A big part of the fun of any big trip is the planning and preparation.  And in the case of this jaunt north to explore Alaska and photograph grizzlies, I absolutely have to (tsk-tsk) carefully review the gear I will be taking with me to make sure it’s appropriate.

 

Last week, I ordered LensCoats for both my 200-400mm and 600mm Nikon telephotos, even though I’ve decided not to take the 600mm.  This is actually something I should have done when I acquired each lens, as the neoprene LensCoats do offer protection against cosmetic damage during transport or use.  It will be important for the Alaska trip because, after a lot of careful (really) research, I’ve decided to buy Moose Peterson’s MB-3 photo backpack.  Moose himself warns prospective purchasers of this item that it does not have a lot of “excess padding.”

 

Nevertheless, I’ve opted for this medium size bag over the larger MB-1 because we will be flying from Omaha to Minneapolis in a regional jet and will be using bush planes for transportation from Anchorage to Lake Clark and Katmai National Parks for the bear photography portion of the trip.  Though Moose swears he’s never had an airline refuse to allow him to carryon the MB-1 for cabin baggage, with my luck, I’m just liable to be the exception that makes the rule.  However, I absolutely, positively know that I can carry the MB-3 on the small airplanes, and not lugging along both of the big heavy telephoto lenses will make for a much pleasanter trip as well.

 

Plus, the 200-400mm…especially as I will be bringing along my 1.4 and 2.0 teleconverters…will be more than adequate for the kind of bear viewing we’ll be undertaking.  In Alaska, the way you photograph bears is to go to a place where they are known to congregate and wait for them to show up.  In this case, that will be where they’ll be catching fish in the annual salmon run, where they will be too busy and in fact, too habituated to worry about some camera toting tourists.  Doing it this way is far more productive in getting to see bears and a heck of a lot safer than just going out and walking around in bear country.  While grizzlies are not out looking for people to chase down and eat, they are also quite unpredictable and can run faster than a horse.  Years ago, I walked up on a cub grizzly in the Tetons.  Like they do most of the time, this bear ran away, and I could not have believed how fast he ran without having seen it.  Anyone who tells you they were charged by a bear and ran away and climbed a tree could also go to hell for lying.

 

Finally, it rains a lot in Alaska, even in July, so I ordered a rain cover that will mostly protect a camera with a big lens on it while still allowing me to go on shooting photos when things get wet.  I have to confess that, as much time as I’ve spent banging around in the outdoors over the years, I’m really not very hardy when it comes to climatic conditions.  I absolutely hate to be cold, and there are few things I enjoy so much that I can even have fun doing them in the rain.  Actually, none at all, come to think of it.

 

However, after traveling several thousand miles and spending several thousand dollars to take pictures of bears, I’ll not be letting a little shower get in the way…at least not this time.

Cindy and I did have an extended discussion on what to do with "Summer 2012" and after re-visiting the Africa idea, as well as considering a rambling run to the left coast,  we wound up right where we began, heading to Alaska next July.

That was the easy part, just like taking an airplane off.  The hard part is what comes next...a landing you can walk away from and/or making all the arrangements for a trip that will involve transportation by airline, bush plane, and train, as well as lodging in four different venues.  And, the first of February isn't getting stared any too early to nail down stuff in Alaska in July.

We'll be both going and coming home on American Airlines out of Omaha, and I was fortunate to get flights both ways that depart and arrive on the same day (due to the distance and time difference, traveling from one day into the next is not uncommon when going to Alaska).  Because we'll get to Anchorage early evening of the day we leave Omaha, we are actually going to take two one-day trips to view and photograph bears.  Ironically, it's actually less expensive to take two day-trips than to stay overnight at one of the "bear" lodges.  IF you can get in, that can run eight or nine hundred dollars per person per night.  Sooo, we are going to world famous Brooks Falls, in Katmai National Park the first day and to Silver Salmon Creek, in Lake Clark National Park, the second day.  That also means that if we get weathered out one of those days, we'll still get to see bears on the other one...unless of course, we get weathered out both days (but that's not going to happen).

Another advantage to going out and back each day is that we don't have to take overnight luggage, the size and weight of which has to be limited in a small aircraft.  That will allow me to take and check with the airline my bigger roller bag, while carrying on my photo equipment back pack - which will fit in the overhead of even the smallest regional jets - while I stuff the roller bag with clothes and some not-so-fragile photo equipment that my backpack won't accommodate.

After the two "bear" days, we will take the Alaska Railroad up to Denali, where we'll spend two nights in a cabin near the entrance to Denali National Park.  There's no private motor vehicle traffic in the Park, so we are taking a full-day escorted tour of it, leaving the cabin at 6:15 a.m. and returning about that time in the evening.  It works because in the summer the days are so long up there.

After Denali, we'll take the train on up to Fairbanks, where we'll spend two nights and one day, and then train back to Anchorage the following day.  Sadly, the next day we'll climb on an airplane early in the morning to get back to Omaha late that night.

Expect to see some Alaskan Coastal Brown Bears pictured on this site, beginning early August.

 

I'm not sure what big trip Cindy and I should take next summer, if we should take one at all.  Since my mid-twenties, I've wanted to visit Africa - which to me has always pretty much meant Kenya.  But I've never been in a position to do it, or at least that's what I've thought.  We were going to do it last summer, but what with marrying Cindy - something way, way more important than a trip to anywhere - and the inherent selling and buying of houses and re-configuring of living arrangements, etc. - it just wasn't the year.

And this is not the year for Kenya in that it's election year there, and to celebrate elections, they usually come close to an all-out civil war.  It's a country still pretty much ruled by tribal politics, and the tribe that loses the elections takes up arms, or at least they did for the last election, killing thousands of innocent citizens.

That being the case, we have more-or-less decided this is the year for Alaska, where in addition to just seeing and experiencing the place, I want to photograph the Alaskan Coastal Brown Bear.  But lately it's dawned on me that the expected unpleasantness in Kenya does not have to preclude travel in Tanzania to observe and photograph the great East African game migrations.  Or at least I don't think so without checking the State Department travel advisories.

So that's where I am, but it occurs to me that Michael Forsberg and Moose Peterson - my two greatest photographer heroes - have spent careers making stunning photos without ever having gone to Africa.  They've mostly shot what they've found around them, in various parts of the West, bringing a kind of focus to their work that eludes many other photographers.  Heck, Cindy and I love travel by auto, and I know we'd be as happy as clams to load up the Pilot and take a couple of weeks to roam around the Western U.S., heading out to the Tetons, up through Yellowstone, on to Glacier, maybe even Banff, and then over to the west coast and down to Yosemite, before turning for home through Bryce or Moab.

Even though summer is a ways off, and I've got a session of the Legislature to get through, trips to Alaska and Africa have to be reserved well in advance to get to where you want to go and do what you want to do.

I'd better talk this over with Cindy, and fairly soon.

I’ve been looking around for a used Nikon D3, mainly on ebay and Amazon.com.  I’d managed to convince myself that, when I carry two DSLR’s – which I frequently do at the sprint car races and other action events – having to switch back and forth between the control systems on my D3s and the D700 is unhandy and a hang up.  (Yeah, I know, but any old excuse to buy yet another camera, right?)

 

I bid on a couple on ebay, but on each of them, the price seemed to jump way out of reason right at the last second of the last minute of the auction.  I wanted a cream puff, and they were selling not much more than a thousand dollars cheaper than a new D3s.  I finally just gave up on the idea for a few days.  But then I found myself once again slipping over to the ebay site just to see what was going on.  On this second “just browsing” tour, I limited myself to cameras that were clearly in mint condition with low shutter actuations, and available on a “Buy it Now” basis.  The heck with the bidding wars.

 

The other evening, Cindy and I were downstairs in the “computer/photo lab” mousing around on our respective machines (her laptop, my desktop) and there it was.  A truly mint D3 with 17k shutter actuations…the camera equivalent of a cleaner-than-a-whistle, 7,000 mile used car.  And, it was priced right…just a little over half of the cost new.  I visited with Cindy about it, slept on it, and the following afternoon, hit the B.I.N. button.  A few minutes later, the seller phoned me just to make sure I was legit.  We had a pleasant conversation, and he said he’d ship it right out to me.  I assumed I’d see it some time next week and then walked into my office after lunch on Thursday, and there it was, sitting on my couch!

 

I un-packed it kind of holding my breath, but it is absolutely as advertised.  It and the accessories were packed in each and every little plastic bag that came with them the day of original purchase, and it is in simply perfect condition, obviously having had wonderful care.  And the guy who sold it is an excellent photographer!  I could tell, because when I went through the menu, entering my personal preferences to maybe fifty items, I changed his own settings only a couple of times.  I told Cindy that I’m sorry I won’t ever really know the seller because I think we’d have a lot to talk about. 

Thanks, Michael.  I called and left you a voice mail thanking you for taking such great care of and selling me the camera, and also participating with me in a neat little adventure that I won’t forget.

 

I'm adding a couple of new photos to the website: "Kids on the Rocks" and "South Arapaho Peak."  

The "Kids" photo is pretty much self-explanatory.  A couple of summers ago, I was privileged to spend three days with Weldon Lee - one of this country's outstanding wildlife photographers - on a high country photo safari.  I took literally hundreds of shots of mountain goats.  They really don't seem to have much fear of humans and will allow us to approach remarkably close to them so long as you don't invade their personal space or do something as stupid as try to touch them.  [Saw a kid almost get butted in the ass for that, and he deserved it] The young goats, the other kids, were of course a special treat.  They never get too far from their mothers but nevertheless will wander around in groups of three or four, almost constantly in physical contact with one another and gambolling about.  Goat adolescents.

 

I hope you like this photo.  I myself can't look at it without smiling.

 

I can't look at the photo of Colorado's South Arapaho Peak without a smile either, but for quite a different reason.  The picture was shot in April of 2008 from the Peak to Peak Highway.  I don't think the photo is any world beater, and will be quite surprised if anyone ever buys a print of it.

 

But it will always be an important mountain to me.  See, I climbed that sucker...all 13,500 feet of it...on August 9, 1974.  If that date seems to ring a bell, it was on that day that Richard M. Nixon became the only U.S. President ever to resign the office.  And because of the significance of that date to the world at large, almost forty years later, I can still tell you the exact day I stood on the snow shrouded peak distant in that photo.

 

South Arapaho, at 13,500 feet, misses being a "fourteener" by 500 feet, but don't let anybody tell you it's not a long way up there.  Because you need to be off the summit by, say, 1:00 p.m. to avoid the afternoon thunderstorm build-up and accompanying lightning strikes, it's a good idea to be on the trail shortly after daylight.  As I remember, this mountain took some five hours to climb and three hours to descend.  On the top, there is a round bronze plate, set in stone, that has the line of sight and distance to other mountains as far away as Pike's Peak, which is clearly visible.  There's also a tablet in a metal canister sunk in the stone, where you can write your name and make an inane comment if you wish.  I wrote, "It was a long climb up, but the view is worth every step."  Profound, huh?

 

I was a young man in August of 1974, but it's been some time since I have been able to claim that status.  In subsequent years, I tried Long's Peak and got up to the boulder field before being weathered off the mountain by a summer snow/hail storm.  I still dream of standing atop Long's but most likely that's all it will ever be now.  Along with August 9, 1974, a remembrance and a dream of a man no longer young.

I've posted a couple of photos of Cardinals and probably need to do some explaining about one of them.  Nature photographers are not ever supposed to exhibit a picture that has a bird feeder in it.  At the same time, it's darned hard to just go out walking around, shooting arresting photos of birds when and if you happen to see one.  It's both easier and better to rely on a facet of bird behavior that many folks are probably not aware of.  It's this: birds, when coming to feed, will almost always perch for a bit on a tree or something higher than the food location.  They like to fly down to feed after briefly surveying the area for predators, etc.

A trick many bird photographers use is to construct a perch, higher than and near the feeder and typically made from a bare tree limb or branch.  I tried this myself, but there are over twenty trees in my backyard, every one of them standing a lot taller that my bird feeders.  Accordingly, the birds cheerfully ignored my branch-perch and continued to do what they probably always have done in my yard...perch on a "real" tree limb and then fly down to feed.

I know all of this and yet have chosen to include in the photos on this website one picture where both pictured birds were obviously perched on a feeder.  I did this because the photo in question shows some bird behavior that until recently, I've been quite unaware of.  What I'm talking about is the fact that Cardinals build a nest and tend to raising youngsters as a couple.  The male Cardinal (and the female as well) bring food to the baby birds both in the nest and after they fledge.  I didn't know that until I saw a dad Cardinal actually exhibiting this behavior, feeding safflower seeds to a Cardinal youngster, both of them perched on one of my feeders.

I was so struck by this that I did a little looking in one of my bird books and confirmed what I had witnessed.  I've always thought that male Cardinals were, if anything, kind of cocky and self absorbed, probably led to that conclusion by both their appearance and mannerisms.  But it turns out that this colorful and raucous guy is a liberated male, working together as a team with his mate to provide for their off-spring.

That may be extra meaningful to me because my parents both worked when I was growing up, and as I remember it, my Dad really did shoulder an equal share of the household load, though he - and the rest of us - drew the line at cooking.  And if I had a dollar for every diaper I changed and bottle I fed when Kristi was little, well, I'm sure I could finance a get-away weekend in New York, or at least Chicago.  Well, maybe Omaha.

I hope you enjoy the photos.

Whenever a person compliments me on a particular photo, I’ll often respond with a self-effacing, “It isn’t me; it’s the equipment.”

But really, it isn’t the equipment, and in contrast to some other photographers’ websites, you won’t find a link here entitled, “my equipment” or “what’s in the bag” etc.  That’s because, in truth, that stuff isn’t really that important.

Almost every photographer has been asked by some one admiring his or her work, “What kind of camera do you use?”  It’s a legitimate question from an individual contemplating a camera purchase and wanting to compare results by brand.  On the other hand, if they are thinking that by duplicating an excellent photographer’s equipment, they’ll also be excellent – forget it.  Doesn’t work that way.

The truth is that any of the quality cameras on the market, in these days of computer-aided design, will take a good picture if aimed and operated correctly.  Nobody ever asks a successful writer what kind of word processor they use.

True, there is an equipment fetish that goes with serious photography, and I plead totally guilty to being a worshipper.  But I hope I’m honest enough to admit that I breathlessly await each of Nikon’s new offerings simply because that new gear is so cool, elegant, and even smells good; not because I truly believe the new stuff will make me a better photographer.  Depending on what you seek to accomplish photographically, there are certain pieces of gear you want to have in your inventory.  When I decided I wanted to seriously pursue wildlife photography, I sold a pretty nice pickup to finance an upgrade of my camera body as well as the acquisition of a 500mm f.4 telephoto lens.  That’s because you can wait forever for the deer and the antelope…especially the antelope…to come to you.  But, if you want effective pictures of most wildlife, you have to be prepared to optically reach way, way out and touch them.  And that does take some specialized equipment, but the brand of that equipment is of little to no consequence.

That said, the best camera is always going to be the one you have with you when an engaging photo presents itself.  As the saying goes, “The important thing is f.8 and be there.”