Category Archives: Alaska

Photos and notes on all things Alaska.

Alaska Brown Bear Photo

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2 young brown bear cubs (Ursus arctos) stand on their hindfeet in alert mode. Katmai Coast, Alaska.

2 young brown bears (Ursus arctos) standing up to look around. Kukak Bay, sedge grass flats, Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska.Please click on the image above to view a larger version of this photo.

Hey Folks,

Heading out again shortly to spend some time photographing the Alaska coastal brown bear. Should be a blast, as always, and I really am looking forward to getting back over to the Alaska Peninsula and Coastline there to see these amazing animals. It’s always a blast to shoot brown bear photos.

I haven’t seen as many bears this summer as what I typically might; I think with the (generally) warmer weather we had they tended to stay a little less active in the daytime than normal, but that’s just a hunch. Could be any number of reasons.

We’ll see how this week goes, and I’ll try to catch up when I return.

Cheers

Carl

PS: Oh, and I FINALLY got this little Google Plus widget to work again (in the sidebar); if you haven’t added me to your G+ circles, now’s the perfect time!

Northern Lights, Arctic Alaska

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The northern lights over the broken boreal forest of arctic Alaska.

The northern lights over the broken boreal forest of arctic Alaska. Please click the image above to view a larger version of the photo.

Hey Folks,

Sorry for not keeping up with the blog these last few months. Blogging regularly is hard; really hard. Sometimes I’m busy, or behind with my image editing, and sometimes, to put it simply, I’m just not that impassioned about it.

I’d like to be more disciplined about posting regularly, and more inspired to keep up with my own photography more consistently as well as that of others I enjoy, but sometimes, I think, the world of the internet is so overwhelming it’s easier to switch off and disengage than try to keep up and follow everything that flies by. I’ve probably missed hundreds of great posts around the web, I’m sure, but if that’s the worst of my recompense, well, things aren’t too bad I suppose.

Here’s a photo of the northern lights from last March. Ya gotta love the northern lights, no?

Cheers

Carl

Snow covered spruce trees

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Winter snow load bends the small spruce trees of the boreal forest in arctic Alaska, along the Dalton Highway.

Winter snow load bends the small spruce trees of the boreal forest in arctic Alaska, along the Dalton Highway. Please click on the image above to view a larger version of this photo.

Hey Folks,

Just a quick post between trips here. This image is from a recent trip to northern Alaska, poking around along the Dalton highway looking for some aurora borealis and nice winter arctic landscapes. We found these spruce trees up north, and had a grand afternoon photographing them. It’s a treat indeed to find trees like this, as winds and slightly warmer temperatures will quickly move all the snow and hoar frost from the trees.

I love how the snowload bends those trees over in such cool shapes.

Outta here for another week.

Cheers

Carl

Polar Bears and Critical Habitat Designation

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Polar bear (Ursus maritimus), Alaska.

Polar bear (Ursus maritimus) on a barrier island of the coast of arctic Alaska. Please click the image above to view a larger version of this photo.

Hey Folks,

Recently, a federal judge in Alaska, handed the US Fish and Wildlife Service (F&WS)  some homework, when he decided that the agency had been a little overzealous in their designation of critical habitat for the polar bear. In 2010, the Obama administration set aside nearly 190 000 square miles of onshore and off-shore critical habitat for the polar bear. That’s an awful lot of land (larger than the state of California). But polar bears, it seems, are an awful lot of bear.

Last month a federal judge ruled that it’s apparently ‘too much’ land. Which is in itself noteworthy, as the judge isn’t really there to decide what’s too much and what isn’t too much land for a polar bear. The judge is supposed to simply review the decision and see whether it follows the law.

The judge also said the F&WS decision had some “procedural deficiencies”; much better. This means, they hadn’t quite followed the law. So what was one of those deficiencies? How about this one?  Section 1533(i) of the Endangered Species Act Continue reading →

What The Hell Is Google Thinking – Google Images

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A screenshot of how google images displays photos, hotlinking the original file, with a "Save Image" option.

A screenshot of how google images displays photos, hotlinking the original file, with a “Save Image” option.

Hey folks,

*Update, Nov 13, 2013 – there is now a formal antitrust complaint registered by CEPIC, the Center of the Picture Industry, thousands of photographers and picture agencies, against Google on this matter. See here.

So, by now a number of people around the web have commented on the new Google Images display; some even talking about how nice and clean the interface looks. What I haven’t seen is anyone discuss how the Google Mobile App now works.

At left is a screenshot from my iPad of how Google Images, using the google app, displays photos on mobile devices. Underneath the image is a tiny thumbnail showing where they’ve extracted this photo from (and where the source file is hosted – in this case, my website).

When the visitor clicks “Options”, under the file, the 3 options are
“Save Image”, “Similar Images” and “View Web Page”. That’s right, the very first option is “Save Image” – Google grant you the option to save the full size jpeg right from my website, without you ever having to actually visit my website.

This is a pretty ballsy move, I must say. There’s been quite a bit of chatter around the ole interwebs about the new google images, on various web masters forums and so on, as well as some of the social media. Twitter, Google plus, etc. See Official Google Rollout, or Webmasters World. Safe to say, a lotta people are peeved. I’m surprised no one has mentioned this (that I’ve seen, anyway). Continue reading →

Stay til later – Bald Eagle Silhouette

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A silhouette of a bald eagle, perched in a giant Cottonwood tree, against the St. Elias Mountain Range at sunset. Chilkat Eagle Preserve, Alaska.

A silhouette of a bald eagle, perched in a giant Cottonwood tree, against the St. Elias Mountain Range at sunset. Chilkat Eagle Preserve, Alaska. Please click on the image above to view a larger version of this photo.

Hey Folks

One of the things I see happen most frequently in the field with groups of photographers is this kind of herd mentality that almost invariably works against the photographer. Particularly when things are not going perfectly. It’s cold, the eagles aren’t doing much, everyone’s been out for a long time, and soon enough, people start talking of packing up, of food and hot drinks, or editing images or watching TV, and before you know it, as the light ebbs, ever so slightly, people pack up and head for home/motel/town.

We all know once the light, on a gorgeous clear afternoon, goes down, the photography for the day is over, correct?

No. Continue reading →

Brown bears playing

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2 adult brown bears (Ursus arctos) play together in an embrace. Hallo Bay in June/July is a great time to see and photograph bear behavior like this.

2 adult brown bears playing (Ursus arctos) together in an embrace. Hallo Bay in June/July is a great time to see and photograph bear behavior like this. Please click on the image above to view a larger version of this photo.

Hey Folks,

Another photo from this past summer when I led a photo tour to Hallo Bay and the coast of Katmai National Park and Preserve here in Alaska. I’ve been photographing brown bears for many years now, and return to the Alaskan Peninsula every summer to watch and photograph these creatures. They’re simply an awesome animal to see, whether its up close and personal like this, or from a distant ridge on a mountain hike somewhere.

I intentionally picked late June for this particular tour with the hope of catching some interaction between the bears, and especially mating behavior. Brown bear breeding season is anywhere from late May through mid-July, with some exceptions even being later. Generally, early summer is the time for brown bears’ breeding season. Continue reading →