Alaska Through A Viewfinder: Spruce Needle Tea

Icebergs broken off from Ailiak Glacier that were left on shore after the tide went out.

A scenic detour through Coleman Cove.

In case you weren't aware I have a pretty awesome job. (Given it would be more awesome if it was paid and for the rest of my life, but I'll settle). After a week of office work and training I got to go out into the field. Not just over cover a program or the scenery over by Exit Glacier. I got to spend four days out on the Serac (which is the National Park Services Boat). Our main purpose of the trip was to capture photos, video, time-lapse, and panoramas of the area.

It was rainy the first two days which kind of
sucked but was still pretty great. We went to Northwestern bay which 100 years earlier you didn't exist because it was a glacier. Now the glacier has receded back allowing boats to get back there if they can make it through the ice. The part I found cool was that I was probably one of only 10,000 or less people that had actually walked on the part of the earth. Which in the grand scheme of the history of mankind is a pretty small number.

Harbor Porpoise hanging out in Coleman Cove.

The second two days of the trip were amazing. We woke up at 5 a.m. the third day to rain and overcast skies which disappointing us but by the time we beach on the shore near Ailiak Glacier the sun was shining and it stayed like that.

Our schedule was pretty similar everyday. Wake up early. Eat breakfast. Go on shore. Do photo. Go back to boat and eat lunch. Do more smaller photo thing. Come back to boat for dinner. Go find birds and photograph them until 10 p.m.

I have to say I never thought I'd be a fan of bird photography. The idea of waiting around and looking for a certain type of bird didn't sound appealing but it was actually kind of fun and hard. Birds are small and fast trying to track on to them long enough to focus and get off a picture is a pretty difficult task.

A week later and I'm still processing through a lot of the photos I took, but I'll leave you with a few. So go make a cup of spruce needle tea and enjoy.

Ailiak Glacier. To get an idea of just how massive these things are, those are people standing in the lower left corner.

A glacier calving (aka breaking off). Seeing them break off is quite a sight but even cooler is hearing them. They sound like thunder rumbling. They can also be dangerous.