Alaska Photo Graphics

Clouds over the Trans Alaska Oil Pipeline, Arctic, Alaska

After traveling for hours through scenic mountain views, one ends up on Alaska’s arctic coastal planes, a flat region the stretches from the Brooks mountain range to the Arctic Ocean. The region is home caribou, bear, wolf, musk oxen and throngs of birds that make it their summer nesting grounds.

In a flat land like this northern region, a landscape photographer must look to the sky for added drama. And clouds, a favorite subject of mine, add just the needed component to this image. Critical also to the feel of giant space in this image is the use of a very wide angle lens to grab as much of the sky and clouds as possible. While polarizing filters can help separate clouds from a blue sky, I did not use one in this photo for two reasons: First, the lens has a very large, bulbous front element which prevents their attachment, and secondly, with super wide angle lenses, polarizer filters will darken one side of the frame more than the other, creating an unbalanced look.

The Alaska Pipeline anchors the foreground and gives a sense of presence in this otherwise very broad and expansive landscape. The pipeline stretches for some 800 hundred miles across the state, spanning diverse and magnificent landscape.