Hey Folks,

A short selection of images. 12 favorites from 2010.

Click on the thumbnails below for larger versions of each photo in the gallery. (more…)

3 adult Bald Eagles on perch, Homer, Alaska. (Haliaeetus leucocephalus). Please click on the image above to view a larger version of the photo.

Hey Folks,

So, the next piece of news; I’ve finally redone my 3 bald eagle galleries for the site. It’s a tedious chore, but SOOOO needs to be done. Soon (I hope) all the galleries will have the the same updated look, cleaner and easier to deal with, and the best thing — larger photos!

You can browse the 3 bald eagle galleries below:
* Bald eagles
* Bald eagles 2
* Bald eagles 3

If you take the time to run through, please let me know if you see anything I need to edit, such as typos, broken links, etc, etc. It’s so easy to miss those little things, so please post something if you notice a glitch. I think they’re working OK.

This photo here is from my first trip to Homer, Alaska, and I had an absolute blast. I went with some good friends, from various parts of the country, and most of us hadn’t been to Homer to shoot the eagles before. We had such a good time together. There were virtually no other photographers around, and things were very different to how they became later on, in the last couple of years.

I’m sad to see the opportunity there come to a close, in some ways, but I’m also kinda glad it’s passed, too. Double-edged sword, I guess. I do miss all those birds, though.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the photos. Hopefully I’ll get those other galleries up before too long. Thanks.

Cheers

Carl

Hiking along the lateral moraine of Kennicott Glacier, near Mount Blackburn, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Now THAT'S an ultra-light backpacking system. Please click on the image above to view a larger version of the photo.

Hey Folks,

OK, here’s a list of my backpacking gear I thought I might put together, and have taken WAY too long to get it online. I would like to preface this post with a comment about gear; backpacking is NOT about gear, and I’m not a big advocate of the all too common push to make it about that.

Backpacking is about being ‘there‘. The gear can help facilitate doing that comfortably, but don’t think that this piece of gear or that piece of gear will magically turn a disastrous trip into a glorious one. And don’t think your pack will suddenly become unbelievably light because you buy an expensive down sleeping bag, and that you’ll now start prancing up over those mountains. Everything is part of a SYSTEM, and learning how to manage that system (including carrying it) is integral to having a good kit.

That said, here it is; hopefully, this list might be useful to someone wanting to look at what gear I use, or what backpacking gear they might want to look into if they’re heading to Alaska. It’s not at all a list of ALL the gear I have/use, but a general list of the gear I typically bring on a trip. (more…)

An adult grizzly bear standing, back turned, mouth open, in long grass, Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Please click the image to view a larger version of the photo.

Hey Folks,

Here’s a photo that might be of interest to photography fans here. To me, this photo expresses what nature photography is all about; shooting, re-shooting, shooting some more, time and again, and doing everything you can to ‘get that shot’, and still coming home empty handed. How so?

One of the photos I REALLY want is a big ole grizzly bear standing upright, with a nice background. So far, I’ve not yet made that image. I’ve been fortunate enough to have a few opportunities, and unfortunate enough to blow every single one of them.

To catch a nice, full-frame shot of a bear standing upright means anticipation, as well as luck. More often than not, when I’ve been close enough to make a shot like this, I’m shooting with the camera/lens in a horizontal position, and when the bear stands, I can’t fit it all in the frame. It’s simply too easy to miss this kind of shot and too hard to actually nail it.

Adult bears rarely stand upright, and when they do, they don’t do it for very long. Generally the behavior is a ‘look around’; something alarms the bear and they stand up to get a better view, sniff the air, and see whether they need to flee, or ignore the potential danger. A few seconds is all they stand for, most of the time, and they drop back to all fours. That means to make the photo, the photographer has to be in position and ready for the shot ahead of time; there simply isn’t time to switch the camera/lens to a vertical position and shoot – well, I should say RARELY is there time to switch. Sometimes it happens, but not often. (more…)

The aurora borealis (northern lights) light up the night sky above a tent. Campsite in the Mentasta Mountains, boreal forest, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Please click on the image to view a larger version of the photo.

Hey Folks,

From my last summer/fall camping trip in Wrangell – St. Elias National Park, for this year – well, so far, anyway. If you think sleeping in the big city is hard, with all those big city lights, try sleeping in a tent under this kind of light.

What a treat it is to see the aurora borealis (or ‘northern lights’). Nothing quite touches that experience for a little slice of magic. It’s mystical, each and every time.

Fall is a great time to see the aurora – the skies are dark, often clear, and it’s not yet 40 below zero, like it can be in the dead of winter.

For shooting the northern lights, I crank up the ISO of the camera, open the lens to its widest aperture, and shoot with as high a shutter speed as I can. Fast lenses, like a 1.8 or even a 2.8 make a big difference. They’re also heavier than smaller aperture lenses, which makes it a trade-off for a backpacking trip. Sometimes though, such as when the aurora borealis is out, that trade-off becomes moot. The extra weight is well worth the effort. A small headlamp to light up the tent, set up the tripod, and click the shutter. Good night folks.

Cheers

Carl

Sunset over the Chitistone Valley and the University Peaks, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Please click the thumbnail to view a larger version of the photo.

Hey Folks,

And the Image of the Month for August 2010 is a photo of sunset over the University Peaks, just south of the Chitistone River. We’d backpacked down the Chitistone Canyon all day, set up camp after crossing the Goat Trail, had a GREAT dinner with superb views of Mount Bona (16 421′ high) and the University Range, and the light kept getting better and better. I’d long wanted to hike down this little creek to a plateau above the Chitistone River and shoot sunset there, and knew this would be a great opportunity to do so.

I couldn’t convince any of the hikers in our group to join for me the evening trek (2 miles one way), so I grabbed my camera gear after we’d finished dinner, and set out. Though this scene wasn’t my intended final destination, I loved the combination of clouds, deep, steep canyon walls, and the warm light hitting the distant unnamed mountain. I stopped and took a few photos before continuing on my way down to the plateau.

When shooting a scene such as this, with high contrast between the shaded depths of the steep canyon and the bright clouds and distant peaks (Mount Bona) I use either a Split Density filter or take multiple images of differing exposures and blend them together in the computer later. This image I used 2 split density filters, a 2-stop and a 3-stop. Handholding 2 filters is hard; handholding them when you don’t want them to align symmetrically is really hard. Lesson #1 – carry a Cokin filter holder.

The Goat Trail is the first route I ever hiked in Wrangell – St. Elias National Park and Preserve, and is always a welcome treat for me to return to. This one was a night I’ll remember for along time. I returned to our high camp at around midnight. What a fantastic evening.

Cheers

Carl

Hubbard Gacier calving chunks of ice into Russell Fjord, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Please click on the thumbnail to view a larger version of this photo.

Hey Folks,

Here’s a photo from a trip to southeast Alaska I took, of the Hubbard Glacier calving into Russell Fjord at Gilbert Point, Wrangell – St. Elias National Park and Preserve, near Yakutat. To watch a 250′ high wall of ice crash into the ocean is simply awesome. And I mean awesome like ‘inspires awe’ … absolutely jaw-dropping stuff.

The Hubbard Glacier is one of the few advancing glaciers in Alaska right now, as most are retreating under the glare of warming climate; the cycles of glaciers that calve into the sea are also dependent upon dynamics of the sea floor, as well as other complicated elements. The glaciers are often at various stages of a retreat-advance cycle, and the Hubbard is currently advancing. A decade or so ago it actually advanced across the very narrow neck of Russell Fjord, known as Gilbert Point, and blocked off the Fjord – drastically affecting the ecosystem there. The pressure built up in the Fjord eventually pushed back, and the glacier washed out. (more…)

Shower Camp Camera Cover from Expeditions Alaska on Vimeo.

Hey Folks

I thought this video might be both entertaining and useful to visitors to the website. Here, Andy Seeger shows off his fashion-sense and creative ingenuity with ‘Shower Cap Hat’ – a cheap workable solution to protecting your camera gear from bad weather on backpacking trips. Backpacking is ALL about compromise; weight, bulk and space, durability, multi-use, etc … these are things to consider when packing for your trip.

Rather than carry an expensive and heavier camera rain cover, a cheap plastic shower cap fits perfectly. it’s lightweight, packable, durable, light and easily available. What’s more, as Andy says, you can even get water with it. (more…)

A grizzly bear chases Sockeye Salmon through a stream, Katmai National Park, Alaska.

Hey Folks,

Well, the season has wound up tight, and I’m slowly getting back in to ‘office-mode‘ for the winter. I’ll try to write a ‘summer backpacking wrap’ before too long, with some notes from the various trips we had this year. In the meantime, I’d like to mention a trip I’m planning for next year, 2010, that I’m WAAAAYYYYY excited about. I’ll be leading a photo tour to Katmai National Park in the fall, after the backpacking season. We’ll basecamp in Katmai National Park for a week, and photograph grizzly bears, also known as ‘brown bears’ in that particular region, all day long. For those of you unfamiliar with Katmai National Park, the region is home to the greatest population density of grizzly bears anywhere, and also some of the largest bears in the world. (more…)

Hey Folks,

As I’m updating the website, I’m redoing the Image of the Month pages, and won’t be writing content on the old (now deleted) pages – so I’m going to transfer some of the past notes I’ve written on the image of the month pages to the blog, that way it’s all in one place, searchable, and much better organized. Here’s another piece I wrote a while back about backpacking and photography. Some of the issues are how to pack camera gear, how to keep camera gear weight down, the hassles of digital cameras, and how to ‘get your shots’. (more…)