I thought I would tell some stories about some of my photographs.  Yes, a picture is worth a thousand words, and I usually don’t do “artist statements” or huge long descriptions of my photos, I want them to stand on their own. But, I thought I would expound a bit on how some of the pictures came to be and the decision making process that went into planning and shooting the photos and what they mean to me. 

This is a picture I titled “Just Sittin’.”  It is of a grizzly bear at Katmai National Park in Alaska.  For years, I had no real interest in going to Alaska, but in 2011, when thinking about our vacation plans, I realized that I had been to 49 states, the only state I had not visited was Alaska, so that was the trigger for our first trip there.  Since then, I have been several more times for different purposes, and will likely go back to add some national parks to that list (I have been to 50 National Parks, all 50 states, and 25 countries for those that keep lists). The photo won best in show in the Utah State Fair Photography competition in 2023. 

I wanted to go photograph bears in Alaska.  I did quite a bit of research into what it would take to get to Katmai National Park (which seems to be grizzly bear central).  There is a lottery for lodging at the Brooks Lodge. There is also camping, whose reservations often go within minutes of being released.  https://www.nps.gov/katm/planyourvisit/plyovicamp.htm

And of course you have to get to and from the park which is accessible by boat or plane.  So there is lots to do in terms of planning.  After looking at this, I decided to go with a planned group, and I have learned that often tour groups have a defined schedule, they don’t like to hang out while you are trying to make photos so I opted to go with a photo group.  I selected Action Photo Tours for my trip.  They do all the heavy lifting.  All I had to do was get to and from Anchorage and limit my own heavy lifting to 50lbs (total amount of luggage I was allowed.)

I carried two camera bodies, My Nikon Z8 and Z9.  I primarily used my 200-500mm f/5.6 and 70-200mm f/2.8.

We flew to Jacques Adventure Lodge on Lake Iliamna from Anchorage.  We went through a briefing at the lodge and were fitted with waders that went up to our chest.  Then we all boarded our De Havilland DHC-2 Beaver float plane and flew to Katmai National Park.  There we went to Bear School, something every visitor to the park is required to do.  We learned about the bear behavior and also what our people behavior should be.  After bear school we obtained a river permit which allowed our group to walk up the Brooks River from the Park Headquarters toward the falls. 

We started our hike with our group walking a small trail toward the river.  A bear approached in front of us, so our guide quietly told us to slowly and quietly back up.  I looked behind, and there was a bear approaching us from that direction as well.  Our guide asked us to quickly and quietly step off and away from the trail.  I don’t know about anyone else, but I never even thought about my cameras.  I just wanted to make sure I was not on the bears’ menu.  The bears passed each other as they passed in front of us.  Wow! 

A few minutes later we were back on the trail heading for the river.  We entered the river which was less than waist deep, and proceeded up river.  I looked toward the shore and there it was…Just Sittin’.    Of course there were lots of other bear photos to be made that day. The bears, as we learned, could not care less about us. They were too busy stuffing themselves with Salmon.  We hiked up the river, a couple of us nearly lost a camera as we lost our balance.  I kept my camera out of the water as I fell and got soaked.  A fair trade I think.  The current was much stronger in this part of the river and I struggled to get to the other side where we made our river exit and continued up to Brooks Falls.  

This is the picture everyone wants to capture.  I figured I was here, I should capture it as well, but once you know the back story, it is not so nearly impressive as a photo.  The Park Service has set up an elevated two level platform overlooking the falls. They even have a permanent solar-powered  bear cam (it may not be active on weekends) there. If it crowded, you may be assigned to a 30 minutes slot.  You take your place on the platform and just concentrate on the bears in the river.  Some bears park at the top of the falls, others at the bottom, all of them just waiting for Salmon to swim by.  Every bear has their own technique. Some are scoopers and others adopt the Fat Bastard from Austin Powers “Get In My Belly” technique, snagging fish in mid-air as they jump up the falls.  A cool picture, but literally shooting fish in a barrel.

The next day, another trip in the Beaver to another location.  We were the only ones here for several hours.  It was amazing. 

Alas, I did not stay for the entire week, it was a bit more than I could handle having had some unplanned surgery earlier in the year, but I am glad I went, and happy to have made some nice images.  

Thanks for stopping by.