Photos from Katamai National Park, southwest, Alaska.
On a recent trip to Katmai National Park to photograph the brown bears, I grabbed this shot of an Osprey flying by with a fish in its talons. I had just removed my 1.4x converter, which dropped my focal length from 700 to 500. I could have used that extra length but it all happened…
For the coastal brown bears of Katmai national park, salmon is a vital part of their diet. How they capture these fish varies: some catch them with their mouth as the fish jump the falls, as noted in the previous blog photo; some steal fish that other bears catch; some sit nearly submerged in the…
I recently spent a few days at Katmai National Park photographing the famous congregation of brown bears that fish vigoruously during the summer months, storing up the nourishment to get them through a long winter hibernation. The National Park is large, and the region I visited is more specifically know as Brooks falls, or Brooks…
Where is your favorite place to photograph? I’m often asked this question, but find it very difficult to answer. Part of Alaska’s lure and fascination to me is found in its tremendous diversity of environment. Sampling from one makes the other’s uniqueness more prominent. I like winter because of summer and I like summer in…
Brown bear and sunrise, Katmai National Park, AlaskaCanon 1Ds Mark III, 24-105mm 4.0L (32mm), 1/250 sec @ f/11, ISO 100 The versatility of zoom lenses is so appealing that I use prime lenses less often these days. However, they are notorious for lens flare and controlling that can be difficult. On this trip, I did…
Brown bear sow and cubs of the year, Katmai National Park, Alaska.Canon 1Ds Mark III, 400mm f5.6L, 1/500 sec @ 5.6, ISO 400 Katmai National Park in southwest Alaska is home to many Brown bears. These bears are larger than the interior grizzly bears mainly due to the protein rich diet of fish, although they…
Brown bears at play in the Brooks River, Katmai National Park, Alaska.Canon 1Ds Mark II, 500mm f4.0L IS w/1.4x, 1/250 @ f8.0, ISO 200 The brown bears that inhabit the Brooks river in Katmai National Park share temporary population densities far beyond their preference. They abide together in relative peace due to the extremely abundant…
Sleeping brown bear along the banks of the Brooks river, Katmai National Park, Alaska.Canon 1Ds Mark II, 500mm f4.0L IS, 1/13 sec @ f25, ISO 250 Wildlife photography includes lots of waiting. This is the non-glamorous attribute of the occupation. There are of course plenty of other attributes essential to the career, like persistence, logistics,…
Photographing wolves in a wild, natural setting, requires patience and persistence. In this case however, I can claim neither of those virtues, should they be ascribed as such. Sometimes, just the sheer amount of time spent in the field delivers its respective dose of serendipity. While photographing bears in Katmai, this wolf occasioned the Brooks…
September in Alaska is one of my favorite times of the year for photography. This is so because the sunrise and sunset events comes back into a little more harmonious schedule. Any nature photographer is linked to these two events (save the night sky photographer), since the quality and angle of light is most conducive…