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The Grand Parapet, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska

The Wrangell-St. Elias national park is located toward the eastern side of south central Alaska and crosses over into Canada. It is home to many of north America’s largest mountain peaks; it is rugged and remote. As a side excursion during a winter trip deep into the mountains I hired a small plane to do some aerial photography. Planes well equipped and designed for this are not always available, so you work with what you get. Working around wing struts and a variety of types of opening windows is always a challenge.

On this stellar March day, our plane circled over a very prominent and steep ridge known as the Grand Parapet. This is a center crop from the original frame, which was taken on a 6 x 17 cm panoramic camera. In order to avoid the wing strut, I had to stick the camera partway out the window, hold on white-knuckle tight, as steady as possible in the blowing wind and shoot.

It is critical when doing aerial photography to let the least amount of your body touch the frame of the aircrafts, since that passes vibrations through you to the camera. Fortunate for me, a friend in the back seat was holding open the window.

The late afternoon light helps reveal the great dimension and relief to the snowy, wind packed ridges, which surprising hold snow in such a near vertical position.

Subject: The Grand Parapet

Location: Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska

Camera - film - gear:

• Fuji 6x17cm Panorama camera
• 90mm, f8
• f8 @ 1/125 second
• 100 ISO Provia
• Hand Held

Field Notes