The Charley River
This summer, I'll spend 15 weeks as a "Photo Media Intern" in the Alaskan interior. (May 11 - August 24; I start classes again on August 26, yikes, cutting it close, oh well, this is worth it). This will be my blog to document the experience. I'll post words here, and maybe a few pictures, but a much higher quantity of pictures will be posted to my Behance page.
I got the job through the Student Conservation Association, a blanket organization that matches up high school and college students with environmental, outdoor recreation, and public lands organizations. A lot of the internships are put on by the federal or state governments, and mine in particular is through the National Park Service. You get to fill out one blanket application, and then you select internships you want to be considered for; essentially, you fill out the same application for as many different internships you want. I chose about 12 internships from a pool of 300 or so, and I interviewed with the Park Service about two weeks after applying. It was really easy compared to other internship shopping I've done. I highly recommend it to anyone looking to do something outdoorsy with their summer.
I got the job through the Student Conservation Association, a blanket organization that matches up high school and college students with environmental, outdoor recreation, and public lands organizations. A lot of the internships are put on by the federal or state governments, and mine in particular is through the National Park Service. You get to fill out one blanket application, and then you select internships you want to be considered for; essentially, you fill out the same application for as many different internships you want. I chose about 12 internships from a pool of 300 or so, and I interviewed with the Park Service about two weeks after applying. It was really easy compared to other internship shopping I've done. I highly recommend it to anyone looking to do something outdoorsy with their summer.
So, what will I be doing? I'll be taking photos and video of a little bit of Fairbanks and the surrounding public lands, and a LOT of Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, a humongous park that butts up against the eastern border of Alaska, directly east of Fairbanks. A lot of the time will be spent in a motorboat or a packraft on the Yukon and the Charley rivers, respectively (hence the name of the park). The shot up above is one of the Charley river that my soon-to-be-supervisor, a really cool dude, sent me. He has all kinds of blogs of the traveling and activities he's done over the years. I'm excited to work with him.
Anyway, I'll have four ten-day "patrols" packed into June through early August. These involve flying from my base in Fairbanks to our outpost in Eagle, on the border of the preserve. Eagle is the base of operations; it's on the Yukon, so we can boat straight out of there. We can also fly from there via helicopter and land anywhere flat, or we can fly via prop plane and land on a bush airstrip up in the hills, maybe at the headwaters of the Charley (I think those are grass; sounds interesting. But also very fun). May will be spent getting acquainted with Fairbanks and the office portion of the job (photo database management, editing, video editing). Late August will be closing out all my projects. But for the middle two months, I'll be out in the field shooting half the time, living on the trail (or river), traveling by boat, helicopter, prop plane, foot, packraft; whatever gets me to the beautiful and/or historic places. My job is to document everything.
The preserve has all kinds of natural beauty: forests, mountains, rivers, meadows, wildlife, plant life, impressive geologic features, almost ceaseless sunlight, fish (yum), gold rush history, and relics of adventurers long gone.
I fly up on Saturday.
Anyway, I'll have four ten-day "patrols" packed into June through early August. These involve flying from my base in Fairbanks to our outpost in Eagle, on the border of the preserve. Eagle is the base of operations; it's on the Yukon, so we can boat straight out of there. We can also fly from there via helicopter and land anywhere flat, or we can fly via prop plane and land on a bush airstrip up in the hills, maybe at the headwaters of the Charley (I think those are grass; sounds interesting. But also very fun). May will be spent getting acquainted with Fairbanks and the office portion of the job (photo database management, editing, video editing). Late August will be closing out all my projects. But for the middle two months, I'll be out in the field shooting half the time, living on the trail (or river), traveling by boat, helicopter, prop plane, foot, packraft; whatever gets me to the beautiful and/or historic places. My job is to document everything.
The preserve has all kinds of natural beauty: forests, mountains, rivers, meadows, wildlife, plant life, impressive geologic features, almost ceaseless sunlight, fish (yum), gold rush history, and relics of adventurers long gone.
I fly up on Saturday.
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