I can hear all the Beatles fans now, “That’s SACRILEGE!”, “How DARE you?”
It’s ok. I can outrun your wheelchair/walker. I can dodge a cane attack. Bring it!
Anyways… here is another photograph from last weeks trek across the Denali Highway. This area is ripe for opportunities, especially if you know where to look and get off the road system.
And by road system, I mean the only road.
Kettle ponds are born from glaciers, remnants of ancient ice flows long since melted away. They are formed from large chunks of ice that calve from glaciers. The ice becomes buried by glacial sediment from the outwash of silt laden glacial meltwater. When the ice blocks finally melt, they reveal a depression in the ground that collects water. A kettle pond is born.
Scott Slone, Jena and I found this pond a ways off the road earlier in the afternoon. We had seen several caribou in the area earlier in the day, and hoped to see some make their way to the pond to drink in the evening.
The caribou never showed up.
So we waited for sunset, hoping to see some color paint across the clouds and alpenglow on the mountains to the north.
They never materialized.
There was a gentle breeze (a decidedly warm one, for Fall in Alaska) that swayed the grasses surrounding the kettle pond. I noticed the grasses swaying and rustling, but the wild blueberry plants were short enough to not catch the wind. So I decided to hunker down for a bit and try some longer exposures. This is a 30 second exposure. I must say, I had to remind myself to not eat the subject before my camera. Fresh wild blueberries are an amazing treat, just as long as you eat them AFTER you photograph them. Luckily, I was surrounded by a field of wild blueberries. They seemed to go on, forever.
Wild Blueberries & Kettle Pond, Denali Highway. ©2010 Dave Taylor/Sixtyone North (Canon 5D Mk 2, 24-105 @ 28mm. 30" @ f/16, ISO 50. B+W KSM Circular Polarizer)
John Lennon, eat your heart out. I know I did.
Stay tuned…
