I just returned home from a weeklong photo tour that I led to Alaska. The photography did not disappoint even though our river was running at record high levels for that area we still had more photo opportunities than I could have ever imagined.
Every morning after breakfast we got into small, motorized boats. Three to a boat and we rotated between guests and guides, so that everyone had a chance to be with each of the guides-or at least that was the plan.
Each boat had different sightings and that made it very interesting. I likened it to a safari, where you were in a boat instead of a safari vehicle and your subjects were bears and not cats! It was adventurous and we had to keep our eyes peeled for the bears. Because the river was so high most of the big ole boars had left the area and the younger three- and four-year-old bears and sows with cubs filled the area. That was fine with me because I was excited every time we saw a sow with two or three cubs, which ended up being lots and lots of times!
Our guides were all terrific, each one knew the river extremely well, drove their boats precisely and were able to get us close to our subjects. I used my Sony 200-600mm lens most of the time as it was easy to use especially with that internal zoom. The times I got on land, I shot with my Canon 600mm lens and the Canon R5—it performed very well. I enjoyed shooting with it. I may purchase it and the Sony A1. It makes sense for me since I own the Canon 600mm II lens. By purchasing the R5, I can use my 600 lens for wildlife. My old Canon 5D4, just can’t keep up with the action.
Back to the bears- we had blonde bears and even mixed brown and blonde bears, small spring cubs still with their white collars. We even had a couple of the big ole boars feeding on salmon. It was an excellent location for photography. Our accommodations were not quite as I expected but Alaska is a great big wilderness and creature comforts are not as necessary. We did have a nice Chalet with gorgeous views. My guests were treated to a whopping 8.2 magnitude earthquake, that struck off Alaska's coast while we were there. The chalet wobbled back and forth, and I expect it will slide into the river someday soon…hope not!
With an endless number of images to sort through and emails to catch up on I am only sharing a very small portion of the images I captured. Some are from my day at Brooks Falls too. All of these images were shot with my Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS Lens. I’ll share some of the shots I got with the Canon R5 soon.
I know the image is on the dark side but that was my intention. I also know the bear is looking out of the frame and not into the frame-but the image caught my eye…
In-camera blur @ 1/20 sec.