The best year...well the past year, it has been a great year.
This year's calendar starts in an odd place. Last June, my little sister got married to her high-school sweetheart and a great guy. They planned their wedding date around my adventures, mostly because they wanted a free photographer, who did work like a $5K photographer. They were too afraid to do the wedding after my Alaskan Adventure because "what if a bear were to eat me."
So this great year starts on June 8, 2012, my sister’s wedding. I’m so proud of my little sister :)
Shortly after her wedding, I drove my newly customized (to live out of) Ford F150 from Chicago, IL to Billings, MT, where I packed for what ended up being my longest adventure to date. I also finished editing wedding photos before I left, just in case something went wrong – you know, like a bear eating me.
I left Billings, MT for Alaska and the trip was legen...wait for it...the kind of trip that gives you memories and stories to fill a lifetime. : ) Jumping off ice into the Arctic Ocean, swimming rivers in remote (almost unvisited) national parks (ANWR and Gates of the Arctic), seeing muskox, climbing in the Brooks Range, hiking in Denali, camping along fishing costal brown bears, spit ratting it, sailing Kenai Fjord, watching orca pods come together to breed, driving the most rugged and remote roads in North America, and getting to photograph it all...I hope your not lactose intolerant because the second half of the word is, dary...legendary ;)
Alaska in the summer is amazing, and I feel okay using that word because it is God's creation at its most unadulterated state. Alaska really is creation at its finest that I have experienced to date.
I returned home with more than 27,000 photographs, and I don't have words to describe the experience justly.
Now for those of you who have not visited Montana you may not realize that it’s "Big Sky County" and "The Last Best Place." Those things really are true, but it’s no Alaska. My return to home and to my job as a staff photographer and college "prof" was a challenge, and I'm okay admitting that.
I spent two months with the nights being too bright to see stars, with no deadlines, no real responsibilities, and with very few people to interact with. A foreign concept to folks in most of the world, but it was my reality, and I loved it.
My fall semester was a good one with great students in all of my classes, numerous trips to Yellowstone National Park (my favorite place in the lower 48) and plenty of good climbing around Montana and Wyoming. The problem with having a "real" job is that you can't just take two months, or even two weeks off to go on an adventure. And if that's true then I am incredibly blessed to not have a real job, as by November I was ready for another adventure.
I'm Swedish and German, I grew up in the Midwest, and I like cold weather, so there is something about the Arctic that just calls to me like a siren song. As November rolled around, the semester was winding down, and I got to leave for two weeks to go back to the Arctic. I was teaching classes like Digital Nature Photography and Conservation Photography, so the students understand why I “had” to leave for two weeks.
The trip’s timing was perfect. We saw countless polar bears, ample snow, rapidly changing ice, Northern Lights, and magical light. I returned home with more than 12,000 photos and some of them are unimaginable.
At this point in my year, I'm back to Montana after spending two months in Alaska and more than 30 days in the Arctic. I have nearly 40,000 images to edit. It was those images that caused me to make a decision that broke my mother’s heart, just a little bit. I decided to stay in Montana and edit photographs rather than travel back to Chicago for Christmas. I decided that I needed to edit and was not going to let myself have a "real" Christmas unless I was finished editing. Don't feel too bad for me, as I found plenty of time to ski and climb while I was "resting my eyes," from all of the editing.
2013 started off with a new semester at Rocky Mountain College, and being that it was also my fifth year teaching I'm told I was due a "sabbatical." Now as I am not a full-time professor, I don't know how this was really supposed to work, but I took that to mean that I could teach an independent study course or two and schedule the month of March off from the staff photographer part of my job. So that's what I did, and no one has called me on it yet.
Again my images appeared in national ad campaigns and magazines like The New Yorker, Backpacker, National Geographic, and Outside to name a few. I had my worked published in a few books around the world, and in so many US newspapers that I lost count.
Oh, and the region’s biggest paper, The Billings Gazette, named me as one of their 40 Under Forty this year in February.
March 1 I left Billings, MT bound for Las Vegas. Well, actually about twenty miles west of Vegas to Red Rock Canyon. Red Rock is one of the best climbing destinations in the country – it is seriously incredible. But that was only the start of my "sabbatical trip"a.k.a. my "March Through The Southwest," I continued on to Zion, Bryce, Capitol Reef, The Swell, Arches, Canyonlands, Indian Creek, Natural Bridges, Monument Valley, Antelope Canyon, The Wave, and back to Zion and Bryce Canyon before I made my way back toward home, with a mandatory stop in Yellowstone.
Upon returning home with 17,000 photographs, I immediately left for a climbing trip to Devils Tower, where I got rained out again, and then off to Bozeman for some more climbing.
April is a crazy month around any college campus, but I love the craziness, as I get to photograph all kinds of different things, and that only makes me a better photographer for whatever assignments come my way through the rest of my life. My April was also filled with catching up with old friends, making new ones, doing 32 hot yoga classes and finding time to climb 16 times despite the cold and snowy spring. Oh yeah...I was a bit ticked off that after a cruddy winter for skiing, as soon as the resorts closed we got pounded with snow, but I was finished with the ski season so I didn't motivate myself to go and skin up the mountain to earn my turns.
May, and my 28 birthday, was spent in Yellowstone National Park... Sixteen days to be exact. Spring in Yellowstone was slow, but patience and dedication paid off, and after spending more than 100 hours watching and waiting, I was privileged to photograph a grizzly sow and her three tiny cubs of the year. Many of my friends in Yellowstone got to enjoy my birthday German chocolate chocolate chip cookies, but they still couldn’t help but to harass me about my age...I'm getting closer to an age where people will just assume I'm an adult, I hope ;)
I truly LOVE the life that I get to wake up each day and live. I am blessed beyond measure in so many ways, and though this has been the best year of my life, I have a hunch that next year will give it a run for its money and each year to follow will do the same.
Remember, it might seem like I never work, but I average over 50 hours each week. Though I spent one third of my year traveling, that is not much more than someone who chooses to spend each weekend of the year traveling. Oftentimes I travel like a dirtbag, but I do have a nice truck (2012 - F150), I do have a nice apartment (no time for a house, but I do love having a pool/hot tub/sauna), and a great job with benefits and a retirement plan. Yeah, I'm single, but who do you know that would put up or keep up with someone as crazy as me...no seriously what's her number? I'll give her a call ;)
p.s. In August I'm taking students on a three week African safari, and then I hope to climb mount Kilimanjaro.
p.p.s. In October/November I am going to Italy to teach photography for three weeks, and hopefully sneak in a sport-climbing trip on the Tuscan coast with a friend.
I'm living my dream...I hope you find a way to live yours.
Showing posts with label Churchill. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Churchill. Show all posts
June 1, 2013
November 24, 2012
Canadian Arctic, November 4-18, 2012
WOW!
As I sit here, after editing over 12,000 photos from this trip to the Canadian Arctic...I find it hard to put this experience into words.
Let me start by saying that there are around 750 photographs from the Low Canadian Arctic online here. If you don't feel like reading this insanely long trip report you can just jump to the photographs and enjoy them. Make the jump to go through the online gallery. I really do appreciate any comments/criticism you leave; you can even give your favorites a simple thumbs up, so I can get your opinion on the winners...thanks and enjoy.
Last year, while on my trip to Churchill, I knew right away that it was a place that I would visit again – as soon as I could. Luckily Pete Zaluzec, a friend who was on the trip with me last year, decided the same thing, so we began planning this trip while still on last year's trip. Pete and I met up a few times on other trips over the past year to firm up our plans for Churchill 2012.
Pete and I decided that we would do the trip on our own, hire a local guide for some of it, allowing us to do what we wanted. Pete is a world-renowned sculptor who needs photographs for reference material, but unlike many artists looking only for reference images Pete understands light and shoots accordingly. When you are on a photographic trip with others, especially tourists/hobbyists, many times you end up with a group that wants to move on to look for something new rather than wait for good light.
Pete and I knew we were going to find bears and then settle in to wait for the light that we wanted, so we knew that bringing anyone else with us would only work if they cared about light like us. We decided to invite a friend of Pete's who is a famous wildlife artist, Greg Beecham.
With our group set, local accommodations made and a highly respected local guide lined up, we were ready. All three of us use Canon equipment and are obsessed with great light, so it looked to be a perfect group.
Pete does not fly, so we all decided to meet in Winnipeg, Manitoba and take the 40-hour train ride to Churchill, Manitoba. The train ride was a great time for us all to really get to know one another, as well as the handful of other folks making the long journey/ride. During the trip I had plenty of time to lecture on photography, as most of you know, that is one of my favorite things to do :)
When we arrived in Churchill we got in our Yukon XL, that was designed for life out on the tundra. We were excited to get out and find some bears to photograph. Not long after leaving town, I spotted our first bear of the trip, and Greg's first bear. We spent about an hour with the bear, and when it settled in for a second time, we decided to continue on to see what we could find. Not five minutes later I found two bears walking along the shore keeping their eye on a bearded seal that was resting on an ice flow. We continued on to the Northern Studies Center where we found a flock of around 50 willow ptarmigan foraging in the willows.
We had heard a rumor that Natural Resources was going to be air lifting a bear out of the Polar Bear Holding Facility, so we decided that it would be worthwhile to shoot that and cross it off our list on the first day. The helicopter flew in, Resources brought out the bear and readied him for the flight out, the helicopter lifted the bear off, and the show was over. It was very quick, very smooth and professional...it was also surprising to me to see how gingerly they treated the unconscious bear. I decided to also shoot some video of the bear lifting off.
After the air-show we found a red fox and continued our search for bears. We spent the rest of the night watching Natural Resources haze a sow and two ten-month-old cubs along Cape Mary towards the Churchill River. I'll leave the controversial/sad part of this off of the blog post, but I have written a bit about it with the photograph.
If I went through each of our ten days to that same level of detail it would take me a week to write the post, and you a day to read it, so from here on I'll just hit the highlights. Plus I am considering putting together an eBook where I can plug in some multimedia bits showing or explaining some of the great experiences that the trip brought me.
For the next three days we had a local guide from Nature 1st, to both guide and provide "Polar Bear Security." Our guide, Sheldon, was excellent and a pleasure to spend time with. With Sheldon we found countless bears, raven, gyrfalcon, red fox, arctic fox and plenty of arctic hare tracks :)
We had a slow second day...well at least it started off slow. We drove the roads and back roads getting re-acclimated to the area, and figure out were we could and could not drive with the current snow conditions. As the afternoon came we had yet to find any bears that were ideal for us to photograph, so we kept searching. Driving in to bird cove, at first on two-track then on frozen tundra, we spotted a bear heading our way across the ice. We decided that we would wait with that bear for some light. She tried to break through the ice, dug around and groomed herself while we watched...then suddenly she started to walk away.
It took us a minute or two before we saw the reason...another bear was making his was across the ice and she wanted to give him room to walk past. The second bear approached us and she decided to lie down on the ice. As this happened the third bear that we had spotted earlier in the willows continued to sleep.
We kept waiting, as our chances of having a cooperative bear when the light got good seemed to be getting better. Off in the distance I notice another bear heading our way and this bear has a beautiful, clean, white coat.
Now we had two bears together digging in the ice at the edge of the shore, a bear sleeping to our left in the Willows and another sleeping out on the ice to our right. Suddenly, almost on our cue, the two "friendly" bears started to play with one another, as the light broke through the clouds in a narrow slit on the horizon. It was short lived, and the two bears started to walk off into the willows, but we decided to follow.
As we rounded the end of the willows we could see that the two bears were sparing in the setting sunlight, and it was magical. The sparing ended, and our guide as well as Pete and Greg thought the day was over. I spotted a fifth bear making his way across the ice and was able to convince them that there was still enough light and time to make our way back to the cove and photograph this bear.
It ended up being the right call, as the light was incredible on the bear and the ice edge. The light continued to dwindle as the bear walked in front of the MV Ithaca. And now we all started to think the day was done, but what an ending we had enjoyed.
Almost beyond our belief we spotted a sixth bear making its way across the ice, then a seventh coming from the other way. The were all making their way through Bird Cove, and we were the only ones here to see and photograph it. Two of the bears came together for a "kiss" where other bears had been digging, but the real show was yet to come.
The sun had set, but my Canon 5D III and new 400/2.8L IS II had plenty of light for what was about to happen next. The two largest male bears decided to put on an after hours show, and after chatting about it, the sparing commenced. They spared long enough to both deliver great photographs, but even enough for me to shoot some video.
Towards the end of the sparing I was shooting my Canon 5D III and 400/2.8L IS II in aperture priority mode with an exposure bias of + 2/3 at ISO3200, f/2.8, and 1/800th of a second. By that point I had moved away from the vehicle to get the best angle I could on the main event, and I was glad that we had an armed guide as I was shooting with five bears in sight and at least three more that we knew were in the area. Needless to say my head was on a constant swivel, and I shot handheld because setting up a tripod would slow me down in a retreat to the vehicle; also with the shutter speed needed to stop fighting bears, I knew that I could handhold my camera and lens just fine...I love the new 400/2.8L IS II.
Our third day was, with without a doubt, the slowest day of our trip. We only photographed one bear, and that bear was inspecting an old bear trap and then showed why she had been trapped and marked recently. She was incredibly curious of the vehicle and it took significant effort on the part of our guide to scare the bear away.
We did have an okay sunrise and a beautiful sunset, but the only wildlife highlight was a Gyrfalcon that I spotted and got to photograph sitting on the ice edge. Unfortunately for Pete and Greg, it flew away before they could get their cameras ready.
The next morning started off with blizzard conditions, really near whiteout. But we were not about to sleep in or take the day off, even though we did chat about the idea. In places the sun managed to break through, but others were not so nice. For most of the morning we did our best to stay away from the worst of the storm, and even managed to find a cooperative fox with some nice light.
By lunchtime we decided that we needed to go find some bears, even if it was quite blustery. When it's blowing snow the bears just want to lie down out of the wind and rest. We found a few, and as one of them got up and started walking in our direction the sun managed to break through the clouds, but that did not stop the wind from blowing snow. She made her way past us and to the willows edge, when in about five minutes she dug a day den in a drift and all but disappeared.
With two bears resting out of the wind, and sunset coming soon, we decided to wait for better light and hope that one of the bears would get up and move. As the sun neared the horizon and broke through the clouds the female bear decided to sit up and see what the wind was doing. It was now blowing about half as hard as it had been. She must have decided it had died enough to get up and move, but not before shaking off the afternoon's accumulation of snow.
The next morning promised clearer sky, so we decided our fifth day would be about getting some landscapes. With the next three days on our own we figured we could chase the light and landscapes without a guide thinking we were nuts. We wanted to photograph sunrise over the ice, but many of the ice features we had scouted the evening before disappeared over night, so we shot what we could find. The wind and snow of the past few days had left the landscape buried in many places, but that was okay with us.
Pete has the gift for making great friends of random people he meets. On the train ride he decided to learn a little Chinese from four young women who were visiting from Taiwan. They only had one day scheduled out on the buggies and the rest of their time was spent in town, so we decided to take them with us for most of our fifth day (their last day). After we did our landscape run, we went and picked them up. Thank God for the third row seats in the Yukon XL.
Once we added them to the vehicle we shifted our focus back to polar bears, and we found our share. First we spotted a bear making his was across the ice. He ended up heading into the rocks for a bit before heading further along the coast. We jumped ahead to our next access point and waited, but after about fifteen minutes everyone was a bit anxious and wanted to move on. I demanded six more minutes, and five minutes later he made his way around the point and into sight.
He approached, but then went and rested in the lime grass. We waited with renewed patience, and he rewarded us by approaching very near (near enough that I returned to the safety of the vehicle). We repositioned and spotted a pair of red fox hunting and another bear way out on the ice, but as the sun was getting ready to set we wanted to keep a subject nearby.
The bear started to head away on the ice then disappeared behind some huge piles of snow and ice. Everyone was quite cold, and the common consensus was that we should head back towards town, but being the senseless jerk I am, I decided we would wait six more minutes. A few minutes later the bear peeked out at us, crossed back to our side of the off ice and walked in the setting sunlight.
The next morning we were out dark and early, and after a short delay for an iceberg bear (ask Greg about that one) I spotted a cross fox running out on the ice. We continued on looking for bears...and we found one resting at the willows edge. The sun was about to break through the clouds at the horizon, so I made my request of what the bear "needed to do." Oddly enough as soon as I finished saying what I wanted the bear got up and walked exactly where I wanted him to, as the sun broke through. The bear then bedded back down on our side of the frozen lake. The bear was so near us that I had to shoot some bear abstracts.
The clear sky and warming temperatures were causing a rise in atmospheric distortion, so we made our way back to town for gas and lunch. While there we did a bit of lens testing using FoCal. We finished our lunch and testing in time to find a bear in the setting sunlight, but just barely ;)
The next morning we found a bear resting in a grove of black spruce, but after I made my request he went into a better scene for the actual sunrise. It's not luck if you request it...right?
By our seventh day of the trip the ice was really starting to form along the coast, and the bears were keeping a close eye on the conditions. Some bears walked along the ice, while others took a more relaxed approach to the waiting game.
That night the clouds came in and the wind changed direction, blowing almost all of the ice out to sea, with many bears still on it. We spent $300 on gas and then we found another bearded seal, but that was about it.
The next morning it seemed as if there had been an exodus of bears, with the ice, and most of the folks that we talked to found very few bears from that point on. We decided to head into the storm to find bears. I decided with fewer bears I could finally waste some time photographing the cracks in the ice.
With the help of our guide we found a handful of bears on a day that most of the folks we talked, to on the radio, found none. We even found two bears that did not seem to like one another much, charging and showing other signs of irritation. They eventually figured things out and it was time for a nap. On our way in for the night I found this beautiful tree that had been overcome by a snowdrift, so we had to make one more stop for the night.
That night with clear sky and a nice display of the Northern Lights, Pete and I had to spend a few hours out photographing the show. The lights danced above Cape Mary, then above a grove of black spruce, and lastly above Hudson Bay.
The next morning we decided to hunt for some of the smaller species on our list. We found lots of arctic hare track, but no hare, a rock ptarmigan and lastly the illusive, or at least this year, arctic fox. I even took some time to do a bit of "cold yoga," the wind-chill was around -30ºF, but it was better than being like this bear and watching television. In the bear's defense it did scrub down after, and even brushed it coat.
On our tenth and final day the wind was strong and making new drifts for use to battle, but the weathermen were wrong...yes it was incredibly windy, but the clouds were breaking and we had plenty of nice light. We even managed to find a few bears, something that few others were managing to do, even some of the Tundra Buggy folks, and they guarantee bears to their clients.
With only a few bears, high winds and our train departing shortly we decided to follow this bear's example and make tracks as soon as the sun set.
After ten days on the ground, with bears every day, we were actually glad to be heading home. And after 47 hours on a train we arrived back in Winnipeg, Manitoba where I loaded my truck and started the long drive back to Montana.
I left Montana on Saturday, November 4 and made it back home safe and sound on Sunday, November 18, 2012. I took 12,120 photographs and 60 video clips; I drove 1656.3 miles; and I absolutely fell in love with my new 400/2.8L IS II.
My travel count for 2012 is currently at 121 days away from home, and I assume I'll get a few more before the end of the year.
As always if you have questions, ask... I have published the camera information with each image and added full keywords to share just about anything you would want to know about the images.
Thanks and enjoy
P.S. needless to say this trip helped boost my number of Polar Bear, Arctic Fox, Gyrfalcon and all around Arctic images.
As I sit here, after editing over 12,000 photos from this trip to the Canadian Arctic...I find it hard to put this experience into words.
Let me start by saying that there are around 750 photographs from the Low Canadian Arctic online here. If you don't feel like reading this insanely long trip report you can just jump to the photographs and enjoy them. Make the jump to go through the online gallery. I really do appreciate any comments/criticism you leave; you can even give your favorites a simple thumbs up, so I can get your opinion on the winners...thanks and enjoy.
 |
| A male Polar Bear (Ursus maritimus) looks around as the rising sun breaks through the clouds illuminating the world with its colorful glow. Captured with a Canon 5D III and 70-200/2.8L IS II in aperture priority mode with an exposure bias of + 1/3 at ISO400, f/8.0, and 1/400th of a second. The camera was handheld. |
Last year, while on my trip to Churchill, I knew right away that it was a place that I would visit again – as soon as I could. Luckily Pete Zaluzec, a friend who was on the trip with me last year, decided the same thing, so we began planning this trip while still on last year's trip. Pete and I met up a few times on other trips over the past year to firm up our plans for Churchill 2012.
Pete and I decided that we would do the trip on our own, hire a local guide for some of it, allowing us to do what we wanted. Pete is a world-renowned sculptor who needs photographs for reference material, but unlike many artists looking only for reference images Pete understands light and shoots accordingly. When you are on a photographic trip with others, especially tourists/hobbyists, many times you end up with a group that wants to move on to look for something new rather than wait for good light.
Pete and I knew we were going to find bears and then settle in to wait for the light that we wanted, so we knew that bringing anyone else with us would only work if they cared about light like us. We decided to invite a friend of Pete's who is a famous wildlife artist, Greg Beecham.
With our group set, local accommodations made and a highly respected local guide lined up, we were ready. All three of us use Canon equipment and are obsessed with great light, so it looked to be a perfect group.
Pete does not fly, so we all decided to meet in Winnipeg, Manitoba and take the 40-hour train ride to Churchill, Manitoba. The train ride was a great time for us all to really get to know one another, as well as the handful of other folks making the long journey/ride. During the trip I had plenty of time to lecture on photography, as most of you know, that is one of my favorite things to do :)
When we arrived in Churchill we got in our Yukon XL, that was designed for life out on the tundra. We were excited to get out and find some bears to photograph. Not long after leaving town, I spotted our first bear of the trip, and Greg's first bear. We spent about an hour with the bear, and when it settled in for a second time, we decided to continue on to see what we could find. Not five minutes later I found two bears walking along the shore keeping their eye on a bearded seal that was resting on an ice flow. We continued on to the Northern Studies Center where we found a flock of around 50 willow ptarmigan foraging in the willows.
We had heard a rumor that Natural Resources was going to be air lifting a bear out of the Polar Bear Holding Facility, so we decided that it would be worthwhile to shoot that and cross it off our list on the first day. The helicopter flew in, Resources brought out the bear and readied him for the flight out, the helicopter lifted the bear off, and the show was over. It was very quick, very smooth and professional...it was also surprising to me to see how gingerly they treated the unconscious bear. I decided to also shoot some video of the bear lifting off.
After the air-show we found a red fox and continued our search for bears. We spent the rest of the night watching Natural Resources haze a sow and two ten-month-old cubs along Cape Mary towards the Churchill River. I'll leave the controversial/sad part of this off of the blog post, but I have written a bit about it with the photograph.
If I went through each of our ten days to that same level of detail it would take me a week to write the post, and you a day to read it, so from here on I'll just hit the highlights. Plus I am considering putting together an eBook where I can plug in some multimedia bits showing or explaining some of the great experiences that the trip brought me.
For the next three days we had a local guide from Nature 1st, to both guide and provide "Polar Bear Security." Our guide, Sheldon, was excellent and a pleasure to spend time with. With Sheldon we found countless bears, raven, gyrfalcon, red fox, arctic fox and plenty of arctic hare tracks :)
We had a slow second day...well at least it started off slow. We drove the roads and back roads getting re-acclimated to the area, and figure out were we could and could not drive with the current snow conditions. As the afternoon came we had yet to find any bears that were ideal for us to photograph, so we kept searching. Driving in to bird cove, at first on two-track then on frozen tundra, we spotted a bear heading our way across the ice. We decided that we would wait with that bear for some light. She tried to break through the ice, dug around and groomed herself while we watched...then suddenly she started to walk away.
It took us a minute or two before we saw the reason...another bear was making his was across the ice and she wanted to give him room to walk past. The second bear approached us and she decided to lie down on the ice. As this happened the third bear that we had spotted earlier in the willows continued to sleep.
We kept waiting, as our chances of having a cooperative bear when the light got good seemed to be getting better. Off in the distance I notice another bear heading our way and this bear has a beautiful, clean, white coat.
Now we had two bears together digging in the ice at the edge of the shore, a bear sleeping to our left in the Willows and another sleeping out on the ice to our right. Suddenly, almost on our cue, the two "friendly" bears started to play with one another, as the light broke through the clouds in a narrow slit on the horizon. It was short lived, and the two bears started to walk off into the willows, but we decided to follow.
As we rounded the end of the willows we could see that the two bears were sparing in the setting sunlight, and it was magical. The sparing ended, and our guide as well as Pete and Greg thought the day was over. I spotted a fifth bear making his way across the ice and was able to convince them that there was still enough light and time to make our way back to the cove and photograph this bear.
It ended up being the right call, as the light was incredible on the bear and the ice edge. The light continued to dwindle as the bear walked in front of the MV Ithaca. And now we all started to think the day was done, but what an ending we had enjoyed.
Almost beyond our belief we spotted a sixth bear making its way across the ice, then a seventh coming from the other way. The were all making their way through Bird Cove, and we were the only ones here to see and photograph it. Two of the bears came together for a "kiss" where other bears had been digging, but the real show was yet to come.
The sun had set, but my Canon 5D III and new 400/2.8L IS II had plenty of light for what was about to happen next. The two largest male bears decided to put on an after hours show, and after chatting about it, the sparing commenced. They spared long enough to both deliver great photographs, but even enough for me to shoot some video.
Towards the end of the sparing I was shooting my Canon 5D III and 400/2.8L IS II in aperture priority mode with an exposure bias of + 2/3 at ISO3200, f/2.8, and 1/800th of a second. By that point I had moved away from the vehicle to get the best angle I could on the main event, and I was glad that we had an armed guide as I was shooting with five bears in sight and at least three more that we knew were in the area. Needless to say my head was on a constant swivel, and I shot handheld because setting up a tripod would slow me down in a retreat to the vehicle; also with the shutter speed needed to stop fighting bears, I knew that I could handhold my camera and lens just fine...I love the new 400/2.8L IS II.
Our third day was, with without a doubt, the slowest day of our trip. We only photographed one bear, and that bear was inspecting an old bear trap and then showed why she had been trapped and marked recently. She was incredibly curious of the vehicle and it took significant effort on the part of our guide to scare the bear away.
We did have an okay sunrise and a beautiful sunset, but the only wildlife highlight was a Gyrfalcon that I spotted and got to photograph sitting on the ice edge. Unfortunately for Pete and Greg, it flew away before they could get their cameras ready.
The next morning started off with blizzard conditions, really near whiteout. But we were not about to sleep in or take the day off, even though we did chat about the idea. In places the sun managed to break through, but others were not so nice. For most of the morning we did our best to stay away from the worst of the storm, and even managed to find a cooperative fox with some nice light.
By lunchtime we decided that we needed to go find some bears, even if it was quite blustery. When it's blowing snow the bears just want to lie down out of the wind and rest. We found a few, and as one of them got up and started walking in our direction the sun managed to break through the clouds, but that did not stop the wind from blowing snow. She made her way past us and to the willows edge, when in about five minutes she dug a day den in a drift and all but disappeared.
With two bears resting out of the wind, and sunset coming soon, we decided to wait for better light and hope that one of the bears would get up and move. As the sun neared the horizon and broke through the clouds the female bear decided to sit up and see what the wind was doing. It was now blowing about half as hard as it had been. She must have decided it had died enough to get up and move, but not before shaking off the afternoon's accumulation of snow.
The next morning promised clearer sky, so we decided our fifth day would be about getting some landscapes. With the next three days on our own we figured we could chase the light and landscapes without a guide thinking we were nuts. We wanted to photograph sunrise over the ice, but many of the ice features we had scouted the evening before disappeared over night, so we shot what we could find. The wind and snow of the past few days had left the landscape buried in many places, but that was okay with us.
Pete has the gift for making great friends of random people he meets. On the train ride he decided to learn a little Chinese from four young women who were visiting from Taiwan. They only had one day scheduled out on the buggies and the rest of their time was spent in town, so we decided to take them with us for most of our fifth day (their last day). After we did our landscape run, we went and picked them up. Thank God for the third row seats in the Yukon XL.
Once we added them to the vehicle we shifted our focus back to polar bears, and we found our share. First we spotted a bear making his was across the ice. He ended up heading into the rocks for a bit before heading further along the coast. We jumped ahead to our next access point and waited, but after about fifteen minutes everyone was a bit anxious and wanted to move on. I demanded six more minutes, and five minutes later he made his way around the point and into sight.
He approached, but then went and rested in the lime grass. We waited with renewed patience, and he rewarded us by approaching very near (near enough that I returned to the safety of the vehicle). We repositioned and spotted a pair of red fox hunting and another bear way out on the ice, but as the sun was getting ready to set we wanted to keep a subject nearby.
The bear started to head away on the ice then disappeared behind some huge piles of snow and ice. Everyone was quite cold, and the common consensus was that we should head back towards town, but being the senseless jerk I am, I decided we would wait six more minutes. A few minutes later the bear peeked out at us, crossed back to our side of the off ice and walked in the setting sunlight.
The next morning we were out dark and early, and after a short delay for an iceberg bear (ask Greg about that one) I spotted a cross fox running out on the ice. We continued on looking for bears...and we found one resting at the willows edge. The sun was about to break through the clouds at the horizon, so I made my request of what the bear "needed to do." Oddly enough as soon as I finished saying what I wanted the bear got up and walked exactly where I wanted him to, as the sun broke through. The bear then bedded back down on our side of the frozen lake. The bear was so near us that I had to shoot some bear abstracts.
The clear sky and warming temperatures were causing a rise in atmospheric distortion, so we made our way back to town for gas and lunch. While there we did a bit of lens testing using FoCal. We finished our lunch and testing in time to find a bear in the setting sunlight, but just barely ;)
The next morning we found a bear resting in a grove of black spruce, but after I made my request he went into a better scene for the actual sunrise. It's not luck if you request it...right?
By our seventh day of the trip the ice was really starting to form along the coast, and the bears were keeping a close eye on the conditions. Some bears walked along the ice, while others took a more relaxed approach to the waiting game.
That night the clouds came in and the wind changed direction, blowing almost all of the ice out to sea, with many bears still on it. We spent $300 on gas and then we found another bearded seal, but that was about it.
The next morning it seemed as if there had been an exodus of bears, with the ice, and most of the folks that we talked to found very few bears from that point on. We decided to head into the storm to find bears. I decided with fewer bears I could finally waste some time photographing the cracks in the ice.
With the help of our guide we found a handful of bears on a day that most of the folks we talked, to on the radio, found none. We even found two bears that did not seem to like one another much, charging and showing other signs of irritation. They eventually figured things out and it was time for a nap. On our way in for the night I found this beautiful tree that had been overcome by a snowdrift, so we had to make one more stop for the night.
That night with clear sky and a nice display of the Northern Lights, Pete and I had to spend a few hours out photographing the show. The lights danced above Cape Mary, then above a grove of black spruce, and lastly above Hudson Bay.
The next morning we decided to hunt for some of the smaller species on our list. We found lots of arctic hare track, but no hare, a rock ptarmigan and lastly the illusive, or at least this year, arctic fox. I even took some time to do a bit of "cold yoga," the wind-chill was around -30ºF, but it was better than being like this bear and watching television. In the bear's defense it did scrub down after, and even brushed it coat.
On our tenth and final day the wind was strong and making new drifts for use to battle, but the weathermen were wrong...yes it was incredibly windy, but the clouds were breaking and we had plenty of nice light. We even managed to find a few bears, something that few others were managing to do, even some of the Tundra Buggy folks, and they guarantee bears to their clients.
With only a few bears, high winds and our train departing shortly we decided to follow this bear's example and make tracks as soon as the sun set.
After ten days on the ground, with bears every day, we were actually glad to be heading home. And after 47 hours on a train we arrived back in Winnipeg, Manitoba where I loaded my truck and started the long drive back to Montana.
I left Montana on Saturday, November 4 and made it back home safe and sound on Sunday, November 18, 2012. I took 12,120 photographs and 60 video clips; I drove 1656.3 miles; and I absolutely fell in love with my new 400/2.8L IS II.
My travel count for 2012 is currently at 121 days away from home, and I assume I'll get a few more before the end of the year.
As always if you have questions, ask... I have published the camera information with each image and added full keywords to share just about anything you would want to know about the images.
Thanks and enjoy
P.S. needless to say this trip helped boost my number of Polar Bear, Arctic Fox, Gyrfalcon and all around Arctic images.
October 25, 2011
Canadian Low Arctic, October 12-19, 2011
NATURE PHOTOS ONLINE
PEOPLE PHOTOS ONLINE
I have spent the last six months looking forward to this trip. I love cold weather, remote places and powerful wildlife, so it was only a matter of time before I ended up in the Arctic to photograph polar bears. I thought that it would be something that would have to wait until I was a bit older, as Arctic trips, especially those designed to photograph polar bears, tend to be very expensive. When this opportunity presented itself to me, I knew that I must take advantage and head north.
October 12
I went to bed late on the 11, because I could not sleep. The alarm was set for 04:30h and I was awake and waiting for it. By 05:30h my gear was packed and I was parked at the school waiting for others to arrive. Folks started to trickle in and we loaded up the van and left just after 06:00h.
We made the mistake of driving through Williston, ND. which meant that we encountered traffic thanks to the massive oil field that is being drained in the area. With the mixed group of us in the van, conversations drifted from juvenile banter to birding onto environmental issues and back to birding again. Beyond the lively conversation the drive was uneventful until we hit the Canadian Border.
As we were traveling with our guide, we had a little more fun at the border crossing than we expected. Everyone was asked to head inside the border patrol office and left all of us a little scared. They ran our passports, asked each of us a long list of questions...and then as quickly as they hauled us in they said, "have a great trip, you can be on your way."
It started to rain as soon as we were back on the road, and it poured all the way to Winnipeg, MB. We had made reservations at a hotel right by the airport, but unbeknownst to us they had closed a few months before and moved a few miles down the road. My GPS batteries had died as the outlets in the van were down, and the guide's GPS was far enough outdated that it had no clue where the new hotel was. Lucky for us when we stopped at McDonald's (I love vacation when I can eat crappy food) I hopped on the Wifi and found where the hotel had moved to. We got checked in around 23:15h and try to steal a few hours of sleep before our flight into Churchill, MB. With the loss of an hour we were on the road for 18h 15m, and as it was just two of us doing the driving, we needed every bit of sleep we could get.
October 13th
Wakeup calls were ordered for 04:00h, so we could be at the airport before 05:30h. Small flights to the Arctic get bumped around timewise, so we were not surprised when we got to sleep in the airport for a few hours. When it was time to leave, we quickly loaded the plane and I went for a seat that would allow me to attempt to photograph the setting full moon as the sun rose. I am not one to sleep during a flight, but the students had no issue with it.
Calm Air has a policy that promises to get your "priority bag" in on your flight, but makes no such claim for your second bag. Most of the folks on our flight got both bags, but myself and two students got neither of our bags, so we were in the Arctic with only our carryons. I always travel with two camera bodies, a 17-40/4.0L, 70-200/2.8L IS II, 1.4TC III, 2.0TC III, and a few other required accessories in my carryon, so I had something to start the trip with while the airline tried to get us the rest of our stuff. I dress for flights, so that if things go wrong I have enough on me to survive. Unfortunately one of the students only had a pair of boat shoes on, so it was going to be an interesting first day in the Arctic.
We landed into another world than the one we left. Rain, fog, wind and 0C. The guide has a similar policy to mine, when you reach a new distention you head to a place where you can set your bearing to the new landscape, but given the conditions I don't know how well that worked for most of the students.
We needed to get to the research center relatively quickly, so the students who had received their bags could unpack before lunch. On the drive I took some long exposure shots to play with motion blur on the vibrant colors of the changing leaves that still hung to the willows. We did stop on the way to look out at the edge of the boreal forest. Once back on the road to the reserch center, we had to make one last stop to photograph a flock of willow ptarmigan in the rain and fog.
As we arrived at the research center, formally know as the Churchill Northern Studies Centre, everyone in the group was blown away by the facility. Those that had things to unpack did and after a brief tour, we were enjoying a great "Canadian" supper, and I was loving the fact that I eat whatever I want on vacation.
As soon as we cleaned up, we were all chomping at the bit to get out and look for polar bears, so we headed out.
We made a quick stop to look at the MV Ithica, a ship that ran aground years ago, and the bear hunt continued. We spotted one bear, but he was on an island and we could not get within 250m of him. Just as were were turning around a friend of our guide came by and told us that there was another bear on a caribou carcass about 2km away. Needles to say, we were off. The conditions were still harsh, but a polar bear on a caribou carcass is quite rare so we got out and began filling memory cards with photographs and video. Fortunately, a friend had joined the trip, he rode the train with his 600/4.0L IS and tripod and was nice enough to share with me a bit, so I was able to shoot both the wider view and a much tighter view of the situation that was a mere 109m away. It was a great experience to be kneeling on the ground one hundred meters away from the planets largest land carnivore.
I loved every minute of that first experience, even in the nasty conditions. One thing that stood out to me is that there were no ravens on the carcass, about a minute after I said that out loud one flew over the carcass. The bear went and laid down in the willows, so we took the opportunity to do some scouting for more bears in the area.
We found an Arctic hare, but that was about it for the rest of our scouting trip.
Dinner was excellent, but I had a hard time enjoying it because the weather had worsened and I still did not have my bags. I went back to my room to download and edit the days photos when I got news that the flight had been forced to divert to the next town to the South, but they would try and make it in later tonight, if conditions allowed (no roads connect the two towns). We had a group meeting and lecture at 19:30h and as we finished we got word that our bags had arrived. I was like a little boy on Christmas morning, racing down the hallway and ripping open my bag to check my 500/4.0L IS and tripod. All was in working order, so after taking a huge sigh of relief it was time to go unpack and keep editing photos. I needed to edit because I had promised all of you that I would try to get one or more photos online each night.
October 14th
The next morning we were all at breakfast at 07:00h and ready to leave at 08:00h (sunrise). Less than 3km from the center one of the students spotted an Arctic fox running along the road. There was next to no light, so we moved on quickly.
We went by the caribou carcass, but it was overrun with tundra buggies, so we left.
Heading north to Bird Cove we found some common eider and herring gulls before we decided to go for a hike through greywacke to get a better view of the MV Ithica. We caught a vole and found some beautiful muscle shells.
We packed bagged lunches, so we sat and watch the fog roll in off Hudson Bay as we ate. The fog was getting worse, so we took the opportunity to shoot some landscapes, but the promise of tundra buggies heading out for the day and a bear that could be waiting for us pulled the group back to caribou carcass.
The bear was waiting for us, and this time he had 5 ravens to keep him company. The fog kept getting worse, so we decided to head inland to see what we could find.
I spotted a flock of willow ptarmigan that put on a nice show for the better part of an hour. However, just like before, the promise of a bear on the caribou carcass brought us back toward the coast.
The fog had begun to lift so we did a little shooting, but before long a tundra buggy came through the fog on their way back home. As the tourists on tundra buggies are not allowed off the vehicles and onto the ground with bears, we had to head back to our vehicle. Most of the local guides keep their visitors inside the vehicles when the buggies are around, so not to force the buggy drivers to answer the difficult question of: "why do they get to be out on the ground?"
We as a group did not like shooting from the vehicle, so we headed back toward the center when a third buggy arrived and stopped in the area. On the way back our guide spotted a pair of willow ptarmigan and as we got out of the vehicle the professor spotted a wood frog, so I took a few photos of that.
We headed back to the center before sunset, as the weather conditions made it clear that we were not going to get any light. Another great dinner and lecture followed by some yoga and editing, then it was time for bed.
October 15th
Breakfast at 07:00h was missed by a few of the students, who wanted some extra sleep. Regardless we were off at 07:45h and on our way to Bird Cove to see what we could find. It was our lucky day, as a bear was sleeping and appeared to be waiting for us. We spent over an hour with the bear, and I was most surprised by the bear's dog-like behavior.
We visited the home of the friend of our guide, who lives in "polar bear country" year round, and her home was impressive with all of the precautions taken to keep bears out. On our way out from her home we stopped at a Canadian Eskimo Dog tie down site, where a few of the untied females visited our students. On our way back to the main road we also stopped at a few bear traps that have been used to trap problem bears.
With heavy rain we decided to head to Churchill, MB and have lunch at the community center. After that we headed to the town's museum for a look around. After an hour in the museum it was time to head to the Parks Canada center for an interpretive tour of the new facility.
We headed to the heart of town to visit the gift shops and get some dessert at the bakery.
By the time we finished it was getting late, so we headed back to the center for dinner and lecture. After that, as tired as I was, I still did some yoga and editing.
October 16th
Just like each day, we had a filling breakfast at 07:00h and were on our way at 07:45h. On our way out we decided to check on the caribou carcass, and a new bear was just heading into the area to go check if there was any food left to be had. Unfortunately, all that was left was bone and antlers, so the bear moved on quickly.
Next we were on our way to bird cove and we spotted a bear taking shelter from the 95km/h wind in the greywacke. We were able to approach, with our vehicle, to within about 25m making for some great images of a white bear tucked into grey rocks. When that bear fell asleep, we moved on to let it rest.
Polar bears spend half of the year alone, in the dark and out on the ice, so they tend to be very curious and love to get some socialization when they can. In line with that, bears often hang around Canadian Eskimo Dog tie down sites. My gut says that fact that they can steal occasional scraps away from the dogs helps bring them to the area, too. One of the sites has been fenced off by the man with a lease on it, so he can charge tourists to come and try to photograph bears around the dogs. Our guide knows the "owner" well, so we got to head in and see if we could find a bear. The wind was gusting at over 90km/h and a five year old male bear was taking shelter in the willows to escape the wind and rain. He was playful and just enjoying his time out of the wind and rain. The colors were excellent, and I truly loved every minute of the experience. After a while the bear got up and walked along the side of the bus, letting me take a pretty darn cool iPhone snap. He then turned towards the bay and headed off.
We went down to the bay, opposite him, to look for birds, and to take a walk. We found a mixture of Herring, Thayer's and Glaucous Gulls who were trying to take off between gusts of wind. The students and professor got out for a hike in the high wind and rain, while I hung back to photograph them. As the tide headed out we decided to hike to Nunavut as were were very near. A few of the students posed with the shotgun to show how rugged they were.
On our way out we found a beautiful Arctic fox. The conditions were continuing to get worse, so we headed back to the center.
October 17th
With our last full day in the Low Arctic upon us, we headed to breakfast at 07:00h and were on our way to find bears at 07:45h. We started the day with snow and an Arctic hare, but we had no luck with bears (within photography range). We found a pair of Dunlin on our way to Point Mary; where we found the wind to still be on the insanely strong side, but that made for idea conditions to play in the sea foam. Smelling like the sea, we got back in the vehicle drove through the sea foam and before we could drive far we found three red fox, one of them was a classic cross fox.
We headed back to town for lunch and another shopping trip and then off to the tie down site looking for another bear. We found him in the same spot he was the day before. He walked out along the bay, but then cut back to a small group of trees that stand just north of the tie down site. The snow and wind were strong, so he appeared content to sit and relax in the shade.
Something changed his mind and he got up and shook off. He walked towards our vehicle for a headshot, then he was off again.
We got back to the center with enough time for a shower before dinner. A last great dinner, then it was time to download and edit some photos before lecture. The research director for the center came in to present some of their projects and results, then our guide shared some northern poetry with us. The power went out thanks to the high winds and first snow storm of the year so a group of the students, the professor and myself got together and chatted about the trip, the Arctic, Rocky Mountain College and life in general.
Some of us went to chat in the Aurora dome until 24:00h, but then it was clearly time for bed.
October 18th
Our last morning in the Arctic came far too soon, but it was inevitable, so we had our usual 07:00h breakfast, but only our guide and myself showed up from our group. After everyone made it down to eat some food we packed up and headed to the airfield, taking the long way. During the night snow accumulated and some of the water began to freeze, a great sign after a long warm summer for the bears. We found a pair of willow ptarmigan in the snow, so we had to do some shooting. We then continued to see what we could find on our roundabout way to catch our flight. We spotted a distant bear near the Canadian Eskimo Dog tie down site, but we did not have time to try and get close enough for more photographs.
As we turned around, we noticed that we had a flat tire. As I am sure you would guess changing a flat on a gravel road, in the snow, with high wind and polar bears roaming around is not a great idea. We decided to drive to the airfield with the flat, and got our gear ready for the flight back to Winnipeg, MB around 12:00h.
Things were delayed, as usual, and we did not arrive in Winnipeg, MB until 14:45h. As we stepped off the plane, we all were relieved to get our first glimpse of the sun in a week. Sadly four students did not get their bags on the return flight, so we had to deal with that before we could start the long drive home. Fortunately, this time my bags made the flight. I don't know what I would have done with $10,000+ sitting in a bag on an airfield in the Arctic.
The professor started off driving, and this time we got through the border quickly, had a beautiful sunset and easily and made good time all the way to Fargo, ND. A number of the students and myself were born and raised in the Midwest, where we all fell in love with Culver's, so we stopped and had a great dinner before parting ways with our guide.
October 19th
I took over driving around 22:30h and kept us on course until we arrived in Billings, MT just before 4:30h safe and sound. We did have three deer run out in front of us on I94, but I saw them coming and stopped the van well before the deer, only waking two people up.
The return trip took less than 14 hours, so I guess we can't complain.
It was a great trip and I am already planning my next trip to photograph polar bears.
Make the jump to go through the online gallery, I ask that you leave comments/criticism or at least give your favorites a thumbs up...Thanks!
If you have questions, ask. I published the camera information with each image and have added full keywords to share just about anything you would want to know about the images.
Happy shooting
October 11, 2011
Off to the Arctic...
April 21, 2011
Ask Dave, April 21st - Churchill 2011
Ask Dave, April 21st
'Ask Dave' week ten… I get tons of questions each week, I respond as quickly as possible, and this is week number ten of answering them here too. If you have questions you can email me at Learn@DaveShumway.com.
Question:
From Pete...
Can I go with you to Churchill in the fall?
Answer:
YES you can...
I am going to Churchill with Dr. Jim Halfpenny, Professor Kayhan Ostovar, and some college students in October of 2011 to photograph Polar Bears, Snowy Owls, Arctic Fox, and more. *
I am not leading the trip, I am not being paid to go, I am actually paying to attend and paying to earn college credit on the trip (you never know when having a few extra Environmental Science credits will come in handy). The cool thing is that you can all go too.
There are thirteen spots total and a handful left open for auditors.
All of the details are on the RMC site:
http://rocky.edu/academics/programs/environmental/Churchill.shtml
Here are some of the key details:
October 12th - 18th, 2011
We will spend 4 days on the tundra, in vans, not the big, crowded, buggies.
We live at the research center, studying and photographing bears each day with lectures each evening.
Cost for RMC students is $2980
Cost for auditors is $3400 (this includes a private room en-route to Winnipeg)**
Initial deposit of $500 due April 30th. (I know that is coming soon)
Final payment due August 1st.
Travel insurance is required and can be purchased from Rocky for $13.50 (this is not trip cancellation insurance).
* (Hopefully all of them each day; but RMC and Dr. Jim Halfpenny would like to stress that polar bears are never a guarantee :)
** Auditors must also pay the standard course audit fee of $105, or $62 if you are over 60 years old.
As the RMC site says:
"RMC staff photographer and instructor of photography, Dave Shumway, will be joining the trip as a member of the class, so there will be chances for some photography instruction (when the teacher in him outshines the photographer in him)."
I really like the Naturescapes.net article about Churchill trips.
'Ask Dave' week ten… I get tons of questions each week, I respond as quickly as possible, and this is week number ten of answering them here too. If you have questions you can email me at Learn@DaveShumway.com.
Question:
From Pete...
Can I go with you to Churchill in the fall?
Answer:
YES you can...
I am going to Churchill with Dr. Jim Halfpenny, Professor Kayhan Ostovar, and some college students in October of 2011 to photograph Polar Bears, Snowy Owls, Arctic Fox, and more. *
I am not leading the trip, I am not being paid to go, I am actually paying to attend and paying to earn college credit on the trip (you never know when having a few extra Environmental Science credits will come in handy). The cool thing is that you can all go too.
There are thirteen spots total and a handful left open for auditors.
All of the details are on the RMC site:
http://rocky.edu/academics/programs/environmental/Churchill.shtml
Here are some of the key details:
October 12th - 18th, 2011
We will spend 4 days on the tundra, in vans, not the big, crowded, buggies.
We live at the research center, studying and photographing bears each day with lectures each evening.
Cost for RMC students is $2980
Cost for auditors is $3400 (this includes a private room en-route to Winnipeg)**
Initial deposit of $500 due April 30th. (I know that is coming soon)
Final payment due August 1st.
Travel insurance is required and can be purchased from Rocky for $13.50 (this is not trip cancellation insurance).
* (Hopefully all of them each day; but RMC and Dr. Jim Halfpenny would like to stress that polar bears are never a guarantee :)
** Auditors must also pay the standard course audit fee of $105, or $62 if you are over 60 years old.
As the RMC site says:
"RMC staff photographer and instructor of photography, Dave Shumway, will be joining the trip as a member of the class, so there will be chances for some photography instruction (when the teacher in him outshines the photographer in him)."
I really like the Naturescapes.net article about Churchill trips.
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