A Sea Otter from last week in Prince William Sound.
We arrived into Phoenix at 2:00 this morning – now packing for the Grand Canyon. Some weather change!
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From the category archives:
Alaska
I haven’t had internet, heard the radio or seen a TV in over a week – I have to get caught up on recent events, hopefully I didn’t miss much!
We have had crazy weather on this trip. As you can see here, a full on snow storm! This was the end of April, but we had plenty of cold and snow in May too. But, we have a great group and have seen lots of awesome stuff including one of the biggest glacier calving I have ever seen at Surprise Glacier.
After crossing Prince William Sound last week, we have now spent the last few days in Cordova. Today we are flying over the delta which should be an interesting view of the massive shorebird migration.
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Monday morning will be the beginning of 5 fun weeks of travel for me! It will start co-guiding a trip across Prince William Sound for a week, and then 4 days in Cordova for the amazing shorebird migration you see pictured above. Not only will we be seeing shorebirds on the delta, but there are many other things planned including a flight to Kayak Island, a place I have always wanted to see.
I’m excited for a few reasons – first, I’ll be working with 3 good friends and fellow staff members from last winters trip to Antarctica. It is an unexpected treat to be hired to work with these great guys again so soon.
Second, the shorebird migration is really an amazing thing to see. At times there are literally tens of thousands of birds at one time passing through the area in thick flocks.
Third – it is going to be a treat to spend a week in Prince William Sound aboard a beautiful boat like the M/V Discovery. I love the Sound – and as many times as I have been there, I have never seen it in May – it should look very different with all the snow still on the ground.
So after Friday, it might be a couple of weeks until I have the time and internet connection to post again – hopefully I’ll have some interesting bird images to share then!
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A Brown Bear cub nursing from its mom. It is not uncommon to see amazing moments like this on my Alaska Bear Photo Tour.
Since I don’t have anything available in 2013, and I have been getting many inquiries about my 2014 photo tours, we decided we better schedule dates for 2014! I know it seems like a long ways away, but every year they fill earlier and earlier!
So the biggest change is to my Southeast Alaska / Inside Passage Yacht based Photo Tour. Because bears have proven to be so popular, I have decided to position this to be a bear tour as much as it is a whale and amazing landscape photo tour. We are still going to be spending time in some of the best whale viewing areas in Alaska if not the world. We will also still visit some stunning tidewater glaciers – in fact we will be having a jet boat meet us so that we can get extra close to the icebergs and tidewater glacier in LeConte Bay.
But, we are now going to be spending time in some wonderful bear viewing places including the Anan Creek Bear Observatory where we will watch Black and Brown bears fish for salmon in a beautiful rainforest waterfall. We will stop at Neets Bay for a visit to one of the best Black Bear viewing areas in the world! And finally, we will be going to a bit of a secret Brown Bear location that my captain recently discovered. So now, I believe this week long trip gives you a great cross section of many of the amazing photo opportunities Alaska has to offer.
As the first person to charter this wonderful yacht for the 2014 summer season, I had my pick of the liter when it comes to dates, and I believe we will be going at the absolutely perfect time at the end of July – an extremely popular time here in Alaska! Follow this link to read more about my Bear and Whale Photo Tour.
Of course I’m also offering my two Alaska Bear Photo Tours to Lake Clark National Park. The 2014 season will be my 5th year offering this wonderful photo tour. I could go on and on about this amazing experience. Being up close to such magnificent animals is hard to describe with words it really is. That said, you can read far more about it here: Alaska Bear Photo Tour. You can also see a video preview I filmed during the August trip my first year of the tour.
Of course if you have more questions, please feel free to email or call.
We may offer some photo tours outside Alaska including my annual Anza-Borrego workshop – stay tuned.
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I am very proud to have the cover of all three Bell’s Travel Guides in 2013! We have been working with this wonderful family owned business for many years now. You will find these guide books all over Alaska in gas stations, campgrounds, hotels and restaurants. Be sure to pick them up if you see one – they are loaded with all kinds of information and have the best town maps!
Here are the other two: [click to continue…]
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An unexpected career change has just lead to a sudden opening into my most popular photo tour – this trip was sold out by last October! I already have a list forming of people interested in 2014!
Plus, thanks to an airfare war – I’m seeing some of the cheapest airfares to and from the Lower 48 then I have seen in years! So if you don’t already have summer plans, this just might be the perfect time to come to Alaska and experience these amazing animals up-close! To learn more go to: Alaska Bear Photo Tour.
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My nephew Reilly Buck skiing in the Western Championships at Alyeska in Girdwood, Alaska.
As you can see we are back home. Few sights offer a more dramatic reminder as to just how beautiful Alaska is as the view from the airplane looking down onto Prince William Sound and the Chugach mountains on a sunny day! Wow just didn’t seem to do it justice.
We have had a busy few days. Towing back to Arizona, cleaning and putting our RV back in storage, meetings in Phoenix and a long flight home ate up all of three days.
But, fortunately we got home just in time to drive up to Girdwood to watch our nephew ski race yesterday (Wednesday). I can remember photographing Bodie Miller and Lindsey Vonn on this same course at the U.S. National Championships many years ago. It was really fun to return to watch and photograph Reilly! Now I’m not trying to say my nephew is in the same category as Bodie and Lindsey – well, except in his Uncle’s eyes!
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A frozen waterfall, Chugach National Forest, Alaska.
Excited to be taking off this afternoon – after 2.5 days of flying and driving we should be in Southern California, first Anza-Borrgeo, then over to the coast. I have been in Alaska for 7 months straight – the longest stretch in over 10 years! Over the next 10 months, we have a lot of travel planned. As much as I have enjoyed my time in my home state, I also enjoy traveling and I’m getting excited to be hitting the road!
What I’m really excited about is where I’m going after we spend a couple of weeks in California – Antarctica! It is going to be strange to go from our short days, to the long, Alaska summer like days down South. I am really looking forward to seeing this amazing continent, should be a trip of a lifetime!
As you might guess, posting might be a bit spotty over the next week.
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This was from my trip to Southeast at the end of summer as I scouted for next summer’s Inside Passage Whale and landscape photo tour.
The rock formation off in the distance is Devils Thumb. One of the chapters in Jon Krakauer’s book Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains
Janine has our website completely updated with new sections for sections for Southeast Alaska and the Tongass National Forest, along with updates to some popular sections including our gallery of bear photos and whale photos.
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Here is another one from my hike last weekend.
Standing dead trees usually only remain standing for a couple of years in these parts thanks to our wet, extreme weather. The wet rots the wood, and the wind and heavy snow takes care of the rest.
So for these dead trees to be still standing after 50 years is remarkable. The reason they are still standing is interesting. This area subsided during the huge Alaska earthquake of 1964 and that allowed this area to be flooded by the nearby ocean. When the trees sucked up the salt water it killed the tree, but also preserved it. After time, the weather turns the trees white which is why they are often called ghost trees. These trees are extra white in this photo thanks to the snow and frost. There are numerous examples of these trees along the coast throughout South-central Alaska.
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This was from a hike in Portage Valley this past Saturday. It was a bit cold for this time of year, at least in this area – the temperature varied from 10 to 15 below Fahrenheit. These trees were nicely back lit by nice golden light as the sun just peaked over the mountains on the horizon to the South – right about at high noon! A good portion of the Portage Valley doesn’t even see sun this time of year.
This reminds me of a post I did a few years ago that might be of value: 8 winter photography tips.
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This was very early in the morning during my June Alaska bear photo tour.
Not only did this location have some of the best lupine, but it almost always had at least one bear – except of course for this morning! 
It is still a pretty spot even without a bear feeding in the meadow – maybe next year we will see it all!
Details: Canon 5D II, tripod with 24-105 lens at 40, ISO 100, f/16 and 1/6th of a second. I believe I used a two stop graduated neutral density filter.
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This was last night (Sunday) from my front porch! This is looking across the bay at Mt. Alice through a 70-200 telephoto. There is no question I have more photos of this mountain then any other subject!
I had hoped to photograph this scene on Saturday night since the last sunlight of the day would have been illuminating the mountain as the moon peaked over the ridge. But, unfortunately about the only clouds we have seen in sometime moved in during that one hour – go figure.
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Seeing bears stand on their hind legs is another human like behavior that never gets old! Lake Clark National Park, Alaska.
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A brown bear feeding on grass sedges in the first light of the morning this past August, Lake Clark National Park, Alaska.
Image was with a Canon 5D Mark II, and a Canon 70-200 f/2.8 lens at f/5.6, 1/30 of a second at ISO 600.
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I found this leaf embedded into the surface of Spencer glacier earlier this summer. What is interesting is that this was way out on the ice miles from the nearest tree.
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I love how human like bears can appear at times!
This was from last summer’s Alaska Bear Photo Tour.
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Here is one of those cases where my memory and the actual experience far exceed the quality of the image.
I captured this photo in last light as I pulled into this small protected cove so that I could anchor up and sleep on my small rental boat for the evening. This is looking out the cove in the direction the sun had set maybe an hour earlier, behind me is the shore about 50 yards away. As I began dropping anchor, I could hear a pack of wolves begin to howl just a short distance away, possibly on shore near my boat. This would begin a chorus of howls that would come and go for the next few hours – it was such a cool experience! Despite light from a near full moon, as hard as I looked, I never could make out any shapes or movements, but I knew they were there.
I pulled out the next morning before first light thanks to the bright moon, so I never did see the elusive animals, but commercial fisherman back in Petersburg later confirmed that the cove I was in is home to a very active wolf pack.
I hope to anchor up in this cove next summer during my Southeast Alaska yacht based whale and landscape photo tour. Next time I think I will allow a few more hours to try to see and photograph this pack of wolves along the beautiful rainforest coastline.
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Some fresh snow on trees last Thursday in Portage Valley, Chugach National Forest, Alaska.
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A beautiful brown bear in the first light of morning in Lake Clark National Park, Alaska this past August.
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