Alaska photos

Some of you will recall that in early September my father and I visited Katmai National Park on the southern coast of Alaska, as part of a Muench Photography Workshop focused on photographing the Coastal Brown Bears that feast on the annual salmon run along the southern coast. I wrote a summary of the trip – and posted a few teaser photos – shortly thereafter, but then became busy. Since then, I have struggled to find time to complete the work of selecting and editing a few photos out of the 8,000 shots I snapped during the trip. I finally finished. Read on!

I’ve grouped the selection into five galleries:

Bears – my favorite photos of the Coastal Brown Bears we were able to watch, up close and personal, as they fished for salmon in the rushing streams entering Geographic Harbor and Kuliak Bay. I highly recommend you click through the photos and videos one by one, starting here.

Wildlife – although it is easy to be entranced by the bears, the bays of the Katmai peninsula were bustling with birds – including bald eagles – and otters, sea lions, and more.

Landscapes – sometimes we were so busy watching bears we forgot to look up and around us, at the stunning coastal mountains. Although only a few thousand feet high, they rise directly from the shoreline.

Story – a gallery that shows off our ship, the Dreamcatcher, and some of the lovely people on its crew and in our group; our flight into and out of Geographic Harbor by float plane; and our exploration of the village of Kodiak where we began and ended the tour. For my trip summary written in September, start here.

Videos – a collection of the videos from the above galleries. Although I love my photos, sometimes a video can give you a better sense of what it was like to be there, with the water rushing and the birds squawking. If you only watch one, don’t miss this one in which you hear Captain Rob shooing away a bear that walked too close to our group seated on shore. Or the one in which I take you underwater to watch hundreds of salmon.

Location: below are two maps – hopefully the first is recognizable as Alaska, and the second is a close-up of the Katmai-Kodiak area. [Google Maps]