Yesterday concluded our photo venture with Alaska’s polar bears and it was a great day of viewing and a challenging day of photography. Winds that gusted to 50mph were sweeping across the coast blowing snow and salt spray. This in conjunction with the lens shake caused by such force made shooting difficult. However, I think…
Alaska polar bears While guiding a group of photographers on a recent tour for Alaska polar bears, aurora and other opportunistic arctic subjects, we had the wonderful opportunity to spend some time with these playful polar bear cubs. Like many young animals, they are curious, playful and active, when the parents often sleep or rest.…
Cloudy skies, although not good for aurora, offered some good light for afternoon photography of this family of polar bears. The sow with two cubs take shelter from the winds common to the north coast of Alaska’s arctic. Shooting directly into the wind with lightly blowing snow at temperatures around freezing present some problems with…
The cool weather and colorless landscape is the exit sign for autumn in Alaska’s interior. Fairbanks had an unrivaled stretch of clear skies and balmy weather for much of September. As the transition now moves quickly into the darker and cooler months of the year I’m posting this colorful photo as a goodbye to that…
In keeping with the theme of wildlife in a contextual landscape, I took this photo in Sable Pass, which is a region of Denali Park that is off limits to hiking. From the road, I watched this bull caribou on a distant ridge and the late evening light sprinkled in a little. I was hoping…
On a very gray day with low lying clouds, a little opening in the sky dropped some light on a mountain dome along the base of Sable Mountain in Denali Park. I quickly grabbed my 100-400 and captured this fleeting moment from the sun roof of my car. The light was gone in a few…
There exist many “almost” shots in my photo experiences over the years. An adage says that “almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades”, and I don’t deal with either of those. While the “almost” encounter does not result in the acquisition of a photo, at least the photographer is left with the process, and…
I’ve had a few recent posts on panoramas, so I will continue in that format. In the near future, I’ll share my protocol for shooting panoramas, and the process of stitching them together. If I’m shooting a scene that merits a panorama format I try to capture it. With landscapes, this is a bit easier,…
Alaska’s big landscapes are hard to fit into a 35mm 2:3 ratio format. Sometimes, they beg for a 3:1, or more commonly referred to as a panorama format. I used to use a Fuji 6x17cm film camera especially designed for this, but now I simply blend images with a stitch program. Currently that is Photosphop…
It can be a challenge to photograph in the late morning on a sunny day. The light gets hot and harsh. However on this morning, the sunny foreground was complimented by some dramatic cloud action in the distance and the perpendicular lighting, although contrasty, made for some drama in lighting. At 10:30 am, this bull…