Photos and stories about digital photography in Alaska by professional photographer Patrick Endres
Category Archives: Birds I’m back in the blustery snowy landscape of Fairbanks, following a few weeks in the springtime southern hemisphere of Chile, South America. That is one long, slender country, and I enjoyed the divergent environments of the consistently clear and dry northern desert to the dynamically changing slopes of the Torres del Paine National Park of…  I’ve had few chances to get a good photo of a snowly owl in flight, over the snowy tundra of Alaska’s north slope. On my last trip there many were spotted but this is the only one that I had a chance to photograph, and that was a long reach. I used my 500 with…  For me to leave Alaska in the summer for a chunk of time is rare. I did so in July, in part, to serve as photography guiding staff on a voyage in Svalbard. On this wonderful trip I accrued a few very notable nature encounters. One in particular ranks up there in what I have…  I photographed this Atlantic puffin along the shores of the Island of Spitzbergen in Svalbard, on a sunny, calm evening. I’m familiar with the horned and tufted puffin that inhabit Alaska, but this was my first sighting of the Atlantic puffin. They are bright and colorful like the other gregarious puffins. As is often the…  Female willow ptarmigan Camouflage is at the heart of this bird’s survival. The willow ptarmigan has many color morphs, depending on the season and the terrain in which it lives. In this case, the tundra is just awakening to spring, and the dull brown colors are a perfect match for her brown feathers. In the…  Male King Eider duck Earlier in the week I posted a photo of a male king eider duck that I took at midnight in Alaska ‘s arctic, under cloudy skies. In contrast, I wanted to share a photo of the same species, but under completely different lighting conditions. I took this picture at 12 noon,…  The king eider is a bird I have long wanted to see. While it is hard to call out a favorite bird, it ranks up there with the best with its unique features, feathers, and colors. While in the very high arctic, I had only one evening to shoot due to a tight schedule and…  Over the years of travel across Alaska, I’ve watched many short-eared owls hunting and flying over the tundra landscape. They are artful flyers, often visible in the treeless environment in which they roam. On a trip last week however, I had the first really good opportunity to photograph an owl, that did not seem to…  The male harlequin duck is a distinctively marked, and colorful bird in its breeding plumage. We have seen hundreds of them on the voyage in Prince William Sound, although they are a bit wary from an approaching skiff. They seem to be a little less shy when they are in the interior rivers of Alaska…  Sunny skies in Prince William Sound have made the Spring Birding and Wildlife photography voyage on Discovery Voyages a great experience. So far we have seen all four species of the Loon. The common, the yellow-billed, the red-throated and the pacific. This common loon however, has been the lone bird that permitted some relatively close…  Early May along the Copper River Delta in southcentral Alaska is about the time that hundreds of thousands of little visitors show up for refueling on their migratory journey to Alaska’s food and light laden summer breeding grounds. Amongst many birds, the Western Sandpipers are the most abundant, sometimes congregating in giant flocks that weave…  Enjoy a mixture of wildlife photos from Alaska’s lush southern coast to its icy northern shores, in all seasons. With the snow beginning to melt in Alaska’s interior, I’m getting excited about the upcoming photo ventures this summer.  This morning it was minus 17 degrees in the town of Fairbanks, and 10 degrees above zero at my office, just outside of town, up in the hills. That’s 27 degrees warmer, quite a difference. Do I live in Fairbanks? Sort of…. While winter is in full gear here in the interior, my mind occassionally…  Last year at this time I was sailing the southern ocean in retrofitted icebreaker, headed for Antarctica and its exotic sights and sounds with a group of 100 or so intrepid travelers. It seems fitting to revisit that folder of images and share a picture of a penguin, as they are for some reason, a…  The travel writer Paul Theraux wrote in his book “Dark Star Safari: “You go away for a long time and return a different person–you never come all the way back.” I find this short sentence to embody much truth. And one of the great benefits of traveling is getting out of your circle which allows… 
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