Pedersen Glacier, Aialik Bay, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska.

OK, at last I can announce the first of three different photo tours!  I decided that if I was going to do photo tours, they had to be something that I really enjoyed and got excited about, and I can honestly say I think this trip is going to be a blast!

Since I live at the entrance to Kenai Fjords, and spend much of my summer in the Park, a tour here is a natural.  The problem is, I didn’t want to be limited to day tours, hotels and restaurants.  I have spent many nights on boats in Kenai Fjords, and it didn’t matter if I was on a large fishing vessel, the Park Service boat, a research vessel, or in friends pleasure crafts, every trip was a memorable experience with amazing photo opportunities.  By spending the night, we can be in the fjords when the light is best, the animals most active, and with the other tour boats back in Seward- perfect!

So this is a 3 day, 2 night all inclusive boat tour limited to just 3 guests which will maximize our interaction and learning.  No point in going on and on, you can read about all the juicy details here:  Kenai Fjords National Park Photo Tour.

Stay tuned for a similar, but larger tour (4 guest / 4 days)  into Prince William Sound, along with another 4 day, 4 guest tour concentrating on coastal brown bears and puffin!

Fog rising off the ocean, Resurrection Bay, Seward, Alaska.

There isn’t a need to step outside, or to even look at the thermometer – when fog like this is rising off the ocean, I know its cold!

Alpenglow on Mt. Alice, Chugach National Forest, Seward, Alaska.

I took this photo out the front door just an hour or so after getting home on Sunday – what a great welcome home!  I have hundreds, if not thousands of somewhat similar images of this mountain, I will probably take thousands more – how can I resist?

During long trips and our summer in Alaska I’m getting enough new material to post to the blog 5 days a week.  This time of year I’m concentrating on office work, so I might not post as often over the next few months, maybe 3 times a week.  I know I have said that in the past and continued posting 5 days a week, but it takes the pressure off if I lower the expectations. 

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…

Cameraman Buddy Squires, producer Dayton Duncan and Ken Burns in Aialik Bay, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska.

I thought I would do a quick reminder that the Ken Burns series on our National Parks will begin airing Sunday evening on PBS.

As you may know, I helped out a bit when Florentine Films was filming in Kenai Fjords back in 2003 – they have been working on this film for sometime.  Ken, Dayton and Buddy were some of the most interesting people I have ever met, and could tell fascinating stories about the people they have met and places they had seen thanks to their past projects.  What doesn’t come across in the television interviews I have seen is Ken’s wonderful sense of humor – the group of us sure had a lot of fun, I don’t think I have ever laughed so much while out in the field!

I had the chance to see much of the Alaska portion of the coverage of this series and it was really well done.  I can’t imagine the research that must go into a project like this.  The series talked at length about people like Adolph Murie, Bradford and Barbara Washburn, Charles Sheldon and Joe Quigley – all people that are well known to Alaskans, but may be unfamiliar to most Americans.  I look forward to learning about similar people from other parts of the United States who may be unfamiliar to me.

I don’t think I’ll have a chance to watch it right now – we don’t get much in the way of TV right now, and we are kinda busy, but I do look forward to watching it once we are back in Alaska.  Here is the PBS site with much more information including times for The National Parks, Americas Best Idea.

Ken Burns pretending to be deeply engrossed by a beach stone as he hams it up for my camera. He was hilarious. At the time I was sorry my flash didn't fire, but in hindsight, I like the silhouette.

Looking up towards Engineer Pass, Colorado.

We have moved down to Gunnison Colorado and are now trying to figure our way around this new area.  I think we are a tad early for the fall colors, which is good as it gives up more time to scout around this beautiful region.  Yesterday we explored down a couple of long dirt roads towards Engineer Pass and then Cinnamon Pass, both were a couple of great looking areas above the cool little town of Lake City, Colorado.  We look forward to returning as the colors progress.

Sunrise on Mt. Marathon last month, Seward, Alaska. If you look close, you can see the Seward Highway way down in the valley as it comes into town.

I gotta admit, it is really hard to leave Alaska this time of year.  Sure, it is the wettest time of year, but a beautiful Fall day in Seward can be really amazing.  In fact, last year we ended up delaying our fall trip because we couldn’t pull ourselves away from here.  But, I have always wanted to visit and photograph Colorado, and September is a wonderful month in the Rockies.  If we waited until after the fall colors in Alaska, we would miss them in Colorado.

So tomorrow we pack, Saturday drive to Anchorage, Sunday fly to Southern California where we spend a couple of days getting our trailer ready, then make the three day drive to Estes Park.  I say all that so that I have a built in excuse in case I’m unable to post to the blog next week.  Once we are down there and situated, I will resume my regular posts, hopefully with photos of a new region (for me) and exciting adventures!  Well, hopefully not too exciting.

What we typically do on these long trips is find a campground with wifi – this way we can set up our mobile office so that we can maintain the office while I photograph the surrounding area.

Our plan right now is to stay for two weeks in Estes Park and photograph Rocky Mountain National Park.  Then, down to Gunnison for two or three weeks of chasing the fall colors in the mountains.  Once the colors fade, we are going back to Moab – a place we really enjoyed last fall.  This year we were able to snag back country reservations for a couple of nights  along the White Rim Trail – that should be fun.  Those are hard to get, we had to apply months ago.

After that, our trip is less planned.  As we head West we will spend a few nights in the Vegas area before hitting the Southern California desert for a week or two.  When we return to Alaska in mid November, fall will be long over.

So that is the plan for now – sometimes we follow the plan almost exactly, other times we completely change our minds depending on what we find on the road.    So stay tuned to the photo blog for future posts!

View from the to of the Harding Icefield Trail, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska.

This is Janine enjoying the sunset view from our backpacking trip last month into Kenai Fjords National Park.

I had to go to great lengths to get into a high enough position so that her head didn’t merge into the distant mountains, I wanted to make sure she was positioned so that her background would against the fog.

2010 Alaska Wildlands Calendar

I have tried to keep the shameless self promotion to a minimum, but I have always kinda liked this photo of Harriman Glacier in the Chugach National Forest, so I was excited to have it selected for the cover of next years calendar.

I believe these are available at most National Park visitor centers in Alaska.  Here are some more Chugach National Forest photos.

False Hellebore, Seward, Alaska.

It is easy to see why this photogenic plant is so popular with photographers.  This image is one of Janine’s favorites from the summer – so I’m posting this by special request from her. 

An unnamed glacier in Northwestern Fjord, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska.

Another photo from last week.  I think this area is beautiful even in ugly weather!

Rainbow over Resurrection Bay, Seward, Alaska.

I spotted this rainbow Monday – it had to be one of the brightest, most vivid rainbows I had ever seen.  Judging by the reactions of my neighbors, as they emerged from their homes with cameras in hand, I wasn’t the only one who thought so.  The best reaction came from an 8 year old boy riding by on his bike who looked at his buddy and said “Dude, look at that sick rainbow!”

A portion of a pod of ten orcas spotted during our tour last week in Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska.

Nice timing – after going three years with regular updates to this blog, I missed this entire past week!  Now I can explain.

I just finished a very interesting week accompanying one of the wealthiest Americans (according to Forbes) around Alaska on a private photo tour.  Well I say private, but he did have two non photographer friends with him, along with a highly capable staff member who took care of any logistical issues that arose during the trip, and 3 full time body guards!  Needless to say I received a lot of funny looks and comments.  Try walking around a town of 350 like Hope, Alaska – while surrounded by 3 very fit looking young men each sporting one of those curly corded  ear pieces – you know, the ones you see the Secret Service wearing in movies.

I gotta say I was a bit spoiled.  It was nice being able to  pull up to the nights hotel and have someone hand you a key to your room as you step from the car, while explaining you were checked in and your bags were already in the room!  And the meals – wow!

So now I’m back to my tent and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but that is ok – those trips are really fun too!

I should add, I signed a confidentiality agreement, so don’t look for me to be naming names – and sorry, I can’t even give hints.

This was the first time I have ever participated in a photo tour, and I gotta say I had a lot of fun.  I have received many requests for tours in the past years but have always explained I didn’t offer tours.  Well this one came together at the very last minute while I had a gap in my schedule, so I decided it might give me a good preview and gave it a try.  Since I did have such a good time, I’m thinking I might offer an occassional tour next year so stay tuned if interested.

Muskrat. I photographed this guy much earlier this summer.

It was three years ago today that I started this blog.  Back then I feared I would run out of things to post about, but as time goes on, my list of blog topics has actually gotten much longer – I just need to find the time to write!

Since I started the blog three years ago I have made 803 posts, received 10,209 wonderful comments, and had to block 152,705 spam comments!

Acknowledging my blog anniversary is probably the wrong time to also be announcing a decrease in activity, but I’m going to be on a week long assignment where I probably won’t have Internet, so there may not be much going on here outside of maybe one or two scheduled posts.

Seward, Alaska

Seward, just before sunset Sunday night.  A cruise ship just out of sight at the dock to the left was preparing to leave.  My plan was to wait here to capture the ship as it moved out the bay, but I had a little change of plans.

You see when I hit the ridge, I became a bit uncomfortable when I noticed a large amount of bear scat in the patch of berries on the ridge- it was obvious something much larger then me also enjoyed the area!  Having left my bear spray with Janine a quarter of a mile away back in camp didn’t help!

I eased up to the edge of the cliff and looked down below me – all clear.  As I often do, I quickly became engrossed in the process of taking photos and never saw a black bear slowly climbing the ridge just below me.  By the time I saw it, it was way too close!  Because the sun was directly behind me, and I was working quietly, the bear never saw me either – I did a quick “hey bear”, and it was clear it was just as shocked to see me I was him!  It quickly dropped down into the alders and out of sight.  It happened too fast – I didn’t get a photo, but it was just the reaction I was looking for.

After I waited a while longer for the ship to leave, the bear re-emerged on the next ridge over – the one you see in this photo.  Once out of the alders, the bear just stood there and stared at me!  It stood motionless for a long time, just staring – I figured it was  staring out of curiosity, but as time went on, I started becoming uncomfortable.  Eventually, it turned and began climbing the ridge – sharpe eyed viewers can probably see it in this wide angle image.  It was at this point that I decided a Seward photo without a cruise ship was good enough, and hiked back to camp.

See more Alaska photos.

Mount Marathon, Seward, Alaska.

Here is another photo from Sunday night on Mount Marathon.

Check out more Alaska photos.

The Bowl, Mt Marathon, Seward, Alaska.

The trail locally know as the “Mt Marathon trail to the bowl” has really become popular in recent years and for good reason – it rocks!

The trail begins in Seward at 1st avenue and Monroe, just keep following Monroe up the mountain.  After leaving town, the first section winds through a stretch of beautiful tall tress that help make up the temperate rain forest.  Once you climb up out of the rain forest, you are rewarded with some wonderful views of the City of Seward and Resurrection Bay.  After a bit more climbing, you eventually reach a cool little alpine valley where a clear stream twists, turns and waterfalls through fields of wildflowers and colorful boulders – some of which you can see in yesterday’s Mt Marathon post.  Then, after climbing the final stretch which is made up mostly of a long snow field, you reach the Mt. Marathon bowl you see pictured here.  This was captured at sunrise Monday morning.

Fireweed amazes me!  That stuff can grow where few, if any other plants can survive.

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Below the bowl on the backside of the race portion of Mt. Marathon, Seward, Alaska.

The plan was to continue posting photos on the blog from our recent trip to British Columbia, as I worked hard in the office.  Well, the weather turned so nice, we couldn’t stay inside!  So yesterday afternoon we grabbed the backpacks, tent and camera gear and headed for the hills!  This was captured just before sunset last night – unfortunately the sky didn’t light up, but it was a great place to hang out!

After photographing sunrise, we were still back home by 9:30, so we had a nice night in the field, and can still get some office work done!

Here are more Alaska photos.

Humpback Whale Tail, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska.

This was one of two whales who put on an amazing show for us last week.  When they weren’t breaching, they were swinging their tails back and forth throwing lots of water around!  It was awesome!

We have been watching for an opportunity to head back down to the Vancouver area to add summer coverage to the Vancouver photos we captured last winter.  Well the forecast shows most of Alaska receiving rain for the next week, while the Vancouver area looks like a week of sun.  We started looking for bargains and thanks to Priceline, buses and frequent flier miles, we were able to put together an inexpensive, very last minute trip.  We threw this together on Sunday!

I scheduled this post in advance so that it would be posting while we are on the plane flying south.  It is going to be a busy, whirlwind week in which we will spend time in Vancouver, Whistler and Victoria!  Probably won’t get much sleep, but hoping for lots of photography!  I usually post updates from the road, and will do my best on this trip as well.

Steller Sea Lion, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska.

Another photo from my recent trip.  It was nice to watch these guys in the evening when they are far more active.  I was using a bit of fill flash with my telephoto – this helped illuminate the teeth and mouth.