Tag Archives: John Thurston

Crack of Doom

by John Thurston

Some glaciers are relatively stable. The Mendenhall is not one of these. At this fissure, the race is on between the melt action from the outside edge and thinning ceiling caused by the increasing depth of the crack. When I found this ceiling crack, I knew I had to try to get an image of it before it disappeared.

It’s shot on Provia 400X with about a half-second exposure. Because of the height of the ceiling and the orientation of the crack, I was unable to get everything in focus with the TL120-1. Yep, the foreground is soft, but I feel it isn’t too distracting. A greater distraction is the stream of water very near the camera. Again, there was nothing I could do about it, so I made the image as best I could.

This is one image I whole-heartedly suggest experiencing inverted. Flip that slide over and see what’cha’ think.

This is also an image which I have found impossible to color-match between the slide and the computer screen. The colors just don’t exist in the sRGB space to present the colors on the film.

August, 2011 – Tripod mounted TL120-1, Provia 400X

Hanging Ice Cubes

by John Thurston

This is another image from under the Mendenhall glacier. I have done several images of the surface and the caves. Here, I’ve screwed up the courage to actually get in the gap between the ice and the bedrock, put a camera on a tripod and try to compose some images. It’s pretty hard to concentrate on images when the ceiling is melting and the resulting ice-water-rain is running down your back. Then there are the streams (a little visible in the middle-ground), tumbling rocks, and falling ice-bits to keep you jumping!

I really wanted to get more light so you could see the distance better. Even though I had brought my flash (and all of the cables to make it go) I was unable to control it enough to get any light in the distance without blowing out the rocks in the foreground. What I needed was a Chimney Boy to slither in and rig a couple of remotes part way down the cleft.

Created with a tripod-mounted TL120-1

Decker Way

by John Thurston

Juneau has more than a few steep streets, and quite of few of these become too steep to remain a paved roadway. Decker Way is a downtown street which becomes a staircase to finish its run down to South Franklin St. The staircase streets are named and numbered just like the roadways, and commonly have  houses along both sides. I visit them on my lunch break, and I don’t envy the folks who live there who get to carry their groceries up (or down) in all kinds of weather.

This is not labeled, but is probably from my TL120-1.

Tours!

by John Thurston

Down on the docks, the cruise ships tie up and the passengers disembark. Those who bought package tours on the ship need to find the right person with the sign for their tour. Those who didn’t buy their tickets on the ship, can talk to one of the tour representatives in the kiosks. The cruise lines would rather sell the ticket on-board (as they pocket a large commission on each sale), and make a point of warning their passengers of unscrupulous dealings elsewhere. I’d rather deal with these guys who are here rain or shine, every day of the week.

This was a fun image to make. I was framing the image and chatting with the barkers in their kiosks.  All day long, they see the tourists clicking away with cameras, but my TL120-55 on a tripod was a bit different and caught their attention. I tried framing this with the TL120-1, but I really think the 55mm lenses let me better capture the scene.

Tripod mounted TL120-55, April 2010.

Cranberry Crush (with crabapples)

by John Thurston

The back of the mount says “TL120”, but it lies. This dates from 2005 and I didn’t have a TL120 until 2006. I found another unmounted image from this same roll and it is obviously from my Rolleidoscop.

The girls are working on crushing Crabapples (which they have just picked off the tree in the yard). They had a recipe for “Cranberry Crush”, and lacking any cranberries, decided to see what they got using local ingredients.

I am working on framing an image, and trying to figure out how to drive the flash. My flash technique is terrible and this marginal success I can attribute only to luck. I have no idea how I managed to get the exposure this close with a Vivitar 285 bounced off the ceiling.

Wall

by John Thurston

In some earlier folio offerings, I’ve shown the raining ceilings and the smooth rocks. This image is all about the ice.

Up close and personal with the face of the glacier, you can see the facets and scallops created as it melts. The sand and rock in the ice has possibly been there for thousands of years. Its journey is nearly over and it will soon melt out and fall to the ground.

I’ve been trying some different methods of duplicating slides. This is a Gammatech duplicate made from a flat-bed scan on my Epson 4990. While it isn’t bad, it can’t compare with the original. But, for $10, it certainly isn’t bad.

August, 2010. Tripod mounted TL120-1.

Glare From the Noon Light

by John Thurston

Yes, this is the noon light, not the moon light. Early in January, the sun doesn’t get very high in our sky. It rakes in very low, and there are often shadows mid-day caused by the sun being obscured by some mountains. In earlier folios, you have seen where the ice meets the land. This is where the ice meets the lake.

Catching the dawn light on the glacier is a tricky business. By definition, it involves starting the mile and quarter trek across the lake (either by skate or by ski) before dawn. It requires a bit of nerve to lace up my skates and set out across the lake in the dark with a pack loaded with camera gear. Once there, in the pre-dawn light, the challenge is to find the image that will be there when the sun arrives.

In this case, I caught the light on the extreme face of the glacier.  There is nothing for scale, but the hummock to the right is probably only four feet high. That makes the face about 30 feet high. The lake ice in front of it (as well as where I’m standing) is a mass of re-frozen crumble. At any time, the glacier may slide forward and wrinkled the ice for many yards. The lake is also littered with bergs which have fallen off the face. If that should happen, the resulting waves will leave broken ice for half a mile. I have never been there when it happens, but the evidence that it does happen is recorded in the ice at my feet.

This was shot with my TL120-55 on a tripod in January, 2010.

Re-seeding Images

by John Thurston

My contributions for re-seeding our folio are all from the Mendenhall Glacier area of Juneau. These are near-duplicates of some work I offered in FolioA-Loop 23 (Raining Under Ice, Path To The Underworld, and others). As the folio-box fills and we need the space, I’ll have these images pulled and returned to me to make room for others’ work.

  • Pulled Out TL120-55, tripod, ProviaPulledOut
    Two kayaks are pulled out of the Mendenhall Lake on a scrap of gravel which, two years ago, didn’t exist. As the glacier melts, the rock face on which I’m standing was been exposed to the light of day and the creek (in the foreground) which used to tunnel under the ice falls freely into the lake. I walked in over the peninsula behind me. These two folks were able to take the easier route and paddle around.
  • Freshly Exposed Rock TL120-1, tripod, Kodak EGFreshlyExposed
    As that ice melts, new rock appears. This is rock which has never before been exposed to the light of day. The bit of ice on the right is actually the edge of the glacier. Two weeks ago, the rock in front of my camera would have been under the edge of the ice. It has been ground and polished by the weight of the ice being pressed up it. When I walk the peninsula, I have the opportunity to be the first to tread on a patch of ground.
  • On The Edge TL120-1, tripod, ProviaOnTheEdge
    This is a bit farther down the rock face. In another week (or maybe two), this face will be free from the press of ice and out in the light. If you were to crawl and down, you would probably reach the lake. I, however, feel too mortal to attempt the journey.
  • Under The Blue Dome TL120-55, tripod, ProviaBlueDome
    This is rock which has not yet been exposed to the light of day. It has spent centuries under the ice and will likely be exposed next year. Until then, it is lit only by the filtered blue light that makes it through the ice. Photographing here is a bit of a challenge. The light is dim, it is always raining melt water, and the roof is going to collapse; it’s just a question of when.

Raining Under The Ice

by John Thurston

Scan001098

This image is made much farther under the ice than Path To The Underworld. It felt, however, much less dangerous and I spent almost half an hour enjoying the space and composing images. A cavern like this this has required months to open and is fairly stable and mature, while the sliver revealed in Path is probably only weeks old and still changing rapidly.

If you have a wide-angle viewer, this would be an excellent time to bring it out. In any case, you will need a bright viewer to reveal the details in the wet floor, but this is my favorite from the set of images I made that day.

This was shot with my TL120-55 on a tripod.

Path To the Underworld

by John Thurston

Scan001099Another image shows what’s going on above the ice, but here we’re down under the edge of the ice. We’ve gone back in time far enough that this section of rock has never seen the light of day. The wear-grooves are visible in the rock as are the gravel and sand which the ice used to make the the grooves. Next August, I may be walking on this section of stone, though I doubt I’ll be able to locate it exactly.

Walking around the cliffs above the glacier can make you feel small. But screwing up the nerve to climb down and place a tripod under the glacier makes me feel mortal (and upsets my wife).

Tripod mounted TL120-1

Barbara Over The Glacier

by John Thurston

This is the “peninsula” which has figured in many of my recent submissions to the folio. Scan001101As you look at this, the Mendenhall Glacier is receding up the valley to your left and the newly exposed rock surfaces are below you on the right. We’ve crossed the peninsula at the highest point you see and walked down to the edge of the ice. We’ve traveled along the edge of the ice and climbed this cliff to have lunch and try to get some perspective.

The blue-ice caves we’ve visited are down at the edge of the ice. The hikers in the center of the frame are heading back to the trail after visiting the glacier. The forest service visitor’s center is visible on the far side of the lake in the center of the frame. In the winter, I’ll skate or ski from there to the glacier to try to capture images of its presence.

Twenty years ago, every inch of this peninsula was under ice. The spot my wife is sitting would have been about 200′ below the surface. Twenty years from now, these smooth cliffs will be covered in scrub alder and willow and the contours will be hidden forever.

Tripod mounted TL120-1

Under The Ryndam

by John Thurston

Scan001097In Tight Lines I referenced one of the changes I’ve seen in in the last ten years, namely the prohibition on getting too close to the ships tied to our public docks. While there is now a plastic fence bolted down the middle of the dock and signs assuring us that maritime safety depends on keeping everyone on the correct side of the fence, there is a remaining bit of sanity. Twenty feet from the fence (and where I stood to create Tight Lines), there is a ramp to the tender-float. When there are too many ships in the harbor to dock them all, they anchor out and bring their passengers in by small boat. The float to which they tie is directly under the bow of first ship moored at the dock. From there, I attempted to capture the immensity of the ships which visit us.

The ship pictured here is the Ryndam. At 101 feet wide, it is almost Panamax-width and could well be the same ship pictured in Tight Lines. Some of the ships which frequent Juneau are a bit wider and taller than Ryndam, but few of them moor at this dock. A skiff with two men in it is provided for scale. The building the background is four stories tall.

Tripod mounted TL120

Disappearance of a cavern

by John Thurston
Tl120 on a tripod

Note the rock with white-quartz knob

TL120-55 on a tripod

The top of that rock is in the lower right corner

While I know that all four of my images in the last loop from the Mendenhall Glacier, it is where my camera has most frequently been pointed in the past year.  Experiencing the changing ice and witnessing the emergence of fresh ground is thrilling.

Back in June of 2007, I stood in the middle of a stream which had torn a hole in the side of the ice.  The water was disappearing into the darkness under the glacier as it ran out to the lake. It was a bit disconcerting to make my way down the rock-face so I could stand in the stream of snow-melt and make the image.  It would have been a wet, hypothermic climb had I been knocked down and over the edge 😛

A little over a year later, I stood in the same stream and was stunned by the change.  I attempted another image from the same location as before, but found the composition totally boring.  Instead, I brought the camera forward about eight feet.  This was still in the stream, but my tripod had better footing and the composition had some foregound interest and receding lines.  By chance, a rock from the earlier image is present in the lower right of the later image.  It helps give an idea of how much has changed.

The first image was shot with my TL120-1 while the second was shot with my wide-angle TL120-55.  Both cameras were tripod mounted.

Both images are mounted in 46x52mm (MFW) mounts from Rocky Mountain Memories.  I really like the mount.  The aperture is 2mm wider and 6mm taller than the normal 40×50 (MFL) mount.  Give them a try if you can get your hands on any.

Fresh Stone

by John Thurston
TL120-1 on a tripod

TL120-1 on a tripod

As my previous submission to the folio demonstrate,  I have been exploring the freshly exposed ground left by the retreating Mendenhall glacier.  What I find are features, shapes, textures and colors which have been exposed to us for no more than ten years.  In some cases, the rock has exposed in the previous month and my feet and hands are some of the first things to touch the surface since the ice left.

This is a texture, shape and color study.  I am fascinated by the sparkling mica and quartz, the conflicting contour lines and rock layers, and by the macro-scopically smooth shapes which closer study shows to be an extremely rough surface.

It was shot with my TL120-1 (so 80mm lenses) which was tripod mounted.  I made exactly one exposure, but I’m pleased enough with the results that I want to make more.

Tight Lines

by John Thurston
Sputnik on a tripod - Provia 100F

Sputnik on a tripod - Provia 100F

The Steamship Wharf in downtown Juneau has sufficient capacity to moor three cruise ships.  When the dock is full, others must anchor in the channel and lighter their passengers in. When the ships are able to tie up, they tower over the library (which is immediately adjacent to the wharf); these are big.  Depending on the ship, they may use six, seven or eight hawsers to secure themselves to the dock.  Each of these lines is continually monitored by the ship-board watch and let out or tightened to accommodate the motion of the boat and the tide.

I really like the way the lines radiate out to the ship and disappear into the hull openings.  For a couple of years I was able to make these images and I was starting to figure out what it would take to get everything in focus and have a good composition.  Then “they” rammed a couple of planes into a pair of skyscrapers on the other side of the globe and the Department of Homeland Hysterics took over our docks.  The consequence is that I can no longer get close enough to the lines to again attempt this image.  Yes, the foreground is soft, but that’s the way it’s gonna be 🙁

Tripod mounted Sputnik, Provia 100F