NikonGear'23

Images => Life, the Universe & Everything Else => Topic started by: Gil Aegerter on November 26, 2023, 05:22:51

Title: Totems in low light with a 55-200mm
Post by: Gil Aegerter on November 26, 2023, 05:22:51

I was in my hometown in Alaska last weekend and got a chance to walk around Totem Bight, a recreation of a longhouse and poles done by artists hired by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s and 1940s. When I was a child, we played hide and seek in the longhouse, which in retrospect was pretty disrespectful, but I grew up loving the art of those Native American carvers. And my father and his friends would scare us with tales of how the kushtaka would get us if we didn't behave. So when I go back to Ketchikan, I try to get out to the bight to admire the artists' work and see how the old kushtaka pole is doing as it lies in the forest, going back whence it came. These were all taken with a Nikkor 55-200mm VR II, which is great for travel because it is so small and takes 52mm filters. The VR means I can hand hold up to about 80mm at 1/25th. I often take this lens and a 20mm f3.5 for my D5500 and call it good.

Title: Re: Totems in low light with a 55-200mm
Post by: Nasos Kosmas on November 26, 2023, 14:56:30

Interesting story and explanatory photos,  part of your tradition  :)
Thank you

Title: Re: Totems in low light with a 55-200mm
Post by: Bent Hjarbo on November 26, 2023, 18:42:09

Quote from: Nasos Kosmas on November 26, 2023, 14:56:30

Interesting story and explanatory photos,  part of your tradition  :)
Thank you

+1

Title: Re: Totems in low light with a 55-200mm
Post by: Bruno Schroder on November 27, 2023, 15:17:32

Nice colours, Gil.

Title: Re: Totems in low light with a 55-200mm
Post by: Ann on November 29, 2023, 02:14:38

Beautifully clear photographs of some extremely interesting carvings.
Is the age known of the oldest one that is lying out in the forest?

Title: Re: Totems in low light with a 55-200mm
Post by: ColinM on November 29, 2023, 20:24:27

Thanks for sharing Gil - quite a legacy.

When I was a kid, we regularly went to a park near Windsor Castle in the UK.
They had a Totem Pole (gifted to Queen Elizabeth on one of her overseas trips to Canada).

More info here
https://eghammuseum.org/the-totem-pole-at-virginia-water/

Title: Re: Totems in low light with a 55-200mm
Post by: Gil Aegerter on November 30, 2023, 05:39:15

Gosh that's a nice totem -- carved by a master.

Title: Re: Totems in low light with a 55-200mm
Post by: Gil Aegerter on February 22, 2024, 13:14:18

Quote from: Ann on November 29, 2023, 02:14:38

Beautifully clear photographs of some extremely interesting carvings.
Is the age known of the oldest one that is lying out in the forest?

Sorry I missed this way back in November. I think that pole was carved back in the late 1940s. Back in the 1970s when I was working summers as a commercial fishing cop, I got out to the old village at Kaigani on Dall Island, and there were still poles lying in the forest there from circa 1900.