Apogee Photo Magazine

ALASKA....

The "Great Land"

by Behram daCosta

The native Aleuts called it Alyeska - the Great Land, and Alaska is amazing even today. It contains more than half a million square miles that include the northern-most point in the United States (Point Barrow), the western-most point (Little Diomede Island), and since Alaska crosses the international date line, it also includes the eastern-most point in the United States (Semisopochnoi Island in the Aleutians). Alaska contains 17 of the 20 highest mountain peaks in the United States--including the highest (Mt. McKinley, at 20,320 ft. above sea level), more than three million lakes, more than 3,000 rivers, and more than 70 dormant volcanoes.

Most of Alaska is unspoiled by humans and contains widely differing landscapes, from the frigid barren landscape at Barrow in the north, to the lush temperate rain forests in parts of Glacier Bay in the south. The Alaskan landscape is continually under change. Its more than 100,000 glaciers are constantly moving, carving valleys. Its volcanic eruptions can create entire National Parks--as did the eruption in 1912 which was the most powerful volcanic eruption this century. And its earthquakes, such as the 1964 earthquake measuring roughly 9.0 on the Richter scale, can cause large areas of land to emerge from under the sea.

Alaska is teeming with wildlife, including bears (such as Kodiak bears, brown bears, black bears, grizzly bears, polar bears), reindeer, moose, 400 species of birds including thousands of bald eagles, millions of seals, walruses, and more than ten different species of whales.

Most visitors prefer to visit Alaska in the summer. During these months, daylight lasts almost 24 hours each day, although photographers should note they will not have direct sunlight all this time. Some hours offer lighting similar to dusk. Temperatures in the summer months are generally between 50-70 F. During winter, northern Alaska can experience no daylight for months at a stretch, and the temperatures can fall well below 0 F, which are reasons enough to deter most visitors. However, in northern Alaska, tourists can usually see the northern lights, or aurora borealis, only during the cold, dark winter.

The northern-most point in Alaska--and, indeed, in the entire the United States--is Point Barrow. It is roughly ten miles north of the town of Barrow, 330 miles north of the Arctic Circle, and 900 miles from the North Pole. Barrow is surrounded by frozen, barren tundra and the frozen Chukchi Sea near the Arctic Ocean. It has no roads leading to it and can be reached only by plane from other Alaskan cities. The town of Barrow--with a population of roughly 4,000--has the largest Eskimo population in Alaska. It offers a look at a people and culture more than a thousand years old, with inhabitants who even today depend on whale-hunting for survival. During the cold war, Barrow had a strategic value. Part of the Early Warning System was located there, antennas of which now lie seemingly abandoned on the windy, barren landscape like strange anachronisms. The weather in Barrow ranges from below -56 F in January (a month during which there is no daylight), to roughly 40 F in July (a month during which there are 24 hours of daylight each day).

Farther south, in Alaska's interior--roughly between Fairbanks and Anchorage--is Denali National Park, which has been declared an International Biosphere Reserve. Denali National Park can be reached by both road and railway. In the summer months, Denali's more than six million acres of lush mountains, valleys, and plains are feeding grounds for various wildlife. Visitors can enter the park on park tour buses, on foot, or in private cars. Only a limited number of private cars are allowed, and only during certain days of the year. Road travel permits for cars are given by lottery. Traveling into the park even for a few hours on a tour bus virtually guarantees opportunities to photograph Dall sheep, moose, and frequently also grizzly bears. The majestic Mt. McKinley, North America's highest mountain, is also located within Denali. Like the weather in much of Alaska, the temperatures in Denali during the summer are usually a comfortable 55-65 F.

The largest city in Alaska in terms of population is Anchorage, a modern city with roughly 226,000 residents. Anchorage is a three hour flight from Seattle. South of Anchorage on Resurrection Bay on the Kenai Peninsula is Seward, named after William H. Seward, who as U.S. Secretary of State in the 1860's bought Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million. The town of Seward offers private boat rides along the coast where whales, seals, and the coastal landscape can be photographed. Seward is also close to the Kenai Fjords National Park.

In southeast Alaska lies Juneau, the capital of Alaska, with a population of approximately 30,000. While there are excellent roads and many automobiles within Juneau, there are no roads leading to or from this city! Juneau can be reached by plane or ship/ferry. In contrast to the extreme weather in Barrow, the weather in Juneau is somewhat more moderate, with temperatures ranging from roughly 28 F in January (a month during which there are roughly seven hours of daylight each day) to roughly 58 F in July (a month during which there are roughly 18 hours of daylight each day). The port of Juneau is situated in a very picturesque channel, and the rolling landscape and roads of Juneau are similar in some ways to those of San Francisco.

Just 65 miles north of Juneau is Glacier Bay, encompassing 3.3 million acres, which has been declared a World Heritage Site. Glacier Bay's glassy-calm waters are often gently disturbed by whales and seals. Abundant on the shore are moose, goats, black bears, and--of course--glaciers, which move and "calve" into the waters of the bay. ("Calving" refers to the natural breaking off of pieces of ice from a glacier). While Glacier Bay has a large concentration of glaciers, glaciers can be found throughout Alaska. A total of more than 100,000 glaciers exist there. The largest covers an area of more than 1,000 square miles. Glacier Bay Lodge operates boats which tour Glacier Bay--an ideal way to photograph both glaciers and sea life. Some visitors choose to kayak in the bay, a mode of transportation which can give photographers more freedom and a different perspective. It is also possible to camp and hike on the shore, an opportunity to get a land-based perspective on this fascinating landscape which includes arctic regions as well as temperate rain-forest.

Alaska is big, very big. With the above paragraphs, I hope to inspire in you a sense of awe and interest, though you may rest assured that this article and the accompanying photographs have not come close to doing justice to even a small part of Alyeska - this Great Land. Alaska has incredible sights to offer, especially to nature and landscape photographers. The American critic and essayist Brooks Atkinson said, "The virtue of the camera is not the power it has to transform the photographer into an artist, but the impulse it gives him to keep on looking." When visiting Alaska, I believe a photographer may observe, admire, and learn even more than a non-photographer, simply because the photographer may look longer and harder, even before returning home and having the photographs developed.

There are many ways to tour Alaska, including combinations of planes, trains, tour buses, private automobiles, cruise ships, and kayaks. Contact a travel agent for more information. On the World-Wide Web you can consult your favorite search engine, and the State of Alaska home page at http://www.state.ak.us/.

Behram daCosta is a Biomedical Engineer who lives and works in San Francisco. Born in India, he has been a serious photographer since his early teens. He has extensively photographed Alaska, Hawaii and the Himalayas. He uses a Fuji 645s medium format camera. His work, as an engineer, has previously dealt with human and machine visual perception, and learning of visual motion perception. Presently he designs and implements hardware and software for real-time monitoring of brain activity. As a photographer, he enjoys nature and landscapes. Behram can be reached via e-mail at behramd@valise.com