There are plenty of reasons that every Summer in late July and early August I return to Katmai Alaska to lead multiple workshops. From a new perspective on a location that’s become very familiar to me, to capturing the kinds of shots of the local bears one simply cannot get anywhere else, it always has something new to offer.
I’ll be back there this year, and there are still some spaces available to join me on both tours – but space is limited!
If you’re still on the fence, here are 10 more reasons to join me in Katmai, Alaska this Summer!
1.) Coastal Brown Bears are beautiful and powerful, and to be in the presence of an animal of this magnitude it is humbling.
2.) Capturing amazing images of these creatures is even more magical. There is no substitute for experience in the field, and I’ll be bringing decades of it to our group as well as our interactions on an individual basis.
3.) We have two dedicated pilots and four planes at our disposal. Not only is this convenient, but it means we have the utmost flexibility to change our plans depending on weather conditions. If the group cannot fly, we can always take the group up to Lake Clark to see the bears fishing for clams, or to see Dick Proenneke’s cabin!
4.) The remote Katmai Coast is the largest intact stretch of uninhabited coastline left in North America, and provides a rich and contextual backdrop for the bears.
5.) The lodge has a top-notch cook, so the group can enjoy delicious meals while reminiscing about the day’s adventures on the tour.
6.) Late July and early August is the peak of the salmon run, and is why we reserve these times with our local experts and accommodations well in advance. The rivers are running with beautiful red salmon, which is an excellent secondary element for fantastic photographs.
7.) I’ve been such a frequent visitor of this location that I can recognize individual bears by sight and in many cases can predict their behavior and identify their strengths, giving us a distinct leg up in capturing them at their best. If an individual is known to be an expert fisher, rest assured I can point them out to ensure we capture the best possible action on the river!
8.) We work with the local lodge owner whom scouts the area before our group arrives to ensure we have a good idea of where the bears are going to be. This cuts down the amount of hiking the group needs to do so we can get right into photographing.
9.) We always find several mothers with young cubs and they are generally not intimidated by humans, so our groups can sit and photograph the cubs as they run and play for hours if we like.
10.) If it hasn’t become clear already, this is a region I know like the back of my hand, and we’ve spent several years working with the same local folks to ensure as much consistency as possible. So few variables and unknowns means I’ll have more time to spend directly working with participants to ensure they all come away with stunning photos!
Check out the events page for more information. These workshops always sell out, so reserve your spot today to ensure you don’t miss out!
I’ve been eager to get back to Mongolia for some time now. Although some of the photos I took here on my last visit have become iconic – such as the Kazakh Eagle Hunter and his amazing golden eagle – shooting while the hustle and bustle of Travels to the Edge was being filmed didn’t quite allow me the same flexibility I might have when visiting on a tour. add to this the astronomical leaps we’ve taken in technology since then, and I can’t wait to get back!
We still have a couple of spots left to join our group, embarking on our photo adventure July the 6th. Join us to photograph the Naadam festival, wild horses as the roam the vast steppe largely unmarred by the influence of development, and of course a special shooting sessions with Shaman and Kazakh Eagle Hunters.
On this day in 1899 Mount Rainier National Park was established. It would be easy to take this nearby location for granted as I see the mountain nearly every day from Seattle, but it truly is one of my favorite places to visit. At 500,000 years old our local favorite stratovolcano is a geological youngster. Here’s to many thousand more to come!
See it for yourself this fall by signing up for the fall color workshop taking place at Rainier. From the micro to the macro this is an amazing location to photograph wildlife, the landscape and of course the fall color. We always fill these up, so don’t hesitate to sign up early!
We have a number of workshops coming up – from favorites like our popular Katmai Bear tours making their return after a one-year hiatus to trips abroad in Africa, Mongolia, and more. It’s been a challenge to navigate the ever-changing travel guidelines, but I have work to do and you have places to see – join me and we will explore them together!
To ensure safety of all participants we will ask for proof of vaccination or a COVID test within 72 ours of the workshop. Safety first! As always, if you have any specific questions regarding the workshops I’m offering, head to our contact page for a number of ways to get them answered!
Here is a current list of all our upcoming workshops, excluding several that have already sold out – sign up today to ensure your spot!
To the Northeast of the Mt. Rainier region across the Puget Sound and bordering the Pacific Ocean before it reaches out towards Japan, the Olympic cost brings a variety of it’s own to the mix. Mossy old-growth forest borders a breath-taking coastline with absolutely no limit on the amount of subjects to photograph – not the least of which is the ever-present possibility of capturing local wildlife.
The recent Art of Seeing Workshop here in Seattle was a huge success, and I know there is also a large contingent of folks in the Portland Area who catch Travels to the Edge on Oregon Public Broadcasting regularly who have been eager for a weekend seminar to come their way. The Seattle seminar sold out – so if you missed out, Portland is just a short trip away!
Join Art for what is fast approaching Abstract Astoria as his most popular and requested workshops! Explore beautiful Port Townsend, a location that embraces both its Native American roots and everything that comes along with being a cultured seaside town. From here we will visit Ford Worden Historical State Park on the hunt for abstract images.
This year’s bear tours in Katmai National Park didn’t disappoint. The salmon were plentiful, the bears were actively fishing for them, and we were happy to capture it. It was great to visit some locations that I had previously avoided due to crowds, and myself and our participants were rewarded with plenty of opportunities to capture great photos.
This being one of our more popular workshops, I wanted to feature the great photos our participants took on this trip. Fortunately they were gracious enough to accept this request and send me several photos to post and attribute.
Be sure to comment below if you have any favorites!
Just a couple weeks left until I open the doors of my home & garden to the group joining me in Seattle for my lecture, field session, and critique under the umbrella of The Art Of Seeing! Before this two-day workshop kicks off, join me on a Friday evening at my home in West Seattle for beverages and hors d’oeuvres as well as an exclusive look at my upcoming book, Night On Earth.
Over the course of this two-day workshop I’ll present lectures infused with lessons from Art History as well as my own hands-on five decades of experience as an artist, photographer, instructor, and world traveler. Then, we will take those lessons out into the field for shooting sessions – see how I work on location and the simple but effective ways to change your approach and perspective to come away with unique shots that speak to your own personal artistic vision!
Finally we will wrap it all up with what tends to be a participant favorite session – the critique, where I’ll take a look at your images from throughout the weekend and give my advice on how they might be improved, or recognition of a job well done, along with answering the “why” in each instance.
Hope to see you there! Space is limited as we allow for room for social distancing. Please note – to keep myself and my assistance safe and to streamline the process of acquiring venues and accommodations, we ask that all workshop participants be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
As you may have heard there has been a record salmon run in Bristol Bay this year. In Katmai there are always a lot of bears and salmon, but this year the numbers were off the charts!
Though I haven’t been in many years because of the crowds, we made the effort to go to the famous Brooks Falls and were rewarded with great light, patiently fishing bears, and leaping salmon. Elsewhere in the park we discovered some deep snow patches that were favorite play and sleep areas for the bears. It was a great place for them to cool down in T-shirt weather for humans—I can only imagine how hot they get with all that fur.
The cubs had discovered channels and tunnels in the snow and would pop up to bite their siblings only to disappear again. There was an abundance of sows with two, even three cubs. It takes a lot of salmon to fuel mothers and cubs, and the fish did not disappoint.
Overall, it was great to be back in Katmai after taking a hiatus last season, and I can’t wait to be back here next year with another group of amazing participants!
It’s been a warm and dry summer here in the Pacific northwest. Until this past week, we hadn’t seen a drop of rain in the city most famous for it in nearly two months, and more often than not the temperatures have been in the upper 80’s and low 90s.
I’ve been fortunate to get away on tours recently in Katmai, and I’m preparing this week to go with a fantastic small group to Iceland – where there is still room to join if you are the spontaneous type.
With limited trips last year and so much uncertainty, I’m looking forward to capturing the fall color once again – and cooler temperatures! It’s unfortunate that we seem to be taking a step backwards in terms of combating COVID, but executing workshops has become much easier when you know the right questions to ask and have been through it all.
If you’ve been thinking about joining a workshop, we’ve got several coming up that highlight the fall color in the Western U.S., as well as a shindig at my place in October to kick off a weekend I’ve titled The Art of Seeing. Looking forward to seeing you there!
Short but sweet today, as our group arrives at the lodge up here in Katmai, Alaska. I missed out on visiting last summer, so I’m excited to see how things have changed in the past couple of years. My visits to this region have been so frequent that I’ve grown to recognize individual bears over the years – hopefully they haven’t grown up or changed too much in that time! Here are some of my favorite shots from this location over the years. Each time I go to this location, I have a new goal in mind. It’s interesting to look back and see how my shots and focus has changed from year to year. This time I definitely want to get some artistic shots of the beautiful vibrant salmon to illustrate many of the things I talk about when I speak of “changing the way you see”. I mean it! Stay tuned for new photos when I return!
This will be the first of two sold-out tours happening back to back – check out my events page to get your name on the list early for next year’s tours so you don’t miss out!
