Fall McCartney

I Was (Literally) On Top Of The World

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

It’s not often I’m a passenger in a vehicle, so it ain’t often I get the chance to use my camera in a moving car or SUV. Just before Christmas last year I had to go to northern India for five days and that was probably the first time I was able to work on the (considerably challenging) art of photography at high speed.

On that trip, we did the long northern highway from New Delhi to Dehra Dun and then back again - so I got a fair bit of practice. Then a couple of months ago I was in the Yukon and the lessons I learnt in India stood me in very good stead.

We travelled to a very tight schedule in the Yukon, covering just under two thousand kilometres in five days of serious travel. In that time, I shot hundreds of images through the window of an SUV travelling at high speed.


Crikey, it’s not every day you get to drive the Alaska Highway or the rugged Dempster Highway or even the awe-inspiring Top Of The World Highway. These shots were actually taken on American soil, in the US loop of the Top Of The World Highway that takes you from Dawson City in the Yukon, through Alaska and then back into Canadian territory just before Beaver Creek.

It was early fall and I was engrossed in the colours when I suddenly noticed this narrow patch of hillside coming up very quickly to my right. Fortunately we were in a left-hand-drive vehicle (which is crucial to a clear view on the right-hand side!) and I was able to train my lens on this scene.

Even though I spent a lot of time in Indian forests and conservation parks when I was very young, I don’t think I’ve ever seen foliage as dense as this in my life. Honestly, looking at this solitary clump of trees was like looking at the woven pattern on a woollen carpet.

There has been quite in increase in the number of new readers to this blog, so I’d just like to reiterate something that most people know - these images are not edited or enhanced in any way. What you see here is exactly what I saw through my viewfinder.

When you shoot a scene as memorable as this, in terms of sheer density of foliage and the concentration of colour, you don’t need to improve it using electronic means.

When I shot the last image (below) I had the immediate thought that the dark-green treetops, visible at random intervals through the fall colours, looked like asparagus spears. No, they weren’t Britney’s spears.