One Hangin’ and Heave Ho: the Compelling Cool of Environmental-Documentary Portraits

Posted on April 3, 2024 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

**Heave Ho**
*Fred Shangin, cigarette hangin’ as per, puts his back into a pot of Tanner Crabs from Castle Bay off the gulf side of the Alaska Peninsula. May 6, 2018*

Going through these many thousands of photos from The Lake and beyond – while at the same time these past few days putting together a magazine piece paying tribute to a recently deceased mentor and friend from my Pennsylvania youth – I find myself recognizing that as photographers one type of image we might not capture often enough is portraits of friends. The best of these photos are often environmental-documentary portraits – my own hybrid category to describe pictures that capture the subject in an authentic act of life in a setting that tells the viewer about that person’s life. There’s an art to it… the photo that isn’t staged; that doesn’t depict the subject self-consciously looking into the lens (or self-consciously looking away from the lens); an image that captures an authentic moment rather than a pose.

For me, learning to make these types of images has been predicated on a lengthy process of growth toward freedom from my own limiting shyness. Coupled with the kind of confidence that enables a photographer to make such portraits is, I think, a necessary agreement – tacit or verbalized – that gives the photographer permission to shoot at will (with appropriate discretion).

Strictly environmental portraits are in most cases staged. In making such an image, the photographer might have the subject sit at her fly-tying table as she ties or gives the impression of tying a fly. Noticing clutter, the photographer tidies up the scene. Further compositional considerations prompt lighting manipulation – perhaps nothing more than slightly moving a lamp or opening or closing a curtain, but manipulation nonetheless. Clothing choices are given thought, a certain tilt of the subject’s head is decided upon as favorable, perhaps a few already-tied flies are placed in the foreground, a book arranged so that it’s title can be read. Images such as this have their place, but to me there’s a compelling cool in a real-time photograph – a moment frozen, captured, documented as is with no quick brush through the subject’s hair, the everyday jacket with its stains, imperfect lighting, maybe a little motion blur or grain.

And in the case of the above photograph, one hangin’.

Female Transient Orca with Seal against Aleutian Mountain Landscape

Posted on April 2, 2024 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

I wasn’t sure what to call this photograph, so I’ve gone with straight description. The Alaska Peninsula’s Aleutian Mountains again provide a dramatic backdrop and (I think) stunning context for this photo of a female Transient Orca and her prey, a thoroughly defeated seal. Looking closely, you can see the seal’s facial whiskers near the Orca’s nose, his body further to the right. She’s lost a bit of skin from her snout, no doubt from raiding the rocky shoreline for catches such as the one she is now contemplating.

While the female Orca was using this living prey to teach her daughters hunting techniques, the male (see the previous two articles) was checking out our skiff.

Throughout our time with this group of Orcas the light was all over the place as clouds closed and opened above. Many images from this shoot came out flat, like blue-tinted monochromes. But a few, such as this one, are nicely lit as the sun just began to emerge from behind clouds.

Killers: Father and Daughter, Training Day

Posted on March 31, 2024 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

The above photograph is of an adult male and a young female Orca. Killer Whales in the vernacular. Actually, not true whales, but the world’s largest dolphins. They were part of a family of four which also included an adult female and a much younger calf, perhaps also a female. I had been invited along on a crabbing and halibut fishing excursion by my friend Fred Shangin. We were headed to Castle Bay, which meant skiffing from the village of Chignik Lake six miles down the Chignik River, then six miles through Chignik Lagoon, out around Dark Head and then 10 miles down the Alaska Peninsula to Castle Bay. In the above photo, the Orcas are about three miles offshore not far from the seaside village of Chignik. See the Google Maps below:

*Anchorage is in the upper right. The red star halfway down the Alaska Peninsula indicates the general area of Chignik and the site of the **Training Day** photograph above.*

*The purple line indicates the navigational course Fred took us on that day.*

These are Transient Orcas, members of the Gulf of Alaska, Aleutian Islands, and Bering Sea (GOA/AI/BS) population.¹ As Transients, their primary source of food is marine mammals. When we encountered this family, Fred idled the skiff engine and for the next half hour we watched the parents teach their daughters about hunting seals. First, with the daughters following closely, the adults cruised in tight to the rocky shoreline where they corralled and caught a seal. Rather than kill it, the female gently took the hapless pinniped in her mouth. Barely holding it by her front teeth, she swam out into open water where the adults continued to teach the youngsters lessons they would need to survive.

Training Day, Fred called it.

I was still pretty new to photography and had never shot anything like the scene that unfolded. Lots of mistakes. Several times the male, which was enormous, swam right beneath our little skiff and then emerged, impossibly close, to check us out. At other times the female and even the older of the two daughters came in close, again looking us over. I managed to make a mess of what would have been incredible closeups of these great beings. In fact, the entire family, very much aware of us, seemed at times to be showing off as they taught and learned their own unique art of hunting. However, despite my excitement and fumbling I managed to get a number of interesting pictures, a few of which are difficult to look at if one has any empathy for the little seal.

Once the first seal was finally dispatched (the female performed the messy coupe de grace), the male caught a larger seal for himself. I’ll probably publish additional photos of this remarkable, seldom-witnessed event in the coming days.

¹Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Killer Whale (Orcinus orca) Species Profile

Seward Summers: Bubble-net Feeding Humpback Whales

Posted on November 23, 2023 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

*Humpback Whales corralling herring in a net of bubbles and then pushing the small fish to the surface for easy feeding. Gull much obliged. Gulf of Alaska, 6/22/12*

Moose roast and root vegetables in a bath of mushroom broth, red wine, cream and fresh herbs slow-cooking in the oven, pumpkin cheese cake setting. Lots to be grateful for on this Thanksgiving Day… and every day. Barbra and I hope all is well in your world.