Red Salmon, Brooks River, Katmai National Park, AlaskaCanon 1Ds Mark III, 500mm f4L IS, 1/640 sec @f/8, ISO 1000 In reviewing some files from a trip to Katmai, I came across this image, which is the only one I kept out of many taken. It’s a much more difficult acquisition than it may appear. This…
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Zastrugi: wind blown snow patterns, Barter Island, Alaska Canon 1Ds Mark III, 24-105 f4L IS, (45mm), 1/60 @ f/20, ISO 400 Zastrugi or “sastrugi” is a term used to describe patterns in the snow that coincide with the direction of the wind. In ground blizzards, snow patterns can actually serve as a compass if one…
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Tamarack trees, Fairbanks, AlaskaCanon 1Ds Mark III, 500mm f4.0L IS, 1/160 sec @ f8, ISO 800 Alaska’s boreal forest is dominated by just a few species of trees, the birch, aspen and spruce. There is one conifer however that loses its needles during winter, unlike the other evergreen species of black and white spruce trees.…
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Sun and boreal forest, interior, Alaska.Canon 1Ds Mark III, 700mm (500mm f4L IS with 1/4x) 1/640 sec @ f/6.3, ISO 400 Super telephoto lenses are great for tight landscape photos. I use my 500mm all the time in this manner. This was a grab shot from the window of a car after seeing the sun…
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I was recently asked why many of the photographs in the recent posts were shot at 400 or 800 ISO. Do they hold up well at that ISO or was I shooting them for web resolution in mind? To answer this question appropriately involves addressing a few issues. First of all, I want to make…
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Snow drifts, Barter Island, Alaska. Canon 1Ds Mark III, 500mm 4L IS, 1/13 sec @ f/32, ISO 400 This is the same scene as the previous post just looking at a 90 degree angle on the snow drifts. I used a super telephoto to compress and isolate the interesting linear dimension sculpted by the wind…
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Canon 1Ds Mark III, 28mm (24-105mm f4L IS) 160 sec @ f/22, ISO 400Snow drifts, Barter Island, Alaska I guess most nature photographers are opportunists and a bit omnivorous in their visual endeavors. I certainly am, and although I spend a fair amount of time photographing wildlife, my history depicts a gravitation towards landscapes. A…
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Polar bear tracks on wind-blown snow, Barter Island, Alaska.Canon 1Ds Mark III, 24-105mm f4L IS, 1/50 sec @ f20, ISO 400 The strong winds of the arctic blow the snow vigorously across the tundra creating patterns on the hardened surface. The pressure of a polar bear foot upon the fresh snow remains as the snow…
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<!– @page { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } –Willow ptarmigan in Atigun Pass, Brooks range, Alaska. Canon 1Ds Mark III, 500mm 4L IS, 1/500 sec at f7.1, ISO 800 Willow ptarmigan turn a cryptic pure white in the winter to blend in with the snowy landscapes. Their black beak,…
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Photography in Alaska’s arctic, particularly in the snowy months, presents many subjects and scenes filled with white, and often a white subject on a white background. While traveling with a photo tour group, one of the sharp-eyed guests (thank you Skip) spotted this arctic fox curled up in a snow drift on a frozen lake.…
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Caribou in taiga, arctic, Alaska Canon 1Ds Mark III, 500mm f4L IS, 1/500 sec @ 6.3, ISO 500, vertical crop Most of my winter photography of caribou has been in the treeless arctic. The snow covered spruce trees make this image a little unique to my experience. This year on the north side of the…
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Polar bear on the sea ice, Beaufort Sea, arctic Alaska.Canon 1Ds Mark III, 500mm 4.0L IS, 1/500 sec @ f5.6, ISO 800 Earlier in my photography career I guided a variety of photo tours throughout Alaska. I’ve recently scaled back to just one trip, which I co-guide with friend and colleague Hugh Rose. Hugh is…
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Patrick is currently in the far north chasing the Aurora Borealis, or northern lights. He has with him an arsenal of equipment, not so much because such a variety is needed, but because there is no perfect aurora lens. The search for such a lens continues, and perhaps Canon’s new version of their 24mm F/1.4…
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From my observations, young bears exhibit a mischievous behavior more often than adult bears. Chalk it up for play, curiosity, or too much energy–who knows why. This second year bear took a liking to the wood slats on the walkway to the bear viewing platform in Katmai National Park. Each year the park maintenance crew…
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Photographing wildlife within a landscape has always been an interest to me. Doing very close portraits of animals, although it can be challenging, holds less appeal. The more space visible in a frame, the more “stuff” you have to manage in respect to light and composition. So dramatic landscapes with wildlife in them is a…
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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…
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Canon will soon be shipping the recently announced, much anticipated 5D Mark II. It matches the company’s flagship 1DS Mark III for resolution, with 21.1 megapixels, and boasts some interesting new features. Perhaps most interesting to many, however, is the price. At $2699 verses $7999 for the 1Ds Mark II, it brings professional resolution and…
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In keeping with the theme of panoramas, here are a few more scenes from my August trip to Denali Park. They are pretty small in the this blog template, which I’m not too crazy about, so click on the image and it will load a little larger.
Creating panorama images using a digital camera is one example of the diversity available in todays age of digital photography. In the film days I used a medium format 6cm x 17cm film camera (to the tune of about 10K w/lenses) and although it made great images, it was slow and cumbersome. Today however, instead…
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For a landscape photographer, one must learn how to deal with the great variations in exposure value between the sky and the foreground. In the film industry, it has been called “sky control”, although one may want to control the foreground as well. Generally, the sky ends up being much brighter than the foreground, and…
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Autumn has peaked in Fairbanks, which is a season I think passes way too quickly. An unusually warm few weeks in September has not even produced a frost near my home. Soon, any strong wind will be defoliating the golden yellow-leafed trees in an instant. I grabbed this shot on my way to town one…
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Aerial of Little Delta river and Mount Hayes of the Alaska range.Canon 1Ds Mark III, 70-200mm 2.8L IS, (170mm) 1/400 sec @ f3.5, ISO 400 Aerial photography seems to be a never ending learning endeavor. Perhaps this is so because conditions almost always push the limits of camera’s, every aircraft is different in nuance, and…
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Dall sheep ram, Denali National Park, AlaskaCanon 1Ds Mark III, 400mm 5.6L, 1/125 sec @ f/5.6, ISO 400 In the unhunted mountains of Denali Park there are some good sized Dall sheep rams. With virtually no pressure from humans, the sheep have slowly been habituated to human presence. I know a place where a band…
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Raven in the mist, Denali National Park, Alaska. Canon 1Ds Mark III, 500mm f4L IS, 1/640 sec @ f/4, ISO 400 While waiting on a hilltop in Denali Park, I watched and waited as fog moved through the boreal forest shortly after sunrise. The angle of light was still low enough for good shadows. After…
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Caribou traverse a mountain ridge in the Alaska range, Denali National park, Alaska.Canon 1Ds Mark III, 500mm f4L IS, 1/1000 sec @ f/5.6, ISO 400 Canon’s 500mm f4L IS lens vies for the position of my favorite lens. It is always loaded with a camera in wildlife country and its tremendous image stabilization capability enables…
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