Untamed Land

Untamed Land
Untamed Land

Monday, September 26, 2011

More of Scott's Great Photos

Last Autumn Scott flew out into the Alaska bush to take in the colors of the tundra.

A lot of the tundra vegetation is made up of dwarf trees. They are deciduous and turn bright colors in the fall, just like their full sized cousins.
Tundra produces an abundance of berries of many kinds. Every fall, people head up to the tundra to gather berries. Blueberrys are everybodies favorite. Berries help to fatten up Grizzly Bears so they can hibernate through the winter.
A nice sample of berries for making jam, or just eating fresh.

Besides berry bushes and dwarf trees, much of the tundra is made up of mosses, lichens, and ground-hugging flowers. It can be a wildly colorful palette.
The fantastical plants in the movie Avatar were not any more exotic than the tundra jungle. I have painted it many times.
Although I did'nt give it any thought before I moved up to Alaska, tundra proved to be an unexpected delight.
The photo above, and the photos that follow, are some Autumn scenes that I photographed in past years. This fall, I have been experimenting with shooting in RAW format. I have not figured out how to put those photos up on the blog yet.
A photo of the sunlit mountains of theAlaska Range, in the state's interior.
Another view of the bright mountains.
Right now we are seeing termination dust on the local mountaintops. This snow indicates the termination of Summer. Beautiful but foreboding.
The choo-choo chugs it's way past Denali National Park, headed to fairbanks.
The Matanuska River. I apologize if I have already posted some of these photos last fall. I just dont remember. Senility is catching up with me I guess.

6 comments:

Jeremy Pearse said...

John, another amazing series of photos of an incredible landscape, looking forward to seeing some of the new paintings that you'll be doing from them. Any plein air work?

john said...

Thank you for your comments Jeremy. It's been more than thirty years since I've attempted plein air. It's a real challenge and I do enjoy seeing good plein air work by other artists.

Suz said...

I am in awe of all that color..I had no idea

Peter Brown said...

John, I love the "tundra jungle"! Give me a decent camera with a macro setting and I could happily spend the entire day crawling around on my hands and knees photographing the miniature landscapes. Less tiring than hiking the mountain trails too!

john said...

Peter, I'm with you when it comes to hiking steep mountain trails. The ol' ticker does'nt like too much stress.
I still hope to see some new work from you one of these days. Great talent should not be neglected.

Peter Brown said...

Thanks for the kind words John. I do really miss painting but there always seems to be something eating into my spare time, e.g., my day job!