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Shooting the Glacier
We traveled up the Copper River Highway to see Childs Glacier and the famous Million Dollar Bridge. I had been to the glacier before and was awestruck by the beauty of this ice amidst snow-capped mountains, reaching toward Heaven—and creating an unforgettable experience. This wonderful scene is impossible to capture in words, which is one of the reasons for creating the DVDs to share with you. As we stood there, in late May, a very large piece of ice broke off and fell into the water. It created a thunderous roar unlike anything I'd ever seen or heard before. I'm guessing the piece of ice was bigger than a tall seven-story building. It was an awesome sight! I was hooked on glacier viewing and could hardly wait to see more! From that day on, I scheduled one day off a week to visit Childs and video the glacier's calving from May through September. Videoing Childs Glacier was a challenge at times. Because the glacier creates its own microclimate, distinct from the river valley and from Cordova's weather, you plan for rain. I usually wore heavy clothes and rain gear because the wind often blows from the glacier. This, too, was a blessing in disguise because, if the wind is not blowing, the mosquitoes can eat you up!
I used a Canon ES800 8mm Video Camcorder with Hi-fi stereo and a 12X zoom. At the time of most of the filming for the DVDs, I had only two batteries with 40 minutes each, so I learned how to make an educated guess as to when the glacier would calve. There is a learning curve associated with balancing the need to keep from using the battery too much and anticipating the glacier's calving. Many times I would keep the camcorder on, when I saw some activity that I thought may lead to a calving, but it didn't. And many times, the camcorder was off when a calving did occur. After a while, I learned the proper time to turn on the camcorder. If you do get a chance to see a glacier and want to video the calving, here is what I learned.
Even on the days with little activity you are sure to enjoy the beauty of the glacier, the visitors, and the wildlife, too. |
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