mountain men, volcanos, guns, palins..

Here's a job that i did last winter, but just hit the newstands this week. It was a cover for Field and Stream, pretty much my favorite magazine to shoot for. Not only are they incredibly respected in the magazine/photography world, but I get to do some of the coolest stories that I've ever done for them. They really put alot of effort into the magazine photography, and it shows. Amy Berkley is one of the best, and the magazine looks as good as it does because of her. Ok, enough A** kissing (but i meant it amy and anthony!). This job was shot last february outside of fairbanks alaska for their SURVIVAL issue. Strangely, i had been to alaska 3 weeks earlier to shoot todd palin for esquire, so I knew the cold i was about to get into again. For the cover, they wanted to put a guy on it that pretty much epitomizes being able to survive anything, anywhere, anyhow. Well, they picked the perfect guy, Marty Meriotto. He lives outside of Fairbanks Alaska with his wife and baby in a log cabin he built. But that’s not whats amazing about his survival skills. He’s part of a dying breed, a fur trapper. He goes out into the wilderness, in winter, in Alaska, for a month or more at a time trapping. Just him, 200 miles from the nearest anything. When I was with the Palins in Anchorage, it was about 10 and I thought that was cold. Marty is up around Fairbanks and they pretty much laugh at the weather “down south in anchorage” where I was before. Needless to say, I hired a local assistant, Alex, and he met me at the hotel, as did Marty even though I told him to just give me directions to his house, but Alaskans are just that way, nice. Alaskans always seem to look at us lower 48’ers as outsiders, but in a polite way, not rude. Anyway, we show up to Marty's cabin, and its -10, but thats not the problem, it’s the 20 mph wind. Even marty and alex were kinda like “its real cold out there with the wind” so I knew I was in trouble. But again, Alaskans being Alaskans, both Marty and Alex had brought extra clothes for me, knowing that I probably wouldn’t have enough. They were king. They were right. We scouted on snowmobiles around Martys house and found a nice open field with lots of blue sky and white ground that would make the perfect, clean, cover. We hauled all the gear out on a sled behind the snowmobile and got to work. Alex and I were pretty worried about the gear, he gave me some tips about not letting condensation freeze the camera up and it worked. The batteries on the profotos once again amazed me and lasted for a good 50 pops before dying, we all thought they would die almost immediately. We ended up doing 2 sessions out on the ice for the cover..... Ok, finished up the shoot, scheduled to fly out the next day, no big whup. Had a big post shoot dinner with Alex. Had my first taste of black bear, in the form of sausage that Alex's friend had brought from a bear that he had shot. Good times. Here's where it gets interesting; That pesky little volcano in alaska, mount redoubt, had been threatening to blow when i was there 3 weeks earlier with the Palins but it didnt blow then. Guess what. yep, I get up at 5am for my 8am flight the next morning, and the counter person at the hotel said "didnt you hear? The volcano blew late last night, all flights cancelled." And fyi planes dont fly when theres ash in the air. Called the airport, no flights coming or going out of fairbanks. No flights coming or going out of anchorage either, although the wind direction was blowing the ash away from anchorage so it might open the following day or two. Pulled up google maps and realized I was really stuck as you cant just drive 5 hours to another state or big city, there are none. So, i tried to make the best of it. I called Alex, and he played tour guide and took me to the shooting range and we blew off some steam with his .44 and other various weapons of minor destruction. Went to the alaska pipeline and took a snapshot (very cool to see it), and went to the big ice sculpture festival and looked at ice (too cold to enjoy). Finally, after 2 days of sightseeing and nail biting, alaska airlines said that there was a window of good conditions in anchorage and the airport should be open for a day or 2. Problem was anchorage was about 6 hours away from where i was in fairbanks, and the only way down there was by car. So, i made an executive decision, went to avis rental car, and rented a one way car from fairbanks to anchorage (it was $500 for the day, you think they gouged?). I left about 2pm from fairbanks, and the drive went right through denali national park, which i've always wanted to see, hopefully i will see in the summer some time. It was a gorgeous drive, i remember the tom petty song "learning to fly", which stuck in my head the whole trip and will always remind me of denali now. I've attached a picture I shot through my windshield on iphone of the mountains in denali so you can see the beauty, although it doesnt do it justice. Strangely, to get to anchorage from fairbanks, you gotta go right through wasilla. It was the absolute strangest feeling driving through wasilla again, three weeks later after hanging with the palins for a week. I drove right by todd and sarahs house in the early evening, and i was thinking to myself, "i sure am tired, i wonder if todd and sarah would mind if i crashed at their house for the night?".....