Cover of Alaska Magazine, November, 2009.

Having the cover of Alaska Magazine is pretty cool.  Check that, it is really cool!  We knew we had made this sale almost two months ago, and I was really looking forward to seeing the final result once we got back home – I think it turned out great!

This is a rock ptarmigan in Denali National Park.  Willow ptarmigan get all the love in Alaska – they are even our State Bird, so it is nice to see the rock ptarmigan get a little press. 

After a few longs days of travel we are now safely back home – it is great to be back in Seward!  The below zero wind chill factor this morning reminded me we were no longer in Palm Springs.  But then again, so did the lack of stop lights, traffic, the fresh air, amazing scenery…

This year, I'm very excited to report that we have the cover image for all three Bell's Travel Guides!

In my last post, in response to a question I shared information about our top grossing photos.  I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the above photo.  The boxing bear cub image you see on this travel guide hasn’t been used in an advertising campaign, this kept it off the top grossing list, but in terms of total number of sales, it has to be our most popular image.  

These guys are so cute, it is easy to understand why.  Not only has this image appeared on travel guides, in calendars and on post cards, but it receives a fair amount of attention on the internet as well.  In just over a year, it has been viewed by over 100,000 people on flickr!

This photo was captured in early spring of 2005 in Denali National Park.  The weather was clear, so we got up well before sunrise, probably about 3:00 a.m., and started driving across the Park with the hope of capturing Denali “the mountain” at sunrise.  I hadn’t seen spring cubs in Denali for years, and research reports from the Park confirmed for two years in a row spring cubs had not been spotted anywhere in the Park.  That just added to my surprise as we drove around a corner near Polychrome Pass and spotted a sow with three spring cubs right in the middle of the road!

I immediately turned the engine off, rolled down the window and began photographing.  The bear cubs were so fun to watch!  The bears actually walked down the road towards us a bit and got fairly close, before turning around and heading back up the road.  After walking a short distance, the bears left the road into the thick vegetation leaving us with goose bumps and huge smiles!  We watched for the cubs the rest of the trip, but never did see them again.

It doesn’t happen very often, but every now and then we get a request in which we know we have the perfect photo – like for this book!

This is a publication of “True Tales to make you Laugh, Chortle, Snicker and Feel Inspired”.  I haven’t had a chance to read the whole book yet, but I just sat down and read one of the first stories: To Alaska (Without Pants).  It was hilarious!  I now look forward to reading the rest of the stories!

Another Grizzly Bear from last week in Denali National Park, Alaska.

We have taken a few short, 3 to 4 day trips over the last 5 months, but by in large, we have been home working in the office.  After two years with a pretty heavy travel schedule in which we spent at least 200 nights away from home, this office time was very needed!  We have been able to get caught up, and work on a number of proactive marketing opportunities that we never seem to have time to pursue.

Now I’m looking forward to taking a trip and completely engrossing myself into photography.  October is a perfect time to travel – it is wet and dark here in Alaska, fall colors will be gone, but snow has yet to arrive.  On the other hand, it is a perfect time in the Southwest – warm days and cool nights, fall colors and few people.  The best thing going for Alaska in October is the aurora borealis, but we are still at the bottom of the activity cycle, so like last year, good lights are not nearly as likely.

So where are we going?  Good question - we aren’t even sure!  We will fly to Palm Springs and go from there.  We have some things scheduled in Las Vegas near the end of the month, but before then, I think we will head to Southern Utah – you can’t go wrong there.  It is really tempting to return to Zion, as we had such a fun time there last year, but we need new coverage.  We are leaning towards Moab - I have spent a couple of days there in the past, but really haven’t scratched the surface of that red rock area.  Two weeks there could be really fun and productive.  Wherever we go -  I should have plenty of new blog material! 

Fall tundra colors reflecting in a pond, Denali National Park, Alaska.

I don’t know if this really “works”, but I kinda like it.  At first, I focused on the surface of the lake, but I didn’t care for the results.  I then tried focusing on the reflected image and not the surface - this created more of a colorful, abstract image.

Hiking in Denali National Park, Alaska.

Fall has to be the best time for hiking in Denali – not only is it beautiful, but there aren’t any mosquitoes!

Red Fox, Denali National Park, Alaska.

Janine says fox are “my animal” because I always seem to see them.  I do have unusually good success with spotting these cool guys.  If you are going to play favorites, fox seem like as good of an animal as any because they really are beautiful animals that are fun to watch. 

This guy was working the road, I assume, looking for road kill hares.  Just as he began to pass me, he stoppped ever so briefly and looked my way, just long enough to capture this image. 

A couple of Grizzly Bears feeding on the tundra, Denali National Park, Alaska.

The tundra is sure beautiful in autumn!  The fall colors were past in most of Denali – this was by far the most colorful area left in the Park, and it had a couple of Grizzlies!  Actually, one of them is the same Grizzly Bear in yesterday’s post.  This was about 10 minutes later, and a few hundred meters further away – they couldn’t have wandered into a better spot. 

Grizzly Bear, Denali National Park, Alaska.

Even though I was “safely” by my vehicle, I must admit, as I watched through the view finder and saw this guy turn and head down the hill towards us, my heart started racing.  My camera tells me he was 35 meters away, but when he filled the viewfinder, it seemed closer!  I do kind of like the perspective of looking up at him from below

We just made it home after a short but wonderful trip to Denali.  This has been a good summer for me and bear photography.  It wasn’t by plan, but it has sure been fun.  Here are more Grizzly Bear photos.

Wild Lynx, Denali National Park, Alaska.

Wow, what a trip this has been!  But the highlight was this lynx – I have been trying unsuccessfully for many, many years to capture an image of a lynx, but a couple of hours ago that all changed. 

It is late and I’m tired, so I will write more when I get back to Seward – but I had to share my excitement!

One of my favorite places to stay in Denali, and one I recommend, is the Teklanika (”Tek”) Campground.  The reasons; the Tek campground saves you 60 miles on the bus each day, staying there allows you to drive a portion of the road few others are allowed to drive, and it puts you in a great place to see wolves and bears right from camp.  In addition, Tek gets some of the best evening light in the entire park.  And finally, you are able to buy a Tek Pass, giving you unlimited access to the buses for the length of your stay. 

Unfortunately this year the Tek campground is closed until July because of aufeis – overflow river ice from the Teklanika River. 

I was a bit disappointed, and skeptical the campground really needed to be closed, so one day I walked in a took a look.  Well this photo from June 9th pretty much sums the situation up – river ice in this particular site had to still be three thick feet!  Needless to say, the closure is more then justified. 

Eielson Visitor Center, Denali National Park, Alaska.

It seems like most National Parks I have visited in recent years have, or are building one, or in some cases two new visitor centers.  There are some beautiful new visitor centers, but in my opinion, none of them are as nice as the new Eielson Visitor Center 66 miles into Denali National Park.

This photo was taken on opening morning June 8, 2008, before any visitors had arrived – I wanted to capture a few images without people, and while the place was still spotlessly clean.  I guess in a way, I was the first visitor. 

The building itself is built right into the hill side, and about as unobtrusive as a building in such a beautiful setting could be.  Much of the roof is the actual tundra from the site.  It was carefully removed and maintained during the four year construction project, and then replaced as one of the final steps. 

I’m standing in the back of the building looking out towards “The Mountain”.  If Denali was out, there would be amazing views of it from the large windows you see across the room.  I have always recommended that anyone riding the bus into Denali shouldn’t turnaround before the Eielson, because this is the first place you really get a good view of the mountain.  Now there is even more reason to ride to Eielson!

I came across this scene just minutes after the sow grizzly and her two cubs killed the young calf of this cow moose.  The poor moose just kept circling, her mothering instincts so strong that she would continue to move in close to check on her calf, until the sow would chase her off.  The cow moose left the area a couple of times, but continued to return.  Finally she was able to get in a position above the bears where it appeared to me she could see her calf was gone, after this final look, she left for good.

I captured this photo because I liked the patterns in the vegetation, but two things really struck me.

First is the incredible damage the hare population boom has done to the vegetation.  This was in Sable Pass where miles of plant life basically had most of its bark stripped away by hungry hares.  This was true in many areas of Denali.  Only the tops and bottom portions of the plant have been spared.  I assume the tops were out of reach, and the bottoms have just recently emerged from the snow.

The second thing that struck me was out late spring is this year in Denali, and all of Alaska for that matter.  It has been unseasonably cold this year.  This photo was from June 7th, and there isn’t a bit of green here yet.  One biologist told me he estimated spring was running two weeks late.  If I didn’t know better, I would say this photo was captured in late fall, like the end of September.

I might add, jpeg compression is not a friend of this image.

Eight snowshoe hares in a short section of road in Denali National Park, Alaska.

Two years ago I spent a fair amount of time photographing hares, as it seemed the population had peaked.  Last year I was surprised to find even more, but this year the number of hares was nothing short of unbelievable!  Driving the road in evenings and mornings was literally was a challenge, often they wouldn’t move from the road and you would have to drive around them.  Dozens were killed by cars everyday making easy pickings for other wildlife.  One wolf in particular seemed to walk the road every evening just eating road killed hares.

I understand there was a population explosion like this in Denali in the early 70’s, but the peaks since then have been far smaller.  It will be interesting to see what happens next year, typically the population will completely crash, and finding any hares becomes a challenge for years.

I make the long drive home last night after an fun and productive trip.  I have more stuff to share over the next few days. 

Great Horned Owl nest, Denali National Park, Alaska.

I have never had a close look at a Great Horned Owl, so to see one on a nest with two chicks was a real treat!  Now, back into the park.  (Note: Thank you Calvin for the heads up on the species, I have made the correction).

Porcupine.

Usually when I see a porcupine, all I see is the backside and a lot of quills as it slowly flees.  It is nice to know these guys really do have a face!

A wild wolf in Denali last night.

Yesterday I hit the road and made the long drive to Denali National Park.  I arrived at about 10:30 last night, and since it was still light out, I decided to drive a few miles into the park for a look see.  Much to my surprise, I came across this wolf along the road just 8 miles into the Park!  She was a beauty!  This was close enough to capture this with a 100-400!  What a great start. 

I had a nice encounter with a porcupine on the drive up - that was going to be today’s post until I found the wolf!  I will save it for tomorrow. 

I will probably be here for about a week.  I used to come up here two or three times each summer; but last year I was here just one night, after not visiting Denali at all the year before – so I’m excited to spend some time again in this amazing National Park.

I won’t have any internet or cell coverage, so there will probably be few post during the next week or so.  I do need to travel out of the park for fuel and a shower, so I will try to post to the blog then if I can, otherwise I hope to have some new material when I get back to the office.  Historically, some of my most memorable wolf and bear encounters have occurred during this time of year – so maybe there will be more.

Here are more wolf photos.

I posted at length this spring about a number of wolves in Denali – I was particularly attached to the Grant Creek Pack since I had been photographing the two adults for a number of years.  I first spotted the female in 2002 – she was a hunting machine.  I was thrilled to see her form a pack with one of the beautiful black wolves from the Tokalat Pack.  It was almost like having two good friends meet and then get married! 

On my travels through Denali this month I learned the alpha female had died.  I heard conflicting reports from Park personnel on the timing, but the one thing everyone agreed upon is that the collar had been transmitting a deceased signal.  I still found myself glassing areas in which she liked to travel looking for that familiar gray coat and radio collar – it was kind of sad knowing I wouldn’t see her again.  The life span for a wolf is a short one in Alaska.

The male is still alive and has a new mate from what I’m told.  The past few years they have denned very near the road – thrilling visitors who often were able to spot and watch this rare animal in action.  This year the male denned far from the road - I’m not surprised, between road work and construction of a new Eielson Visitor Center, there is a lot of traffic on the road day and night. 

This photo was from a number of years ago – it was hard to get a decent photo of her without the collar showing.  This is what I had to say about the same wolf this spring.

An alert customer of ours spotted this photo on the cover of the Alaska section of the Anchorage Daily news today.  It was promoting a page of photos supplied by readers.  The photo was provided courtesy of Bob Armond!  I’m glad she emailed – with me on the road I might have missed it.

The unauthorized use of our photos is a constant battle, but I have never seen someone trying to pass my photos off as theirs!  For some reason I find that even more offensive.  I’m not sure how Bob Armond got a hold of the photo, but it has appeared on the cover of greeting cards and even as a full page in a calendar, so it would have been easy for him to have scanned the photo.