Alaska Photo Graphics

Aurora Borealis, Canwell Glacier

The Canwell Glacier is a broad, snow covered glacier that reaches a high point about twenty miles from the Richardson Highway, one of two access roads in the Alaska Range, approximately 170 miles south of Fairbanks.

A friend and I packed our snow machines and sleds, hit the glacier, and looked for a good camp spot. While I was cooking dinner, the aurora began dancing in the sky. I dropped everything and set up two cameras on tripods. The brightness of the snow is due to a full moon, although it appears a little brighter than it actually was due to a lengthy exposure.

A fast lens of f1.4 enabled a short exposure of about 6 seconds for this frame, which captured the crowning shape of the lights over the mountains. Temperatures dipped to minus 5 or minus 10 degrees. After 3 hours of shooting, I crawled into the tent at 1:30 in the morning, where my friend, who had retired earlier and was sleeping, had put hot water bottles into the bottom of my sleeping bag, making a warm oven entrance for my feet. Nice to have friends like that! Of all of my aurora photos, this one seems to get the most attention.

Subject:

Aurora Borealis

Location:

Canwell Glacier, Alaska Mountain Range, Alaska

Camera - film - gear:

• 35mm Canon EOS 3
• 24mm f1.4L
• Fuji 100 Provia, pushed 2 stops
• Gitzo tripod
• exposure 4-6 seconds

Alaska Geographic Book Cover