"Pucker Factor" photography

As I was driving back into Anchorage today, I got to thinking about all I have been able to do in the last 10 years of living in Alaska. I began thinking of some of my photography trips I have done. How most of them were completely by myself and how maybe that wasn't the smartest thing in the world. We are moving south this spring and I can't help but think I will miss the challenges of Alaska. It may have been 25 miles from the truck on either the snowmachine or ATV during avalanche season or trips to hunt the Aurora in -40 degree weather or walking right into a grizz on a moose kill. I have several trips that I would rank pretty high on the "Pucker Factor" scale, but 1 particular trip comes to mind.

A buddy and I decided to ride our ATV's back to the Knik Glacier north of Anchorage. Now the trip back really isn't all that difficult. We are both very experienced riders. It is about 30 miles 1 way to the end of the trail. The weather in Alaska can change faster than a woman's mind and when you are playing around glaciers, it can change even faster. We had ridden through sun changing to driving snow and back to sun again on our trip in. We got to the end of the trail and just sat in AWE at the view. The blues coming off the glacier ice with snowcapped mountains and icebergs was just beautiful. After we ate our snack we got to talking about pushing ahead to the face of the glacier. This would mean driving almost 3 miles across the ice on our ATV's. Now, when I was 18, I wouldn't have even had to think about it. I have always been a little gutsy but I have gotten a little smarter as I have gotten older. But we agreed we would do it. We found an access point to get out on the ice and took off. What we found is what gave me some of my most memorable times living in AK. The ice caves, pressure ridges, face of the glacier, the drift wood that has been trapped in the ice for thousands of years, eagles sitting on top of the ice, the different shapes that were created, and the face of the glacier. It was all so overwelming to the senses that it is hard to describe.
The "Pucker Factore" came anytime we got off the machines. The sounds of the cracking ice under you and your gear got your attention very quickly. The sounds of the pressure ridges shifting under your feet and falling ice was undeniable. To think you are 3 miles across this frozen lake almost 35 miles from your truck and any kind of help is a bit unnerving. You can quickly add up how many dollars in gear will be lost if the ice gives. Then you think it doesn't really matter since I will be on the bottom of the lake with it!!! We spent the whole day on the ice without incident. We both got some great shots and gained some great memories.
On our trip in, you cross numerous creeks of varying size. These were all frozen so we had nice ice bridges to cross. On our retreat, we found most of the ice bridges had collapsed. It actually took twice as long to get back to the truck as it did to get in. The last crossing leaving is the most trecherous and we didn't make it. We thought we had a bridge to cross but it didn't hold. Thankfully, there was a guy nearby with a winch on his jeep. We did get wet up to our waists which isn't a lot of fun being March in Alaska but I wouldn't change a thing.
As we prepare to move back south, I am comforted in knowing I had a great 10 years living here and didn't let the fear of the unknown stop me from gaining the memories that I now have.

So, what are some of your more "High Pucker Factore" memories from some of you trips??

I was at Glacier National Park, taking a walk up to Medicine Bear Lake one morning. I must not have been paying attention, because I spooked a bear. I didn't see it until I was fifteen feet away, when I heard a "whoomf!" It sounded like my dog trying to bark with a toy in her mouth.

I looked up and saw a giant black dog running away from me.

Then I thought, "Holy ****, that ain't a dog!"

Then I fumbled for my camera (3fmm Rebel with 28-80 kit zoom, loaded with Kodak Royal Gold 400), fat-fingered every possible button, and got a great underexposed pic of a small black blur in the distance.

Cool stories!

I'm considering my various explorations as a photographer, and it's hard to nail down a "wow" story...

Most of such stories are from back when I was younger and usually not packing a camera -- seeing a mountain vista for the first time, exploring ruins in the southwest...

The story that most often comes to mind is when I was I guess in my young teens back in the '60s. My family was quite fond of the rocky, hilly desert terrain of Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California (where I grew up).

When there, I'd often go out exploring, climbing around, finding things of interest. On one of those occasions I was out in the middle of "nowhere", walking around hill and huge boulders and such. As I walked around a large boulder, I noticed a little opening at the base, not totally covered by the sand.

I got down on my knees and tried to look in, couldn't see anything in particular but could see that the opening went back beyond the daylight illumination.

The thought of "critters" did cross my mind -- rattlesnakes in the desert are pretty common, and who knows what else might be in there? But I shrugged it off -- I was an explorer! So I hunkered down and began to crawl -- into the opening, and farther until I "sensed" that there was open space in front of me, all the way in...

Once I was in, some daylight could get in, and as my eyes adjusted, I had one of those "Pucker" moments, and we are talking major...

I was in a room-sized "cave" in the heart of the boulder, and covering the entire surface of the "walls" and "ceiling" were -- native American Petrographs, drawing of all kinds of scenes left by the early Americans who knows how long ago!!!

Adding to this cool discovery was the fact that there were no signs of modern humans having been in there -- no footprints, no cigarette butts or other refuse. To all appearances, no human had been in there since the last hunting party had passed through, leaving their story behind in their drawings -- awesome.

No camera, dang, and I never made it back to that spot for, well, decades. Finally I went through, maybe 10 or 15 years ago, I think 35 years had gone by...I had a camera and I hunted around, but dang...over they years winds had blown the sand around and there was no sign of my little passageway...dang.

There are other stories, but that is the one that will always be with me!

Sitting in my living room reading your stories and I have goose bumps on my arms!! Great stories. Thanks for sharing!!

Regrettably nothing to do with photography, but one evening in the spring 2 years ago, I heard some noise out in my side yard after dark. Earlier that day some drunken idiots on ATVS had come roaring into my yard (I'm totally in a rural area - woods and farmland), and I thought they had come back to create some trouble. So I armed myself with a miniature baseball bat, and walked out in the dark to where I had parked my tractor across the laneway that leads down to the river. I walked up to the side of the tractor very quietly, then BANGED the bat on my back blade, and yelled REAL LOUD at the intruders. Then right on the other side of my tractor, up stood Mama bear and her 2 cubs, about 15 feet away from me! Thankfully my tractor was between us. One cub went running down the bank to the river, the other went running out the driveway, and Mama just looked right at me for a minute, then followed her one cub down the river bank. I backed my way the 100 feet or so back to my front door, very quietly, and went in and closed the door. Whew, the end!

nice story, how far south are you moving?

rick_reno wrote in post #13814786
nice story, how far south are you moving?

Missouri

Wallace River wrote in post #13814758
Regrettably nothing to do with photography, but one evening in the spring 2 years ago, I heard some noise out in my side yard after dark. Earlier that day some drunken idiots on ATVS had come roaring into my yard (I'm totally in a rural area - woods and farmland), and I thought they had come back to create some trouble. So I armed myself with a miniature baseball bat, and walked out in the dark to where I had parked my tractor across the laneway that leads down to the river. I walked up to the side of the tractor very quietly, then BANGED the bat on my back blade, and yelled REAL LOUD at the intruders. Then right on the other side of my tractor, up stood Mama bear and her 2 cubs, about 15 feet away from me! Thankfully my tractor was between us. One cub went running down the bank to the river, the other went running out the driveway, and Mama just looked right at me for a minute, then followed her one cub down the river bank. I backed my way the 100 feet or so back to my front door, very quietly, and went in and closed the door. Whew, the end!

Nice story! I have a few bear stories too. They do tend to surprise you at times, don't they!!??

ATV's? Pshhhh! I've driven my truck on a frozen lake.....of course they do samples to make sure that the ice is thick enough lol.

Heh! Funny bear story!

My "funniest" wildlife encounter was in the woods of Canada, again when I was young, and again I took off, this time into the woods and with a fishing pole (I was a trout fisherguy).

Out in the middle of nowhere, making my way to a neighboring lake I had seen on the map, at some point I found myself face-to-face with a large moose cow!

I knew enough to know that moose cows will not be pleasant if you encounter them and they are with young! So, I began to speak in a nice pleasant voice as I slowly backed up, although I saw no calves around. Well, I made it out in one piece, but again, too bad I didn't have a camera!

And then, again in California, but this time Northern California, I was on a road trip, I believe from Seattle where I lived for a few years.

There was an Elk preserve along one of the highways -- it must have been on US Highway 1, the coastal highway. Anyway, I had gone past it many times, but never really stopped to check it out. Occasionally you'd see a lone elk in the field along the road, cool, but not a show-stopper.

Well, on this occasion I decided to stop (but with no camera). It was one of those occasion when a single elk was out, some folks were stopped taking photos. Well, I happened to notice that there was a "scenic road" that took off from the highway and out into the woods, so I decided to head out and see what there was to see.

I don't remember whether I had a map with me, but at any rate the road headed out to the Coast/shoreline. And, as I pulled out along the shore, I realized that I was pretty well surrounded by a herd of big Elk!!! They were close to the roadside, close enough that I could have reached out of my window and touched one, but again, I had heard stories, and the idea of getting "elked" didn't appeal to me!

But it was indeed a "WOW" moment!

I haven't had any incidents related to photography but a couple of close calls do come to mind.

When I was a kid, maybe 6 or 7, I decided to inspect a large concrete culvert and crawled up inside. The culvert went under a highway and then made a 90 degree turn. I made the turn and the culvert quickly reduced down to a much smaller pipe that I could not fit in. Instead of backing out for some reason I decided to turn around and became stuck. After a few moments of panic I finally was able to wrench myself free leaving a little skin on the concrete. If I hadn't gotten free I would have died there and possibly never been found. I would have been another kid that disappeared. I never told my mother about that incident and never talked to anyone else about it for several years.

Another incident should have killed me. I work for an electric utility company and was in a substation where some construction was going on. There was a large wire hanging down and in the way of a man doing some work for me so without thinking I moved the wire. The wire was part of a new transmission line and some miles away it paralleled a 345 Kv line which caused an induced voltage in the line I grabbed. I became a path to ground received a severe shock for several seconds. It broke my elbow, my shoulder, my shoulder blade, dislocated my shoulder, and split the upper bone. The split could not be repaired so I had a partial shoulder replacement. Since then I have told many people the best safety equipment is located between your ears - safety equipment can't help you if you don't think. I knew better than to grab that wire but I didn't think and it cost me.

Most of the time when we get ourselves into trouble it is because we don't think about what we are about to do. If we spent as much time planning our actions as we do planning a shoot we would get into fewer scary situations but then a lot of great shots would be missed and we wouldn't have as much to talk about. And who doesn't like an adrenaline rush occasionally?

Joe, your story reminds me of a truly "WOW" moment that was actually captured, but not by me, I was nowhere near the scene...

A couple crew members were servicing a fighter jet. One of the crew wandered too close to the intake of one of the engines and got sucked in!

Two amazing things -- first is that he lived, amazingly, and second is that another crew member happened to be shooting video of the operation and it got captured in the video!

It was pretty "safe" to put it out, I think on YouTube, and just to see it happening is a "pucker moment"!

Another video that has made the rounds comes Out Of Africa. A herd of water buffalo is wandering around a lake/wetland minding their own business. A film or video crew is across the lake doing some video stuff of the buffalos, when a pack of lions charges the herd!

The buffalo scramble, but not before a young one was dragged down. The lions pulled it into the water, where it continued to struggle in what was obviously a losing battle.

So far, nothing you haven't seen in a typical Discovery/National Geo episode...

But what happened next was waaay crazy -- the buffalo herd had turned around and raced back and attacked the lion herd! This was crazy, all caught on video, exciting and "WOW"! Not only did the lions scatter, but the young buffalo made it out of the water and took off with the herd on its own four feet!

tonylong wrote in post #13816262
Another video that has made the rounds comes Out Of Africa. A herd of water buffalo is wandering around a lake/wetland minding their own business. A film or video crew is across the lake doing some video stuff of the buffalos, when a pack of lions charges the herd!

The buffalo scramble, but not before a young one was dragged down. The lions pulled it into the water, where it continued to struggle in what was obviously a losing battle.

So far, nothing you haven't seen in a typical Discovery/National Geo episode...

But what happened next was waaay crazy -- the buffalo herd had turned around and raced back and attacked the lion herd! This was crazy, all caught on video, exciting and "WOW"! Not only did the lions scatter, but the young buffalo made it out of the water and took off with the herd on its own four feet!

That vid is titled "Battle at Kruger"-Utube. There was also a croc involved.

KeithS wrote in post #13821255
That vid is titled "Battle at Kruger"-Utube. There was also a croc involved.

Cool, do you have a link?

tonylong wrote in post #13822136
Cool, do you have a link?

Here you go Tony....it was the first one to pop up on Youtube search