3/26/12

Turnagain Workshop




















This past weekend, I was fortunate enough to attend a photography workshop hosted by Hal Gage.
I first saw his work at the Anchorage Museum where he had huge black and white photographs of ice chunks that form out on Turnagain Arm with the tides coming in and out. This unique body of water is part of the Cook Inlet and extends down south to Portage.


This portion of the Seward Highway hugs the shorelines of Turnagain Arm with 3000 foot peaks jutting out of the earth. Its a ride I have never tired of.  You must travel this road to access anywhere on the Kenai Peninsula (Seward, Soldotna, Homer etc.) You also travel on this road to reach Girdwood and Mt Alyeska.
One thing that is well known and heeded, is that the silty waters here are famous for quicksand type action. All thoughts of tromping around at low tide is strictly discouraged. However, in early March and April, when the sun shines bright for 13 hours, and the earth is still very frozen, you can venture out there carefully, watching the tide.
So, for two days, a group of us met up after planning our trek at low tide, and hiked out onto Bird Point. We spent the day photographing this amazing world. Although its hard to get much perspective from the photos, many of these large chunks of ice were as large as vehicles or small houses. There was a lot of melting and shifting going on as well.
Hope you enjoy.
BTW,  photographer Joe Connolly of Chugach Peaks Photography was kind enough to loan me a very nice lens to use for the weekend. Thanks Joe!

2 comments:

Views from Malmesbury said...

Wonderful!

LRR said...

Great set of snaps! It's almost like some of them use color splash, even though it's just pure old nature. Way cool. xo