Alaska Photography Blog » Wildlife

Caribou migrating in Alaska’s arctic

Patrick Endres — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 20:46:25 +0000

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Caribou migrating in Alaska’s arctic

Alaska’s caribou are nomadic ungulates that traverse hundreds of miles across much of Alaska. In the arctic, their presence is sporadic due to their varied movements. On occasion, if one is lucky, large herds can be observed migrating and feeding on Alaska’s arctic north slope. While this group of animals never came very close for photography, their dispersed position across a majestic landscape was an impressive sight. To help show the expansiveness of the region, I stitched together four horizontal images to create this panorama. The process of creating stitched panos has become so simple with the sophistication of the latter versions of Photoshop that is almost scary. I remember the days of needing to learn a completely dedicated program for this, that was somewhat complicated. Now I select the images in Lightroom and then choose merge to panorama in photoshop and in a few minutes, there it is.

Polar bear sleeping in Alaska’s arctic

Patrick Endres — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:28:41 +0000

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Polar bear symmetry

Polar bear sleeps on the snow covered arctic barrier island in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Canon 1D Mark IV, 500mm f/4L IS, with 1.4x (910mm) 1/500 sec @ f/6.3, ISO 400.

While her cubs were off playing, this female polar bear curled up on the snow and dozed off occasionally. The posture makes a beautiful, symmetrical pose. It is a cropped version of an image taken with a Canon 1D Mark IV, 500mm + 1.4x extender, which translates into a focal length of 910mm. That is a long reach, but it is still very sharp.

As Fairbanks awaits a chilly minus 50 degree temperature this weekend, it is amazing that these bears survive in the chilly arctic waters. They are incredibly well insulated with up to 4 inches of fat under some of that white fur. Ian Sterling reports in his book on Polar Bears, that aerial infrared heat sensing equipment can’t detect the actual bear, just the warm air exiting their mouth when trekking across the ice pack.

I’ll be processing more images from this folder over the next week and will share a few keepers on subsequent posts. You can see more polar bear photos on my website.

Brown bear and red salmon

Patrick Endres — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:19:36 +0000

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Brown bear (ursus arctos) and red salmon (oncorhynchus nerka)

I watched this female brown bear capture many red salmon in the Brooks river of Katmai national park, in southwest Alaska. She had one cub of the year to feed, who watched from the river bank keeping alert for other bears. This picture was taken at a focal length of 700mm, which makes it seem closer than it actually was, but even still, I happened to be in a position that did not allow for me to back up easily, which sometimes happens photographing bears. The bear had approached me while chasing fish in the river, so I grabbed a few shots before she walked back to the bank to feed her cub. Photographing a moving subject, in low light, with a long lens resulted in many out of focus shots. The depth of field is very narrow at f/4 at this distance, and the eye needs to be sharp. This was a successful one, and I liked how it reveals the dexterous manner in which the bears can handle fish, she is holding it with her teeth by the dorsal fin.

I have shot extensively at Katmai, and you can see more images on my website: Katmai National Park and Brown bears

Dall sheep ram with full curl

Patrick Endres — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 20:41:09 +0000

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Full curl Dall sheep ram

A full curl dall sheep ram stands on the snow covered tundra of Alaska's Brooks range. Canon 1Ds Mark III, 500mm f/4L IS, 1/400 sec @ f/4, ISO 400. (Patrick J. Endres / AlaskaPhotoGraphics.com)

I took this shot a few months ago while traveling through Alaska’s Brooks range. Dall sheep rams with a full curl are generally pretty wary due to hunting pressure which has increased in the region over the last decade. Due to the breeding season, a few rams were mingling with a flock of female sheep which were accessible to photograph along the winter, snowy tundra north of Atigun Pass. Shadowed conditions are pretty common in this steep mountain country during late October and November due to the lack of daylight, and the sun that seldom shines into the steep valleys. For this reason, the light is often flat, and minimal. The classic white on white requires about a +1-1/2 or a little more exposure compensation, in order to render the whites white.

Visit my website for more dall sheep photos

Katmai brown bear, stitch from 4 images

Patrick Endres — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 19:46:09 +0000

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Brown bear walks along the beach of Naknek lake at dawn in Katmai National Park, southwest, Alaska. Canon 1Ds Mark III, 24-105mm f/4L IS, (35mm), 1/25 sec @ f/10, ISO 400

I’ve been digging through some files from that latter part of 2011, doing some clean up work and getting folders in a completed state. Occasionally I will shoot a series of images which are to be stitched into a larger file in post production. I do this for panoramas, and sometimes to increase the overall resolution due to focal length and/or scene restrictions. This is one of those made from four images. I was set up along the beach in Katmai National Park and knew that the bears make this morning journey. I missed a few chances for simply not being ready, but this time, I had set my focal length to 35mm, anticipating the basic composition of the bear. After I shot the series of the bear walking along, I kept the camera on the tripod and shot three images in a vertical direction, which includes the tree and sky. This affords a nice, high resolution file very suitable large publication.

2012 AT&T Calendar

Patrick Endres — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 17:00:43 +0000

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I’m on vacation in the Virgin Islands. Yup, a rough life. Fairbanks was minus -30 degrees when I left, and even though I really like winter, the white sand and aqua water will be a fantastic break. A few photos in the making but nothing too serious. While I’m gone, I scheduled this post of a recent publication, and since it is a calendar, I thought it was a fitting picture to wish everyone a new year worthy of their expectations. May your 2012 be a rewarding year.

Panorama stitch I made from photos taken in Denali in August of 2011

Polar bear photo on Bing

Patrick Endres — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 17:03:40 +0000

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Polar bear in Alaska's arctic

I found out that the new year started with one of the photos published in my new 2012 calendar “Alaska: Profiles in Nature“, was featured on the search website: www.bing.com. It was a polar bear picture that I took a few years ago in Alaska’s arctic. Pretty cool.

2011 Favorite Pictures from 2011

Patrick Endres — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 17:46:26 +0000

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A year in Review: 100 Favorite Images from 2011

Years ago, I started sharing a collection of 100 favorite pictures from my year’s worth of photography. It’s a bit more expansive than the top ten or twelve, and seems to me more reflective of what I have been up to.

2011 turned out to be a year of less photography, with business reorganization and some personal time off usurping shutter clicks. But I was still able to stay in the game and make some fun imagery.

Cheers to 2011!

See the favorites on Google Plus – below link

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1000 Favorite galleries from the past…

Some of my older galleries were initially presented in Flash, but I have since converted them for better viewing on mobile devices. Below are links to the Favorite galleries.

Happy Holidays

Patrick Endres — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 17:00:28 +0000

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Happy Holidays to you all

and thanks for another year of expressing interest in my photography.

Happy Holidays

Flamingos over the Atacama desert

Patrick Endres — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 21:58:00 +0000

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Flamigos take flight over the Atacama desert, northern Chile. Canon 5 D Mark II, 70-300mm f/5.6L IS DO, 1/250 sec @ f/5.6, ISO 1000

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 the south. I’ll have a few images to share in the next few weeks.