I recently left Kenya having finished our latest photography tour, workshop, adventure or whatever you might want to call it. It’s one of our ongoing Invitational Photography Tours in a land I dearly love.

This blog entry is a miniature snipit of what our small group of African travelers experienced while in this wonderful land of wildlife, landscapes and interesting culture.

As many of you know, much of my work revolves around wildlife. However, I’m very fond of documenting people and their cultures as well. My early college years introduced me to the world of journalism as I worked my way through school shooting for a small newspaper and a very successful commercial studio in Duluth, Mn. My two dear friends, Tim Slattery and Dan Grandmaison taught me a lot about the world of capturing pictures. Those formative years gave me my first introduction to the world of small strobes and the power they have for making creative images.

On our last evening in the Masai Mara Game Reserve our group was treated to our annual Bush Dinner on the last evening before we all headed back to Nairobi. The lodge we stay at goes all out with grilled meats, vegetarian pastas, and sumptuous deserts.

Masai Dancers. Photo taken with Nikon D700 with Flash to stop action

An added highlight to this nights festivities was the ever present group of young Masai dancers that are on perpetual call for birthdays, anniversaries or other special events at the lodge. Tonight they followed us to the outskirts of camp to add an ambience of traditional song and dance much to the delight of everyone present and an opportunity for interesting images.

More Photos of Masai Dancers

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I just returned from northern Main where I was one of two Mentors for the Mentor Series World Wide Photography Treks. The other Mentor was my old college buddy Layne Kennedy and as always we had a great time teaching the craft of photography as well as getting to know lots of new photo enthusiasts. The weather was a bit of a challenge but nothing we couldn’t handle with a little luck. The great thing about photographers who appreciate nature are typically pretty flexible.

Main street in Bar Harbor, Maine.

Much of our time was spent photographing in Acadia National Park but we also worked the beautiful little town of Bar Harbor and Isleford. The Acadia region is simply spectacular with phenomenal scenery, interesting faces and fabulous food. Lobster rolls where on every corner and there was often times a friendly, interesting face behind the counter handing it over.

The Schooner Margaret Todd anchored at the dock in Bar Harbor, Maine silhouetted against the rising sun.

Erica Johnson of the Mentor Series was our fearless leader on this Trek although Michelle Cast was along to help out. The main reason I do these Treks has as much to do with the organizational skills of these ladies as anything else. They really do their homework and take extremely good care of everyone involved. Equally important is the enjoyment and inspiration I get from seeing budding photographers work their magic. I would love to be the one who knows and sees it all but even after nearly thirty years of taking pictures I’m constantly impressed and enlightened by the images I see from so called amateurs. Everybody has their unique style, vision and personal approach to photography. With the Mentor Treks I get to experience dozens of different views at one time and I end up learning as much or more than the people I’m helping.

If you’re interested I’ve created a small gallery of images I shot on the Trek. You can see them by clicking on the link below. If you have any questions please feel free to drop me a note via the Blog. I’m happy to help with whatever I can.

World Wide Mentors Trek to Bar Harbor and Acadia, Maine

The image below was first run as part of my final post for our Arctic Documentary Project in Svalbard/Spitsbergen, Norway. It’s kind of buried in the main blog so I though I would pull this out for easier reading. The key elements I used to create this image include the Nikon D7000, Nikon SB900 wireless flash, Aperture software and Nik Viveza that was used as a plugin within Aperture.

A skeleton of a Svalbard Reindeer lies relatively undisturbed on the tundra of Spitsbergen, Norway.

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August 10, Danskøya Island 37F

Click on this link to see photos of our favorite images from the Svalbard shoot for the Arctic Documentary Project.

This morning is cold. Most definitely the coolest we’ve experienced. Danskøya Island is on the northwest part of the archipelago and is on the edge of better polar bear habitat. The ice is nearly 80 miles offshore, so any bears that are stranded on the Islands of Svalbard migrate towards the top getting as close to the ice pack as possible. Mark tells me that, “typically the ice is 15-20 miles offshore but this year is unusual.”  Surprising how often I keep hearing something similar to “this year is unusual” from people that work in the arctic. That’s been the description for hotter than normal temperatures and the varying climatic changes they’ve caused. Equally amazing is that I first started hearing people talk about the “unusual year” over ten years ago. My wife Tanya is stepping in here to describe our morning and the rest of the day as we head further north and east.

A Polar Bear wanders the snow-covered rocks in Holmiabukta, Svalbard, Norway. Nikon D7000, 200-400mm lens

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August 8, 2011, Cloudy and 43F

Tanya and I spent the past three days in Lonyearbyen in a small, very European, apartment, catching up on business matters, writing and a little rest before our next group of guests arrived.

Tanya and Dan in the rented apartment having dinner.

The first trip went really well, but every adventure to the field is new, so it’s always in your mind that the the next can be even better. Our boat is full again, housing our eight invited photo enthusiasts that all arrived on schedule. Jeanne, one of our dear and long-time friends, and a retired, 30-year 757 pilot for United Airlines, arrived in Longyearbyen minus her luggage. True to form she had a huge smile on her face and lots of great stories about the turmoil she faced trying to explain to the “lost luggage department” where they needed to deliver her bags once they found them. The story Jeanne described, as usual, was hilarious with the central theme pivoting on the idea that the agent just could not get the concept that the boat she was scheduled to board was something smaller than the typical 1500 passenger cruise ship. And, unlike the cruise ships, there was no port she would be visiting that had an SAS office she could check in with. Suffice it to say, it’s people like Jeanne who take a very bad situation and turn it into a comedy routine, that makes this job so worthwhile. Read the rest of this entry »

July 27 – Clear skies, Temp Around 45F

Sailing into the midnight sun, Svalbard, Norway. Nikon D7000

The weather continues bright and sunny. For two days now we’ve had skies with virtually no clouds. Some wind yesterday afternoon but amazingly if it weren’t for the desolate landscape, void of vegetation, and cool temps, I would swear we were cruising the Bahamas. Last night Mark downloaded the ice chart and the pack ice is 80 miles to the north. The past two days we’ve managed to find two separate groups of walrus. The first on Moffen Island, a restricted refuge we’re not allowed to enter. Regulations state that even our ship must remain 300 meters out from shore. Surprisingly, with all the necessary restrictions we had a fairly productive shoot capturing walrus coming and going. We were all thrilled to be taking pictures.

After Moffen we made our way down to Murchisonfjorden and spent the night anchored in a calm bay. The midnight sun cast its long shadows throughout the early hours of the AM. Rising from my bunk and making my way into the galley was painful due to the intense glare off the water. The brilliance sent me scurrying back to my dark, little cabin to retrieve sunglasses before making my way on deck. Unfortunately my mini travel thermometer is no longer working. I’m disappointed not to be able to get an accurate reading of the outside temps. I’ll be getting something a bit more robust for my travels in the future but for now the air temperature feels something close to 45F. It’s a guess but enough time in the outdoors makes it relatively accurate.

We finally get moving around 9:30am. Mornings are always difficult in the far north since it’s all too easy to be out hours on end in the the glorious light of the midnight sun. As we slowly make our way out of the waters of Murchisonfjorden we find a pair of walrus seemingly lolly gagging but very possibly feeding in the serene waters of the fjord. We set the engine to neutral and drifted slowly, hoping they might get curious and come visit. No such luck. After 20-30 minutes we decide to slowly motor off towards the mouth of the fjord.

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July 23, 2012

Polar bears feeding on the carcass of a Fin Whale. Svalbard, Norway

Two years ago on my first trip to Svalbard we found a dead whale, floating in the waters of Holmiabukta. It was partially beached, the underside of its large, bloated carcass coming aground on the bottom of the fjord, 50 feet or more from the gray, rocky shoreline recently void of ice. During our original visit we spent several days working the nearly dozen or so bears that were feasting on the Cetaceation’s rotting flesh. It was a surreal site, sometimes four polar bears distributed its length, standing their ground, their teeth tearing at the hide of the ghastly, bloated corpse. A young ice bear, maybe 3-4 years in age, gorged itself as a mother and two cubs came swimming from shore. The moment she boarded the bobbing smorgasbord of blubber, skin and barnacles, the feasting young bruin came sprinting down the carcass length, diving off the other end, leaping into the water in a full race horse gallop. Gulls scattered in every direction lifting off to hang in the gusting winds blowing from the glacier. There in the midst of darkest death was the angelic like wings of an Ivory Gull as purely white as its name described, a bird of such beauty in this scene of death. Read the rest of this entry »

July 20, 2011

Our trip from Montana was uneventful – though flying anymore I find literally painful. When Tanya and I travel overseas we always plan to arrive at least a day early, ideally two or even three. Acclimating to a new time zone slowly can make all the difference on the first part of any adventure. In today’s world we are all very busy, and for most it’s exceptionally difficult to take even one more day away from work, but we suggest to all our guests to try and come early. The first day of your adventure is invariably more enjoyable if you can spare the time.

We broke our trip up by staying one night in Oslo. Our hotel was a Best Western not far from where we landed and it was typically European with very small rooms but an equally comfortable bed. The night passed quickly, never really getting dark. Around 10:00am we caught the well-organized, pleasant and clean bus to the airport.

PHOTO TIP

Keeping a camera close has always been the answer to great pictures. It’s never been easer to be prepared for that special image that presents itself. I carry a small body with a minimum of 28mm lens to record special moments that I find while traveling. There are so many great options to choose from today such as Nikon advanced Coolpix 5700. The photo of this unique looking, early European design car caught my eye while waiting for the bus to the airport. I took out my small, go anywhere camera and shot these pictures.

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