The Things We Learn – yep folks, strap in, it’s a deep one…

Yep, I did it. I had one of those “Oh… I get it” moments, a realization… Eureka! If I examine it more thoroughly, it really wasn’t a “moment of discovery” it is a culmination of multiple moments. I nearly typed multi-ments, QUICK someone call Websters – I conjugated an adjective with a noun into a real-life usable word! My friends might argue, but I think I’m a frickin’ genious…

Anyway, back to my “eureka” multi-ment… I’m a lucky guy. No not with women – I’ve tripped and fallen through most of my relationships with the fairer sex (a few of which didn’t seem so fair, in the end); not with money – I probably owe more than my net worth; not with luck – if I had that perhaps the relationships would have been one with a really rich woman and I’d be retired by now.

But I do travel, and I meet people. Fascinating people, brilliant people, talented people, passionate people – people that shape lives. Mine to be more appreciative. I’ve compared my travels with old friends, I’ve done better than most – like I said I’m a lucky guy. I’ve been to Europe: Ireland, Germany, Hungary, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina. I’ve been across the US, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean. Most recently, I live in Alaska – if there was a postcard for planet earth, Alaska could generate the best wild-lands/wildlife shots. Along with some of the most eclectic people. I have plans/dreams to visit Europe again, the Far East, the Mid-East (possibly the most misunderstood region inhabited by the most misunderstood people on planet earth), Antarctica, Australia and New Zealand, etc. 

Back to those people. Each and every one has been a life changer. Another multi-ment here. No matter who you are, or what you do – you shape others through your actions or lack of action. You shape opinions, biases, conceptions or fuel misconceptions. How you treat people will forever alter those peoples lives, consciously or not. Some people are generous, some are guarded, some are rude – but all are life changing because you react, again consciously or not. Reactions are like dominos, tip one over and the line topples. The butterfly effect… a butterfly flaps it’s wings in Australia and a few days later it rains in L.A. See? I told you this was deep.

My travels in Alaska have been the best yet. I’ve met a family of travelers from Holland (hello Jos, Jeroen, Sophie, Emma! Thank you for the Christmas Card!) experiencing America for a summer. Met them in Ken and Chris Day’s prepping cabin by Beluga Lake before we all boarded a floatplane for Katmai to visit the bears. I don’t know what it is about the Dutch and Swedes, but they don’t seem to produce unattractive people – or mean ones. The Berings could have modeled as a family, and given lessons on friendliness to the Dalai Lama – not just good, but great people. I hope they won’t mind, but here’s a pic they emailed me that I took with their camera as they posed in front of “Peaches”.

 

Copyright Bering Photography 2008

Then there are the aforementioned Ken and Chris Day of Emerald Air Service – a bear guide service based in Homer. Generous with their knowledge of bears and business, I will forever be indebted to them for their kindness and the experiences that I have due only to the same knowledge. I’ve met The Eagle Lady of Homer, Jean Keene. She’s been feeding tons of fish to the Bald Eagles on the Homer Spit since the late 1970’s, and just turned 85 this past October. She averages about 40,000 pounds of fish thrown to the eagles in a 130 day “season”. It’s late, so I won’t attempt the math. But suffice it to say, that’s a lot of stinky, slimy fish. But she loves the eagles, and all the other avians that frequent her yard. Those of us who visit her, some just get that once in a lifetime chance, others – like myself – see her several times a year to photograph the gathering of the eagles, will be forever changed by the spectacle of seeing 200-300 Bald Eagles gathered so close in such an idilic setting. Thank you for all your hard work and dedication. And thank you to Steve, another Homer local, that helps nearly every day with Jean’s responsibilities.

Jean "The Eagle Lady" Keene taking a well earned break.

This weekend I met a Iranian born American named Ali Darvish. He’s possibly the most talented photographer I’ve ever seen, or met for that matter. And you won’t find a more passionate photographer and lover of life. This past Iditarod, he was flying in a small plane in rural Alaska (rural Alaska is different than rural Illinois…) when the plane suffered a catastrophic failure (I love that description, almost as much as this one…) and key pieces of the airplane fell off – namely, THE WINGS! I’m not a pilot or an aeronautical engineer, but even I know, planes don’t stay aloft very well when they lack wings. They tend to take on the trajectory of a lawn dart – remember those things? You can’t buy them for your kids anymore, but you can send your kids to pilot school… My dad has a phrase, “any landing you can walk away from”. But I take issue with what Ali went through as being a “landing”, don’t you need to have your gear down and still have the majority of the plane you took off with, to be considered a landing? Anyway, Ali is a fascinating guy – great stories from his world travels. I’d love to be able to post a link here to his online portfolio, but he actually knows less about computers than my own grandfather… sorry grandpa… But the key to Ali is – and he readily admits it – he has not desire to learn Photoshop and image manipulation. Seems ok with me, especially when you look at his raw, untouched images straight out of the camera. They don’t need to be worked on, immediate and perfected artwork. The guy just has raw talent, Photoshop CS4 (or whatever version is out now) be damned. He took about 50,000 images during his coverage of the Beijing Olympics. I’ve only seen a couple of them, but they are iconic in a way that I’ll probably never fully understand. They are a mixture of color, motion, and emotion. I hope he does a book soon, because I could look at his images over and over. They are just that inspiring. He has dreams of shooting for National Geographic, they could only be so lucky.

Then there were the Gullett’s. Spent a day with them on a boat in the Kenai Fjord’s National Park, near Seward. I don’t think I’ve ever met a happier or closer family. They welcomed me into their Alaska experience for a day, “forced” me to join them for dinner that evening, and I happily am still in touch with them. I hope to see them again next time they visit my “post-card state”. 

 

Team Work on the Mariah - Father Son "Gullett" Style

There are many more people that I’ve met in just 3 years, if you’re not named directly here – please know that you’ve shaped me just as much. I am only running out space in this novel;)

I overheard a conversation about me today, mostly by accident. I think it was meant as a criticism (which is fine, I can take it – I’ve found that once you’ve been shot at (oddly enough, not in the military), or walked near an unmarked mine field in a region torn apart by war and genocide, a persons criticisms are a pretty easy thing to handle – no matter how damning). This person said that I “approached photography to socialize, instead of take pictures”. I take issue with the second part, there’s nothing that I like more than taking photos, anyone who knows me understands that quickly. But the first part, “socialize” doesn’t seem as damning as it did when I first overheard the conversation. To meet people & share a moment (or if you’re really lucky, a multi-ment) of each others lives (even if just for a cab ride, or a weekend) – to socialize – what a lucky guy I am. Up to very recently, I’ve always resisted taking group photos or being a part of them – now, these people and having a photo memory of them, are some of my fondest photographs. I will endeavor to take more group shots, because traveling (and life in general) isn’t about where you’ve been or where you are going, it’s about who you meet along the way. To the life changers, each and everyone of us.

p.s. – watched a great documentary tonight. It’s about a guy that quits his great paying job to travel the world on the cheap for a year. It reaffirms my idea that it’s the people that make your life better, rather than the places you visit. A world tour is something I’ve wanted to do for some time now. I’m making a promise to myself right now, if Sixtyone North allows it, I’m taking a year off in the future, to do just that.

A Map for Saturday – documentary about a life changing backpacking trip around the globe. Highly recommended.

Kenai Fjord’s National Park

 

On Sunday morning I drove south to Seward for a full day aboard the M/V Mariah, one of the smaller boats of the Kenai Fjord’s fleet. I’ve done trips with Mariah Charter’s in the past – they continue to offer a peerless experience with superbly knowledgable crews, and unequaled sights. The vessels are always clean and well maintained and the service – well, it’s like being on a mini cruise ship with the worlds greatest itinerary. These are the boats that we at Sixtyone North will be chartering for our tours, and we’re really looking forward to this partnership. We started out by meeting our Captain and deck hand, Steve and Ellen respectively. These two were great as usual, highly informative and it was obvious that they have an intimate knowledge of the area and it’s wildlife. We were lucky to have them. They gave us the standard safety briefing, mixing in humor to ease the minds of the more apprehensive clients. It’s obvious that safety is their primary concern, both for our sakes and the wildlife/environment. Soon we were motoring out of the Seward small boat harbor and into Resurrection Bay. Almost immediately, we spotted a playful sea otter who was quite content to just float there and put on a show for us. Once we had our fill, we moved out of Resurrection Bay and met up with a large pod (actually 2 pods that had joined) of orca (Orcinus orca), or killer whales. 

At first they paralleled our path, our boat maintaining the legal distance. Then, they dove for several minutes, only to resurface just aft and to our starboard side. The captain immediately stopped our engines and allowed us to drift, and the orca to dictate the distance. It was a beautiful site, with a few large males, and several females and young swimming together with pristine wilderness as a background. I was torn with getting images for my portfolio and capturing video for our website – I ended up with a compromise of both. Once the killer whales moved on, we headed towards Northwestern Fjord and Glacier. Along the way, we happened upon an inquisitive pair of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae). They surfaced near our boat, we cut our engines again, and they circled us lazily for several minutes only a few yards away… amazing! They kept turning and coming back towards us, obviously un-threatened… what a morning!
We made our way into Harris Bay, and then into the ice-choked Northwestern Lagoon. We passed dozens of seals resting with their young on icebergs floating in the lagoon.
We kept our distance as to not disturb them. Soon we were in front of the Northwestern Glacier, actively calving into the water. This is a very dramatic landscape, with glaciers falling diving over the mountain tops and ridgelines high above. Several calving events occurred, the crack and boom of faulting ice, followed by the rush of the falling debris finally striking the water. We spent some time in front of the glacier, the silence only shattered by the sharp cracks of ice falling, the light “seltzer” of fizzing ice all around us – releasing air thousands of years old, and the sharp intakes of breath by the passengers of the boat every time a calving event happened.
Then, we made our way back to Seward, stopping at the Chiswell Islands to photograph stellar sea lions hauled out on the rocks. There were several pups present, and this was the largest amount of new births in several years. Unfortunately, the Steller sea lion population is still in decline. For some reason, many of the young are starving – despite a seemingly abundant food source. We also visited huge sea bird colonies: kittiwakes, cormorants, common murre, and the ever popular puffins (both tufted and horned). Further along, we happened upon a lone fin whale. The fin whale is the second largest mammal on the planet, second only in size to the blue whale – guessed to be up to 82 feet, and 154,000 pounds. That’s big! They can dive for over an hour at a time, and surface miles later – so our brief (yet brilliant) view – was lucky indeed, and very indicative of our superb day. The weather was beautiful, the crew superb, and fellow passengers a joy to be with. In particular, I met an extremely nice family from Ohio – the Gullett’s. They escaped the bad weather of the Mid-West for a trip to Alaska. They were a pleasure to be around and even invited me to dinner afterwards. They reminded me that adventure is not so much about the experience or the sights, but the people along the way.
Travel often, and travel well.