The main regions of Alaska divided up, and special places
A band of Dall sheep ewes and lambs are commonly seen along the Atigun pass corridor, the continental divide of Northern Alaska’s Brooks range. I’ve viewed them nearly every visit, in all seasons. Over time, they have grown familiar with vehicular traffic, and are often observed on or very near the road. These two lambs…
The explosion of color that happens quickly and brilliantly, is now underway in Alaska’s arctic. The reds of the dwarf birch and blueberry bush leaves brighten first and the yellows of the willow and balsam poplar trail a bit behind. Eating ripe blueberries while photographing demands participation, which I did often while hiking along this…
This image of a brown bear catching a red salmon at Brooks falls in Katmai National Park is comprised of three independent images, stitched together to generate a panorama or 3:1 format image. This offers a high resolution file that embodies a wider format more suitable for some reproduction uses, for example, a billboard. In…
If you are at all apprised of the weather conditions of interior Alaska, you know that it is a record setting hot and dry month of July. This usually means forest fires, and as of today there are 79 actively burning across the state. Canada and Russia are also experiencing forest fires, and collectively, there…
On a recent trip to Katmai National Park to photograph the brown bears, I grabbed this shot of an Osprey flying by with a fish in its talons. I had just removed my 1.4x converter, which dropped my focal length from 700 to 500. I could have used that extra length but it all happened…
My last post about the Brooks range reflected the common frustration of photographing in Alaska’s interior with summer forest fires. In early June, I had the chance to fly across the Brooks range through the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge doing some aerial photography. This was before the smoke and fire season build up in the…
At the time I’m writing this, there are 69 forest fires burning in Alaska. They dominate Alaska’s interior region, where a hot and dry climate creates the setting for ignition by lightning. So far, approximately 1.5 million acres of land has burned this year. Not as bad as the 7 million acres burned in 2004,…
For the coastal brown bears of Katmai national park, salmon is a vital part of their diet. How they capture these fish varies: some catch them with their mouth as the fish jump the falls, as noted in the previous blog photo; some steal fish that other bears catch; some sit nearly submerged in the…
I recently spent a few days at Katmai National Park photographing the famous congregation of brown bears that fish vigoruously during the summer months, storing up the nourishment to get them through a long winter hibernation. The National Park is large, and the region I visited is more specifically know as Brooks falls, or Brooks…
Near the confluence of the Nigu and Etivluk river, is Puvakrat mountain, a notable ridge with a rocky spine, great for hiking and splendid views. We began a day hike in rainy and cloudy conditions, but mixed blue skies and dramatic clouds and light spilled across the grand vista as evening progressed. The sky in…