By Carl Johnson While preparing to head off alone into the bowels of the Death Star to disable the tractor beam holding theMillenium Falcon captive, Obi Wan Kenobi rhetorically asked of Han Solo, “Who is more foolish? The fool, or the fool who follows him?”  I think of such questions sometimes when my legislators act foolishly. [...]

This was one of those sunsets where each minute you thought to yourself that this must be the absolute peak of color and light. And then another minute would go by and it would get better. Ultimately, though, I went with the shot from the last bit of dying light. It looks as quiet and [...]

This was yesterday’s sunset, or as I now like to call it – the intermission between the Blizzard of 2012, and the Blizzard of 2012. Looks like we’re due for another 12-18 inches of snow tomorrow, folks.

  It’s certainly not the clearest shot in the world, since it was snapped from the car on my Blackberry… but it was such a beautiful scene that I hope you get the feeling of it, and forgive the technical sloppiness.

Sunset is getting later. This was taken just a little after 3pm. The trees are covered with hoar frost that looks like snow in a can. We had a little cold snap and temperatures in Anchorage dropped below zero, causing the moisture to freeze out of the air as frost. (My apologies to Fairbanks and [...]

Finally today the sun popped out, and we had some blue sky. The light on the snowy trees was just gorgeous all day, in its various colors and angles. I snapped this shot on my way home from Thursdays in the Mud. Gorgeous.

Happy Solstice to all! It’s that wonderful time (especially in the far north) when the Earth decides to tip back into the summer direction, and the amount of darkeness gets less, and the light gets longer. It will only be a second or two a day at first, but as the weeks roll on, it [...]

  Here’s one from the other day. Much nicer than the wind and rain we’ve been having, and will continue to have… at least for now.

Zach Roberts, our Mudflats New York Bureau Chief (journalist, photographer, and filmmaker) of whom many of you are familiar has been arrested in New York City, while covering the Occupy protest. His Twitter feed contained photos and updates. 08:16 – All is quiet in duarte park 11:26 – Blocked traffic to Holland tunnel for a [...]

As anyone who has been keeping track of the weather in these parts knows, the past week has seen its share of nasty wind storms, blowing snow, sleet, rain, and any kind of driving hazard you can name. Yesterday, the wind in Anchorage was so bad that planes were diverted to land in Fairbanks until [...]

  I heard the song Winter Wonderland several times today, and it seems like it ought to be Alaska’s seasonal state song. This was one of those times when it looks like someone went a  little too crazy with the fake canned snow.

Happy Monday, Mudflatters!  Here we go again…

This morning, sitting with my cup of coffee, I noticed out of the corner of my eye, the first bit of light over the mountains. Pre-dawn is a beautiful time in the winter. It’s been dark since early evening the previous day, and all of a sudden out of the inky blackness you can barely [...]

A duck shack on the Susitna flats – incredibly beautiful and prolific wetlands near the site of the proposed Chuitna Coal strip mine on the West side of Cook Inlet, about 40 miles from Anchorage.

As promised, here are the shots I took on the return leg of my frosty hike the other morning. All mornings since have followed suit, with temperatures well below freezing, and a beautiful but fleeting display of frost when the sun rises.         What I thought was just a clump of frost [...]