Tikigaq: belugas pass by in the night
Wednesday, June 8, 2011 at 12:19PM 
I did not have access to a snowmachine in Point Hope, and so this is how I mostly traveled across the ice - on a sled - in this case, a basket sled - towed by someone else. This particular basket sled was a real rough rider. It projected each bump and jolt right through the wood frame into me. At the back, there was a cross bar at shoulder level and another at the bottom and the space in between was open.
I carried two camera bodies and three lenses. I kept one camera body and lens slung over my neck where I could access it to take an occasional picture as I bounced along. I packed the other body and two lenses into a small backpack, which was then positioned directly between my shoulders and the top cross bar.
Out at the lead, belugas swam by in significant numbers. The people take belugas also, but they did not land any while I was with them, in part because when a large number of beluga passed right by the ice edge the umiak was in the water in pursuit of a bowhead.
There were plenty of hunters left at the ice edge, but by protocol they could not fire as long as that umiak was in the water following a bowhead.
In the morning, somewhere between 2:00 and 3:00 AM, I zipped two lenses and a body into my pack, slung the other body and lens over my neck and climbed back into the basket sled and then we headed back to the village.
As always, it was a bouncy ride but it was not long before I was dropped off in front of Jesse and Krystle's house.
Krystle was still up when I stepped in, so I greeted her and then went to sling my pack off my back, but was surprised by how light it felt. Then, in horror, I realized the pack was empty. The force of the camera and lenses repeatedly being bounced against the back flap had undid the zipper and somewhere between here and the lead my camera and lenses had exited the bag, passed through the space between the back cross bars and who knew where they were now?
I felt sick inside. If I could not get them back, the lenses and body were expensive and there was no way I could afford to replace them at this time. With just one body and a wide angle-lens only, I would be crippled for the remainder of my trip.
And then there were the beluga pictures in that camera. I did not want to lose the beluga pictures. In many ways, I felt worse about that possibility than about the loss of the equipment.
Krystle offered to go out with me and help me look, but first I had to duck into the restroom.
Before I came out, I heard a snowmachine pull up to the house. It was Jesse, who had been out at camp a short distance up the lead from the Rock's. He had found my lenses and the body and now had them in his pocket.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Jesse!
Now, a few beluga pictures, which I might as well make into studies, if for no other reason than to create a little separation between frames.
Tikigaq beluga study #1.
;)
Tikigaq beluga study #2.
Tikigaq beluga study #3.
Tikigaq beluga study #4.
Tikigaq beluga study #5.
Tikigaq beluga study #6.
Tikigaq beluga study #7.
Tikigaq beluga study #8.
;)
Tikigaq beluga study #9.
Tikigaq beluga study #10.
Tikigaq beluga study #11.
Tikigaq beluga study #12.
Reader Comments (12)
Wonderful pictures. Just wonderful. Hope you and Margie are feeling better. I'm pretty sure that the Mahoney horses cannot be blamed for this...
Absolutely beautiful. I can't imagine the adventure you had getting those. Hope you're both feeling better!
Thank you, as always, for sharing. So beautiful.
beautiful pictures!!!
Tikigaq beluga study #12 is the best fish picture I have seen in a long whale.
Thank you, Bill. Photos are wonderful.
Hey Uncle, thanks for the link. I am falling in love with your pictures. Amazing photographs. I am missing all the expeditions that you are doing. Glad you got your body and lens back, phew!
Talk to you soon..
G
Beautiful pictures. You had a little trip to heaven. Thanks for sharing. How can anyone kill them? I mean I can understand if someone has to do it to keep their family from starving, but otherwise I can't.
God!! I remember your email about this incident Uncle!!! :) I am so so glad you got them back... looking at the pictures now I can sense that panic you would have had that moment! Amazing Pics...jus amazing.Wonderful..
All: Thank you.
Martin: Thank you, too, but you would never want to call any kind of whale a fish when you are in Alaska.
Gane and Suji - yes, I am glad, too.
WakeUpAmerica - Yes, it is kind of remarkable how a place can be so frigid and cold and yet be heaven, but it certainly be.
For the benefit of any readers who drop in here but did not see your the comment of similar sentiment that you left on my post of June 6, I drop my response to that comment in here as well:
WakeUpAmerica: When you look at those beautiful pictures, try to imagine the harsh nature of the climate that has created such beauty. This is not a place where a farmer can sew his crop of wheat or pluck the apples from his orchard. One does not send cattle out to graze here. Point Hope is an ancient community - perhaps the most ancient in all America. People lived and thrived here long before the place you live was walked upon.
How do you think this happened? How were people able to thrive in such a wonderful but severe place? It was the whale that brought life to the people of the region and caused this place to thrive. It was the creator of this world, Whoever or whatever that creator might be, who set this system up and the fact that we now live in a world where modern transportation makes it possible to buy a gallon of milk for $8 to $10 does not change this.
This is the food of this land, and if you were ever to get out and spend significant time in the outdoors of this place you would find your store bought food to be inadequate to the demands this environment places upon the human body.
No one has done more to "save the whales" than have the Iñupiat who depend upon them, who have an intimate relationship with them, who know them better than does anyone else and who love them even more than do you and any others who share your well-meaning but misplaced and unknowing sentiment.
these photos are breathtaking! i have always wanted to visit alaska. this makes me wish for it that much more. you are very fortunate to be able to experience such beauty.
momsbusy - hope you make it.