Andrew Strain Photography » Atlin

Atlin Arts and Music Festival

Strain — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 23:43:00 +0000

The chaos is over and the crowds are gone, so I’ve hunkered down to edit the photos I shot during the 2009 Atlin Arts and Music Festival. I wasn’t shooting on assignment for anyone so that left me with lots of time to spend in the beer gardens… here’s a few photos that I nabbed when I ventured out into the world of no beer.

Headwater concludes their Saturday night set:

Mamaguroove put on a killer midnight show on Saturday. I was really feelin’ the music, so I shot all my photos from the pit with my trusty 50 1.4.

You can see the rest of my photos here… I’ll post some more as I edit them.

Monarch Mtn

Strain — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 05:34:00 +0000

My spot in Atlin may be a little out of town, but it gives me a convenient head-start on the Monarch Mtn trail. I hauled up the trail last night, grouse grind style, to shoot some photos from the alpine at sunset. There’s no tram down to ease the knees, but there’s plenty of light to navigate by well after the sun finally disappears. Besides, you don’t get views like this from Grouse…

Looking south to Warm Bay and Teresa Island:

The town of Atlin:

The distinctive Mt Minto can be seen in the distance, rising above the north end of a glistening Atlin Lake…

Long Summer Days

Strain — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 06:13:00 +0000

A quick post of some photos from the last week or so… still lots of daylight to shoot/fish/hike (and work, of course)

Some more ND filter fun, as well as practice with another technique I rarely use, exposure blending (it’ll have to do til I pitch for a grad ND) – Atlin Mountain at [a very late PM] sunset:

Teresa Island gets hit by a mix of rain and sun as a storm tracks west:

A couple more photos after the jump:

The M.V. Tarahne sits on Atlin’s waterfront. Used to ferry tourists around the lake in her prime, these days she has been relegated to hosting the occasional afternoon tea:

Como Lake sunset:

Earlier that evening, we took my cousin to the lake and he caught his first fish, a nice little rainbow in a convenient single serving breakfast size:

I caught one too. Veronica Strain photo:

Lakes and Rainbows

Strain — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 03:37:00 +0000

I finally bought my fishing license yesterday, so naturally, I spent all evening on the lake trying to catch some supper. I even managed to find the time to play with my new neutral density filter and make some longer exposures in between casts. There’s plenty of daylight to do both up here (tomorrow is the longest day of the year, with nearly 18 hours of theoretical sun): the alpenglow shot was taken just after 11pm.

This is Como lake, a couple km’s north of Atlin. My current address is at the base of Monarch Mountain, in the background – haven’t hiked it since I’ve been here, but I’ve flown over a couple times on the way to/from work… close enough, right?

In the full post, you can see what happens to tasty rainbow trout when they die…

My sister caught the first fish of the day… I evened the score later.

Back at home, ready for gutting:

It’d been a while since I cleaned a fish, but I think I did alright.

Trout with a side of salmon? Yes please.

Picked clean:

Down to work (and the wood).

Strain — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 01:55:00 +0000

I’m finally settling into the routine of fieldwork again after a week in Atlin, but the hot weather has sapped my energy really fast – there’s still a lot of snow on northern aspects, so we’ve been sticking to south faces up high in the alpine, where the sun beats down on us all day long. I’m not complaining – just tired.

The town of Atlin, from the morning helicopter trip to work:

The view from my “office” – Surprise Lake:

More words and photos in the full post:

We went out to the Globe Theatre last night to check out a performance by the Edmonton based bluegrass group Down to the Wood, passing through town on their way to the Kluane Mountain Bluegrass Festival this week in Haines Junction, YT. I’m not big into bluegrass so I can’t give much of an informed review, but the guys were funny, played some killer music, and were well received by the crowd – I might have to start taking my dad’s advice and listen to more bluegrass… Me and the family headed out to a little jam sesh after the show, where we stayed up til the wee hours of the morning jamming with a group of extremely talented musicians (I definitely don’t include myself in that category), and even got a free lesson on upright bass from the band; much appreciated, thanks guys! I used to play quite a bit of bass, but haven’t in years – the upright makes me want to get back into it asap. Just what I needed, another expensive hobby…

Atlin Mountain at sunrise from the Monarch Mtn trail. I was wondering how I would ever bring myself to wake up at 4am to get a sunrise shot… problem solved last night – go to bed at 530am…

A woodpecker hangs from a homemade feeder:

Decades of living off the land has led to quite the impressive collection of antlers above my grandparents woodshed:

Atlin, BC – my summer home.

Strain — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 06:48:00 +0000

I’ve spent the two weeks since returning from Chile job hunting for mineral exploration work, and with seemingly every inquiry I made resulting in a reply of “sorry, we don’t have financing for a field program this season”, I was about to give up looking and start a summer job in the city when the call came in to send me north. I was on a plane for Whitehorse 3 days later – gotta love the go-go-go nature of this industry. I should be here til August, but there’s really no telling for sure, and I’ll likely be on the road on just a few short days notice, as usual.

I was pleasantly surprised on the flight up to make a flyby of my final destination, the small town of Atlin, BC. I lived here when I was a little kid, and the last time I visited was in 1998. I snapped a photo of the town, the lake, Atlin Mountain and Teresa Island from the plane:

Many photos to come over the next few months, as I roam the hills looking for gold (and photo-ops, of course). I still need to post some of my RAW edits from South America – maybe tomorrow.