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2011 Photography
My Fourth Art Show - April 2011
I was given the opportunity to contribute about 40 prints to Calypso Farm
and Ecology Center's spring sheep show. It
began by helping make a flier for their show, then one thing led to another
and the weekend before the show we decided to add a bunch of photos to
fill up some of the copious wall space. All prints had a sheep
theme, but I managed to tie in climate change and politics to some of
them. Click here to see the prints
and some photos of the show.
Spherical Panoramas
You can find nearly all of my 2011 spherical panoramas
here: www.360cities.net
and search "matt nolan 2011". Below you can find links to
them when incorporated into a blog and the few strays embedded here. Click
on the images below to launch them in a viewer that allows you rotate
and zoom into them, or click on the links in the text to learn more about
the context for the images.
Fox
Permafrost Tunnel Extension -- Spring 2011
Scientists from CRREL began Phase 1 of an extension to the Fox Permafrost
Tunnel in spring 2011. They let me sneak in between drilling runs
and get some panoramas to capture progress. Click here
to see rest.
McCall
Glacier -- 1-21 May 2011
Installed in 2003, I believe this is the highest weather station in Alaska
at over 8000'. It's certainly the highest in Arctic Alaska. Not that I'm
bragging... Click on the photo to see this panorama, or click here
to read my blog from our trip.
Hulahula River -- 8-24 June 2011
We spent about two weeks on the Hulahula and Jago Rivers measuring discharge,
taking water samples, and collecting invertebrates. You can see a
lot more photos from the trip here.
McCall
Glacier and Hulahula River -- 1-23 August 2011
After our fall glacier trip, we spent about 2 weeks floating down the
Hulahula River with a great group of scientists. Click on the image to
view this panorama, or click here
to read my blog about our trip.
Brian
and Leandre's Wedding -- 3 September 2011
Brian and Leandre got married on a beautiful fall day in Fairbanks. Click
on the image above to view the panorama, or click here
to see a bunch more photos.
Noatak
and Kobuk Rivers -- 23-26 September 2011
One
morning in the middle of our aerial photography work in the Noatak and
Kobuk Rivers I took a stroll down the main drag of Kotzebue and was able
to capture a plane flying overhead while checking the weather at our destination
to the north. This is the only panorama from the trip, the air photos
can be found below.
Air Photos
22-23 June
2011: Jago and Hulahula Rivers
The purpose of this trip was to acquire baseline imagery
of the Jago and Hulahula Rivers for use in our studies trying to link
the disappearance of glaciers here (like McCall Glacier) with impacts
on downstream ecology, like fish, birds, shrubs, etc, as described in
this paper: Orthomosaics and DEMs created from these images are being
compared to prior DEMs and imagery to assess change. These images were
taken at extreme-high water for the season, caused by both glacier melt
and rainfall in the headwaters. On the 22nd we also recorded a strip of
photos from Kaktovik to Deadhorse along the coast, capturing sea ice along
the barrier islands. These data are suitable for topographic mapping at
sub-meter resolution.
8 Sept 2011:
Chena River slough
The purpose of this trip was to acquire baseline imagery
of a slough of the Chena River in Fairbanks, AK, to compare to prior imagery
to assess change in invasive aquatic species. This slough travels through
town, and is very slow moving, in part due to the flood control project
upstream of it. Likely dumping of fish tanks seeded the slough with invasive
species, such as elodia, which have been taking over the relatively warm,
slow moving slough. From these photos, a 40% decrease in native habitat
was measured since the 1990s; you can read more about the project here.
13 Sept
2011: Jago and Hulahula Rivers
The purpose of this trip was to acquire baseline imagery
of the Jago and Hulahula Rivers for use in our studies trying to link
the disappearance of glaciers here (like McCall Glacier) with impacts
on downstream ecology, like fish, birds, shrubs, etc, as described in
this paper: Orthomosaics and DEMs created from these images are being
compared to prior DEMs and imagery to assess change. These images were
taken near extreme-low water of the year. We managed to pull this trip
off in a day trip, beginning and ending in Fairbanks after about 9 hours
of flying. These data are suitable for topographic mapping at sub-meter
resolution.
23-26 Sept
2011: Noatak and Kobuk Rivers
The purpose of this trip was to acquire baseline imagery
within the Noatak and Kobuk River valleys to assess change in permafrost
features such as pingos and tundra ponds. These transects were also flown
with our lidar system. These data are being used to create digital elevation
models and orthophotos, at roughly 25cm resolution. The study areas were
grouped into four blocks, as described below.
Gigapixel Images
Click on the images below to launch of browser plug-in
that will allow to zoom in on them in great detail.
This was a large print in the sheep show in April. Many people were actually
fooled by the 'snow' when standing right next to it.
I took this on the way down from our highest weather station. I like this
location because we can clearly see into the upper and lower cirques,
unlike the standard location I use below. I predict in less than 50 years
that the upper and lower cirques with each have a terminus visible from
here.
I try to take this shot in May and August.
Movies
This year I've taken an interest in video, to explore
new means for public outreach of our science. I hired a professional film
crew (The Really Interesting Picture Company; John Carlson and Tom Veltre)
to tag along with many of our expeditions this summer, shooting over 30
hours of raw material. We didnt have a concrete idea in mind when doing
it, I wanted to the story to emerge from the footage. Maybe that was a
bad idea, but we'll see. Likely there will be several different products
coming from this work, from 1-3 minute 'now for something completely different'
science shorts to feature length documentaries. Some of the themes we
have in mind are the standard Nova-style documentary about the science
itself, something more focused on arctic science as a lifestyle choice,
something about the scientific method, or something about the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge that has nothing to do with oil. Likely these themes will
blend, but the final format will likely depend most on the funding and
distribution avenues we find, as at the moment this is all being done
out of pocket. If I had to cut the movie tonight, it would probably have
a flavor something like this.
Here's some clips from our drilling in May.
Here's a bunch of clips covering our McCall Glacier trip in May and our
Hulahula River float trip in August.
Note that these are not intended as
mini-movies, just slightly polished pieces to give a sense of film quality,
geographic setting, and scientific content. They were largely created
to assist with fund raising; if you have any ideas along these lines,
please contact me.
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