Sublime August sunrise on Denali Highway, Alaska
My experience photographing a cute cabin on Alaska's Denali Highway under ideal light.
28 December, 2024
~ 7 min read
Some experiences in life stay with us forever. The place, the sights, the sounds, day and exact time, the mood, the emotions we felt and the events that lead us to that experience - all of these take a special place in our memory. Capturing this shot is one such experience for me.
It was year 2013. We were slowly coming out of the after effects (i.e. inevitable belt tightening) of the recession from 2008. There was some wiggle room for discretionary spending. I was just beginning to focus again on photography hobby. I saved enough and more importantly, had my wife’s permission, to finally splurge on a full frame DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) camera. I got to lay my hands on a refurbished Canon 5D mark II - a 20 mega pixel dream come true for most amateur photographers at that time. The camera was released by Canon in Nov, 2008. I was already 4+ years late to the party.
Earlier in the year, I planned a family vacation in California during kids’ spring break. One of the stops in the itinerary was the inevitable Yosemite National Park. With the new camera, I had a great time shooting the park's many wonderful scenery. Over the two days we spent there, I discovered I enjoyed being in such breathtaking places, armed with a capable camera that can help bring home some of that scenery (in the form of of images). I wanted to experience more of it, whenever possible (time and budget permitting).
Right after coming back from the California trip, I started looking at places that I could go for landscape photography and Alaska was first on that list. I needed an adventure. During this time, I happened to have a manager that was much more adventurous. Someone who had already visited all national parks (59 at that time) in the USA. He had so many suggestions about visiting Alaska and inspired me to finalize the Alaska plan. I chose four days in the week before Labor Day, hoping to get lucky with the short-lived fall in the tundras.
The plan was set. Dates chosen. PTO (vacation) submitted. Flights and rental car booked. I was eagerly waiting. A colleague heard about my plan and wanted to join in. I realized during the trip that his company was a welcome addition to the whole experience. We ended up becoming photography buddies and visited multiple national parks later on. Another friend of mine who grew up in Fairbanks Alaska, suggested that I (will) should experience something unique to Alaska: Desolation. He could not have used a better word to explain it.
The day, 23rd August 2013, finally arrived and I embarked on my first, real landscape photography adventure. We landed in Anchorage Alaska, and received our rental car. We were fortunate to get a free upgrade to a midsized SUV: a Hyundai Santa Fe. We would have had a terrible time with a small sedan, which is what I booked. If you ever plan a trip to Alaska and will be driving there, get a vehicle with high ground clearance and a windshield insurance from the rental car company. Another great suggestion from my manager. You will definitely end up driving on an unpaved road. The projectiles from those roads could be tiny but mighty. We headed straight to our first stop: The magnificient Denali National Park! I will describe just that experience another time...
After spending two days photographing the national park, our next stop on the third day was Valdez Alaska, which was more than 300 miles away. I had a camping spot reserved close to Valdez. From Denali National Park entrance, our plan was to take the Denali Highway, a 120 mile stretch between Cantwell and Paxson, two quaint Alaskan towns. About 90 miles of this road was (probably still is) unpaved. From Paxson, a fully paved road (Richardson Highway or US Bicycle Rte 95) would take us to Valdez.
On this Denali Highway, I experienced the desolation my friend from Fairbanks referred to. This road was breathtakingly beautiful, every turn offering a unique scenery. We covered less than 80 miles of Denali Highway, before we had to stop to find a place to sleep! Those 80 miles were easily one of my most cherished driving experiences. If you are a landscape photographer and planning to drive in Alaska, you can be certain you will not (be able to) stick to your schedule.
The photo of this story was taken on the fourth day of the trip. We had almost 500 miles to cover that day to catch our flight late in the night from Anchorage. So, we had to start the day early. We started our drive towards Paxson at around 5 AM. A few miles in, I saw the sun rise ahead of us as we were driving east. There’s something magical about the light during a sunrise. There was a thick ground fog covering the area and we had the road to ourselves. I saw the cabin appear further ahead to my right (i.e., facing north) and the ground fog glowing with the golden light. It could be someone's home, but I am going to call it a cabin!
The blue sky was beautiful above the ground fog. Just as we got closer to the cabin, there was a dense area in the ground fog to the right of the building that was glowing even brighter. I immediately knew I had the perfect opportunity. Stopped the car in the middle of the road (rarely a vehicle goes by every half hour). Got down. Pulled out the camera+tripod and set it up quickly on the gravel road. Composed and took the shot after leveling the camera. I remember taking only a few shots and I knew one of them will be a keeper. Exact location where this was shot: 93MM2XW7+8G.
The equipment: I have already talked about the camera - Canon 5D Mark II. The glass was a Zeiss Distagon T* 21mm/f2.8 ZE, an all metal, full time manual beast of a lens. Rented for the Alaska trip. Loved it so much I ended up buying a used copy later that year. The tripod was a Manfrotto 055CXPRO3 Carbon Fiber (bought used, from another colleague). Sitting on top was the Acratech GP Ballhead. And the Canon TC-80N3 Timer Remote Controller. The Zeiss manual prime lenses deliver an ethereal image quality that is hard to explain. Over the years, I could intuitively tell which photos were taken with the Zeiss primes. They are that good. Distortion and Chromatic Aberration are well controlled and the T* coating reduces the flare. With these, I hardly use any filters (Circular Polarizers or Neutral Density/Grad filters). Even with Canon’s less than stellar dynamic range, the Zeiss primes negate the need for HDR (High Dynamic Range) imaging with multiple exposures.
I always shoot in RAW and post process using Adobe Photoshop. My goal in the post is to bring the lighting and mood of the shot as close to what I saw as possible. Also, I rarely modify the composition or elements in the image during post. In my opinion, a good photographer would not need to recompose or alter the image during post, other than the minimal processing required for a RAW image.
Eleven years on, this image is still in the top of my favorites list. A 36 inch x 24 inch print adorns a wall in our home for all these years. Many of our guests notice the subtlety of the image. I hope you do as well...