Not Forgotten

Alas poor blog and blog followers, you have not been forgotten. I realize that the last entry featured a snow-filled panorama. Haines has progressed through its seasons and is many months past snow covered wasteland.

What can I say,  I spent the summer on a fishing boat and was unable to maintain a blog. My first season running a fishing boat was a huge learning experience. My time was split between running the fishing boat and maintaining the fishing boat.

I certainly urge you to support my business and the many other Alaska fisherman by consuming wild Alaska salmon.

Snow Shoeing

Spring/Winter is in full swing in Haines. If you are not from these parts, there is a point where the sun and the snow combine to form a fabulous platform for winter sports. Keeping active in the outdoors is one way to make the most of a record-breaking snow fall.

I have been getting out to snowshoe as much as I can. I don't have the coordination it takes to ski. A snowshoe dawdle-waddle fits me nicely. An old high school buddy named Ryan and I made the trek out the Chilkoot Lake road last weekend. It is a relatively flat hike. We spent a good part of the hike on the side of the river, rather than simply on the road. Six feet of snow made for good snowshoeing.

My buddies seem to have a thing for snow shoeing up hills. Weather permitting, we plan to take a whack at the 3900-foot-high Mount Ripinsky overlooking Haines.

Long Winter in Haines

Last Saturday was one of the first nice days of the years. The temp in Haines was about 40F and the sun was out. Usually when the sun is out it is windy and bitter cold or if it is above 40F, it is pouring rain. It was a truly special day. I celebrated by taking a nice long drive with the sunroof open.

So far the biggest news of the town has been the slump. If you look closely at this image, you will notice that the road has moved to the left. If the road totally fails it could potentially cut off the town's access to its supply of fuel, ocean cargo port and access to the Alaska Marine highway ferry dock. Two families have vacated their homes due to this.

Things I Have Learned from My Dog

With beagles, every day is the best day ever. It was something I read. There is something about the breed. They always seem positive. I noticed that with my dog.  

When I first met him he just came up and leaned on me. There was an instant connection. We didn’t even look at another dog at the shelter that day. There is such a thing as love at first sight, even with animals. 

Get up every morning and go outside. There are days I wouldn’t have gone outside at all if it wasn’t for my dog. Whether it be because of the weather, workload, school work, anxiety, stress or just plain old depression my dogs needs trumped in and I would have to take a walk with him. A walk a day never hurt anyone. 

Go home once in a while. My dog kept my wife and I grounded. My dog gave me a good excuse and good reason to break up my day and not be out of the house for 18 hours at a time. Spending 18 hours away from home is never appropriate, no one can hold pee in that long. 

Me coming home is part of the best day ever. Whether I be gone for fifteen minutes or three months, there is something about the celebration of coming home that is heartwarming. My dog’s intense tail wag and the spark in his eye was a celebration of making everything whole again. Greet your loved ones tail wagging ready to kiss if appropriate. 

My dog could stretch out or compress to take advantage of all of the comfort something had to offer. He could take up all of a couch or curl to fit a pinto bean sized space on a pillow. Be able to take advantage of as much anything might be able to offer. 

My dog has taught me to be kind to animals. I think animals think and feel. Maybe they don’t do it in the same way people do, but they certainly do. I was a rabid hunter and perhaps might have been a little too harsh to animals. My dog has made me change my ways. My relationship with a dog has not made me vegetarian. It has made me care about the animals whose lives are taken to feed me. If I choose to take an animals life, I do it with all the honor and care due to the respective animal. 

Every day is the best day ever but today was the worst day ever. Today is the first day without our beagle. 

Bazaar Season

It is Holiday Bazaar season in Haines, AK. It is a kick in the pants to sell my photographs and artwork in a bazaar setting. It is an ideal setting to get immediate feedback on your work. Most people say they like your work and move on, sometimes they don't say anything and move on. Sometimes people buy your stuff and move on.

One of the biggest challenges is trying to figure out the type of stuff people want to see and hopefully buy. While at a holiday market place in Santa Fe, it turns out people wanted to see images of Alaska. It turns out that people in Alaska also want to see images from Alaska. Specifically, people in Haines want to see images of Haines. My collection of images and greeting cards were certainly all over the board subject wise.

It turns out one of the crowd favorites was an image I printed of my beagle. I printed the image as a joke, really. It turns out that the image sold out immediately. Mojo might just earn his kibble this month.

Photographers Block

I am in the process of busting a four-month-long case of photographer's block. Through the summer I have been distracted by commercial fishing and a whole bunch of other things. Put this on top of difficulties stemming from a transitioned from assignment work to a largely personal project based work.

For me, photography is a language. It is a way of communicating. If you don't use this language every day, you get rusty. The way I picked up a proficiency in photography was to practice every day. For a period of years I always had a camera slung on my shoulder. In the past few years I have fell out of that practice. This poses a problem for someone that bills himself as a street photographer. For me, street photography means capturing slice of light photographs of everyday activities.

The photo above was made from from having a camera on me when I was walking to the grocery store. This is the back side of a pair of refrigeration boxes on the back side of a local grocery store. The time to make a photo like this is when you see it. I am glad I shot this picture when I did. I drove by this scene today and it wasn't there anymore. The cables were not wrapped the same way and that spoiled the "face in object" of the photo.

Unthawed Indeed

It is nice to be back in a place where six inches of snow do not shut down the town. It is nice the be back in a place where those same six inches melt off in a few days. Over the weekend Haines, AK saw its first snow fall, then the subsequent melt off. The snow was a nice change from the two straight weeks of rain that Haines was being soaked by.

Meg and I have decided to call Haines home for the Winter. Meg will be doing web work, writing and editing. I will be doing web work, design, photography and art.

One thing I was looking for was an inspiring space to work. Santa Fe, our previous home, was inspiring for the space, the quality of light and the scenery. It is an easy place to be inspired by because everyone claims to be inspired by the place (This is O'Keefe Country!!!). It is also easy to be inspired there because everyone is. Everyone in Santa Fe was an artist.

Haines is inspiring for its own reasons. Haines has dramatic light changes and weather changes that sort of ground me. It is easier to work in this isolating space because everything ISN'T inspiring and painted with magical light all the time. You have to hunt more for environmental inspirations from the Southeast Alaska. When you find it you know it. The fact that the scenery is often obscured also forces me to focus on a totally different inspiration: people.

Once again the double negative title of this blog is apt. Unthawed means unfrozen or refrozen. I am a lifelong Alaskan who escaped and returned to the great frozen north. After a period of time to warm up, I have returned to freeze.