I was traveling all of December, so forgive me for not having posted any new blog updates for awhile. However, I am excited to share that Outdoor Photographer published my “Discover Alaska Wildlife” article in the February issue! In my article, I give lots of advice about where and how to photograph many of Alaska’s most sought after animals. I especially like the opening full page image of the lynx that I encountered while leaving Denali National Park last July. I have dedicated most of my last 5 summers to photographing Alaska, and look forward to another productive summer up north starting in May. Please let me know if you read that article and what you think.
Photographing humpback whales bubble-net feeding in Southeast Alaska is the most incredible experience that I have. Over several days in July, I was again fortunate to witness this extraordinary behavior. Even though I cruise with my own boat, finding a groups of whales feeding can be difficult and time consuming. However, once I have located them I drift nearby for hours hoping that they will occasionally come close enough to be photographed. During their attack the whales emit a high-pitched song to scare the fish and coordinate their timing. (Check out my YouTube video to hear what it sounds like.) To create a picture like this, my reflexes have to be lightning fast. It certainly helps if my camera is already pointed in the right direction when they break the surface. The momentary drama of water exploding into the air and fish jumping out of the whale’s wide-open mouths to avoid being swallowed is beyond my wildest dreams. I used my Canon 7D and 70-200mm f2.8 IS lens at 70mm to create this image.
Here is another amazing humpback whale breach that I photographed during my July trip in Southeast Alaska. Breaching whale encounters never get old. I wish that I could photograph whales every day, but for a variety of reasons it would be impractical, least of which is that they don’t cooperate like this very often. This juvenile humpback probably breached close to 100 times over the 2+ hours that I spent photographing it. This gave me ample time to maneuver my inflatable into position with the sunlight at the best angle and with the most pleasing mountains in the background. I did not anticipate where the whale was going to breach correctly every time, but when I did, I was rewarded with images like this one. The hardest part of photographing breaches is having my camera pointed in the right direction and responding fast enough before the entire moment is over. I used my Canon 7D and 70-200mm f2.8 IS lens with a shutter speed of 1/1300 second to stop the action.
One of my new Steller sea lion images is featured in the Alaska Exposed section of the December 2010 issue of Alaska. Typically, it takes me a few months to process my new images before I get them on my website or submit them to my agents. However, Alaska saw this image on my blog back in September and immediately contacted me about publishing it. In my experience this is an unusually quick turn-around from creation to publication.
I always say that if I could photograph only one thing, that it would be whales. Unfortunately, they are the most difficult and expensive subject that I photograph. I have swam next to these gentle giants and watched them repeatedly breach into the air, but the most amazing behavior I have documented is humpback whales bubble-net feeding in Alaska. This phenomenon involves a group of whales diving beneath a school of fish and blowing a ring of bubbles underwater to effectively form a net as it rises to the surface. The ring can be up to 100′ in diameter. The fish get scared by the bubbles and become concentrated in the center. At the last second the whales swim up from beneath the school of fish with their months open swallowing everything they can in one enormous gulp. Research has shown that the individual whales repeatedly take up the same positions as they come out of the water during each attack. The best photographs include the most dominant whales in the center positions as they burst above the surface and slam their mouths closed. An incredible amount of patience and luck is involved in anticipating where the whales are going to form a bubble-net. If I am close enough and can see the bubbles rising at the last second, I have to react fast enough to capture the moment as they lunge out of the water. Magnificent!
Over the Labor Day weekend, I wrote an article for one of the big photography magazines about how to photograph Alaska’s wildlife. It is scheduled to be published in the upcoming January issue. I want to share an excerpt from the article and a new harbor seal image that I created in Tracy Arm in July. I hope that you look forward to the complete article, but for now, please enjoy this teaser:
Most of the tidewater glaciers in Alaska support communities of harbor seals resting on icebergs, but it is difficult to approach these skittish animals. My best photo opportunities have happened by drifting amongst the icebergs in my inflatable in order to quietly observe the seals. You will need to have a long lens in order to get in tight. I own the Canon 400mm f4 DO IS lens, which when combined with my 7D becomes a very hand-holdable 640mm equivalent. I prefer my images to be as close to eye-level at the water as possible, so try to get down to the lowest part of the boat. It looks much more intimate from a low angle than when shot down on them from up high. If you are unable to get in close enough for a frame filling shot, look for complimentary iceberg patterns around a seal in order to show it in its environment. Also, remember to over-expose your image at least +1 stop when you are photographing bright subjects like icebergs!
For marine mammal photographers like myself, photographing whale tails is not that hard to do, but creating a striking image is. This is the only part of the animal that most whale watchers will ever see. It’s not the most dramatic behavior, and certainly nowhere near as photogenic as a full body breach. Over the years, I have taken tens of thousands of whale tail images. I am grateful that I no longer have to spend money on film since most of these images are utterly useless and unworthy of even the 1 second of my time that it takes for me to hit the delete button. Still, every once in a while I photograph a nice tail, like this one. Here’s how the sequence of events needs to work in order to create an image like this. A whale has to surface within a few hundred yards of my boat. It will normally take 3-5 breaths on the surface before diving, which might give me enough time to close the distance on the tail and take up a position behind the whale, not slightly to the left or right, but directly behind it. When the whale begins its dive, there is usually 1 image where the tail is almost at its apex and water is pouring off of it. I am also ever vigilant for a pleasing background, like these snow capped peaks and non-distracting blue mountains in the distance. The entire image has to come together, not just any one part.
Another freakin’ humpback whale breaching photo? Well, yes, it is! I normally prefer breaching images at the peak of the whale’s trajectory, because they don’t appear as powerful in the limp-coming back down phase, let alone when the big splash happens. However, what I do like about this image is that it shows the power of the whale’s tail propelling it almost completely out of the water. You can see that there is very little of the whale still connected to the surface. I had to keep moving my inflatable for safety, but I also wanted to keep the whale on the inside of me in order to photograph it against the pretty blue mountains in the distance.
By now, my regular readers and social networking followers are probably aware that I had engine trouble last week while using my boat on Prince William Sound for the first time. The repair bill is pretty bad, but not as catastrophic as I had initially feared. It’s par for the course in trying to shoot unique images in remote locations. I have not had a trip go sour in almost 2 years, so I can not complain. During my short visit, I was absolutely blown away by the beauty and potential images that I saw in the College Fjord area, let alone the rest of PWS. I hope to go back to Alaska in the next week and maybe even get out on my boat once it is repaired one last time. Either way, I have a lot to look forward to next summer.
Here is a new Steller sea lion image from my July trip to Southeast Alaska. I spent 2 days visiting the Yasha Island pinniped colony. The cacophony of sound plus the overpowering stench of the colony is impossible to share, but at least I created some interesting images that capture the spirit of the place. I used my inflatable boat to drift in the kelp in order to get a low-angle view which best conveys a sense of being in the water next to these curious creatures. Steller sea lions have bulging eyes which make them look like aliens, which really comes across in this image. I think they are even kind of cute. I used my Canon 7D and 400mm f4 DO IS lens to create this photo. This setup is excellent for being able to hand-hold a big lens on the water.
As I have previously mentioned, I will be editing my new humpback whale breaching images for months to come. This is another graceful breach from the incredibly cooperative whale that I photographed last month in Frederick Sound. This young whale repeatedly displayed its enthusiasm for the warm sun, good eating, close friends, and nearby photographer for almost 2 hours. I could not capture every breach perfectly, but I am pleased with how many of the sequences yielded surprising images. Take this one for instance. It is not the boldest breach ever, but I like the gentle angle, perfect composition, and delicate twist of water emanating from its pectoral fin. It just looks like a happy whale.
