Photography and Photo Tours: Specializing in Alaska's Wild Lands & Wild Life
I spent most of today’s daylight hours waiting to join the polar bear club.
Same ol’ routine. Got up early, well… relatively early as compared to the sunrise time. Sunrise today was at 9:57 am at the location I planned to shoot. That’s the great thing about landscape photography in winter – sleep in and still catch sunrise!
I got up at 6:30, showered & (because of mom’s good teachings) put on clean underwear. Don’t be that person. I headed south to the Kenai Peninsula in the dark. Along the Turnagain Arm, several pair of eyes glanced up at me from the road side, 4 Dall sheep not 10 feet off the pavement. But I was on a mission, and it was dark. Very dark. In the summer months, the sun would have been up for over 4 hours by this time. But at this time of year, I had 2 more hours of darkness. Thank you Starbucks…
My original plan was to shoot ice formations on Kenai Lake, just beyond Moose Pass. As I neared the lake though, something peculiar struck me.
There was no ice.
This was going to make walking on the lake very difficult. And wet. And cold. You get the idea.
I was stunned, Kenai Lake is always frozen this time of year. But there she was, waves crossing the surface and lapping along the shore. Stumped, I turned around and headed back towards Moose Pass. Luckily, Trail Lake (which I am guessing is much more shallow than Kenai Lake) had plenty of ice covering it. So I parked and hiked down to the shoreline. Absolutely quiet. No wind. No movement other than a light fog hanging midway up a mountain slope and scattered clouds that were well above the peaks. The ice was thick, as far as I could tell – at least 2 feet thick, if not more.
I started looking for interesting patterns and pressure ridges in the ice. I was about 10 yards beyond the shore line when 3 things happened.
Trail Lake Ice Formations - Copyright 2010 Dave Taylor/Sixtyone North LLC
1. The ice lifted, then fell under my feet. The ice didn’t collapse or give way – it just surged. Wow, wasn’t expecting that.
2. The lake itself groaned, breaking the early morning silence. It was a series of odd sounds: deep and resounding “Bewwwwwwww”‘s and pops, then cracks and creaks. It’s funny how loud these sounds are when you are standing directly above them when they occur.
3. I realized that mom was definitely right about that whole “clean underwear” rule. She’s a bright woman.
I “casually” moved (read: “ran like hell”) off the ice and back to the safety of the shore. I had only brought the one pair of clean underwear and all. I didn’t want to push my luck.
Trail Lake Bubbles in Ice - Copyright 2010 Dave Taylor/Sixtyone North LLC
I spent the rest of the morning photographing fractures in the ice, landscapes, air bubbles trapped in the ice, and pressure ridges at Trail Lake. Beautiful location right off the Seward Highway, couldn’t be easier to get to. But the surroundings are pristine and I had the place to myself the whole time. Next time, I’m going to plan a clockwise circumnavigation of the lake to search for more image options. The area is rich with them & I can’t wait to get back.
On my drive home, I took a short side trip down the Sterling Highway to Cooper Landing and the other end of the Kenai Lake. The vast majority was open water, but I did find a nice patch of ice near Quartz Creek with several options for more photographs.
Kenai Lake Ice Fracture - Copyright 2010 Dave Taylor/Sixtyone North LLC
I had beautiful, soft light the whole day. It would have been nice to have a bit more color in the sky – but it was still an excellent day in the field. And as we all know, even a bad day in the field is better than any good day in the office.
Stay tuned… I’ll post more pics from today’s shoot over the next several days.
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Beautiful shots, as I love how the sunlight relfects off the ice in the first image, yet draws you up toward mountains. The trapped bubbles are something I’ve never seen before, way cool! Then the last image, again, the way you framed the rocks, and large separation of the two cracked ice sheets draws you up into the image taking you to another beautiful shot. Excellente!!
The story is quite funny, lol…very smart to listen to Mom, as they do know whats best for us! 
wow and WOW. That would have scared the shit out of me to have the ice moving underfoot. How wild.
Thanks Jena & Ren, sure was a great morning on the ice! Hoping to get back out again this weekend if the weather cooperates.