Coastal Wildlife Tour

March 4th, 2015 by Carl D
Harbor Seal (Phoca vitulina), Alaska
An adult gray Harbor Seal (Phoca vitulina), Katmai Coast, Katmai National Park, Alaska. Click the image above to view a larger version of this photo.

Hey Folks,

In case you’re thinking otherwise, the Coastal Wildlife and Brown Bear photo tour is NOT all about the bears. Well, it’s definitely mostly about the bears. But we’ll also dedicate a good chunk of time to looking around for, and photographing, some other creatures as well. One of the primary ones we’ll see will be Harbor Seals. And, short of donning your scuba gear and swimming with the pinnipeds, there’s not many better opportunities than this one for some really, really cool Harbor seal images.

If you’re a subscriber to the newsletter, check out the trip special in the latest newsletter I just sent out. A pretty sweet deal for this trip, with limited space available.

If you’re not a subscriber to the newsletter, you probably should be. It’s legendary! Fill in the details in the form on the sidebar of the blog post, and you’re good to go.

And if you’re thinking about what photo tour you might want to take this summer, look no further. This Alaska Coastal Wildlife and Brown Bear Photo Tour is the ticket.

Cheers

Carl

Polar bear week – Day 1

February 23rd, 2015 by Carl D
A cub of the year, approximately 8-9 months of age, walks toward the camera over the fresh snow of arctic Alaska. Polar Bear (Ursus maritimus), Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, ANWR, Alaska.
A cub of the year, approximately 8-9 months of age, walks toward the camera over the fresh snow of arctic Alaska. Polar Bear (Ursus maritimus), Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, ANWR, Alaska.

Hey Folks,

International Polar Bear Day is right around the corner; Feb 27th. So I’ll make this Polar Bear Week. I’ll try to post a picture a day of these ridiculously awesome animals. Starting with this one. Tweet it with #polarbear

This curious young cub approached our group, and by carefully positioning where we were set up, we got nice clean backgrounds, a great low perspective to shoot from, and some really nice images.

This one is one of my new favorite polar bear images. You can see a collection of my polar bear photos on my stock site, Skolai Images.  For info and a look at the polar bear photo tour I run, click here.

Cheers

Carl

Sea kayaking Icy Bay Video

February 18th, 2015 by Carl D
Screen shot of Icy Bay sea kayaking.
Icy Bay sea kayaking.

Hey Folks

How glassy is “glassy”? Here’s a short clip I put together of clips I made playing with a new GoPro last summer. It’s so different to shooting with a regular camera or video camera, there’s a lot to learn. But kinda fun, all the same.

Icy Bay isn’t always this glassy, but it’s unusual either. And it’s an absolutely amazing experience to go out on the water, among these countless icebergs, and just drift along on a kayak, or paddle gently up the fjords. Really, really great fun.

The tune I used here is “Dear Ellen”, by Shane Theriot, from his album, “Highway 90”. I met Shane years ago, when I was in college studying guitar. Shane was teaching there at the ripe young age of 21. He’s awesome. He left the school shortly after my studies ended, and has been playing and writing and producing music since then. He’s currently the guitar player for Hall & Oates, and just last week won a Grammy award. How awesome is that! If you’re interested, you can buy Highway 90 on iTunes. Continue reading…

Alaska Sea Kayaking Photos

February 10th, 2015 by Carl D

Hey Folks

Here are few images from our sea kayaking trip to Icy Bay last summer. Awesome conditions, we had a blast. Icy Bay is one of the coolest areas for sea kayaking in Alaska; great camping, great beach hiking, spectacular scenery and absolutely unparalleled sea kayaking and paddling. Icebergs, glaciers, seals, dolphins, brown bears, bald eagles, falcon, murres and murrelets, and Mt. St. Elias towering above everything. It’s pretty tough to beat.

Hope you enjoy the photos below. I’ll try to get some video of the kayaking online soon; nothing quite like paddling through all those icebergs across that glassy water!!
Continue reading…

The Maidens – Arrigetch Peaks

February 10th, 2015 by Carl D
The Maidens, Arrigetch Peaks, Gates of the Arctic National Park, Alaska.
A black and white image of the Maidens, jagged granite peaks in the Arrigetch Peaks of Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Please click on the image above to view a larger version of the photo.

Hey Folks,

Here’s an image from the Arrigetch Peaks, in Alaska’s far north, the Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve. It’s quite a hike up to the area, but the area is a stunning locale for photography. And climbing. It may well be one of the most popular climbing areas in the state not road-accessible.

The main hiking in Arrigetch Peaks consists of 3 drainages in the upper alpine area, The Maidens, Aquarius, and the Arrigetch Creek drainage, home to peaks with cool quirky names, like Ariel, Xanadu and Caliban.

This one I converted to black and white. I liked the play of shadow and light on the mountains.

Black and white photography is, generally, a more challenging genre I feel, and one I wish I were better at. It’s fun playing with tones and contrast on the computer sometimes, though I admit photoshopping is not one of my favorite pastimes. But with black and white images, the creative element seems a little more playful to me than it does with color photography.

I hope to get back up to Arrigetch Peaks this coming summer and spend some more time here. Fascinating place. Anyone wanna come?

Cheers

Carl

Image of the month: grizzly bear in the fall

February 3rd, 2015 by Carl D

A young grizzly bear, or brown bear, takes a drink early in the morning, fall (autumn) (Ursus arctos) Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska.
A young grizzly bear, or brown bear, takes a drink early in the morning, fall (autumn) (Ursus arctos) Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Please click on the image above to view a larger version of this photo.

Hey Folks

Welcome to Feb, 2015! Here’s a grizzly bear, or brown bear, image from our Grizzlies in the Fall photo tour. I know it’s not really grizzly bear season right now, they’re hunkered down for the winter, but I haven’t been shooting much around Alaska lately as I’ve been gone a while. It’s great to be back!

Summer will be here before you know it, and this year I’ve a number of trips I’m looking forward to. Stay tuned for some fun stuff!

Click here for info about this photo tour.

Cheers

Carl

Happy New Year, all!

December 30th, 2014 by Carl D

A cub of the year, approximately 8-9 months of age, walks toward the camera over the fresh snow of arctic Alaska. Polar Bear (Ursus maritimus), Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, ANWR, Alaska.
A cub of the year, approximately 8-9 months of age, walks toward the camera over the fresh snow of arctic Alaska. Polar Bear (Ursus maritimus), Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, ANWR, Alaska. Please click on the image above to view a larger version of the photo.

Hey Folks,

Wishing you all the very best for the coming year.

Cheers

Carl

Bald Eagle Silhouette; Image of the Month, Dec 2014

December 6th, 2014 by Carl D

A soaring bald eagle silhouetted against a gorgeous Alaska sunrise.
A soaring bald eagle silhouetted against a gorgeous Alaska sunrise. Please click the thumbnail above to view a larger version of the photo.

Hey Folks,

A quickie before I take off? I’m not really that kinda guy .. but here’s a photo from our recent trip to Haines, taken the last morning of the trip. I was pretty stoked to see this pop up on the viewfinder.

Heading down under to see my folks, so not sure how much I’ll be able to post over the next month, I’ll try to post something though. You all have a wonderful holiday season.

Cheers

Carl

The Lost Coast Hike

November 6th, 2014 by Carl D

The Lost Coast in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, with Mt Cook and the Saint Elias Range rising in the background.
The Lost Coast in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, with Mt Cook and the Saint Elias Range rising in the background. Please click on the image above to view a larger version of this photo.

Hey Folks

Now that summer and fall has wound down some, I’ve got a little time to catch up on image processing and maybe blogging as well! We’ll see how far we get with that.

One of the trips I was really looking forward to this summer was a hike along the coast, the southern reaches of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. I’d hiked part of this area previously, some of it a couple of times, but I’d never hiked the eastern section, below the Malaspina Forelands. So it was a great experience to finally get down to this area and walk the coastline, completing what is really a cool walk.

We did the hike as an exploratory trek this year, and took a bit longer for the the hike than I normally might, as we wanted to explore a few things along the way, look for the best campsites, and so on.

Packrafts are a necessity along this route; some of the rivers that have to be crossed would be foolish to cross without a packraft, unless at super low water. Continue reading…

Brown bear and a Sockeye salmon: Image of the Month, Nov 2014

November 2nd, 2014 by Carl D

A mature male Alaska brown bear carries a bright red Sockeye Salmon by the dorsal fin, in Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska.
A mature male Alaska brown bear carries a bright red male Sockeye Salmon by the dorsal fin, in Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Please click on the image above to view a larger version of this photo.

Hey Folks,

Meet Little Otis, one of the most beautiful brown bears I’ve had the good fortune to see and to photograph. I’ve shot this guy for a number of years now, as he’s grown from a cute young cub to a cautious young subadult bear to a nearly full grown adult male brown bear; Little Otis is no longer quite so “little”, but always  treat to photograph. He’s definitely one of the most photogenic brown bears I’ve photographed.

Nearly full grown, he’s just as magnificent as ever, with a beautiful light brown coat, blond highlights and markings, and a playful, easy character. I’ve watched him play and wrestle with other young male bears, and never once seen him show aggression toward another bear. He pretty much (typically) goes about his day looking for salmon. He also has this rather curious technique of carrying salmon by their dorsal fin; he’ll often catch a fish in the stream, then grab it’s dorsal fin and carry it ward shallower water, where he’ll eat it. I’ve not seen a lot of other bears carry the fish this way, particularly big male bears and certainly not so predictably.

Little Otis is an awesome bear.

Cheers

Carl

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