24 July 2006
Day 8: Wrangell-St. Elias & Valdez
Woke unhappily to overcast skies. Nevertheless, got on an 8:30 AM 70-minute flight. No hope of seeing Mts. St. Elias or Logan. Did get good views of the glaciers and mountains in the more immediate vicinity of McCarthy (e.g. Mt. Blackburn).
It took some trail-and-error to get the right settings on my camera — I really didn’t have enough time to think about what would be best before we took off, as we were in a bit of rush with lower clouds moving in. I used my 50mm f/1.4 prime, more-or-less according to the suggestions of a professional aerial photographer (I’m not so much protecting his anonymity as being forgetful who it was!) Overall, a good move, though I think I might have been able to do slightly better with my 24-70mm f/2.8 zoom (which is fast enough and sharp wide-open). I forgetfully had my lens at f/8 to begin, before opening it up to f/5.6, eventually f/3.5. I could probably have used f/2.8, but I felt like I was getting good shutter speeds at f/3.5 (1/750 - 1/2000 sec). I tried to set the focus at (near) infinity and shut off autofocus. Bad move: I bumped the focus ring in the tight plane quarters at least three times without realizing it. Finally, I put it back on autofocus. Anyway, some photos, especially early in the flight, were out of focus or show signs of camera motion. Ah well. The weather not only flattened the lighting/contrast outside, but it pretty much required that the windows stayed shut the whole flight, so I didn’t bother asking (water would stream across the windshield above about 4,000 feet).
However, scratches etc on the window were (nearly) a non-issue — with the lens inches from the window, the marks were so far out of focus that you cannot even see them after zooming in the images. The photos are nevertheless very flat, but I can work around that.
I had to stash my camera bag in the back, and I realized too late that I wanted an extra CF card in case I filled my first card. Oh well. I made do with one card, shooting almost 100 frames in less than an hour. Of course this also means that I didn’t have access to my Mamiya, either, so no medium format Velvia for comparison, I’m afraid.
I’m using Adobe Lightroom (beta 3) for in-trip processing of photos, and so far it’s been working great… it’s a much better suited tool for this kind of work than PS.
Valdez, or: The Shame of Exxon
The rainy and low-overcast conditions made my plans to hike to the Bonanza mine largerly pointless (the views were my main motivation). So I packed up and drove the 60 miles/two hours over the rough gravel McCarthy road, and eventually back to Route 4 (making time for a brief hike at Liberty Falls). By the time I reached Route 4, I decided to make a quick side trip to Valdez (turning left/south) before heading to Anchorage (right/north).
The natural environs of Valdez are absolutely stunning: mountains, glaciers, sheer rocky cliffs, and cascading waterfalls. I spotted a seal swimming in the port not far off shore.
Valdez is a much more enjoyable place for those who have lost their sense of smell.
The air reeks of oil. The Exxon Valdez oil spill disaster was way back in 1989 — seventeen years ago — and it’s worth noting here that, to date, Exxon has not paid one penny of the fines and damages it was ordered to pay, instead choosing to continue to fight the damages in court.
More on the Exxon Valdez accident and settlement
Cell phone coverage, or: The Shame of T-Mobile
After Valdez, I drove back north to Glenallen, then headed west in the direction of Anchorage for about an hour before stopping for the night. Frustratingly, still no cell phone coverage (so much for the roaming coverage map), and no internet access either. I don’t even have a phone in my room. Tomorrow?
Departed McCarthy, Alaska about 11 AM ADTArrived Valdez, Alaska about 5:30 PM ADT
Arrived Eureka Summit, Alaska (61°56'N, 147°10'W) about 9 PM ADT
Elevation: 3,322'
Sun: 4:52 AM - 10:58 PM
Daytime temperatures: Mostly 50s-60s
Distance to Seattle: 1,387 milesDistance driven: 354 miles
Total driven: 3,188 miles
24 July 10:30 PM ADT