It’s mid October, and the clouds are changing, from puffy summer fair weather cumulus clouds to the thin cirrus ice clouds that filter the light like lace curtains. When the sun shines through these clouds, it gives a beautiful soft light that brings back memories for me of time spent photographing the Tanana River during freeze-up near Fairbanks.
Summers in Alaska were a wonderful time for heading out into the country—the sun was warm and the light was endless—but come October, the days were short, losing 7 minutes a day, and the air grew sharply colder—minus thirty on Halloween was possible. With the cold came freeze-up on the rivers, beginning with floating ice pans and shore fast ice, sometimes accompanied by local fogs forming over the open water.
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