Mush -- as they say in the movies!

Click here to view the entire image at 1000 pixels wide.

With the Adelaide heatwave extending until all we're dreaming of it winter, I thought -- "Let's go back to Fairbanks with today's photo. Snow. Ice. Sub-zero temperatures ... dog mushing. For Fairbanks in March, it was a bautiful day. In fact, this is the very tail-end of winter, where spring ("breakup" as they call it in Alaska, because it's when the ice breaks up) is right around the corner. Needless to say, it was extremely cold! It was also quite bright on this day in 1999. I'm standing on the edge of the road, just outside downtown, and the mushers' starting line is about a hundred yards out of picture to the left. I actually misjudged the lighting conditions, and was shooting on 200ASA film; I should have been shooting on 400ASA -- I'd forgotten that even on a brilliant day, Alaska is comparatively dim because the sun never gets very high, so far north. This is a 600dpi scan from the old print, color corrected to rebalance it after considerable fading. It sure brings back memories! Photo by Mel, 1999.