Meltwater on the Glacier

This summer in Alaska has been spectacular if for only one reason – I’ve seen more glaciers this year than any other year since I moved to Alaska in 2004. Numerous visits to the Matanuska Glacier, Portage Glacier and this weekend to Kenai Fjords have allowed me to capture some incredible photos of these spectacular blue monoliths.

This week my friend Rick and I drove to the Matanuska Glacier for some twilight stomping on the ice. Having viewed the glacier at midday a few months earlier, we were eager to see the ice as the sun was settling over the peaks. And what we found was a joy… a yellow sun that bathed the ice in a translucent amber, purple skies and deep blue horizons reflected on pools of meltwater.

A few weeks beforehand, during one of our precious few sunny days this summer, Rick and I raced to Matanuska to capture the light of the compressed blue hues of the ice as it lies like a cat sprawled across the valley floor. We climed as high as we could get without crampons and climbing gear. Which is not an easy task! At the Matanuska Glacier visitors center you are asked to sign an insurance waiver should you fall into a crevass or be sucked into a sinking pool of mud (As happened to me in 2004). Once we signed our lives over to the grim reaper, we made our way to the ice.  The photos in this slideshow show some of my favorite images from these two adventures.

iPhone users: Click on a thumbnail to view:
Meltwater at the Matanuska Glacier, AlaskaGlacier MoonwalkMatanuska Glacier Alaska
To purchase a copy of any of these prints, visit my gallery by clicking here.

PRODUCTION NOTES: These photos were taken using a Canon 50D with my Canon EF-24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens. The camera was mounted to my Gitzo carbon fiber tripod and ballhead mount. Each scene was bracketed in 1/3 stop increments while metering on various lighting conditions of the scene. Post-production: Images were opened in Lightroom 3 and bracketed images were merged into HDR Pro in Photoshop and adjusted to provide a wide dynamic range. Images were then individually painted using masking techniques in order to paint hue, saturation, lightness, sharpness and vibrancy. Some images were also provided an illustrated look through the use of various Photoshop actions and filters.