Just before the first time Missy and I went to Alaska I bought my first serious camera. In fact, I think this was the first camera I ever bought for myself. I had a nice Minolta point and shoot I received as a Christmas gift. But I’d always wanted to get into Photography and this trip seemed like the perfect excuse.
On that trip, I shot 23 rolls of 35mm Kodak negative film. If you figure 37 pictures per roll, that added up to 851 pictures. I bagged a deal at Kroger, had them developed, and of those 851 pictures, exactly 1 of them was worth keeping. One.
So here on this trip I found myself nearly exactly in the same spot where that picture from the first trip was made. The first time I was there, we had a way better day for shooting. Crystal clear, bright blue sky, and if you strain, you will see the moon rising over the hills there. This time around in College Fjord, the sun was nowhere to be found. It was cloudier even than the day before at Glacier Bay.
College Fjord is not too far away from Anchorage, by air. It is dead in the middle of Prince William Sound, and it was the last sightseeing stop we would make before we disembarked excruciatingly early the next morning. The ship got to College Fjord early in the afternoon after passing Bligh Reef, the spot where 21 years prior an Exxon ship deposited 11 million of gallons of crude into those very waters. The spill covered an area the size of Connecticut, Delaware, and Rhode Island combined. The oil contaminated fishing waters over a 10,000 square miles, certainly including the area I photographed on this day.
College Fjord essentially two big glaciers, Harvard and Yale, then a bunch of little glaciers that mark the landscape as you cruise through the narrowed Port Wells arm off the sound.
The forest intermingles more with the glaciers here. Where Glacier Bay is relatively new in terms of geology, having been formed by recent melting of the glacial ice, College Fjord is much older. The coastline is heavily forested, except for the glacial paths, which long ago uprooted any growth that might have been there.
I spent this sightseeing trip on our own balcony. This turned out to be a much better shooting vantage point. Toward the end of our visit within a mile of Harvard Glacier, the ship’s captain executed a full 360 degree turn right in the middle of the sound. The turnabout made for a brilliant panorama opportunity, and I certainly took advantage of it. Because of the way I’ve chosen to upload these, with the best images in small groups first, the panoramas will have to wait until I am done with the entire trip. Stay tuned for that.
In the meantime, the dark cloudy conditions and later afternoon light brought the blue hues in the Harvard Glacier ice out a little bit more than Glacier Bay…
See all of Alaska Day 7 - College Fjord here...
On that trip, I shot 23 rolls of 35mm Kodak negative film. If you figure 37 pictures per roll, that added up to 851 pictures. I bagged a deal at Kroger, had them developed, and of those 851 pictures, exactly 1 of them was worth keeping. One.
So here on this trip I found myself nearly exactly in the same spot where that picture from the first trip was made. The first time I was there, we had a way better day for shooting. Crystal clear, bright blue sky, and if you strain, you will see the moon rising over the hills there. This time around in College Fjord, the sun was nowhere to be found. It was cloudier even than the day before at Glacier Bay.
College Fjord essentially two big glaciers, Harvard and Yale, then a bunch of little glaciers that mark the landscape as you cruise through the narrowed Port Wells arm off the sound.
The forest intermingles more with the glaciers here. Where Glacier Bay is relatively new in terms of geology, having been formed by recent melting of the glacial ice, College Fjord is much older. The coastline is heavily forested, except for the glacial paths, which long ago uprooted any growth that might have been there.
I spent this sightseeing trip on our own balcony. This turned out to be a much better shooting vantage point. Toward the end of our visit within a mile of Harvard Glacier, the ship’s captain executed a full 360 degree turn right in the middle of the sound. The turnabout made for a brilliant panorama opportunity, and I certainly took advantage of it. Because of the way I’ve chosen to upload these, with the best images in small groups first, the panoramas will have to wait until I am done with the entire trip. Stay tuned for that.
In the meantime, the dark cloudy conditions and later afternoon light brought the blue hues in the Harvard Glacier ice out a little bit more than Glacier Bay…
See all of Alaska Day 7 - College Fjord here...
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