04/13/2023
Assignment: Anchorage, Alaska
After going home to Florida for 2+ months over the winter break, I headed to Anchorage, Alaska in early January for a 3 month contract at the Native hospital there. I had a few personal and photography related goals in Alaska. I have never lived in a winter climate so I wanted to experience that and where better than Alaska, my new favorite place. Re photography, I wanted to photograph the Iditarod dog sled race and I wanted to see and photograph the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights.
It turned out that photographing the Aurora was much more difficult that I anticipated so I was happy to get a few nice shots. Definitely room for improvement and a learning curve there. The biggest challenge was being in the right place at the right time. First of all, the skies were overcast for much of my first 2 months there and as the Aurora is above the cloud layer, that’s a big problem, also, sometimes I had to work on some of the nights it was forecast to be visible. Finally, on my last month there, the skies cleared and the weather and schedule cooperated and I got a few shots. I almost forgot, the night of the best Aurora for years apparently, I discovered that I had brought the wrong tripod with me and it did not fit on the connector to my camera. Imagine my dismay! but now I have a new and better one 🙂
I was happy to be able to photography some of the pre Iditarod events in Anchorage in a 2 week festival called Furondi. I also was able to get lots of nice shots of the dogs and mushers. And for the highlight, I was able to fly back to Nome, Alaska for the finish of the race. As a bonus, I got some nice shots of the Aurora over the Swanson’s Dredge while I was there.
Anchorage, Alaska is a beautiful area in the vallley of the majestic Chugach Mountain range. There was no shortage of places to explore and I hope to return in the future. There is still so much to explore there.
Next stop: Back to Nome, Alaska for more Alaskan winter. 23 degrees F below on my first day walking to work here>>
Please check out my photos under Alaska tab and check back regularly as I am still editing and updating.
Thanks, Lisa
09/21/2022
In Nome, Alaska
Well, who knew when I came to Nome, Alaska, I would be hurricane watching and tracking. These are skills I regularly practice back home in Florida where we have multiple hurricane threats each season. Down there in hurricane and flood prone areas we become amateur hurricane trackers and eagerly await each update from NOAA hurricane storm fliers in order to make our own decisions as to whether or not we will heed the inevitable warnings to evacuate. But here! in Nome! I couldn’t believe the size and organization of the extratropical bomb cyclone.
So the storm passed through and Nome had some significant road damage with washouts and pavement being torn up. One of Nome’s few restaurants, the Bering Sea Bar and Grill caught fire and burned completely in a raging inferno. The volunteer fire department did an amazing job of keeping the neighboring building, only 3 feet away, from also burning down. These buildings are of aged wood and burn very rapidly. Other buildings on the main road known as Front Street also suffered flooding and damage.
However, the brunt of the damage may well be borne by the remote villages in the path of the storm. Many of these villages had homes float off of their foundations and major flooding. I saw photos and video of homes with 3-4 feet of water inside and refrigerators left on their side. For many of these remote inhabitants who practice subsistence living, the damage goes beyond loss of property and appliances. In many cases their stores of berries and dried fish from summer, and frozen meat from fall hunts which was slated to last through the next year, is gone. Supplies for repairs, replacement appliances etc have to be shipped in from Anchorage some 500+ miles away. Home Depot is not down the road and neither is Publix or Safeway.
Because I was working, I don’t have many photos to share but here are some I phone shots.
08/30/2022
My Nome Spot:
It seems that wherever I am, at home or on assignment, I find my spot. This is somewhere I can get to fairly quickly and easily, and somewhere that has a subject I am interested in following over time. Here in Nome it turns out to be the pond at the Swanson’s dredge. Apart from the dredge, it has a small pond, a boardwalk on which to sit comfortably, beautiful evening light from behind, and, most importantly, a pair of nesting red throated loons and a nesting gull family. I’m not so sure that the gull family is a bonus because gulls defend their nest area so vigorously and loudly that there is no sneaking in. They also dive bomb you as you get closer and that can be a bit unnerving. They actually alert you that you are near a nest you didn’t even see which seems counterproductive! In short, they are the alarm system for the whole tundra.
Initially I spotted just one of the adult loons and sat happily photographing him/her? for awhile as this was a new bird for me. Sometime later, as I was ready to leave, out swam the other parent with the two chicks. Imagine my delight! I’m not sure how long I sat there shooting the gull and loon families but it was awhile. Nome in summer has beautiful evening light that goes on indefinitely so running out of light just is not a thing. Eventually, I had to discipline myself by looking at the time and knowing I still have to walk back, eat dinner and sleep before work the next day.
So that became my “go to” spot, a quick 10-15 min walk (remember no car). Since I have been watching them, the gull chicks have fledged and the loon chicks have grown significantly and are starting to flap their wings. No doubt they will fledge soon and head south for winter. I will be sad.
I hope you enjoy my photos of the loon and gull families in the birds tab.
Again, thanks for reading,
Lisa
08/25/2022
Roadtrip from Nome:
I got wheels! …for 3 days anyway. One of my new friends at work has an extra car. This is like gold here in Nome LOL. She agreed to rent it to me for my 3 days off as it was temporarily available and I got to explore some of the roadways in Nome. There are 3 main roadways into the surrounding countryside and it all adds up to about 200-250 miles. The roads are all dirt/gravel and fairly well maintained but speed is limited and it can take several hours to go 70 miles, especially if you are stopping for photos and trying to see wildlife. There is no traffic and if you want to stop and take a photo, you don’t have to worry about where to pull off… you just stop. Most of the time there are no other cars in sight.
I mostly explored the Nome-Council Road which takes you along the coast and then inland to a place called Council. However, when you get to Council, there is the Salmon River which you have to drive across before actually getting there…Keeps out the riff raff if you have a low rider vehicle! The road just ends at the river. But as with so many things, it’s the journey and not the destination that matters here. For me, the highlight of the trip was the Safety Sound section which had a lot of bird life, beautiful scenery and the last train to nowhere. This area has several fish camp huts and fish drying racks along the roadway and is just so picturesque. This is also where the Safety Roadhouse is which is the last checkpoint for the famous Iditarod dog sled race. Here you are actually driving along part of the course. How cool is that!
The Last Train to Nowhere is actually the remnants of an unfinished and abandoned railroad. The locomotives were just left to rust on the tundra when the project ran out of funding. Yet another old rusty thing for me to photograph. I was lucky to be here as the tundra grass turned yellow for the fall. A little further down the road, spruce trees start growing. I know that doesn’t sound like much but here on the tundra where there are few to no trees, that’s a big deal.
I will be editing and adding photos from this trip so keep checking back and thanks for reading!
Lisa
Nome Update
08/13/2022
Finally an Alaskan Update: First Impressions.
I’ve been living and working in Nome, Alaska now for 5 weeks. Time flies! Initially, I must admit, I thought Nome looked a bit depressing. It’s often overcast and drizzly in the summer and was so on the day of my arrival. It’s also a bit unkempt; kind of like it woke up and forgot to take a shower all year. But as I walked around with my camera, my impression began to change. I began to see and photograph the antique and abandoned vehicles and to appreciate the quirkiness and charm and challenge of life here in this remote location on the coastal tundra. You see, Nome is not connected to the rest of Alaska by road so all supplies must be shipped in by sea or air and a broken window or a fresh coat of paint is much more than a trip to Home Depot. Old cars are parked with nowhere to go and ATVs or “Hondas” as they are called here (regardless of make) are a main source of transportion on a mostly unpaved road system.
A big challenge for me has been the difficulty with transportation without a car. I get around mostly on foot or by the cab which costs $5-7 (depending on age). Yup, I get the senior discount now 🙂 :(.. I discovered a few bird families to follow and have taken a road trip as part of my work/friend group and a weekend jaunt to Anchorage to see some sights. I hope you enjoy my photos which can be found under the Nome/ Alaska tab in the menu and I promise to try and do better with the updates.
A huge plus for me has been working with the Inupuit population here. The birth experience here is quite different and very much inline with my prior midwifery experience. Here there is no anesthesia and therefore no epidurals and labor is for the most part not interfered with and left to progress at its own pace- which is usually fast. High risk pregnancies are carefully screened for and diverted to Anchorage for delivery. The nursing and medical staff (mostly travelers and locums) are friendly and welcoming. With all that being said, I am extending my original 8 week contract to 14 weeks and will be here until late October. I do hope to see the Aurora before I go.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading and stay tuned for Denali and Anchorage exploration in the near future.
Lisa
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April 22, 2022
Assignment: Nome, Alaska
As my time in Bakersfield draws to a close, I am looking forward to new adventures. My next assignment is in Nome, Alaska and I am so excited. I have wanted to go to Alaska from the beginning of my travel nursing career and now it is finally scheduled. I have been researching Nome and it sounds like a whole new experience. The hospital will be a lot smaller than I’m used to and the population of Native Americans that is serves, the Inupuit, will be a new population for me. I am excited to learn and participate in their traditions surrounding birth and expand my skills in a critical access setting. Working in a critical access hospital will definetely be out of my comfort zone.
My research into Nome is ongoing. So far I have found that no roads lead into Nome so one has to get there by plane or boat. It is apparently and excellent site for seeing birds not commonly seen elsewhere so I’ll be looking into that. The population is about 3,000 mostly from elsewhere.
My assignment start in late June so stay posted…
Oh, and I couldn’t resist, I am upgrading to the Canon RF 100-500 zoom for this adventure. I’ll probably add in the 1.4 extender as well. This will be my first RF lens and it has really great reviews. The longer reach will be useful for birding and wildlife photography in ALASKA.
February 24, 2022
Assignment: Bakersfield
So my current travel nurse assignment brought me to Bakersfield, California, an area derogatorily known to many as “the armpit of California”. This had me concerned as one of the reasons I do travel nursing is photography and who wants to photograph the armpit? well, I am here to tell and show you that there is a whole lot of straight up California beauty easily accessible from Bakersfield. On my first drive out, I decided to check out Lake Isabella which is less than an hour away from the city. Well, I haven’t made it there yet because once I got on Highway 178 about 15-20 minutes along, I happened upon the Kern River Valley Gorge. This is a truly scenic drive along the Kern River which drains the southern Sierra Nevada mountain range. Those photos are posted under the Parks/Places tab. It is now my mission to show the good stuff in this armpit area that is sometimes avoided.
You might ask why I chose to come to Bakersfield. Good question, I think my ornery and curious side challenged to notion of the armpit… and the money was good. When I looked at Google maps, I could clearl see that Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks are reasonably accessible for day trips or camping if one is willing to drive. I am excited to explore all this area has to offer and I hope you will check back to see my photos.
To get to this assignment, I drove from St Petersburg, Florida on my first solo cross country road trip. That will be the topic of a future post. Stay tuned, and thanks for visiting.
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