Pretty Pictures from Shuyak

 

I took 3 cameras to Shuyak - my Olympus TG6, Leica Q2, and Fujifilm XT5.  But I pretty much only used the Leica and Fujifilm cameras.  I only used the waterproof Olympus when it was pouring and I just needed a camera for documenting the sites. At the start of the trip I mostly used the Leica, and for the end of the trip, after I ran out of batteries for the Leica, the Fujifilm.

Looking at the pictures I think they both did well (top photos in this post from Fujifilm and bottom ones from the Leica).  I tended to like the colors and exposures and just general 'snap' of the Leica photos, but the Fujifilm did have a zoom (18-135 or really 28-220). And I found it useful at times to zoom in on things or to foreshorten the distance.

But really both cameras did well.

Patrick

Above here all the pictures taken with my XT5 Fujifilm camera, and the ones below were all taken with my Leica Q2.

The size of the Kodiak Archipelago

 

The Kodiak Archipelago superimposed onto a map of New England - from Chirikof Island on the lower left to the Barren Islands on the upper center (basically New Jersey to Vermont).

Pretty soon I am off on my first archaeological survey of the year (fingers crossed). Over the last 25 years or so the Alutiiq Museum working with various landowners has systematically surveyed about two thirds of the whole Kodiak Archipelago (by my guesstimate).  This includes Chirikof Island - the pear-shaped island shown down near Trenton, NJ on the map above. The map below shows what has been surveyed through 2023. Everything in red has been well surveyed while everything in purple needs survey.  The green areas have been partially surveyed. On my next survey I hope to turn the top island (Shuyak) on the map below from purple to red.

Anyway, I got to thinking that this is a pretty HUGE area for such a systematic archaeological survey. In terms of Alaska 'scale' Kodiak is not such a big place, but when you put Kodiak over a map of New England you realize the true scale of Kodiak and of our survey work. In terms of New England over the last 25 years we have basically surveyed the State of Connecticut.  Of course we have mostly just surveyed coastlines, river and lake banks because that's mostly where Alutiiq people lived or harvested resources.  But I also think in New England the archaeological sites are mostly on the coast or river and lake banks too.

Kodiak is a big place and I am lucky to work here!

Patrick

Kodiak survey coverage - this is NOT exact but a rough tally

Carrots from the garden before the garden is planted

 

Today I finally harvested the last of my carrots from last year.  Early last November we had a couple of hard freezes and I harvested a bunch of carrots, but I left a bunch more in the garden.  Then it froze hard and that was that until today when I harvested 5 gallons of carrots.

After the garden froze hard I covered the carrot patch in leaves and then put a couple of tarps over it all.  My hope was to insulate the carrots and keep them from a freeze and thaw cycle. I have done this before and it has worked in the past.  But leaving them in the ground all winter still seemed like a risk.

So I was very happy this morning when I uncovered the carrot patch, scraped off the leaves, and found crunchy sweet carrots underneath. And they do taste amazing - way sweeter than they did in the fall.  But after past experimentation I also know that I have to eat them up quick.  

Some of the carrots have black spots and I now know that this is a 'carrot mold' and will spread to the other carrots.  Also, last time I did a spring harvest after a couple of months the carrots lost their flavor.  

So this year the plan is to discard the ones with black spots, eat them fast, and savor the moment of eating garden fresh carrots in the spring!

Patrick

Shishaldin 2005 - My Film Swan Song

 

Slide film - stitched into panoramic

I've been looking through old photos lately and have been thinking about the film to digital transition. I stuck with film longer than most people.  I remember that the museum got a digital camera in 1998 and it was terrible - like the pictures it took were less than 1 mega pixel in size. By 2003 a lot of people I knew were using digital cameras, and, at the time, the pictures seemed pretty good.  I think the pictures were generally 3 mega pixels in size.  But looking back I am still glad that I did not switch because I think my film images were still better.

In 2005 I got a digital video camera that also took 2 megapixel still images.  It was my first digital camera, but I mostly still stuck with slides.  But I did take digital stills.  And I often created panoramic images stitching the digital files together. Then in 2006 I got a 6 mega pixel digital camera (the Pentax Optio WP10), and, for me, that was pretty much it for slide film. 

I think 6 megapixels is actually pretty close in quality to digitized slide film.  When I have scanned slides I've found that much over 12 megapixels all you gain extra is more grain in the film (I usually scan slide film at around 19 MB).  However, the 6MB digital cameras were better with colors and exposure than the film camera I was using at the time.  So at about 6 mega pixels I think digital had finally caught up with film, or at least for me it had.

But for a couple of years there I did use both digital and film.  Some major projects from that time period are archaeological surveys to Chirikof Island and Olga Lakes, the Salonie Mound excavation, and the pictures shown here from our ski trip to Shishaldin Volcano in the Aleutians.  I think the 2005 trip to Shishaldin might just be the last trip I ever did where I mostly used slide film.  It is not a coincidence that I started to blog in 2006.  Blogs are easier when you do not have to wait a couple of weeks for the pictures to come back.

Anyway, here are the pictures from my days of film swan song - the 2005 ski expedition to Shishaldin Volcano in the Aleutians.  We hiked and skied 20 miles or so to the base of the volcano and then waited for a weather window to climb to the top. The volcano is over 9000 feet high and is the tallest in the Aleutians.  We got to the top and skied down - at around 7000 vertical to our base camp it is the longest vertical ski run I've ever done in my life. Quite the expedition, and it is mostly documented in film!

Patrick

Digital - this is about 3 mega pixels in size

Digital - these are the 2 mega pixel pictures stitched into a panoramic - that's 7000 vertical to the top

Slide film - leaving False Pass on the long hike and ski to the volcano

slide film - the smoking caldera at the top of the volcano 

slide film - skiing from near the top of the volcano

slide film - Shishaldin is in the distance on the left

slide film - that's more than 5000 vertical ahead of us!

slide film - our camp at the base of the volcano where we waited for a weather window

slide film - navigating through a white out to get to the base of the volcano

Days of Film

 

Recently I saw on social media where someone posted a whole lot of photos from their 'early years' and they extolled the special 'look' of film vs born digital pictures.  I have also noticed how a lot of people still use film and claim that it just looks better.  Anyway, I decided to go back and look at all my old pictures.

I took a lot of pictures back in the days of negatives and slides.  One thing I noticed right away is that most of my old slides and negatives we're poorly scanned.  Back in the day I had very little memory space on my computer hard drive and I intentionally scanned my photos to be less than like 250K.  Yikes!  It looks like I should be re scanning a lot of my old pictures!

But I did find that some of my old film photos - mostly the archaeological projects - have been scanned at high resolution.  So I decided to concentrate on the photos from one archaeological project from the early 1990s - the three summers I spent on an archaeological project in outer Frobisher Bay, Baffin Island in northeast Canada. I remember that back in the day I thought I took a lot of spectacular photos on that trip.

Today looking at the photos critically they looked scratched up, grainy and slightly blurry.  Worse yet the colors are simplistic and the exposures lack dynamic range.  They look about like the born digital pictures from 6MB cameras circa 2006 (maybe worse).  I noticed that the exposure plate on the old cameras used to scratch the film as it slid across from one reel to the other. I also noticed that more often than not I missed the exposure entirely.  At the time when you took the picture there was no feedback from the view finder.  You did not get your photos back until months later.  I remember getting the exposure wrong consistently for entire summers of fieldwork (usually all too dark).  

Also film was expensive and you only got 36 pictures per roll of film.  You generally only took one picture at a time and there was very little experimentation.  Heaven help you if everybody's eyes were closed or you missed the composition.

Anyway, I looked at my baffin photos and thought 'yuck!'.  Many of these photos I would not even keep today.  So, needless to say, but I do not miss the days of film!

Patrick

A late Dorset house with central hearth

Willows Island excavation

the bear that tried to eat me

An old tent ring - maybe hundreds of years old - just sitting there on the surface

Tame Ice and Wild Snow

 

Lately Kodiak has had GREAT ice.  In the meanwhile the downhill skiing has not been so great - too icy.  

Anyway while skating I got to thinking about a recent trend I've seen on social media.  There is now such a thing as 'wild ice'.  I gather 'wild' ice is ice that is out in nature as opposed to man made.  I find the whole concept of 'wild' ice ridiculous. Ice is ice.  I've never skated on ice rinks in my entire life - too small and confined.  But I sort of get the feeling that the people talking about 'wild ice' grew up skating on rinks.

No one makes the distinction between 'wild' snow and man-made snow.  Everyone would agree that 'wild' snow does not exist.  Backcountry skiing is what skiers would call it. 

I like ice where I can take my dogs skating.

Patrick