An Aialik lagoon, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska.

Our recent weather pattern has been bringing us our fair share of rain – that can happen during the summer, hopefully we will see a little more sunshine soon!

Humpback Whale

I never get tired of watching whales – especially when they are as active as this one was!

Cataract Cove, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska.

Although it is hard to photograph, I love this cove!  The cove is surrounded by 500 to 1,000 foot high granite walls covered waterfalls that drop straight into the ocean – it is an amazing sight and sound.  Not only are there lots of waterfalls, but we also spotted a number of mountain goats.

Dall's Porpoise

It is so fun to watch these playful animals playing in the bow wave of the boat!  We saw lots of Dall’s Porpoise – we had encounters all three days, usually multiple time each day.

Canon 1Ds III and 24-105 at 24.  Exposure of f/6.3 at 1/500 of a second and ISO 640.

Iceberg, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska.

One nice thing about cloudy weather -glaciers and icebergs appear much bluer, and this iceberg was especially blue.  On a sunny day, this thing would have looked much whiter.

We had a nice variety of weather on my recent three day trip into Kenai Fjords National Park, everything from rain to sun – it provided a lot of different options for photography.

This image was hand held from a boat at f /8 and 1,000th of a second at ISO 400.

Aialik Glacier, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska.

I’m back from a wonderful 3 day photo tour into Kenai Fjords National Park!  We saw a wide range of wildlife including a number of whales, and visited a variety of amazing landscapes, it was a lot of fun thanks in large part to a great group of passionate nature lovers.

This is the research vessel that served as our “mother ship” anchored in front of Aialik Glacier the first night of our trip.  What a place to spend the night!  We watched a huge section of this mile wide glacier calve late in the evening – by far the biggest calving event I have ever seen.  The resulting wave roared along the nearby shoreline.  Surprisingly, unlike smaller calving events, the wave that past under the vessel was barely noticeable – it was more like a big wide swell then a wave.  I should note, telephoto compression does make the boat appear closer to the glacier then we really were.

Our awesome Captain Mike bringing us back from a shore excursion for bear and landscape photography.

Aialik Glacier, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska.

First thing in the morning I’m heading out into Kenai Fjords National Park for 3 days as part of my Kenai Fjords photo tour.  I’m posting a photo of Aialik Glacier because I’m thinking we will spend the first night in front of the beautiful glacier!  Going to sleep to the sounds of a glacier is just amazing.  Of couse, depending on the light and wildlife sightings, we could be just about anywhere – that is the beauty of a custom multi-night photo tour!

The vessel I have chartered for this trip just returned from a 7 week trip to the Aleutian Islands with a film crew from the Discovery Channel, so I’m sure we will hear some great stories – but more importantly, I’m sure we will be experiencing our own amazing stories!  I will report back next week.