A
Funny Thing Happened
As a
lighter side of my adventures photographing
the aurora, I
have five very funny stories to share.
The first involved photographing just
down the hill in the NW street
view below. It was about -25°
F
and I was wearing my -50°
F
r
ated
goose
down parka. A car had stopped just above me and two people got out to
watch the display. As I
was heading up the hill ready to greet them,
they saw me coming out of the shadows and hurried
back into
their car
and were about ready to speed away. When they saw me more clearly, they
stopped and told me that they thought I was a
bear ready to charge at
them! This couple was from Florida
and didn't realize that bears
hibernate in the winter and that I really don't resemble a bear
(although I'm 6'5" tall). For years after our initial encounter, this
nice couple would stop by my office at the University of Alaska Fairbanks during their
annual trek to view the lights and show
me their aurora photo
collection (see right for picture of the Bear).
The second story involved
viewing the aurora atop Ester
Dome just
outside Fairbanks. I was shooting with my number
one admirer Shigeko from Japan when a compact car
drove by and got stuck in the snowbank just a little past us. Well, in
the Interior of Alaska, being stranded in winter can be fatal. Everyone
helps if the situation arises without question. When I went over to
assist this young gentleman, I found that he couldn't speak English because he
was visiting from his home in Tokyo. Fortunately, Shigeko, pictured below on my 50th birthday, served as my
translator. When she told him who I was, he exclaimed in English, "Jan
Curtis, famous aurora photographer". I couldn't help but laugh. On top
of a dark mountain in the middle of Alaska in the dead of winter, I met
a stranger nearly halfway around the world who actually knew of me.
The
third event was kind of weird. After a rather
strong
display, I post my images on the Internet as soon as possible. This
particular aurora storm was also visible in the Lower-48 as far south
as Georgia. On the same night, Art Bell, the host of a then very popular
nationally broadcasted late night radio
talk show that explored the unexplained including UFOs, made a
call for anyone who captured the aurora to send him photographs so that
he could post them to his show's website. This radio host received what
he
considered to be the "best and most remarkable"
images of the northern lights that had ever been taken. The only
problem was that this listener sent him my images and claimed to have
taken them. Well, my loyal followers notified me of the fraud and I
contacted the radio station to correct their on-line posting of these
images. The host immediately pulled my images and I think I got some
kind of half-hearted apology.
The
next tale could have been a very expensive
mishap (in
many respects). While photographing one of the most intense displays
that I saw while in Alaska, I was in the middle of the dirt (snow
packed) road up from my house. I was taking shot after shot, not
concerned about any cars on this rarely traveled road.
I
lived in a
community where most people had water delivered to their house where it
was stored in underground holding tanks. While the water delivery truck
driver was making his rounds unusually late that night, he decided to
turn off his headlights while driving up the road with his head looking
up outside his window at this amazing display. He was only going about
5 mph but I was right in the middle of the road and didn't hear him
approaching. At the last instant, he saw me and turned on his
headlights nearly blinding me and ruining my exposure. Fortunately he
managed to stop this heavy vehicle within inches of me and my tripod.
Even more remarkable, just seconds before this happened, I managed to
snap this shot which became one of my most famous photos; one that would
eventually appear in the November 2001 issue of National Geographic
Magazine:
Another amusing incident occurred
while giving a
presentation of my photos at the Public Lands Information Center one
cold wintry day. At the end of my
lecture, I told the group that I was expecting my photos would be
appearing in an article in National Geographic magazine later in the
year; well maybe, hopefully. It turned out that the writer of
that article was in the audience and after
my talk someone introduced
him to me. I was a little embarrassed to say the least.
While he told me that the editors would make the final choice
as
to which photos would be used, I hoped that he would put in a good word
for me. Well, nine months later, he must have because my
photo
was
published around the world.
Now a Story that
Ended Badly
The
image below was taken at Quartz Lake State Park near Delta, Alaska on
September 6, 1996 about an hour after sunset. While camping
near the lake's shoreline, I was busy setting up for a quiet night's
sleep when I looked out of my tent and noticed a rather nice aurora
display in progress. I immediately grabbed my camera and
headed for the boat landing where I could set up my camera for some
northern lights reflection off the lake. I was successful in
capturing what turned out to be my most requested image of the aurora.
The problem was that the negative was never scanned
(digitized) and after countless attempts to make prints from it, the
negative was scratched and the colors bleached beyond repair.
If not for a few individuals who scanned their original
higher quality print of this scene, there would be no adequate quality
image to enjoy. For other images from my early days, see
Michigan Tech University's The
Aurora Page.
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