Unusual Image Archive

Being lucky enough to live near part of the US National Park system and travel to other parts on a regular basis I've always kept an eye out for classic and historical images. It's one thing to know changes are taking place but carries so much more of an impact when one can witness the long term affects. This can be both beneficial and depressing but overall it's a clear avenue of the power of photography.

Recently, I came across work that the National Park Service itself, or more specifically the USGS (US Geological Survey), has put together for their own records as well as public use. This specifically deals with Glacier National Park but I'm sure there are other similar projects out there.

Landscape Change Photography is made up of two main components in a series of ongoing photography projects. Panoramic photographs is a collection "of infrared and panchromatic photographs of Glacier National Park that were taken around 1935 with an Osborne photo-recording transit". The second, Repeat Photography, is the documentation of the namesake Glacier's in the park and their "dramatic glacial recession". (The current estimate is that every single one will be gone in our lifetime, sometime in the next 25 years.)

There is a fascinating description of how the images played out and have come to be available and interpreted today. Identifying features, fires, equipment - it's all there.

"Carrying over 75lbs of camera plus personal gear up to fire lookouts throughout the park was a demanding task. Mules can be seen in several of the photographs and were used to help the photographer transport equipment. The hundreds of photographs taken by Mr. Moe provide excellent documentation of what National Park Service sites looked like in the 1930s. The National Park Service announced the completion of this project in a newsletter excerpted below.

Chief Forester Coffman announces completion of a 4-year project for obtaining panoramic photographs from the 200 existing and proposed forest fire lookouts throughout the entire Federal Park System.
The photographic work, done by Junior Forester Moe, entailed many hardships not only in packing the necessary equipment weighing upwards of 100 pounds to lookout points, but also in climbing trees, poles, temporary towers, or roofs of lookouts with the equipment and facing the extreme winds that occur so frequently at high elevations.

Park Service Bulletin, June 1938, pg. 6"

Historical archives such as these that are with the Park Service and other government bodies are typically available for public viewing if not, non-commercial use. It's one way to visually explore and pick up a spot of history. After all we're paying for it.

Additionally, aside from the green photo opps locales such as Glacier National Park are known for, the 'face of use' as demonstrated by the above images is continually shifting these days. Glacier alone has been in a multitude of news pieces as a recognizable face of global warming. Most recently James Balog in a recent National Geographic Adventure feature (Portrait of a Meltdown - Oct 2007) has covered this issue and the park extensively. And in the realm of interesting and experimental photography James has carried this into a fascinating project involving 26 cameras and 300,000 images called Extreme Ice Survey.

Weather

Great mix of shoots lately including time in Seattle with one of Amercia's Next Top Models that I'll go into another time. Been lucky enough with the weather as well as this time of year in the Rockies and the Pacific NW it can be a complete crapshoot.

Was out this week with a cool assignment to shoot a portrait of the owner of an Edward Curtis print as well as the print itself. The backstory is a good one as the current owner recognized the piece at an estate sale. The owner at the time was moved to tears that she knew what it was and after telling her his story (he was slowly dying) simply gave the print to her. That print is worth more than 10K today but being up close and seeing Curtis' lighting and the stern look on the weathered native Montanan face you could never sell it. Fortunately we were able to dodge weather and photograph the print outside for a bit.

Also spent time working on this image here for an in house project that we'll be presenting soon. The storms rolling in and the clouds in particular really add an extra depth that's hard to gauge ahead of time. Though I can't take credit for ordering those monsters up I do spend time following weather patterns. And with winter approaching and more time spent out shooting in the elements it becomes imperative to know what is happening around you.

As I get questions about how I process and assemble info I thought I'd post the resources that I rely on to make shoots that much more successful.

1: NOAA (National Oceanic & Atmoshpheric Administration - it's their job to know what's happening. I've found it much better than the more commercially oriented venues out there.

2: Other federal, state and government resources such as National Parks, Science Foundations and small groups - most of these offer specific local forecasts and account for micro climates that the big boys can't. In the case of winter work for example, SnoTel sites and Avalanche Associations are super resource rich.

3: Private resources such as resorts - in the least you can track down web cameras to view conditions in real time. We take stock of the Whitefish Mtn Resort cam before heading up (though I keep saying I'm simply going to attach a large truck mirror outside the side window of our south facing studio so we can the hill directly behind us).

4: Locals - don't care if you're in India or the Selkirks, the folks that live there almost always know the weather patterns that develop on a seasonal basis. Especially true along the coast or large bodies of water and the mountains. Listening is such an underrated skill.

If that doesn't do it, just remember it's always better to be out getting soaked then on the phone trying to reschedule as the sun comes out.

TiltViewer

Here's another look into the future of image presentation - interactive, multi-level platform done as a 3D Flash site called TiltViewer. It was built using Away3D a branch of Papervision and only works via Flickr images for this round. It's a very simply, intuitive interface that holds hope for future searches and presentations. In this example and you can flip any image over to get the photographer info. Can't wait to see round two.

The creators at Airtight Interactive, in case you were wondering, do great simple designs for showcasing images. Their SimpleViewer is a standard at our studio and works perfectly in Lightroom.