Petroglyph Beach State Historic Park, Wrangell Island.

“Capturing Alaska”

with Wayde Carroll

Previsualization

This week’s photo is a special one for me. Not only because I really like it but because I pictured the image I wanted to take in my head before ever arriving at the location.
While I was researching locations for a two and a half week long stock shooting trip in southeast Alaska I discovered that there was a beach on Wrangell Island, Petroglyph Beach State Historic Park, where you could still find 3,000 to 10, 000 thousand year old rock carvings just laying around out in the open! I thought this was so cool. It’s amazing to me that you can still find historical artifacts that haven’t been destroyed or defaced in a public location. It became a high priority on my trip.
While making all my other preparations for the trip I kept thinking of the petroglyphs. Would I find one? Would I be lucky and have nice light for a great image? I had searched the internet and found a few great images by other photographers and I knew it would be a challenge to come up with something a little different.
I really wanted to make the stone carvings stand out from their surroundings and I wanted the image(s) to evoke a mood, one of a different time, primordial. Dusk is a time that conjures up images of mystery so I knew that was the time I wanted. To make the carvings stand out I decided to try and use some off camera flash at an angle that would add definition to the grooves in the stone. I also knew that I wanted to use a wide angle up close to emphasize them more and to include the pristine Alaskan surroundings.
I arrived, by ferry, in Wrangell about two hours before dusk, dropped my backpack off at the hostel, and headed straight for Petroglypgh Beach. I hustled the mile there and was just thrilled to find that it was even better than I’d hoped for. There wasn’t another person around and I was able to find several carvings fairly quick. I chose my favorite location, set up my tripod and waited for the sun to dip below the horizon. There were clouds and a slight drizzle but the mountains across the Zimovia Straights were visible. I opened the small umbrella I carry to cover my camera, and my self. The location was just magnificent and I had no trouble silently watching and imagining what life could have been like here when the Tlingets and Tsimshian ruled these islands.
When the time came the rain had stopped and I tried several different compositions, horizontal and vertical. I included myself in some as well to add perspective. In each, I underexposed the ambient light by about one stop and fired my hand held flash five or six times from various locations and angles to make the artwork and surrounding rocks stand out. I did this by attaching a transmitter to my cameras’ flash mount that would fire my flash from a distance. I also had a remote trigger that would release the cameras’ shutter from up to fifty feet away. Therefore, I could hold my flash where I wanted and then take an exposure with the remote. Because the camera was secured on a tripod I was able to later combine several exposures in Photoshop and get the lighting effect I wanted.
I know many of the great outdoor photographer’s, such as Galen Rowell and Frans Lanting, have achieved such amazing results because of this kind of planning. This was the first time that I put their technique to work. It was very satisfying to actually pull it off! This “previsualizing” may become a habit.