Red fox on snowy tundra. Canon 1D Mark IV, 500mm f/4L IS, 1/640 sec @ f/5.6, ISO 500
I just returned from 3 weeks of guiding two trips in Alaska’s Arctic and they were as unique and productive as usual. I know that some who follow this blog have a future interest in joining the Alaska Arctic Photo Tour that I co-guide with Hugh Rose. For that reason, I thought I’d share a little about the trips, and will be sharing some pictures in the weeks to follow. As an anomaly to the past 10 years, this year was the first time we have not photographed the aurora. Ironically, this happened during a year when the aurora activity has been strong. However, relatively warm weather loomed over much of the northern country which seemed to generate a lot of gray sky conditions. When it was clear, the aurora seemed elusive. To be exact, we did actually see the aurora and photograph it a tiny bit, but it was quite faint. When someone asks, “is that the aurora?” it barely qualifies.
On the other hand, the polar bear photography was fantastic and everyone captured great pictures. We also photographed large numbers of caribou that were moving across the tundra north of the Brooks range, and that was an amazing sight–and not one that happens every year. We had great encounters with arctic fox, red fox, dall sheep, musk ox, snowshoe hare and many different birds. So as usual, this trip delivers different opportunities each year and like Alaska does so well in general, it creates the lure and desire to return and do it all over again.
Thanks to everyone who joined Hugh and I this year.
We will be booking for 2012 in a month or so, and if you are on the wait list you will get notification via email.
