Bill Hatcher Photography

Weather Channel: Peter Lik

As we all know landscape and wildlife photography is normally a quiet and solitary past time and you wouldn't think a landscape photographer and his work would have have the glitz and dynamics to attact a big TV audience. But this month the U.S. TV network the Weather Channel announced they plan to unveil their first ever regular TV series called "From the Edge" and it stars Australian landscape photographer Peter Lik. Peter now lives in Las Vegas. On the video link below he is in Red Rocks, Nevada on the outskirts of Vegas to  introduce his show.

If the name of Lik's show sounds familiar wildlife photographer Art Wolfe did a similarly named photography show "Travels to the Edge" that aired for two seasons on PBS. Art Wolfe, however, is not an entertainer and the big draw of his show is it's great footage of incredible wild places around the world with just a dose of how-to photo tips.

The folks at the Weather Channel must have figured that if you mix a larger than life character such as the classic Australian persona (think Crocodile Dundee), with photography and casual conversation about the weather you might just have the ingredients for an entertaining show. I figure Lik is the perfect person for this show; with his Australian accent and the touch of the wild man photographer he will no doubt charm the American audiences.

I expect on my next visit to photograph in Wyoming to see all the serious photographers lineup at the Yellowstone River overlook sporting the new photography fashion of straw hats, ripped shirts and jeans. 

Running the Franklin River circa 1980

Here's a video of Bob Brown running the Franklin River in 1980 in an inflatable duckie. Bob pioneered the use of small inflatable boats on the Franklin and has boated the river many times. Today Senator Bob Brown is leader of the Australian Green party . In this video he's boating on the Franklin with no helmet, no pfd and no fear.  

The Franklin Wild River from Forrest McCarthy on Vimeo.

 

 

Photographing Alaska adventurers from a plane

Yesterday I was editing photos and this image caught my eye. This was taken during an assignment I was shooting for National Geographic in Alaska. I spent seven weeks following three adventurers as they traversed the Alaska range on mountain bikes from the Canadian border to Lake Clark! They chose to use bikes because it allowed them faster travel than if they walked between food resupply caches. They were right and made the 800 mile journey through nearly roadless country in 7 weeks. My challenge was to document their trip. I knew I couldn't keep up carrying my cameras and film for the entire journey. Instead I joined them through three sections of their trip. I traveled with them on bike when they traveled through the most geographically challenging terrain. I would usually meet them by plane at prearranged places for my 7-9 days on the bike. Meeting them would always offer me the opportunity to shoot aerial photos as well. A photographer should never pass up an opportunity to shoot aerials. And I certainly didn't.

 

It was from the air that I captured some of my best images from this assignment. This image  is taken near the start of the trip and is a shot of the adventurers crossing the Chisana River near the Canadian border. I think this photo captures the vast challenges faced by the adventurers on their Alaskan traverse. The plane I was in was a Piper cub and the pilot boasted at how he could fly the plane at 25-30 miles an hour fifty feet off the ground. That's dangerously close to stall speed, but it worked for me to get this photo on a typical cloudy rainy morning as the riders negotiate the river crossing. This was in the film days. Camera Nikon F-5 Velvia 100 pushed to 200.