Black & White

“Entangled”, Chugach National Forest, Alaska. ©2011 Dave Taylor/Sixtyone North (Canon 5D Mk 2, Tokina 16-28/2.8 @ 16mm. 0.5″ @ f/18, ISO 400) I don’t work much in black & white photography. I think I must be the only photographer that skipped past the darkroom and dove directly into chromes. Well, let me make one thing clear – I never ‘skipped’. And no, there was no ‘prancing’, either. It’s always funny, talking with other photographers whose career started before the advent of digital – many of them speak with a great reverence and that certain ‘twinkle’ in their eye(s) when it comes to the time they used to spend in the darkroom. “I really miss the smell”. Of...

Yeah. I said it. I love dirt. Rather, I love silt. Glacial silt to be specific. Glacial silt is velvety, the granules are so small that it is more like a powder, or talc. A few weekends ago, Jena and I went out to the Matanuska Glacier. Watching someone who has never seen a glacier before (other than in photographs and videos) standing atop one is a a great experience. Something changes in a person when they witness something so gigantic beneath their feet. Something that has seen so much history. Something that starts as a light, ephemeral snow flake. It is hard to conceive that that same snow flake can slice through a mountain, carve valleys, and transform a landscape completely over many millennia. The things that glacier has witnessed; ice ages, devastating...

Sorry I haven’t been doing regular updates. These past few weeks have been “just a taaaaaad bit hectic”. Good hectic. Heck. Great hectic. For three weeks, a very special person came to visit me in Alaska. We had great weather and forged great memories. We even took a few decent images together. Heck. More than a few. She must have liked it a little bit, because she’s moving up here. It must be Alaska. I mean, I’m “ok” and all, but this state is pretty good at making connections. Connections with the land, the wildlife, and people. I’ve made so many great connections over the past several years living here. I made those connections on my own. That will be different now, and it’s a change I’m looking...

It has been a little while since my last post. The last two weekends I’ve spent a day each shooting with Scott Slone. Scott is the owner, videographer, host and producer of Alaska HDTV. He’s done fantastic work filming and producing in every corner, nook and cranny of Alaska. It’s always revealing to photograph along side another cameraman (or woman), you always learn something. If your eyes and mind are open, of course. It is even more revealing to shoot next to a videographer. I wasn’t fully aware of this, because of my fixation with still photography, but the world is actually “moving”. And that video thing? Well, it’s bound to catch on here sometime. One of these days, people will have picture frames in their homes...

This is the workshop I’ve been subtly hinting about for a while now. I’m very excited to be hosting this workshop along with my good friend Gary Gullett. Gary is the owner and founder of Chicago Photo Safaris, and we met over 1 year ago while photographing the wild waters wildlife of Kenai Fjords National Park. No kidding, this is going to be a long post. I’ve written a trip description for our workshop/adventour – you will find it below. If you have any questions regarding this amazing photo workshop, please feel free to email any time. I will respond as quickly & completely as I can. If this trip sounds like something you want to do, consider this – it will fill quickly. Before the trip was formally announced, we’ve...

Another trip to Seward, another epic adventure. Joined my friends at Kenai Fjords Tours on another “Captain’s Choice Tour“. We spent the day plying the waters outside of Resurrection Bay. There were several photographers on board; both local Alaskans as well as first time visitors to our amazing state. It was great to shoot along side them and stretch our creative muscles – pushing and prodding each other for tidbits. There was the usual jesting involved & everyone took it very well. Good people all around, and a great captain and well… captain. We got 2 captains for the price of 1! Because they were only running one boat yesterday, we were lucky to have a second captain on board to serve as the deck hand. They switched on and off...