The Story Behind The Photo...

Have you ever stood at the edge of the world, waiting for light to break through darkness?

The bitter wind off Cook Inlet cut through my layers as I stood on the frozen bluff above Ninilchik, fingers numb around my camera. It was barely dawn, and the salt-tinged air stung my cheeks while the distant sound of ice shifting in the inlet echoed across the water. This was the moment I had been chasing.

Before me rose the Holy Transfiguration of Our Lord Church, its white walls glowing against the pre-dawn sky, five golden onion domes catching the first whispers of sunrise. Built in 1901, this sacred place stands as a living memory of Alaska’s Russian heritage, when this land was known as Niqnalchint, “a place where a lodge is built.”

My hands shook—not just from the cold, but from the weight of this moment. The wind threatened to topple my tripod as frozen mist rolled off the inlet, coating everything in a layer of ice. But as golden light finally broke over the horizon, illuminating those sacred domes and the white picket fence, something shifted inside me. I felt connected to centuries of believers who had weathered Alaska’s harsh winters in this very spot.

I captured this image not just as a photograph, but as a tribute to resilience and the enduring spirit of a people who built heaven on a frozen bluff overlooking the edge of America.