The location of the frames below were taken shortly after the confluence of the Marsh Fork of the Canning with main Fork of the Canning river, on the western border of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
On the final evening of my Marsh fork/Canning river trip in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, after a wild and windy storm squall of rain passed through, the skies cleared to the north and that long sought after golden summer sunshine poured across the landscape. The mosquitoes however, were abusive. After setting up camp in a pair of shorts that I had worn on the river all day, and doing a crazy mosquito dance for about 5 minutes, I dove into my tent and considered staying there for the night. But that buttery light, along with a hunger pang, lured me out quickly.
I used my bug shirt (a necessity for travel in this region), and while it makes photography a bit difficult looking through the mesh net, (especially shooting into the sun) it offers the gift of relief. Managing bugs requires more than your own bug net however. The swarms were so bad that they crowded my camera and lens and were constantly in the picture. I resorted to using my 10 second self timer, then slowly backing away from the camera, luring the cloud with me so the actual shot would contain fewer bugs. It worked pretty effectively, although I still had to stamp out a few bugs that showed up as blur streaks in the picture.
We found the bull caribou antler along the river bank and threw it our raft to use as a photo prop along the way. But when the river rose overnight early on during the trip, it washed the antlers away. Fortunately, we found the same set of antlers downriver on our very last day of travel. Both of these frames are single exposures, although I shot a variety of images in which to blend for better dynamic range and detail management if necessary.
12:50 AM, July 9, 2010. Bull caribou antlers along the Canning River, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska. Canon 5D Mark II, 16-35mm f/2.8L (22mm), 1/2 sec @ f/20, ISO 50.
12:50 AM, July 9, 2010. Bull caribou antlers along the Canning River, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska. Canon 5D Mark II, 16-35mm f/2.8L (22mm), 1/8 sec @ f/22, ISO 100.
