J. Jason Lazarus Blog

Those of you that frequent this blog over the past few years know that I absolutely love going out to Cleary Hill Mine north of Fairbanks.  Lately, however, I haven’t made too many trips - part of me says it’s because I’ve done all I can with the site and part of me blames the additional restrictions inherit whenever there’s active mining going on in the area.  For the most part, technically “tresspassing” or not, without any signs or activity, most places in the woods in Alaska are safe to visit.  Note the two qualifiers - no signs or activity.  There’s far too many anedotial stories that I’ve heard about semi-automatic machine guns being pulled on photographers when they wander onto active property that isn’t their own.  There’s far too many old kooks out there in the Fairbanks area that are some odd mixture of sourdoughs still lusting for the “simplier” days during territorial rule and a middle-aged man trying out that over-coined phrase “get off my lawn!” for the first time - but with an Uzi.

That being said, I tread lighter than I’ve before.  I don’t tempt the fates anymore - being constantly reminded of my own mortality whenever I look into my son’s eyes.  I ask for permission, find out who owns land rights and, at times, only track down the thread of what may become a lede.  That being said, two of my photo trips this year alone have been the product of me handing out such ledes to prior students hoping that they’ll be less apathetic to the entire procedure of getting official permission.  It’s worked out splendidly so far - and this last trip to Cleary Hill was courtesy of such a procedure.

Going out there I was pleased to see that the mining operation above the historical mine hadn’t disturbed much, if at all, of what there was inside the buildings. I have to give the local operators, as well as Freegold Ventures, major thanks for that.

I did, however, come back with a keen appreciation for the few friends I have out there willing to work with a photographer like me.

Out of the thousands of things that make a photographer, patience and the amount of time spent on their work ends up being paramount.  Its one thing to be uninterested with the subject matter - its quite another to presume that you’ve completed your study of it within a couple shots.  Hours should easily melt away with whatever subject matter you’re passionate about - whether that’s portraiture or landscapes or industrial decay.  Composition cannot be rushed. Perfect moments do not answer you on command.  Level of expertise and swiftness are not directly relatable.

After about two hours out there, out of the group that I was with, I was one of only two people willing to stay in the +10F weather for more shots.  Although it was more about the freezing temps and interest (subject wise) and unrelated to the above rant on “throughness” - and I’ll admit, you have to *like* industrial decay to appreciate spending ours photographing it.  I think that we both left unsatisfied - I’ve easily stayed at Cleary for 4-5 hours (each time) before and even knowing that I’ve seen everything it can offer half a dozen times before, I still wanted to stay longer.  I appreciate all of you that have had patience to not only put up with my lazy and comfortable way of shooting but that you still have accompanied me to these places time and again.

I feel the need to explain myself further as to not insult anyone on this particular trip or anyone out there that’s quicker at the shutter than I am - time spent on photography remains important in the way that I shoot and teach - you can still get outstanding results from quick photography - but those looking to improve should first look at how much time they spend per frame.  My words are by no means meant to insult - in fact, in this particular situation, I think it just ended up that not too many people really knew what to expect out of the mine and figured out fairly quickly that it wasn’t their gig. That, and of coarse, the freezing temps.  Although as unrelated as the two may be, the experience made me appreciate those that deal with me and all my nutty long-winded photography trips.

I haven’t worked on any of these images - what paltry few I got, but here’s a small sample.  The first one has got to be the best natural lighting I’ve ever gotten on that particular subject (for some reason, one of my favorite at the mine) while the second one is lacking from the horrid overcast that followed us for most of the time out there.