Archive for the ‘Grizzly Bears’ Category
Monday, May 3rd, 2010
Male grizzly bear, brown bear photo, (Ursus arctos) Katmai National Park, Alaska. Please click on the thumbnail to view a larger version of the photo.
Hey Folks,
Just a quick note here to say if you can, check out this online radio interview Tuesday, May 4, 2010, at 9pm EST. I’ll be talking with photographers Greg Downing and E.J. Peiker, of Naturescapes.net, and host Dave Warner, from Lensflarelive. It should be a lot of fun to do, and hopefully interesting and useful as well. I know I’m excited about it, Greg and EJ are great photographers whom I’ve admired for a long time, and it’ll be nice to talk with them.
Well be talking about wilderness photography, backpacking and hiking and photographing, as well as some environmental/conservation topics that might be relevant to nature photography. Greg also had the idea of present a few images online and we can discuss those and present a little more context about the work. I’m not really sure all of what we’ll talk about yet, but the show is open to call in, and it’d be great to hear from you on air. Hopefully the conversation will be interesting.
The broadcast can be heard live here. If you miss the show, it will be edited and available as a podcast soon after – I’ll add a link to this post when that becomes available.
I hope you enjoy the show,
Cheers
Carl
Tags: Alaska, Brown bears, E.J. Peiker, Greg Downing, Grizzly Bears, interviews, Katmai National Park, Lensflare, Photography, radio, Ursus arctos, wilderness
Posted in Alaska, Art, Cool stories, Environmental Issues, Grizzly Bears, Katmai National Park, News, Photography, Social Media, Wildlife | 2 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, Carl Donohue, Katmai, photos, verticals, Wildlife
Posted in Alaska, Grizzly Bears, Katmai National Park, Wildlife | 3 Comments »
Sunday, March 7th, 2010
A young brown bear (Ursus arctos) walks through a stream hunting for spawning Sockeye Salmon. Grizzly bear, or coastal brown bear, Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Please click the image for a larger version of the photo.
Hey folks
5-6 more weeks and the bears are running around the woods again!!!
I’ll be in the woods for the coming week, but I thought I’d post a brown bear photo, and schedule a couple of other blog posts for while I’m gone.
Catching this young blonde colored brown bear in some nice light was quite a treat. That’s the benefit of spending time in the field. Most wildlife photography, it seems, is done in places where the subject is pretty much a given; places like Homer for bald eagles, Yellowstone for elk, Churchill for polar bears, and Katmai National Park and Preserve for grizzly bears, or brown bears. So what makes the differernce? Light. (more…)
Tags: Alaska, Carl Donohue, Grizzly Bears, Katmai National Park, Skolai Images, Wildlife
Posted in Adventures, Alaska, Grizzly Bears, Katmai National Park, Photo Tours, Photography, Wildlife | 1 Comment »
Thursday, March 4th, 2010
Comparison of Bear claws - black bear (Ursus americanus) claws, polar bear (Ursus maritimus), grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) and Kodiak bear claws. Please click on the image for a larger version of this photo.
Hey Folks,
I thought I’d post this shot, as it might be of interest to some folks. From left to right, the claws are: black bear, polar bear, grizzly bear, coastal brown bear or Kodiak bear.The polar bear is the only true carnivore out of those species, but it’s claws are but a fraction of the size of those belonging to the great grizzly, and in particular, the coastal brown bear.
Bear claws, and particularly the grizzly claws, were long revered as a symbol of power, both physical and spiritual, to many Native American Indian cultures; wearing the bear claw was often only an earned respect. Anyone’s who’s seen such fearsome weaponry up close can attest as to why.
The relationship of the polar bear and the grizzly bear is interesting. (more…)
Tags: bears, Carl Donohue, claws, Skolai Images, Wildlife
Posted in Grizzly Bears, Musings, Wildlife | 5 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, bear, Brown bears, Carl Donohue, 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, Carl Donohue, Grizzly Bears, images, Katmai, Katmai National Park, Katmai National Park and Preserve, photo tour, photos, phototours, trips, Ursus arctos, workshop
Posted in Adventures, Alaska, Fall, Grizzly Bears, Katmai National Park, Landscape features, 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, Carl Donohue, fishing, Grizzly Bears, hunting, images, Katmai, Katmai National Park, Katmai National Park and Preserve, mammals, photos, predators, Ursus arctos, Wildlife
Posted in Adventures, Alaska, Fall, Forests, Grizzly Bears, Katmai National Park, Photo Tours, Travel, Trees, 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: action, AK, Alaska, animals, bears, Brooks River, Carl Donohue, dramatic, fishing, Grizzly Bears, images, Katmai, Katmai National Park, Katmai National Park and Preserve, mammals, photos, running, Ursus arctos, Wildlife
Posted in Abstracts, 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, Adobe Photoshop CS4, AK, Alaska, animals, apple, bears, Brown bears, Carl Donohue, CS4, customer service, customer support, digital, Grizzly Bears, images, Katmai, Katmai National Park, mammals, Nikon, Nikon Capture NX2, NX2, Photography, photos, photoshop, software, Ursus arctos, Wildlife
Posted in Alaska, Grizzly Bears, Katmai National Park, Miscellaneous, Musings, News, Photo business., Photography, Rants, Reviews, Tech Stuff, Wildlife | 17 Comments »
Tuesday, October 20th, 2009
Hey Folks,
Here’s the same bear I posted the other day that was chasing the salmon. If it looks noticeably different in this picture (and it should), you can thank Nikon .. and stay tuned to a forthcoming post about that. As I said in that post, this bear was simply beautiful .. amazingly beautiful. What a treat life is to grant us the opportunities to see such creatures. I’ve only been back from my trip 2 weeks, and I already can’t wait to get back to the bears next year; I wish I hadn’t left. If you’re interested in a trip next fall to photograph these bears, drop me a note, and keep an eye on my guiding website, Alaskan Alpine Treks for more information. It’ll definitely be a great trip.
Brown bear, Katmai National Park, Alaska.
Cheers
Carl
Posted in Alaska, Fall, Grizzly Bears, Katmai National Park, Wildlife | 8 Comments »
