Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park
Each day on this workshop we loaded into DeHavilland Beaver airplanes and flew to remote locations in Katmai National Park. This allowed us to choose a destination based on the best bear activity. On our first afternoon we flew to the iconic Brooks Falls and photographed bears catching salmon at the falls.
We photographed the bears at fast shutter speeds to catch action between bears and then used slower speeds to make the falls look silky.
Alaskan Tundra
One of the unique parts of this workshop is that we hike across the Alaskan tundra and photograph wild bears roaming through dramatic scenery. The bears come here in very high numbers to take advantage of the largest sockeye salmon run in the world.
Our planes landed on small tundra lakes and we walked from there to the best shooting locations each day. Before landing we did an aerial survey to find the highest concentration of bear activity.
Low Perspective
Getting low enough to photograph from eye level to the bears was one of our goals for the trip. We sat on the gravel bars and held our cameras as low as possible to create more intimate bear portraits.
Spring Cubs
This was an exceptional year for spring cubs in Katmai. We photographed first and second year cubs every day that we were on the tundra. One of our favorite scenes was watching cubs learn to fish near their mothers.
Bear Behavior
Bears love to play fight. We had quite the show as we photographed from the side of the river. Bear after bear would wander by our group fishing for live red salmon or eating dead salmon carcasses on the banks.
More than Bears
Willow Ptarmigan are the state bird of Alaska. We stopped several times to photograph them and shot from the ground for a low perspective. The fireweed and tundra berries also kept us busy as we walked through the land of the brown bear.
Thanks to all the photographers who joined us in Katmai National Park this year. Also thanks to the awesome staff at Jacques Adventure Lodge for making it all happen.
We plan to return to Katmai in 2026 for a rafting version of this workshop. Send us a note if you'd like to be on the Interest List: Click here