New Year and 2022 Photo Highlights

Recent Articles and Upcoming Projects

Better late than never! Yesterday I finally published my 2022 Photography Highlights on my website. This year I only selected 38 items for my highlights gallery and 13 of my favorites for the post. It was a slow year for my photography, albeit I am thrilled with how my few photos came out.

One reason for the delay was that I wanted to write a supplement discussing creative blocks, how I’ve overcome them in the past, and what I’m doing to overcome them now. It’s not the first time I got a little burnt out from being behind the lens; I’m sure it won’t be the last. Maybe you, too, have looked for ways to regain some enthusiasm for photography or another creative field. If so, check out my post Breaking the Block - Things to do when inspiration isn’t there.

I selected my three favorite photos of 2022 to mention here, including the deteriorating snowflake from above. The snowflake was a day old and still had a near-perfect, layered hexagonal core. The crystal structure was still displaying nice symmetry, but it was apparent that it had begun some degradation due to sublimation and a little melt.

Taken with a Nikon D850 and Venus Optics Laowa 25mm f/2.8 2.5-5X Ultra Macro lens at f/5.6, 2.5-second exposure, at f/5.6.

I have been itching for good lynx photos for over a decade now. I’ve only seen them from a distance, usually running in the opposite direction. The only previous photo I had was of one stalking some ducks around a pond, but it was far away and moving in and out of tall grass.

Last summer, we were walking around Horseshoe Lake in Denali National Park (trail info) when something gray caught my eye at the lake's edge. We watched the Canada Lynx for about half an hour before it eventually moved on. As we continued the loop, some other hikers were stopped on the trail, pointing off to the side. As we approached, this beautiful cat sat beside the trail, watching us. A few minutes later, it bounded across the trail and into the woods.

Taken with a Nikon D850 and a Nikkor 200-500mm f/5.6 ED VR lens at f/5.6, 1/250 second exposure, and ISO 1000.

The blue glow of the wall and ceiling in this Canwell Glacier Cave might be the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. On the day I took this photo, this cave was coming very close to collapsing. I doubt much of it remains since this was at the beginning of the summer, but I have yet to return. I intend to ski or snowshoe out to the area this winter, so hopefully, I’ll have an update in the next few months. There are plenty of other tunnels and caves in the area, so it will require a bit of exploring.

Taken with a Sony alpha a7iii (My Review) and a Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 at f/9, 1/50 second exposure, and ISO 200.

Below I’ve included some raw video from this cave taken the previous summer when it was much larger.

You can see all 38 of my 2022 photo highlights and get prints here.

2022 So Far

I’m very happy to say I’ve been out shooting photos again. On top of that, I’m making plans to travel this summer to further my Alaska Hiking Guide and hopefully complete my Alaska Wildflower Guide. While the wildflower guide will never really be “complete,” I hope to have it complete enough to publish a first-edition field guide for the summer of 2024. If I’m lucky, I’ll have a first-edition hiking guide in 2025.

Anyway, here are a few photos I’ve taken in 2023.

We had some great snowflakes last weekend!

Spooky and still boreal forest in Fairbanks, Alaska, at dusk - January 2023

Cotton candy clouds after sunset on my birthday - January 2023

Here’s a link to more of my recent photography. That gallery typically gets updated every other day. So even when I’m not posting on social media, stuff will pop up there.

One last medium-sized project that should be coming out in a few weeks (maybe a month) is an article on Alaska’s Tor Geology. If you’ve spent much time hiking in Alaska, especially in the interior, you’ve probably come across some granite tors like these:

The Windchimes - tors at Mt. Prindle (hiking guide)

The Asgard Tor at Granite Tors in the Chena River State Recreation Area (hiking guide)

Many high hills in the Alaska interior are dotted with these towering features rising out of relatively flat hilltops. Surprisingly, these remnants of granite plutons, formed from magma slowly cooling beneath the Earth's surface, are further evidence that this freezing part of the world was not glaciated during the last ice age. If it had been glaciated, these tors, which take millions of years to erode to their current form, would have been stripped from the hillsides.

I’ve always been interested in geology and am fascinated by how the places I visit on my hikes and adventures got the way they are today. Maybe others who read my hiking guides are too, so this should be a nice supplement.

That’s all my updates for this week. Thanks for reading!