Lee Petersen

@leepetersen.bsky.social

Photographer and writer in Alaska. Field notes on landscape, science, and a changing North. Lots of stuff here: http://lwpetersen.com/links

@leepetersen.bsky.social Oct 11, 2026, 4:28 PM

Aurora reflecting over Ballaine Lake in Fairbanks, Alaska, in late September.

Sixteen years of shooting the northern lights in my Aurora Gallery: photos.lwpetersen.com/Galleries/Al...

#alaska #auroraborealis #northernlights #reflection

A vertical night photo of the northern lights over Ballaine Lake. Bright green aurora bands sweep down from the top of the frame in long, curving ribbons, converging into an intense green glow just above a dark silhouetted line of spruce trees on the far shore. Faint purple tints edge some of the bands, and scattered stars show through against the dark sky. A leafy branch intrudes from the right edge. The still lake fills the lower half of the image, mirroring the treeline and the green aurora as a softer, darker reflection.

@leepetersen.bsky.social Oct 9, 2026, 3:22 PM

Sunlight hitting the aspen leaves. Taken in mid-September in Fairbanks.

photos.lwpetersen.com

#alaska #fall #fallcolors

Looking straight up at the crowns of several aspen trees against a deep blue sky. Their pale, smooth trunks rise from the bottom of the frame and branch outward, covered in small, sunlit golden-yellow leaves that glow against the dark blue. Thin, wispy white clouds streak diagonally across the sky between the trees.

@leepetersen.bsky.social Oct 7, 2026, 4:54 PM

Aurora corona over the Goldstream Valley in Fairbanks, taken in January.

photos.lwpetersen.com/Galleries/Al...

#alaska #auroraborealis #northernlights #fairbanks

Looking straight up at a bright green aurora corona, where rays of light appear to burst outward from a single point overhead like a starburst. Feathery green streaks radiate in every direction, brightest along a broad band sweeping to the right, with faint touches of pink and purple at their edges. Stars show through the dark sky around the display, and the bare tip of a tree branch reaches in from the lower left corner.

@leepetersen.bsky.social Oct 6, 2026, 4:54 PM

Summer in Columbia Bay, near Valdez, Alaska, facing the Columbia Glacier, one of the fastest-retreating tidewater glaciers in the world. More of my Glacier and Iceberg Photography: photos.lwpetersen.com/Galleries/Al...

#alaska #glacier #valdez #iceberg

A bay crowded with floating ice stretches toward a glacier at the head of the water. In the foreground, a large white iceberg with blue-tinged hollows sits low on the calm, reflective surface, surrounded by hundreds of smaller ice chunks scattered across the bay. In the distance, the broad, crevassed glacier flows down between dark, steep mountains, its surface lined with dark stripes of rock debris. Snow-capped peaks rise beneath a deep blue sky with billowing white clouds on the left.

@leepetersen.bsky.social Oct 5, 2026, 4:50 PM

Four photos in my Fine Art Gallery that I haven't updated in a few years, but I will hopefully sit down with them next week for an overhaul. Check out the current photos here: photos.lwpetersen.com/Galleries/Ab...

#alaska #phototography

A nearly white, minimal mountain scene in thick fog. A smooth curve of snow fills the lower half of the frame, and behind it a rocky outcrop dusted with snow emerges faintly from the mist, its gray and tan rock picked out by a patch of soft light. Everything above dissolves into featureless white cloud.

A black-and-white long exposure of a small waterfall pouring over layered, angular rock. The falling water blurs into smooth, silky curtains that arc over a ledge and split around a jutting slab, gathering into a frothy white pool among dark boulders at the bottom. The surrounding rock is wet and finely textured in shades of gray.

A close-up of a single snowflake against a dark, speckled background. The crystal is a six-sided star with a clear hexagonal plate at its center, ringed by a thin raised edge, and six broad, flat arms radiating outward. Each arm has a ridge down its middle and finely ribbed, feathery side branches, all nearly transparent and outlined in silver-white light. A few tiny water droplets dot the dark background.

A single dry, tan birch leaf appears to float in midair, angled with its stem pointing down to the left, its veins and toothed edge sharply in focus. The thread holding it is invisible. Behind it, a forest blurs into soft vertical bands of green, orange, and brown with round, glowing spots of blue-white light.

@leepetersen.bsky.social Oct 4, 2026, 4:36 PM

Prints, wall art, and digital downloads from the day are available on my photography website: photos.lwpetersen.com/Galleries/Tr...

@leepetersen.bsky.social Oct 4, 2026, 4:30 PM

Sunlight moves across the tundra and the Asgard Tor at Granite Tors in the Chena River State Rec Area, Alaska. Photos and story on my Field Notes Substack: lwpetersen.substack.com/p/impromptu-...

#alaska #hiking #fall #autumn

A broad tundra slope in autumn color stretches toward a lone granite tor standing on the horizon. The tor is a tall cluster of weathered gray rock, split into several upright columns and catching bright sunlight. The foreground tundra is a patchwork of red, rust, and gold low brush over pale ground, scattered with small, narrow spruce trees, and a band of dark spruce forest runs along the middle distance. Behind the tor, a rounded rocky ridge rises on the left, and blue hills fade into haze on the right beneath a sky full of white and gray clouds.

@leepetersen.bsky.social Oct 4, 2026, 9:09 AM

Aurora from my driveway a few minutes ago. Yay!

#alaska #auroraborealis #northernlights #fairbanks

A bright green aurora sweeps across the night sky in a long, rippling band, its lower edge streaked with faint pink and its rays blurred upward like brushstrokes, with fainter green curtains spreading toward the top of the frame. Scattered stars show through the dark sky. Below, tall spruce and bare birch trees stand in silhouette, framing the scene from a low angle looking up, and the green light glows through the branches on the left.

@leepetersen.bsky.social Oct 3, 2026, 6:23 PM

I absolutely love watching them, but there's definitely always a feeling of tension

@leepetersen.bsky.social Oct 3, 2026, 6:22 PM

Thank you! Glad you liked it

@leepetersen.bsky.social Oct 3, 2026, 5:52 PM

Another shot of the sunset over Cushman Lake at the Tanana Lakes Rec Area, taken a couple of weeks ago. Check out all of my most recent photos here: photos.lwpetersen.com/Recent-Photos

#alaska #sunset #reflection

A vertical view of a sunset over a calm lake. The sky is layered with streaks of cloud glowing magenta, red, and orange, deepening to dark blue at the top of the frame, with a thin band of bright yellow along the horizon. A low, dark hill and a silhouetted line of trees run across the far shore on the left. Below, fine ripples stripe the water with bands of pink, orange, and blue reflected from the sky, fading to deep blue in the foreground.

@leepetersen.bsky.social Oct 3, 2026, 5:35 PM

Looking into and out of the glacier cave we found in the Gulkana Glacier last weekend. It was really cool to drop so deep into one, along a waterfall, the whole way down. More photos, videos, and story on my Field Notes Substack: lwpetersen.substack.com/p/snow-glaci...

#alaska #hiking #glacier

@leepetersen.bsky.social Oct 2, 2026, 4:23 PM

The edge of the Gabriel Icefall on the Gulkana Glacier with fresh snow last Saturday. Photos and story on my Field Notes Substack: lwpetersen.substack.com/p/snow-glaci...

#alaska #hiking #glacier #fall

$The edge of a glacier icefall meets a steep cliff of dark gray rock under a deep blue sky. On the left, the ice breaks into a chaos of towering seracs and blocks, blue-white and glowing pale turquoise in the shadowed cracks between them, all dusted with fresh snow. On the right, the fractured rock face drops away in vertical, angular slabs, with snow caught on its ledges. A smooth slope of new snow fills the lower left corner.$

@leepetersen.bsky.social Oct 1, 2026, 4:53 PM

A Dall sheep ewe in Denali National Park between East Fork and Polychrome Pass, taken on a bikepacking trip in early May. More wildlife photos in my gallery here: photos.lwpetersen.com/Galleries/Al...

#alaska #wildlife #dallsheep #bikepacking

@leepetersen.bsky.social Sep 30, 2026, 6:07 PM

Steller sea lions resting on Glacier Island near Valdez, Alaska.

#alaska #wildlife

Two Steller sea lions lie pressed together on a beach of smooth gray and blue pebbles. The one in front, with a tawny, sun-bleached coat marked by darker patches and a few scars, rests its head against the chest of the darker, glossy brown sea lion beside it, eyes closed and long whiskers fanned against the other's fur. Its broad front flipper is planted on the stones below. More sea lions crowd the edges of the frame, their sleek bodies and flippers overlapping on the rocks.

@leepetersen.bsky.social Sep 29, 2026, 5:00 PM

View from the base of the Gabriel Icefall near a small outflow stream. The glacier fans out where it leaves the geologic constriction of the mountain and cliffside. Taken on Saturday.

In my Field Notes from the North: lwpetersen.substack.com/p/snow-glaci...

#alaska #hiking #glacier #snow

A glacier spills down from a steep icefall between dark rocky cliffs and spreads out across the valley floor below, its surface covered in fresh snow and cut by a scatter of long, thin crevasses. At the top, the icefall is a jumble of broken blue-white seracs wedged beside a jagged rock peak on the left and a dark cliff face on the right. In the foreground, a small pool of gray meltwater sits among snow-covered rocks and gravel, with a large dark boulder at the bottom edge of the frame. The sky is blue with scattered white clouds.

@leepetersen.bsky.social Sep 28, 2026, 4:38 PM

A grizzly sow stood to get a better look at us from a distance on Saturday night. It was getting too dark to get any good photos of her or her two cubs. More photos from the hike and notes on my Substack: lwpetersen.substack.com/p/snow-glaci...

#alaska #wildlife #hiking #bear

A grizzly bear stands upright on its hind legs amid dense, leafless willow brush flecked with yellow and orange autumn leaves, looking toward the camera. Its brown coat is pale along the shoulders, and the thicket surrounds it on all sides. This is the grizzly sow rising to look toward us from the willows.

@leepetersen.bsky.social Sep 28, 2026, 7:34 AM

Latest post on my Field Notes. Such a beautiful way to end the summer hiking season in the Alaska Range: lwpetersen.substack.com/p/snow-glaci...

#alaska #hiking #glacier #wildlife

@leepetersen.bsky.social Sep 27, 2026, 11:09 PM

Had a great day in the Alaska Range yesterday. Full of glaciers, snow, crevasses, glacier caves, ponds, and grizzly bears. Write-up with more photos coming soon in my Field Notes From The North: lwpetersen.substack.com

#alaska #hiking #glacier #glaciercave

Inside a glacier cave, a person stands silhouetted on a jumble of ice blocks, small against the surrounding walls of ice. Bright daylight floods in through an opening on the left, flaring almost white and throwing a haze of light across the cave. The ice walls arch overhead and around the space in deep blues, their surfaces textured and streaked, some patches smooth and glassy, others rough and shattered. The figure gives a sense of the cave's scale, with jagged blocks of ice filling the foreground below.

@leepetersen.bsky.social Sep 26, 2026, 3:40 PM

McCallum Peak in the Alaska Range. Taken at 3 am in early July on what turned out to be a very long day. Story on my Field Notes Substack: lwpetersen.substack.com/p/just-going...

#alaska #hiking #glacier

A snow-covered alpine basin lies under a soft pre-dawn sky of pale blue and gray with a faint band of pink low on the horizon. Snow blankets the foreground and mid-ground, its smooth surface broken by winding dark ridges of exposed rock and gravel where the snowpack has thinned. A dark, pyramid-shaped rocky peak rises on the left, and behind it a larger snow-and-rock summit, McCallum Peak, climbs into the sky on the right, its upper slopes streaked with snow between bands of dark rock. Loose rocky ground enters at the lower right foreground.

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