Tessera

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

1075 Posts1868 Follower 54 Folgt

Lee Petersen @leepetersen.bsky.social · 2d ago

Aerial photo of the Loket, a large tributary to the Black Rapids Glacier in the eastern Alaska Range. More about the Black Rapids Glacier: www.lwpetersen.com/alaska-infor... #alaska #glacier #aerial #mountains

An aerial view looking up a broad, snow-covered glacier winding between steep, rugged mountains under a clear blue sky. The smooth white ice surface fills the center of the frame, curving away toward a cirque of jagged peaks on the horizon, with side glaciers flowing in from the surrounding valleys. Dark rock ridges and cliffs break through the snow on both sides, and in the lower left, a crevassed icefall spills down a slope in deep shadow.

Lee Petersen @leepetersen.bsky.social · 3d ago

Aurora over the Chena River Valley, taken from Angel Rocks to the Chena Hot Springs Trail in mid-March. More in my Aurora Gallery: photos.lwpetersen.com/Galleries/Al... #alaska #auroraborealis #hiking #northernlights

A vertical night photo of a bright green aurora over a snow-covered river valley. A broad, glowing curtain of green sweeps down from the top of the frame and swirls into a curved, folded band just above a long, rounded ridgeline, with fainter green arcs on the right and stars scattered across the dark sky. Below, snowy hills and slopes of dark spruce forest stretch across the valley, faintly lit green by the aurora. Snow-capped boulders sit in the lower right foreground.

Lee Petersen @leepetersen.bsky.social · 4d ago

Aurora expanding and crawling across the sky. Fairbanks, Alaska. In my Aurora Borealis Gallery here: photos.lwpetersen.com/Galleries/Al... #alaska #auroraborealis #northernlights #fairbanks

Looking straight up through bare birch branches at an intense green aurora filling the night sky. Broad, glowing bands and curtains of bright green sweep up from the lower left and curl across the frame, with darker green folds and lighter, almost white-green ribbons running through them. A few stars show through on the dark left edge of the sky, the tip of a spruce bough hangs in from the top left, and the silhouetted birch crowns along the bottom are lit green by the aurora.

Lee Petersen @leepetersen.bsky.social · 5d ago

Precarious boulder in front of the Gabriel Icefall on the Gulkana Glacier, Alaska Range. More photos and story on my Field Notes: lwpetersen.substack.com/p/snow-glaci... #alaska #hiking #glacier

A large, angular gray boulder sits balanced on top of a flatter slab of rock on a snow-covered slope at the foot of the Gabriel Icefall. The upper boulder’s lower face is stained rusty orange, and smaller dark rocks are scattered across the fresh snow around it. Behind it, the icefall spills down between dark rock walls as a steep, chaotic cascade of white and pale blue seracs. A jagged, snow-dusted rock peak rises on the left, and the sky above is partly cloudy with patches of blue.

Lee Petersen @leepetersen.bsky.social · 5d ago

Arctic starflower (Lysimachia europaea) at Anchor Point, Alaska, in late June 2026. Info in my Alaska Wildflower Guide: www.lwpetersen.com/alaska-wildf... #alaska #wildflowers #bloomscrolling

A close-up of a single arctic starflower blooming low to the ground in warm, low-angle light. The small white flower has seven pointed, slightly translucent petals arranged in a star shape around a pale yellow-green center, with fine yellow-tipped stamens. It sits above a whorl of broad, oval leaves that shade from green in their centers to reddish-bronze at the edges. Just below the bloom, a small reddish-orange bud or spent flower rises on a thin stalk, and a second leaf whorl with a similar bud sits out of focus to the right against a blurred background of soft blues and browns.

Lee Petersen @leepetersen.bsky.social · last wk.

Seracs stand like mountains of ice in the Gabriel Icefall on the Gulkana Glacier in the Alaska Range. More from the icefall in my Field Notes: lwpetersen.substack.com/p/gulkana-ice #alaska #hiking #glacier

Looking up at a jumble of towering ice formations in the Gabriel Icefall under a bright blue sky with a few small white clouds. Steep, sculpted ridges and pinnacles of gray-white glacier ice rise in layers toward the top of the frame, with hints of pale blue showing in a few hollows. The ice is streaked and banded with dark gray debris, and the sloping surface in the foreground is grooved by meltwater and dotted with patches of dimpled, cupped snow. A faint lens flare glows in the upper left.

Lee Petersen @leepetersen.bsky.social · 2mo ago

My 2027 Alaska Wall Calendar is done and ready for ordering. Check out the stories behind all the photos or order the calendar here: lwpetersen.substack.com/p/2027-alask... #alaska #glacier #wildlife #landscape #hiking

Four bull caribou stand and rest on open tundra of green and gold grass in soft, overcast light. Each has a large rack of antlers still covered in velvet. Three are standing, spread across the frame, and one lies in the grass near the center-left. Behind them the ground rises into a smooth, out-of-focus hillside. Text over the image reads Alaska, 2027 Wall Calendar, Lee Petersen.

Lee Petersen @leepetersen.bsky.social · last wk.

Aurora over snow-covered spruce in Fairbanks in January 2015, during a nearly week-long stretch of strong aurora every night. Almost 12 years later, it's still one of my favorite photos. More of my best aurora photos, prints, and wall art are available: photos.lwpetersen.com/Galleries/Al...

Green aurora borealis arcing across a night sky above a snow-laden black spruce forest. Tall, narrow spruce trees thickly coated in snow stand in the foreground, the tallest rising nearly to the top of the frame on the left. Behind them, broad, glowing curtains of green aurora sweep from the left side of the sky in a wide curve over the treetops to the right, brightest near the horizon on both sides, with faint stars showing through. The snowy ground at the base of the trees is softly lit.

Lee Petersen @leepetersen.bsky.social · last wk.

Cotton candy sky over a spruce forest in Fairbanks at sunset. #alaska #sunset #borealforest #winter

Snow-covered black spruce forest at sunset under a sky streaked with soft pink and lavender clouds against deep blue. A tall, narrow spruce rises near the left of center, its branches holding clumps of fresh snow, with shorter spruce trees spread across the frame behind it. The ground and low shrubs in the foreground are buried in a fresh layer of snow, tinted faintly purple by the evening light.

Lee Petersen @leepetersen.bsky.social · 2w ago

Side view of eightpetal mountain avens, Dryas octopetala, taken in mid-June on Murphy Dome, Fairbanks, Alaska. Info in my Alaska Wildflower Guide: www.lwpetersen.com/alaska-wildf... #alaska #summer #wildflowers #bloomscrolling

A low, ground-level side view of a cluster of mountain avens blooming on tundra under a clear blue sky. Several white, cup-shaped flowers with yellow centers stand on slender, fuzzy reddish-brown stems above a mat of small, dark green, scalloped leaves. Some blooms are fully open, others are still closed, greenish-yellow buds, and more flowers fade into soft blur in the background. Short, spiky sprigs of a low evergreen shrub, likely crowberry, and dry brown leaf litter fill the foreground.

Lee Petersen @leepetersen.bsky.social · 2w ago

South arm of the Worthington Glacier in the Chugach Mountains, taken at the edge of a pond near the glacier terminus. The top photo was taken in 2011, and the bottom photo in 2018. #alaska #climatechange #glacier

A two-panel repeat photograph comparison of the south arm of the Worthington Glacier, both taken from the edge of a pond near the terminus. Small colored circles in orange, red, and blue mark the same bedrock points in each photo so the frames can be lined up. In the top photo, from 2011, under a cloudy sky, a thick, broad tongue of white and blue-crevassed ice fills the right half of the frame and reaches down nearly to the pond, its front edge running across the foreground and up against the dark rock wall on the right. In the bottom photo, from 2018, under a clear blue sky, that ice is gone. The same rock wall now stands fully exposed, smooth and gray, with a small waterfall running down its base, and the glacier has pulled back far up the valley, visible only as a distant, thinner icefall between the peaks. A larger pond now fills the foreground, glinting in the sun, surrounded by bare gravel and debris-covered slopes.

Lee Petersen @leepetersen.bsky.social · 2w ago

Methane bubble lake star formation in Ballaine Lake this afternoon. These form when the ice is thin enough and a thin layer of snow sits on top of it, weighing down the ice and putting pressure on the water beneath it.

Looking down at the frozen surface of a pond. A smooth, pale gray oval of thin ice sits at the center, ringed on one side by a curved trail of small trapped bubbles. Around it, a dark, water-soaked zone spreads outward into dozens of branching arms that fork and taper like tree limbs or roots, radiating in every direction across the lighter gray, frosted ice. Patches of white snow dust the top of the frame, a few fallen orange and pale yellow leaves lie frozen into the surface, and a lily pad is visible beneath the ice in the lower right.

Lee Petersen @leepetersen.bsky.social · 2w ago

New series: Field Notes from a Changing Cryosphere Photos and science from Alaska's glaciers: how crevasses, moulins, and ice caves form, how they change, and repeated photos that show it. More soon. Subscribe to support it: lwpetersen.substack.com/p/field-note... #alaska #climatechange

Field Notes From A Changing Cryosphere

New articles coming...

lwpetersen.substack.com

Lee Petersen @leepetersen.bsky.social · 2w ago

Sphagnum Brownie (Hypholoma elongatum), taken in early September in Fairbanks, Alaska. More fungi from this fall: lwpetersen.substack.com/p/barely-tal... #alaska #macro #mushroom #fungi

A close-up of a single small mushroom rising from moss on a forest floor. It has a pale tan, gently domed cap with fine radial lines along its edge, held up on a long, slender stem that is whitish near the top and turns orange-brown toward the base. To the left, a sprig of a low evergreen shrub with short, needle-like green leaves, likely crowberry, reaches into the frame, with a few yellowing leaves among them. Bright green moss covers the bottom of the frame, a blade of grass curves up in front of the stem, and the background fades into soft, out-of-focus greens and browns.

Lee Petersen @leepetersen.bsky.social · 2w ago

A lone gull on a blue and white iceberg drifting in Columbia Bay, near Valdez, Alaska. In my Glaciers and Icebergs Gallery: photos.lwpetersen.com/Galleries/Al... #alaska #blueice #iceberg #valdez

A vertical photo of a large iceberg floating in calm teal-green water under thick gray fog. The iceberg rises from a low, rounded mass on the left to a tall, sharply tilted peak on the right, its surface glowing in shades of bright turquoise and pale blue, with white, weathered edges along the top. A single small gull perches at the very tip of the peak. Faint outlines of a fog-shrouded mountain with patches of snow are barely visible in the background, and gentle ripples cover the open water filling the lower half of the frame.

Lee Petersen @leepetersen.bsky.social · 2w ago

Blue ice exposed in fresh snow where a meltwater stream has cut a deep channel into the Gulkana Glacier. Phelan Creek, originating at the Gulkana terminus, trails off in the distance. Story and photos in my Field Notes: lwpetersen.substack.com/p/snow-glaci... #alaska #hiking #glacier

A vertical photo standing on the snow-covered surface of the Gulkana Glacier under a heavy gray overcast sky. In the foreground, a deep, winding channel cuts down through fresh white snow, exposing walls of pale blue glacier ice streaked with frost and small snow ledges. Beyond the glacier’s edge, the land drops away into a broad valley with snow-dusted mountain slopes on both sides. Phelan Creek winds silver through the valley floor toward the horizon, where a thin band of warm yellow light breaks beneath the clouds above distant blue ridges.

Lee Petersen @leepetersen.bsky.social · 2w ago

Aurora, blue glacier ice, the first wildflowers after breakup. My 2027 Alaska wall calendar is out now! Every calendar sold goes directly into what I create, from vehicle costs to website hosting, and keeps the writing and photography coming to you. lwpetersen.substack.com/p/2027-alask...

2027 Alaska Wall Calendar

My 2027 Alaska Wall Calendar is ready to order.

lwpetersen.substack.com

Lee Petersen @leepetersen.bsky.social · 2w ago

Aurora in the moonlight in early February in Fairbanks, Alaska. photos.lwpetersen.com/Galleries/Al... #alaska #fairbanks #auroraborealis

A vertical night photo looking up past tall, narrow black spruce trees heavily coated in snow. A single broad band of green aurora arcs up from behind the treeline on the left and sweeps across the sky toward the upper right. A bright full moon glows just to the right of the aurora band, casting a soft starburst and lighting the snow on the trees. The sky is a muted purple-gray with a few thin wisps of cloud and scattered faint stars, and a small green lens flare floats left of center.

Lee Petersen @leepetersen.bsky.social · 3w ago

Ridges and mountains over College Glacier in the eastern Alaska Range. Trip story and photos in my Field Notes: lwpetersen.substack.com/p/weekend-in... #alaska #glacier #hiking

A view across the snow-covered surface of College Glacier toward jagged peaks in the eastern Alaska Range under a deep, cloudless blue sky. In the foreground, a band of dark rocky debris runs across the white glacier surface. Behind it rises a steep slope of loose gray rock and gravel, cut by gullies and streaked with patches of lingering snow. Above that slope, a broad snowfield climbs toward a ridgeline of sharp, dark rock spires and snow-plastered faces, with rusty orange-brown rock showing along the right side.

Lee Petersen @leepetersen.bsky.social · 3w ago

Sunset over Cook Inlet from Anchor Point, Alaska, in June. Mt. Iliamna on the left. More photos and story from the trip on my Field Notes: lwpetersen.substack.com/p/homer-suns... #alaska #sunset #beach

Sunset over Cook Inlet seen from a dark gravel beach at Anchor Point. Heavy layers of gray-blue cloud fill most of the sky, their undersides lit in streaks of salmon pink and orange. A narrow band of bright yellow-orange glow sits along the horizon behind a long range of snow-covered mountains across the water, with the broad, glaciated bulk of Mt. Iliamna rising highest on the left. The inlet is dark navy, and several lines of white-capped waves roll in toward the shore in the foreground.

Lee Petersen @leepetersen.bsky.social · 3w ago

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.

Lee Petersen @leepetersen.bsky.social · 3w ago

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.

Lee Petersen @leepetersen.bsky.social · 3w ago

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.

Lee Petersen @leepetersen.bsky.social · 4w ago

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.

Lee Petersen @leepetersen.bsky.social · 4w ago

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.

Lee Petersen @leepetersen.bsky.social · 4w ago

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.

Lee Petersen @leepetersen.bsky.social · 4w ago

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.

Lee Petersen @leepetersen.bsky.social · 4w ago

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.

Lee Petersen @leepetersen.bsky.social · 4w ago

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

Lee Petersen @leepetersen.bsky.social · 4w ago

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

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