Photo Blog - Niebrugge Images

I didn’t see any bears yesterday, but I enjoyed watching this Common Merganser family.  The chicks are almost as big as the adults!  This is another photo captured using a my Pocket Wizards and a 24mm wide angle lens - the ducks were about two feet from my lens!

 Tomorrow we are heading to Lake Clark National Park for 4 days.  It is kind of funny, when I booked this earlier in the summer, I was thinking it would be fun to concentrate on bears because I really haven’t focused on them before.  Of course, that was long before finding such great bears near Seward!  I’m also really hoping to photograph puffins.  There is an outside chance I will have internet access, otherwise there won’t be in activity here for a few days.

On a much sadder note, I think the bear in the last blog post was killed yesterday morning, and possibly the sow and cub as well.  I hate to say too much because there seems to be more rumors then facts, but at least one bear was killed for sure - and it was about the same size, age and in the same area where I photographed it the night before.  Supposedly it chased a dog.  It may explain why I never did saw any bears yesterday.

When I saw this dead salmon in the creek, I was so sure I would be able to get my wide angle close-up that I decided I would wait as long as it took for a bear to show up.  Well, along with a break for dinner, I had to wait 7 hours before this young adults showed up! 

I placed my camera a couple feet from the fish with a 24mm lens, and focused on the salmon.  I had a vision of the bear pulling the fish out of the water and practically filling the frame with his face!  Unfortunately, the bear never saw the dead fish and managed to stay out of my focus range!  These near misses keep me coming back day after day. 

I checked back this a.m., and sure enough, the fish was gone.

This photo near Exit Glacier brings back fond memories, as it was about our only sunny day so far this summer.  I usually avoid photographing in this bright, somewhat harsh light, but it was looking great to me!

 As a buddy and I stood here it dawned on me that few people have ever stood on this spot.  It isn’t because it is some remote, hard to reach location - it is probably less then a two mile hike with maybe a couple of angle deep glacier stream crossings. 

So what makes me think few have ever stood here?  Well up until just a few years ago, this spot was completely covered by Exit Glacier.  It has probably been under thick ice for hundreds of years if not more. 

The foreground looks like a completely lifeless environment, but there were a couple of places where tiny bits of plant life was already beginning to grow.  It has been interesting to see the transition of this area over the years, although I would hate to lose the glacier!

 The bears didn’t show up Saturday morning, but a family of Mergansers swam within inches of my camera as I waited.  I wish the camera was pointed down more, but I was expecting a much larger subject!  I usually don’t crop my images, but decided I would crop this one for the blog.

I moved my remote setup from the stream to this trail leading to the stream.  It isn’t as scenic of a location, but it is safer for my camera gear , and had more predictable bear activity.  This one turned out pretty good, but I want to keep improving on the idea.

Brown bears sure have big heads!

Since I share my successes, it is only fair I share my failures - and for this setup, I have had more then my share it seems.

You see I finally found the bears again and decided to try for my remote, wide angle, close-up thing.  As I was setting up my camera, my Pocket Wizard transmitter fell out of my jacket pocket and into the water.  I grabbed it fast and shook it off, it seemed fined.  I finished setting up, then stepped out in front and tested everything, and as you can see it was working fine.

Fast forward a half hour - here come the bears!  I anticipated their movement perfectly, they walked up stream, around the corner and right up to my camera - both the sow and cub side by side!  I was way back firing away like mad!  As soon as they moved on, I couldn’t wait to see what I a captured, man I was so excited!  Well, I captured nothing, my darn Pocket Wizard had stopped working - I don’t think I called it a ”darn” Pocket Wizard at the time.  :) 

So now both my receiver and transmitter have gone for a swim.  I took the transmitter apart and dried it out like I did the receiver, and all seems to be working again.  I have now had the bears walk up to my camera twice - I don’t know if I can get lucky and have them do it a third time, but I gotta try! 

I photographed this cow and calf moose last week, but they ended up taking a back seat in the blog queue to the bears.  Moose are cool, but bears are more exciting.

Brown bear cub, Chugach National Forest, Alaska.

Today was the second consecutive day without a bear sighting, although I didn’t spend much time looking.  I think they may have moved on.  This was from last Friday.

Brown bear cub, Chugach National Forest, Alaska.

 I wasn’t able to find the bears on Sunday - this is another photo from Saturday. 

I have this vision of a wide angle close up of a bear in the middle of a rain forest stream.  To capture this image, I have been setting my camera up in a pretty spot that has been frequented by bears, and then hooking up a Pocket Wizard, so that I can fire the camera remotely and safely hundreds of feet away.  It has almost worked a few times.

Yesterday I thought I had the perfect spot, great setting, and recent bears.  I set everything up, went back to my car to get the transmitter, and wouldn’t you know it, here come the bears!  Unfortunately, I hadn’t turned on the receiver on yet!  I stood back and waited, it was about 10 minutes before I could return to my camera, and this is how I found it!  Just think of the close up shot I could have had just before the bear knocked my camera over!

The camera landed on a rock, and seemed fairly dry and was in perfect working order.  The Pocket Wizard (the blue thing you see under water) wasn’t so lucky - it stopped working.  I really didn’t want to spend $180 dollars for a new one, so I completely disassembled it and dried it thoroughly, and today it started working again!

I have been using an older backup camera, but I would still hate to lose the thing.  I think I need some kind of metal box to protect the camera in the future.  These stories are probably cutting my camera gear resale values in half. 

I went back to my secret little bear spot today with hopes of showing the bears in more of their beautiful rain forest environment.  I tried using a remote wide angle for some up close images - tomorrow I will show you what happened to that effort.

Brown Bear, Chugach National Forest, Alaska. 

I was very fortunate to find this brown bear sow with a cub today.  It is surprising, and a bit concerning when you see how quickly such a large animal can nearly disappear in the thick vegetation.

The Phoenician, Scottsdale Arizona.

We (Janine) are about done with our website updates from our winter / spring travels.  We now have a separate section just for Scottsdale Arizona.  This popular tourist destination certainly warrants it’s own section. 

In addition, we also have a separate section for Fountain Hills, Arizona.  Fountain Hills isn’t nearly as famous as the neighboring Scottsdale, but if you are like me and prefer to avoid the crowds, Fountain Hills is a good alternative.

McDowell Mountain Regional Park, near Phoenix, Arizona.

We had enough coverage of this little gem to warrant its own section on our website here:  McDowell Mountain Regional Park Photos.  I don’t think too many people have heard of this regional park, I bet most people living in Phoenix haven’t visited it, but they should!  This place has a lot of diversity - it is surprising to find such a place so close to a city like Phoenix.  And, it has some killer mountain biking trails!

Exit Glacier, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska. (more…)

Humpback whale along the Kenai Fjords National Park coastline, Alaska.  This is another photo from last Thursday.

Neon green colored algae on the Kenai Fjords National Park coast, Alaska. (more…)

Dwarf Dogwood and ferns, Chugach National Forest, Alaska.  (more…)

Chocolate Lily near Seward, Alaska.  (more…)

Savannah Sparrow on a lupine near Seward, Alaska.

This sparrow had a mouth full of some sort of insect.  After posing nicely in one of the most colorful patches of lupine, it flew back to the woods - to a nest I assume.