow! What seems to be going on here is the receding tide slowly draws the waves away from the very cold rocks and we have what the local fishermen and wethermen call ‘Freezing Spray’ as the splashing water freezes onto the rocks. And in case you were wondering, yes, this freezing spray does occur on the body of a surfer as well.

There are a lot more photos to share from this last week, and I’m trying to get through editing them. Though today the cold had me distracted searching for a new wood stove…  In the meantime I have some links for the curious:
- See a short gallery of Alaska surfing photos
- or browse a couple hundred Alaska surfing photos from the last couple years at my online archive
- and if you really want more of the scoop on surfing in Alaska visit another site I’m building – SurfAlaska.net.

Stay warm out there.