Living in Alaska - Life in the Last Frontier

I am so happy to see January be over. It was a very cold month, and I do hope that February is much warmer. Today we reached temps above zero, and I am thrilled! Raven even went out to play frisbee with Steve this afternoon - something she hasn’t been able to do for some time.

I haven’t been out and about shooting this week. I had three portrait shoots this past weekend, and I’ve been working on the photos from those sessions to get them done in time for Valentines Day. All three beautiful ladies are military wives, and their soldiers are in Afghanistan right now.

I can only share one photo at this time, but hopefully once I get their proofs to them, they’ll allow me to share some more. Although all three were Boudoir sessions, the gals opted to wear sports jerseys, and their husbands’ uniform tops, in addition to more traditional boudoir attire. It was great fun, and I’m sure the ladies (and their husbands!) will be quite pleased with what I captured.

This is Terri, wearing an Alabama jersey and a Crimson Tide houndstooth hat. Isn’t she adorable?!

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Saturday starts the Yukon Quest! The teams will start here in Fairbanks this year, which is fabulous. I’ll be going downtown to photograph the mushers and their dogs before the race, and then after I get some shots of some of the teams coming out of the chute, I’ll be looking for a place along the river to get photos of the teams in a more natural setting. Downtown, there will be the usual cheering and excitement - which is always fun to capture with my camera - but on the river, away from the start, it’s entirely different. The peacefulness and solitude allow you to hear the quiet shush of sled rails, and the panting of the dogs. I just hope the weather is agreeable. PLEASE NO MORE 50 BELOW!!

I’m sure I will have a lot of photos to share next week. Until then, I need to get back to photo editing!

On Saturday night, online aurora reports were predicting storm levels. Storm levels pretty much guarantee that there is going to be beautiful arcing bands of aurora above - as long as there aren’t any clouds.  We had a blanket of clouds over Fairbanks, and they appeared to be covering the entire area. However, radar was showing that the clouds would be moving off. My photographer friend Lara posted online that she was going to drive up to Wickersham Dome (past Fox on the Elliott Hwy) and wait for the clouds to clear. I asked Lara if she’d mind picking me up and taking me with her. My car does not do well on snowy, hilly roads and she was driving a 4WD truck.

The Elliott Highway was slick in many places, with drifting snow in others. The wind was howling, and it pushed against the truck hard. By the time we got to the dome area, there were 40mph gusts, but we had clear skies. We got out of the truck to take a few photos, but the wind was so strong, it blew snow and stung our faces. The few photos I took weren’t sharp, as the wind was rocking my tripod too. Definitely not a good place to wait for the aurora, despite the highest elevation on the highway. When clouds rolled in, we decided to head back toward Fairbanks, looking for clear skies, and a sheltered area to set up.

This is one of the first photos I took - while still up on Wickersham Dome. You can see the aurora forming overhead, with the glow of Fairbanks in the distance.

We soon found clear skies and a roomy pull-out on the side of the highway. The aurora still wasn’t very bright and resembled wispy clouds - like in the photo above. Off in the distance we could still see the orange glow of Fairbanks on the horizon. Some people prefer to be in a place that is totally pitch black when viewing the northern lights. I rather like the city light glow (as long as it’s not too bright) and the interest it adds to photos.

We didn’t have to wait very long for the sky to erupt with color. The usual green curtains of light began swirling and arcing overhead. I decided to shoot a panoramic photo, taking three frames and later stitching them in Photoshop:

Three more images of green aurora:

Suddenly the sky exploded with multi-color bands and curtains of light! I have never seen red aurora, and the sky was just filled with blood red color. There was also yellow, and pink, and lavender, along with green, and teal. It was like a watercolor artist’s palette had been splashed into the heavens! Lara and I were oohing and aahing with delight, while snapping frame after frame!

Here’s a photo that I took of my friend Lara photographing the lights:

And here’s one that she took of me photographing the lights:

It was a fabulous adventure, and we didn’t head home until after 3am. Even on the way home, the lights continued to dance overhead. It was hard to pack up the gear and head home, but we were both exhausted. It was a good exhaustion though!

I still can’t believe that the skies were lit up with so many colors. I feel so blessed to have been witness to such an incredible light show.

To make the day even more special, it was my brother Mike’s birthday. I let him know that God was throwing a fabulous birthday party for him! Wish he could have seen it too.

Until next time…

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Brrrrrrr! That’s the sound of me shivering. The cold air is still hanging around, and frankly - we’re all getting a little tired of it. This is what we woke up to on Sunday morning here in North Pole:

There was no light drizzle, but there was quite a bit of ice fog, so maybe that’s what triggered the “light drizzle” forecast. Nevertheless - it was COLD! We haven’t been much above 40 below since then. And I have not left my house, except to run down the driveway and take photos of pretty sunsets, or to occasionally stand outside with Raven while she hurries through potty breaks. In fact, I didn’t even make it to dance class on Tuesday night due to the cold.

Last night the aurora was showing up on the aurora cam. I bundled up and walked to the end of my driveway hoping to see some color in the sky. It must have been really low to the horizon because I didn’t see anything. Within minutes, my fingers were on fire, and I was wearing liner gloves AND wool mittens. Definitely not comfortable photography weather, that’s for sure.

The temperature gauge in my car goes to -39F and then turns into —F. I joke and say it’s my car’s way of screaming profanities at the cold. I didn’t capture the *F* temp, but I got something close enough:

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