With high water in the rivers in Katmai this year, brown bears did a lot of swimming and snorkeling for fish. This resulted in a lot of shaking off the water once emerging from dives. Backlighting offers some interesting contrast in these situations. This shows what a shutter speed of 1/800 does for that kind…
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If you have traveled at all in Alaska, it is likely you have been in a bush plane to access many of the remote regions throughout the state. Whether it is a plane on floats or tundra tires, they are critical for getting to many great photo destinations. I have photographed extensively from the air…
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On a morning walk in Katmai last fall the clouds were rolling, growing and dissipating quickly over the Kejulik mountains in Katmai National Park. While I don’ t normally use the 1D Mark IV for landscapes, I wanted the focal magnification factor that the 1.3x offered, turning my 500 into a 700 mm. It was…
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The very narrow window of time between my last two trips did not afford the chance to share many pictures from my trip to Katmai. I’ve had a moment to look at a few that I’ll share in the next few posts just to give a little break from snow and polar bear bears. This…
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As a 700mm equivalent lens on the 1D Mark IV, I was a little tight for these bears with the 500mm, but I needed the frame rate of that camera to capture the sequential action. In order to increase resolution on this image, I merged a handful of photos that I took just seconds apart.…
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Mother polar bears with cubs present some of the best photography scenarios largely due to the playful personalities of the young cubs. Born in January, these little cubs grow quite quickly and spend the time before heading out on the ice pack developing in ways that will help in their survival. On average, female polar…
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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…
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A calm day this time of year along Alaska’s typically windy arctic coast is a treat. Such was the case yesterday, at least for a short while. During a photo session with the polar bears, one walked over to the edge of the water and lowered its face to reveal a beautiful reflection. I happened…
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The nomadic caribou of Alaska’s arctic roam widely across the northern regions of the Brooks Range mountains. Several thousands were visible along the snowy tundra near the Philip Smith mountains, and I experimented with various focal lengths. They were quite far off but the herd shows their dispersion well. At least two in one group…
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I’ve had few chances to get a good photo of a snowly owl in flight, over the snowy tundra of Alaska’s north slope. On my last trip there many were spotted but this is the only one that I had a chance to photograph, and that was a long reach. I used my 500 with…
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