11-JUN-2013
Cub at play, Kasnyku Hatchery, Baranof Island, Alaska, 2013
One of the bear cubs pictured in the previous image left its mother and siblings to enjoy a spontaneous tug of war with a net floating in the stream bordering the salmon hatchery. I caught the cub as it sat down in the stream and took one of the net’s floats in its mouth to gain extra traction. (Hatchery personnel are not amused by such antics. They make loud noises to keep bears off the property.)
11-JUN-2013
Nature at work, Baranof Island, Alaska, 2013
Evidence of nature’s wrath is everywhere in Southeastern Alaska. Unlike many other places in the United States, trees felled by storms, age, or lighting strikes are not routinely picked up and carted away. The Alaskan wilderness is anything but tidy. Dead trees are left where they fall. They decay, giving life to new organisms in the process. In this image, I juxtapose three layers of natural forms. I anchor the scene with massive boulders, some of them covered in lichen. Three felled trees connect the boulders to the layer of rich green forest that covers the top third of the image. The colors change as the eye moves upwards or downwards through the photo.
11-JUN-2013
Orca whale, off Baranof Island, Alaska, 2013
An orca whale, also known as a killer whale, glides past my skiff, showing only its distinctive dorsal fin. This one is known as a “resident orca,” because it is part of a family pod and eats a diet of fish. (Other orcas are classified as “transients,” who do not travel as a family, and eat only other marine mammals.) I composed this image so that the dorsal fin and its surrounding ripple echo the thrust of the mountain range on the distant horizon. I converted the picture to black and white to further abstract the scene, making it seem silent and ethereal.
11-JUN-2013
Orca with calf, off Baranof Island, Alaska, 2013
We see much more of the calf here, as its body seems to rise out of the water. This pair of orcas was traveling so close to our skiff that I needed only a 93mm short telephoto focal length to make this image. We could even smell the strong odor of their spouts. These are resident orcas -- they will live with their mothers for their entire lives. They eat primarily salmon in these waters. Some females can reach age 90, and as many as four generations of orcas can travel together. Only humans, elephants, and primates have comparable social structures.
11-JUN-2013
Colors of time, Baranof Island, Alaska, 2013
Ancient mineral deposits blend with moss and lichen, turning a huge rock into a facsimile of an artist’s palette. As we study these colors and their random design, we seem to be looking back into time itself. I used a 28mm wideangle focal length to come in very close, yet still manage to include a considerable sampling of rock.
11-JUN-2013
Safari Explorer, at anchor in Red Bluff Bay, Alaska, 2013
Our small expedition ship held 22 passengers and a crew of 13 on this particular cruise. Instead of anchoring in ports as the large cruise ships do, the Safari Explorer (Un-Cruise Adventures,
http://www.un-cruise.com) spent each evening of our cruise anchored in wilderness coves and bays along the way. I made this image just before 10:00 pm in the evening, and the long Alaskan summer day still gilds the waters of Red Bluff Bay, while the cliffs that soar overhead shadow the ship and the background. I was riding in one of our skiffs as I made this image, and one of my fellow passengers paddling a kayak layers the picture for me by offering a scale comparison to the Safari Explorer.
12-JUN-2013
Solitude, Red Bluff Bay, Alaska, 2013
I made this image in the early calm of an Alaskan morning. The position of a lone kayak made this image work as an expression of solitude. It is placed at the exact spot where all of the slopes converge, yet it floats free from the any background interference. The red hull draws the eye, contrasting to the green trees and the blue-sky overhead.
12-JUN-2013
Waterfall, Red Bluff Bay, Alaska, 2013
This waterfall was hundreds of feet high, descending from the heights of a towering cliff. However, I choose to feature the waterfall’s most powerful moment – the tremendous force of its flow crashing upon the rocks below it. The water seems to virtually explode on impact. I catch its flow over the face of the rock, and compare it to the flow of a supplementary stream of water at the left hand side of the frame. The story here is all about nature’s power and energy.
12-JUN-2013
Carol Island, Alaska, 2013
Carol Island, unlike many of the islands we visited along the Inside Passage, was very small. We circled it within fifteen minutes. I composed this landscape image to contrast the jagged rocks at the base of Carol Island with the distant peak in the background. The wispy texture of the clouds, riding in the pale blue sky overhead, echo the bold streaks adjoining the kelp beds in the dark, glistening water. A lone tree leans out of Carol Island, offering its own salute to the scene.
12-JUN-2013
Stellar sea lion rookery, Brothers Islands, Alaska, 2013
Our ship took us past this point of land, crowded with dozens of sea lions. I use a pair of large sea lions as bookends. One of them, a bull, seems to be riding a wave at left – he actually has commandeered his own rock. The other bookend, at far right, may be a very large cow. She takes the high ground, seeing everything that is going on below her. I organized this image around four layered horizontal bands flowing across the image. The rookery holds the foreground, the band of rocks runs through the middle, the distant tree-lined shore, along with the massive mountains, provides the backdrop. (Our ship could only linger off shore for a few minutes. I would have liked to have stayed longer, and my wish came true four days later, when I was taken back for a longer shoot, at much closer range, as part of my four day stay at a remote fishing camp within a half hour of this rookery. You can see the images I made here during that shoot later in this gallery.)
12-JUN-2013
Bald eagle, Wood Spit, Alaska, 2013
Bald eagles are very often seen along the Inside Passage, since it is largely made up water and shoreline, and the lion’s share of an eagle’s diet is fish. Breeding resident bald eagles nest in trees along the entire Pacific Coast of Alaska. We found this one perched upon a large rock at the entrance to our evening anchorage at Wood Spit, a small peninsula opposite the famous Stevens Passage. We arrived in evening light, which is warm and comes in at a low angle. It sculpts this handsome bird in light and shadow, and creates a perfect background via a shadowy forest as well. I particularly liked the way the golden brown algae on the rocks in the foreground are echoed in the gleaming brown features of the eagle.
12-JUN-2013
Young bald eagle, Wood Spit, Alaska, 2013
This immature bald eagle finds a navigation light in the middle of the Stevens Passage to be a safe and convenient place to observe passing tourists. I cropped in on the image to create a series of repeating triangles within the supporting structure of the navigation light. The bright red triangle, which is part of the light’s danger warning signage, now acts as a pointer aimed directly at this eagle’s beak. Both male and female bald eagles will acquire their distinctive white head feathers at age four. Meanwhile, they are learning how to hunt, and using this navigation platform as a perching place may help them to locate fish more easily.