Posts Tagged ‘Katmai’
Monday, October 18th, 2010
How 'bout that for a left hook! 2 young grizzly bears fighting in a salmon stream. Rarely do real vicious fights break out, but when they, these well-armed opponents can do some serious damage to one another. Grizzy bears, or coastal brown bears (Ursus arctos), playfight in Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Please click the image above t view a larger version of the photo.
Hey Folks,
I’ve finally added some new grizzly bear images to my website – after way too much time. I’ve just added nearly 250 new grizzly bear images from my trips to Katmai in 2009 and 2010. Check them out, starting at row 6, image 09_SEP0345.jpg; some of the images have appeared on the blog in the past, but many of them have not; especially those whose file names start with 10_JUL … those photos are from this most recent trip.
So, how about this particular photo? We were shooting 2 other bears when I saw this scuffle start to erupt behind us. Time to move and move fast, these little eruptions (usually) don’t last too long. So we shouldered the tripods and heavy gear, and moved quickly through the long marshy grass to be in position to shoot this ‘fight’.
Knowing what might happen is a big help when you’re photographing wild animals. It can make all the difference between being ready for something awesome, and completely missing it. (See my recent blog post on Alaskan Alpine Treks about how often we miss).
We saw these 2 young bears playfight several times during the 2 weeks I was down there.
(more…)
Tags: Alaska, Grizzly Bears, Katmai, Skolai Images
Posted in Adventures, Alaska, Grizzly Bears, Katmai National Park, News, Photo Tours, Photography, Web Stuff, Wildlife | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, October 13th, 2010
Brown bear cub photo. A young brown bear (Grizzly bear, Ursus arctos) cub. Brown bear cubs will stay with their mother for 2-3 years before venturing out alone. Brown bear cub, Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Please click on the image above to view a larger version of the photo.
Hey Folks,
Here’s a young spring bear cub photo from the recent photo trip I led to Katmai National Park and Preserve. This youngster had 3 siblings, and it was a real treat to get to see them play and tumble together. Catching a photo of one by himself, without the others in the frame, was more difficult than one might guess it would be.
Last year, for some reason, there were not too many spring cubs in the area at all, but this year the area was home to quite a few. They’re such a blast to photograph, and oh-so charismatic. Each has his/her own character, and some of them are unbelievably plucky little critters. We watched one take quite a dunking from his mother, after he tried to steal a salmon from her. She grabbed him in her mouth, shook him back and forth like a rag doll, and literally buried him in the river. I thought ‘well, that’ll teach the little guy a lesson’ – Hardly! He came up growling louder than before, grabbed the fish in his mouth, and took off with it before his mother could even snap at him. They’re just way too cute!
These little baby bears are born in the dark of winter, tiny and defenseless. Their mothers-to-be enter a den in late fall, usually anywhere from late October through November. Brown bears almost always enter their den during a snow storm, or immediately before a snow storm. The theory most folks ascribe to is the snow storm will cover both the entrance and the tracks leading to the den, hiding both the bear and the den’s location.
Late January or early February, though sometimes as late as March, the cubs are born, blind and virtually helpless. (more…)
Tags: Alaska, Grizzly Bears, Katmai, photo tours, Skolai Images
Posted in Adventures, Alaska, Grizzly Bears, Photo Tours, Wildlife, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, October 5th, 2010
A grizzly bear (brown bear, Ursus arctos), stands on the edge of a salmon stream in Katmai National Park and Preserve. Grizzly bears can range in color from dark brown and black, as this one is, to a blond, almost white color. Fall foliage, Grizzly bear, Katmai National Park, Alaska. Please click on the image to view a larger version of the photo.
Hey Folks,
Here’s a photo from the first morning out on my recent trip to Katmai. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, and I was able to get out and shoot before returning to camp to meet the folks coming out for the first week’s photo tour. I’d also walked and photographed the river the previous evening, and it gave me a great opportunity to scout around a bit and get a head’s up on things like the river level (which fluctuates greatly year to year, even week to week), which bears were hanging where, where the best fall colors were, etc, etc.
The bear population this year was even higher than last year, with over 70 bears in the area. I recognized many from previous trips I’ve made here, but this beautiful dark bear was one I hadn’t seen before. (more…)
Tags: Alaska, bears, Fall, Grizzly Bears, Katmai, Skolai Images, Wildlife
Posted in Adventures, Alaska, Fall, Grizzly Bears, Katmai National Park, Photo Tours, Photography, Wildlife | 2 Comments »
Monday, October 4th, 2010
4 grizzly bear (brown bears, Ursus arctos) in the forest of Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Please click on the image to view a larger version of the photo.
Hey Folks,
Welcome back to the land of the Great Bear!
This year’s grizzly bear photo tours were absolutely awesome. We had cubs, cubs and more cubs. Big bears, little bears, fat bears, pretty fat bears, REALLY fat bears, and Rush Limbaugh-fat bears.; we’re talking, R-E-A-L-L-YYY fat bears. Dark bears, blond bears, etc, etc – all of them a real treat to photograph. There were well over 70 bears in the area, so it was a simply incredible experience.
I’ve not yet edited hardly any of the shots from the past 2 weeks, but I’m pretty excited about some of the photos I took. (more…)
Tags: Alaska, bears, grizzly bear cubs, Katmai, Skolai Images, Wildlife
Posted in Alaska, Grizzly Bears, Katmai National Park, Wildlife | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, April 14th, 2010
A large adult grizzly bear sow (female) walks along the edge of Naknek Lake, fall coors behind her, Katmai National Park, Alaska. Please click on the image to view a larger version on the photo.
Hey Folks,
A grizzly bear photo from my trip to Katmai National Park and Preserve last fall. This grizzly old sow is one of the larger females I’ve seen …. most folks think she’s a boar. It’s a real treat to be able to return to a place like Katmai and see the same individual animals I’ve seen and photographed before. I’m hoping this big bear has some young cubs when I return there in September this year.
‘The Great Bear’ is just one of the names commonly given to the grizzly bear by Native Americans. A closeup look at this sow suggests why. She’s awesome.
Cheers
Carl
Tags: Alaska, bears, Katmai, Wildlife
Posted in Alaska, Grizzly Bears, Katmai National Park, Wildlife | 3 Comments »
Thursday, November 26th, 2009
A grizzly bear (Ursus arctos), close and personal, Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Click the image for larger version.
Hey Folks,
In honor of the recent decision (last week) by Judge Molloy of Montana to continue to have the grizzly bears listed under the Endangered Species Act (in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem), here’s a grizzly bear photo, from my recent trip to Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska. In September the Court ruling was for the US Fish and Wildlife Service to relist the bears, but the F&WS requested the judge to reconsider. He reconsidered, and turned down their appeal, so the bears remain, for now, on the ESA. I’ll write a lengthy post about it later; for now I’m going to bed.
I think September was a good month for the bears – (more…)
Tags: Alaska, Brown bears, grizzlies, grizzly, Grizzly Bears, Katmai, Katmai National Park and Preserve, Ursus arctos
Posted in Alaska, Environmental Issues, Grizzly Bears, Katmai National Park, Wildlife | 4 Comments »
Thursday, November 12th, 2009
Hey Folks,
NB: I’ve now added this trip to the main section of guiding website, Alaskan Alpine Treks. By all means, browse this page, but please also visit the trip page here.
I’m excited to announce a Grizzly Bears in the Fall photo Tour for 2010. Details are posted on my Alaskan Alpine Treks website but I’ll copy it here as well:
This coming year, 2010, I’m running a new phototour to Katmai National Park and Preserve; we’ll be basecamping in remote southwest Alaska, photographing grizzly bears, dawn til dusk, for a week. Katmai National Park is home to some of the largest grizzly bears (or “brown bears” as they’re often called in that region) in the world. Feeding largely on salmon from some of the richest salmon runs in Alaska, the bears are magnificent creatures and there’s no better time to photograph them than in the fall. This trip offers an unsurpassed opportunity to photograph wild grizzly bears in a remote and brilliantly wild setting and promises some simply incredible photographic possibilities.
Schedule:
– Trip #1: Sept 19-25, 2010.
– Trip #2: Sept 26-Oct 2, 2010
Price:
– Fully Outfitted Camp and Guided Photo Tour: $2675.00
- Both trips (14 days): $4600.00
(more…)
Tags: Alaska, Alaskan Alpine Treks, Brown bears, Grizzly Bears, Katmai, Katmai National Park, Katmai National Park and Preserve, photo tour, Ursus arctos, workshop
Posted in Adventures, Alaska, Fall, Grizzly Bears, Katmai National Park, Landscapes, Photo Tours, Travel, Wildlife | 3 Comments »
Monday, November 2nd, 2009
Hey Folks,
As I said in a recent post, on my recent trip to Katmai National Park and Preserve I really hoped to make some images that featured not only the great grizzly bears, but also the awesome fall colors of the boreal forest . The Black Cottonwoods of the area provide the perfect background for photographing grizzly bears, but rarely do photographers seem to combine the 2. Most folks come up to Alaska and shoot the bears in the summer, and I think they’re missing out. The classic shot of a grizzly bear fishing for salmon at Brooks Falls is nice, and only generally possible mid-summer, of course, but there are a lot of other opportunities around in the fall that can be equally exciting. Great fall colors make stunning backdrops, and can really bring a vibrancy to the image. Stepping back, zooming out, and letting the scene dictate the photos is often the key.
In this photo I enjoy the sense of relationship between subject and environment – the dichotomy is largely only a function of our thought processing. The idea that the “environment” is something other than everything is a little peculiar; the subject IS the environment, as equally as the environment is the subject. There is really no difference between the bear and his habitat. (more…)
Tags: Alaska, animals, bears, Brooks River, Brown bears, fishing, Grizzly Bears, Katmai, Katmai National Park, Katmai National Park and Preserve, mammals, predators, Ursus arctos, Wildlife
Posted in Adventures, Alaska, Fall, Forests, Grizzly Bears, Katmai National Park, Photo Tours, Travel, Wildlife | 6 Comments »
Friday, October 30th, 2009
Hey Folks,
One of the photos I wanted this year was some slower shutter speed blurs of grizzly bears chasing spawning Sockeye Salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) up the river. This kind of image is difficult to do with grizzly bears; well, not difficult to do, but difficult to manage a photo that works. More so, I think, than with most other animals. The result of this is that it seems to take about 5 times as many attempts to get a decent ‘panblur’ of a grizzly bear than it might, for example, of a caribou or wolf. What I’m calling a ‘panblur’, for those of you who aren’t certain, is a technique of slowing down the shutter speed when shooting movement, so that the subject becomes blurred, rather than crisp and sharp. You can see in the image above the spashing water and the legs of the bear are not to sharp at all. By panning the camera along with the bear as it races through the water, (more…)
Tags: Alaska, animals, bears, Brooks River, fishing, Grizzly Bears, Katmai, Katmai National Park, Katmai National Park and Preserve, mammals, Ursus arctos, Wildlife
Posted in Abstract Photos, Alaska, Art, Grizzly Bears, Katmai National Park, Musings, Photography, Tech Stuff, Wildlife | 7 Comments »
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009
Photo above extracted via Nikon Capture NX2.2.2 (more…)
Tags: Adobe Photoshop CS4, Alaska, animals, Apple, bears, Brown bears, CS4, customer service, customer support, Grizzly Bears, Katmai, Katmai National Park, mammals, Nikon, Nikon Capture NX2, NX2, Photography, photoshop, software, Ursus arctos, Wildlife
Posted in Alaska, Grizzly Bears, Katmai National Park, Miscellaneous, Musings, News, Photo business, Photography, Rants, Reviews, Tech Stuff, Wildlife | 19 Comments »
