This is one of my favorite images from my 17 day trip down the Noatak River in August. We’d paddled through days of bad weater (see my previous posts on the trip here and here), and then we arrived at the confluence of the Aniuk and the Noatak, and for one glorious day the sun appeared. The amazing day, full of cloud shadows, rainbows, and autumn foliage, ended in a stellar sunset over the river. This was one of the last images of the night. Most of the color had faded from the clouds, but spotting this round stone in the shallow water a few feet from shore, I waded out, set the tripod down low, crouched over the camera, composed, and shot several frames. Within a few minutes, the light went from blue and orange to gray, and the photographic day was over.
I had great hopes for the two remaining days, but alas, that night I woke around 3am to my tent popping in the wind. I checked the barometer and saw that in the hours since I made the image the air pressure had plummeted and the bad weather had returned.
When it comes to photography in the wilderness, never, never assume that you’ll have another opportunity. You probably won’t.
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