Scott Dickerson Photography

Super Cub and the Kenai Mtns

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Aerial photos of a legendary Alaskan Bush plane, the Piper Super Cub, in a classic Alaskan setting.

Last week I was treated to an aerial photo shoot by two pilot friends. We flew across Kachemak Bay from our hometown of Homer to spend thirty minutes flying amongst the dramatic mountain peaks and ice fields making up the Kenai Mountain Range. I’m always shocked by the majestic beauty of this mountain range that is just a ten minute flight from my house.

The weather conditions were ideal allowing us to make the most of the few short hours of sunlight we get this time of year, and topping it off was the company of a rising moon.

Aerial and air-to-air photos are certainly some of my favorite images to make. Something about the challenges of the quickly changing subject matter, the feverish search for the next fleeting moment of divine composition, the cold wind in my face, the entirely different perspective, the technical challenges of making a good photograph in these conditions. . . this is the kind of landscape photography that an outdoor adventure photographer can appreciate.

Some technical details for those of you that are interested – all the shots in the slideshow above were taken with a Canon 1D mark II digital SLR using a Canon 70-200 2.8L IS zoom lens. I typically shoot in manual exposure mode, occasionally aperture priority to give me the fastest shutter speed possible with my chosen ISO speed and aperture. I usually have the aperture at its smallest number in an effort to […]

By Scott Dickerson|December 22nd, 2007|aerial|3 Comments

Snowy surf session

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Saltwater swirled around my feet erasing the tracks as it turned the fresh snow to slush.
â€œYep, them are neoprene bootie tracks all right, a sure sign of surfers in the area. It can be hard to get a visual on them when itâ€™s snowing like this though– with all the snow in the air you gotta get within about a hundred yards of ‘em.â€
Standing out on the snow covered beach yesterday looking for the surfers I was there to photograph I had time to think about how strange it was. There I am in a near white out, the normally dark grey beach is white with fresh snow, looking out towards the rumbling surf I can barely make out the surfers in their black wetsuits. The sky was dark with heavy snow clouds, the waves were still messy from a nearby storm. Every once in a while Iâ€™d look back up the beach towards the cars and another black shape with a big white object would emerge from the greyness heading my way, every patch of skin covered up except a little red face. The surf wasnâ€™t really very good, but after a slow fall season there were a handful of eager Alaskan surfers out there trying to see the sets coming through the blowing snow.

It is incredibly inspiring and enjoyable to photograph unique subjects like this. Standing out there stomping my feet to keep the blood flowing I couldnâ€™t stop smiling thinking about it, surfers and a snowstorm, what a contrast. Though winter is our surf season, itâ€™s not that often […]

By Scott Dickerson|December 17th, 2007|uncategorized|9 Comments

Surfing trip to Bear Glacier, Alaska.

February in Alaska. Ever heard of Cabin Fever?
That’s what someone is said to have when they do curious things in the dark and cold of winter. Normal things would include carrying wood from the woodpile to the fireplace, talking to your friends about how stupid ‘The Deadliest Catch’ is, but how you watch it anyways, or spending all the money you made commercial fishing on espresso beans to keep you from hibernating. If you happen to be up late at night on one of those long winter nights keeping the fire going and see your neighbor stumble from his house at 5am in a skin tight black suit carrying what looks like a silver body bag you can safely assume he’s off to do some self medication for his cabin fever. Off to Bear Glacier, which is at least a three hour drive and a 45minute boat ride from anywhere, unless you live in Seward, Alaska.

Last winter a few of the local surf crowd headed to the glacier for a real alaskan winter surf experience. We left home at 5am so we could be waiting at the boat when Capt. Scott showed up at first light. After pouring a couple gallons of antifreeze coolant in the right main we where on our way, all wondering if the engine was actually going to need any ‘coolant’ with the air temps far below freezing.

As we approached Bear Glacier we were engulfed in a golden fog, and greeted with a decent 3-5ft swell rolling in from the Gulf of Alaska. Everyone suited up and jumped in the water as if they had mistaken Bear Glacier for a coral reef in indonesia. I […]

By Scott Dickerson|November 22nd, 2007|uncategorized|13 Comments

Winter sunset on the Kenai Mountains

Sure it was 33 degrees and raining for the last 5 days, but I’ll still argue that I live in one of the most majestic places in the world. When that low pressure blew itself on out of here us ‘Homerites’ were blessed with one incredibly stunning sunset. The kind that make you pinch yourself and mumble – Holy cow, it’s for real, no photoshop, it just happens in nature!

I might not write about this, but after last nights sunset we had another gorgeous sunrise that put the icing on the visual cake of the last couple days. Contrast that with the last few days I’ve spent in the office trying to reassemble my computer. . . I decided to upgrade my system, which involved changing out the motherboard, nerd speak for the brains of my computer. I thought it would be easy and quick. Well, it turned out to be neither of those.

On the second day a friend, who knows me well, called with an alert to the unfolding magic outside. He called because in his own words – “I figured you were working on your computer.” That nonsense ended quickly. I ran outside and set up a still camera (canon 20D) on the porch with an interval timer instructing it to shoot a time laps sequence. Then I scurried up the hill behind my house to shoot the sunset from a better perspective than my porch offers. I often find myself in a situation of mild panic when the light is perfect out. Quick! quick! The light might be gone in 5 minutes. This must be what it’s like to practice triage in a medical emergency. You might only […]

By Scott Dickerson|November 10th, 2007|uncategorized|5 Comments

Halibut fishing Homer, Alaska.

Let me tell you something about my hometown Homer, Alaska– it’s called the “Halibut Capital of the World.” I’m not sure if it’s confirmed, but the title came from claims that more dead halibut are brought through the boat harbor in Homer than any other port in the world. We are good at catching them, but an art director at Alaska Magazine told me a couple years ago that we were not doing very good at photographing them. His magazine was having trouble finding any fresh and catchy images of sport fishing for halibut. This is a bit of a surprise since well over half of the visitors to our tourist based town are here just for the halibut. You’d think we would be creating a glut of photographs of this big but fishing attraction!

This freelance photographer took the wise words of advice and made plans; plans to do something lively with the subject of killing fish. They say if you want to do it right, get professional help. Fortunately, I have several friends who have made it their profession to catch halibut by operating fishing charters out of Homer. This connection made organizing this photo shoot a cinch. In September I spent a day out on lovely Kachemak Bay with David Bayes, captain of the ‘Grand Aleutian’ and owner of Deep Strike AK fishing charter company.

The goal of this photo shoot was the same as basically every other assignment– take an old subject that has been photographed a thousand times and make it look new and exciting. The shot that I dreamed up was a split view perspective (half under water, half above) with a big halibut being pulled out of […]

By Scott Dickerson|October 26th, 2007|uncategorized|3 Comments

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