Whale Horizon
Another shot looking towards a cetacean and Japan.
This kind of blurry view through the window feels a lot more like I was back there. So I made it more blurry in post.
Whale’s Tail
This digital shot is taken on the same trip as my post from two days ago, Albatrosses and Humpbacks, that was shot on film.
This is the best photograph I got of a whale on the trip, or at least the best traditional kind of photo.
Since we weren’t on a whale watching trip, and I was shooting with a 100mm lens, this is not all that bad.
Kiix?in House Frame
A week ago I made a trip out to Kiix?in in Barkley Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island. I posted a scenery shot from the beach that is at the far end of the village a few days ago (here). That post has a bit of information about the site, as does the link in the name Kiix?in in my opening sentence.
Kiix?in is a village site of the Huu-ay-aht First Nation which belongs to their Tyee Ḥaw̓iiḥ (highest ranking chief) whose hereditary name is Tliishin.
I first worked at this site in 1984 and again in 2002 conducting, with others, detailed mapping and assessment of the house features, dating them with dendrochronology, and coring the ground for radiocarbon dating. There are cedar post and beam frames from 8 houses here, some still partly standing. We know that this location has been occupied for nearly 5,500 years and that the houses last used here were constructed from the 1810s to 1850s
This is the front arch of Tliishin’s house that held, on top of the cross beam, a 20 metre long gable beam that was suspended on a single post at the rear of the house. There was a third support in the middle of this arch, now lying on the ground. The beam was more than 70cm in diameter and can be seen in the ferns though it is now diminished in diameter. Similar beams would have been on posts on either side of the house. Hung from the beams would be split cedar planks for walls and roof.
This is one of the most intact coastal post and beam villages surviving on the Northwest Coast.
It has been a privilege and honour to work there, and to be invited out once again to share my knowledge of the location with the current Tliishin.
Haida Gwaii Seascapes
Seascapes from Gwaii Haanas, shot at dawn and dusk as the tides stretched our days into a crepuscular patter.
I was in Gwaii Haanas twice this past summer looking for and recording archaeological sites in areas that potentially had not been examined carefully enough by previous researchers. As it happens, for most of the areas looked at I was that previous researcher, in the early 1990s. Twenty years ago there were certain kinds of sites we were not aware of, especially in the intertidal zone, and we were otherwise often in areas without good tides as we had to work pretty fixed hours every day so you took the tides that were offered up. This was especially true on the west coast where access is very difficult and anchorages are few.
So, I went back to the tidal areas and inland up creeks to look for things like fish traps, modified beaches for improving intertidal productivity (better clam habitat in particular) and the remnants of ancient camp sites dating…
View original post 424 more words
Top Posts & Pages – Click Thumbnail To View
Recent Comments
♦ FUJITA (藤田光学工業) H.… on Fujitar P.C 35mm F2.5 Asahifle… ehpem on Child’s Grave Kyle Hoyt on Child’s Grave ehpem on Charles Elliott Pole, Universi… Lisa Kadonaga on Charles Elliott Pole, Universi…
burnt embers 