Wildlife Photography Tips

October 19th, 2021 by Carl D
Wildlife photography tips from professional photographer and photo tour leader, Carl Donohue and Expeditions Alaska.
It’s all about the light.

How to improve your wildlife photography

Hey Folks

I guess it’s safe to say at this point of my life that I’ve been doing this a long time. For better or worse. 😗

Not just photographing wildlife and studying wildlife photography, but taking folks like yourself out into the field and shooting together. I’ve been guiding wildlife photo tours for nearly two decades now. And I figured it might be a good opportunity to share some tips for budding photographers. Tips based largely on what I see people do, or not do, on our tours.

So I’m starting a little section on the website about photography tips that you’re welcome to subscribe to. Every so often I’ll include a short piece on how you might make yourself a better wildlife photographer.

Obviously short brief pieces and tips aren’t designed to turn you into a pro (if such a thing as “Pro wildlife photographer” actually exists any more; a separate conversation worth having at some point).

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Requests and Asking for gear information

October 18th, 2021 by Carl D

Hey Folks,

Supper under a tarp, Denali Natilonal Park backpacking trip, Alaska.
Supper under a tarp, Denali National Park backpacking trip, Alaska.

This is a post you might be able to use regardless what you’re wondering about (we’re all wondering about something, right?).

One of the things I see most common when I cruise around the web at different forums, blogs, websites, check my email, etc, etc is requests for information about gear. Whether it be camera gear, ski gear, backpacking gear, rafting gear, paddling gear, biking gear, mountaineering gear, whatever.

So, oh so many people post requests for information about gear choices without offering much, if any, idea on their intended use.

Backpacking Gear Questions

Example; “I’m looking for a good pair of hiking boots. What should I get?” . This kind of request is, in most forums, useless. Similarly is the “How big a backpack should I buy?” question. Before offering any kind of recommendation at all, I’d need to know more information.

A lot more information. What kind of hiking? On trail/off trail? Winter where? Alaska, or Florida? Hiking, as in dayhiking, or backpacking trips? You wanna go backpacking in Denali National Park? Or Gates of the Arctic? And on and on.

Without even discussing the nuance of individual fit. style, taste, etc (particularly important with boots), it’s about impossible to really offer any useful information to the request.

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What is the Wild

October 15th, 2021 by Carl D
Black bear stares through the forest, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee.
Black bear stares through the forest, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee.

Hey Folks,

We live in a world defined by our own constructs. The rules we learn and abide are our own, the maps we follow are our own, the stories we learn are own. The way we see the world is through the eyes of our culture. At times, it provides a miraculous view; I can’t imagine my life without the music of Stevie Wonder to keep me company, or the writings of Thoreau, or the photography of Frans Lanting. Those are the parameters of our civilized lives, and they serve us usefully much of the time.

But what of those parameters not laid out for us by other people? What if I want to see the forest through the eyes of the bear?

The easiest way to experience a bit of what the wild was like is to go into a great forest at night alone.  Sit quietly for awhile.  Something very old will return. – Jack Turner

Challenge yourself to experience the world beyond the models we’ve constructed for it to fit inside.

Cheers

Carl

Off-trail backpacking in Alaska

October 13th, 2021 by Carl D
Offtrail backpacking in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park Alaska.
Backpacking off-trail in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park

Hey Folks

Off-trail backpacking

It doesn’t mean what you might think it means.

What do we mean, here in Alaska, when we say “off-trail’?

Well, what we mean is “no trail”. It’s not the same thing as backpacking through the mountains for a few days on a nice trail, hitting the open alpine terrain where the trail disperses and you flit over the green alpine grasses the von Trapps.

When we talk about “off-trail backpacking” travel we mean when the terrain is challenging, you have no trail. We mean when the terrain is easy, there is no trail. We mean when the terrain gets really, really hard and downright nasty, we have no trail.

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What’s a good daily mileage for an Alaska backpacking trip?

September 30th, 2021 by Carl D
Backpacking distances in Alaska, how far, how hard. Lake Clark National Park backpacking trip, Alaska.
How far =/= how hard.

Hey Folks,

There is no generic answer to this most-frequently asked question for Alaska backpacking trips. Obviously your fitness, your pack weight, your group, etc, all heavily impact the distance you’ll cover each day. More than that, the terrain itself will determine how far and how fast you travel.

Not just the gradient and uphill/downhill stuff. Those things clearly are important. However, here in Alaska, hiking in places Denali National Park, or Gates of the Arctic or Wrangell-St. Elias National Park or even the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the most common determinant, and most profound one, is the terrain itself.

It’s The Terrain, Folks

The footing. What are you walking over? What are you walking THROUGH? Heavy, dense alder will slow you down way, way way more than you imagine. Add thickets of Devil’s Club inside that and you’ll be moving very slowly. You might make 3/4mile an hour. Maybe. Even on flat terrain.

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How big does my backpack need to be?

September 20th, 2021 by Carl D
Backpacking trip in gates of the arctic national park Alaska.
Rachel T backpacking Gates of the Arctic, summer 2021.

Hey Folks

Why This Question Is So Difficult to Answer

One of the questions we invariably get for Alaska backpacking trips is “what size backpack do I need?“. Just as with every other item in my backpacking gear list, this is one of those both critical questions to ask and also an impossible question to answer without a lot more context.

I’ll try to explain why below.

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Brown bears fighting – Hallo Bay

September 3rd, 2021 by Carl D
Brown bear males fighting Hallo bay, Katmai National Park.
Brown bear males fighting Hallo bay, Katmai National Park.

Hey Folks

From our Alaska Brown Bears and Coastal Wildlife Photo Tour in July this summer. We were super blessed with some amazing weather for the duration of the trip, and some really, really great bear photography experiences.

From our time in Kukak Bay photographing various different brown bears on a whale carcass to great experiences with a couple of different sows and spring cubs (both triplets and quadruplets), the highlight was definitely this evening with excellent moments watching brown bears chasing salmon, bears fighting and some simply gorgeous light. Good times.

Hallo Bay – Home of the Great Bear

Hallo Bay can be such a golden place. Spectacular location, amazing bears, it can provide super nice light and some truly special moments for photographers and nature lovers.

We had ventured out to the water towards the late evening, after some nice hours on the grass flats with a sow and her 4 cubs. The tide was going out, fish running in, and right after we made our way to the beach, the bears started coming out.

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The Tao

April 12th, 2021 by Carl D
Backpackers looking over alpine tarn near Iceberg Lake, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, 7 Pass Route
The eternal moment

“When her work is done, she forgets it.

That is why it lasts forever.”

Lao-tzu, “Tao Te Ching”

Favorite Images from 2019

January 6th, 2020 by Carl D

Hey Folks

Wrapped up another year, and to start off the new year, here’s a look back at some of our favorite images from 2019. And we look forward to making a whole lot more, along with a veritable bevvy of more fun photo tours this year.

Enjoy,

and if you’d like to join a bear tour, let me know. We’d love to have you join us.

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Favorite Photos from 2018

December 29th, 2018 by Carl D

Hey Folks

And so slides by yet another year. They seem to disappear more quickly than ever these days.

I thought I’d toss up a few images from the year of Alaska Wildlife Photo Tours. Mostly bears and northern lights as I was pretty busy with those trips this year.

Looking forward to next year. We have a great bunch of trips we’ll be running.

Without further ado, I’ll throw some pictures up for you. Enjoy.

Note: if you want to take a look at our bear photo tours, here’s a nice comparison page we put together.

Continue reading…
Expeditions Alaska
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