Sunset
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Category Archives: Wildlife
2012 – a Photo Review
Hey Folks,
Just to wrap up the year for 2012, here’s a quick slideshow from the year – 30 photos from various trips. Good times and good memories. I hope you all enjoy the pictures. If you like, take a quick look at my “Year in Alaska” on video, over at Expeditions Alaska – some nice clips from the past 12 months; it’s pretty cool, if I must say so myself! 🙂
Thanks so much,
Cheers
Carl Continue reading
Brown bear silhouette
Silhouetted brown bear at sunrise, Katmai National Park, Alaska. Please click on the image above to view a larger version of the photo.
Hey folks,
Timing is everything; especially for photography. Being in the “right place” at the “right time” is critical to making the “right photos”. So how, exactly, do we go about making that happen?
A million dollar question, I think.
One comment that we read and hear frequently, and I completely agree with, deals with knowing your subject. Knowing the behavior of an animal, for example, can help us predict where it might move to, what it may do, and so on. There’s no question, in my opinion anyway, that the better you know your subject, the better the photo opportunities you’ll have. Continue reading
Social media for photographers – another perspective
An adult polar bear sits on the shores of the Beaufort Sea, waiting for freezeup. Alaska. Please click on the image above to view a larger version of this photo.
Hey Folks,
So, I’m sure by now you’re all familiar with the 101 ways to heighten your photography reputation and business prowess through the magic of social media. There are nearly as many blog posts and articles on the secret mojos to becoming a social media icon in the world of photography and art as there are, surprisingly, photographers and artists out there in social media-land. Typically, these articles repeat the same tired old cliches: engage, time your posts carefully, be consistent, etc, etc, etc. Here’s another take on this ‘phenomenon’ of social media.
Recently I was in southeast Alaska photographing bald eagles. During that trip, I ran into 2 fellows from the BBC, filming for a wildlife documentary they’re making. Filming for another wildlife documentary they’re making. These guys have made several, and travel around the world filming for a company that makes some of the most amazing wildlife on the planet. The photographer, John Brown, Â also shoots stills (as well as video) and is represented by Getty images. Pretty cool gig.
I mentioned to him about possibly doing an interview with him, if he’d be so kind as to give me some time; he did, and I enjoyed a great couple of hours chatting with the 2 of these guys about wildlife photography and filmmaking and all the stuff the rest of us merely dream of. I’ll edit that interview down in the near future and put together an article from it.
During the course of the conversation, I don’t recall John mentioning social media once. Not once. He didn’t give me his twitter handle, or his facebook profile, or refer me to his G+ page. He mentioned his website, but the rest of the conversation was about his work; his photography and his art. Continue reading
On Selling Stock photography
Grizzly bear gives me the once over, Katmai NP, Alaska. Click on the image above to view a larger version of this photo.
Hey Folks,
Reading a recent post from someone on facebook reminded me of my start in stock photography, and I thought it might make a good subject for a blog post. How’d you make your start in selling stock photography? Every photographer wants, or once wanted, to be “published”. It’s the hallmark for aspiring photographers, I suppose.
I guess every photographer has their own story about how this happened for them. Here’s mine.
I received an email from a magazine editor in Europe requesting the use of this image, at left, for the cover of their magazine. They’d seen the image on the website, and wanted to license it. The email included the fee they pay for the image usage, and asked that I ftp the high-res file to them if that was acceptable. It was.
I dug the file (a tif file, scanned from a slide) from my external hard drive, saved as a high quality jpeg, and ftp’ed the file right away. I got a nice check and 2 copies of the magazine son after, with my photo sitting ever so proudly on the cover. My first ever sale, a cover photo for an international magazine. And it took my all of about 2 minutes to negotiate. “Wow; this is TOO easy”, I thought; “I’ll be rich before I’m a month older”. Continue reading
Polar bears at play
Polar Bear photo, Arctic Alaska
Brown bear, Katmai National Park, Alaska
A brown bear (Ursus arctos) sits in long green sedge grass. The low tide provides great habitat for coastal brown bears in spring and summer, in places like Kukak Bay, Katmai National Park, Alaska. Please click on the image above to view a larger version of this photo.
Hey Folks,
Getting ready to leave soon for another trip to Katmai National Park, after a busy summer hiking and backpacking. I’m excited, as always to head to Katmai and photograph the great coastal brown bears down there.
This photo was taken in June on the Coastal Brown Bear Photo Tour. A beautiful young brown bear, maybe 4 or 5 years old, in nice, soft light.
This fall we have 2 weeks of trips, with a few returning guests, as well as a number of people coming out for their first Alaska trip. After that, I have a week scheduled to photograph in the Arctic, then the summer/fall season will be over for me, and it’ll be time to catch up on website updates, etc, and planning for 2013. The aurora borealis photo tours have generated/are generating a great deal of interest, so that should be a fun time in the spring.
Oh, that and some fun skiing/snowboarding of course.
Cheers
Carl
Alaska brown bear photo
Brown bear (Ursus arctos), at Hallo Bay, Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Please click on the photo above to view a larger version of this photo.
Hey Folks,
Just returned from a week on the Katmai coast photographing brown bears. This was a new trip for me this year; I’d not been over to this specific location, or at this time of year, previously.
It was a grand trip; flying out of Kodiak, and spending a week on a boat along the coast, shooting bears in gorgeous soft summer light. My personal photography priority for the trip was bears in the landscape. I also wanted some cool “behavioral” photos, which included bears clamming at low tide, sparring with one another, and even mating. Cool stuff to shoot.
Shooting mid-summer in Alaska requires a great deal of flexibility; if the weather is clear and sunny, the best light (in this area) is at 9:30pm – 11pm, and 5:00am – 6:00am. So by the time we’d get back from a shoot, it might well be after midnight. Getting back up at 4:30am to shoot again is a rough gig. On the other hand, if the skies are overcast, we’d shift to a more routine schedule, and head out around 8am. Continue reading
Art and life
A brown bear male, ursus arctos, stands in the first light of the day, backlit by the morning sun, as he looks around for breakfast. Brown bear, Katmai National Park, Alaska. Please click on the image above to view a larger version of the photo.
Hey Folks,
” What strikes me is the fact that in our society, art has become something which is only related to objects, and not to individuals, or to life. That art is something which is specialized or which is done by experts who artists. But couldn’t everyone’s life become a work of art? Why should the lamp or the house be an art object, but not your life?” – Michael Foucault
What a great sentiment! Foucault wrote some great stuff.
An examination of what ‘art’ is could well be an artful endeavor itself. What are your thoughts? Is life art?
Cheers
Carl