Capturing the Moment

  Takatz Bay is one of the most beautiful places to kayak. It is located on the east coast of Baranof Island in Southeast Alaska. It is a long fjord, carved out by a glacier many years ago. Snowy mountain peaks are still visible deep up the valley, and the water is still tinged sky blue with glacial meltoff. Now a beautiful stream thunders out of the rainforest into the back of the bay, and salmon come back year after year to swim their way up it. This means that on occasion, a brown bear comes down to the river to do some fishing. If you get lucky, and you time the tides right (it has to be a high tide to get up the river to the falls), then you might just get to kayak with a wild Alaskan brown bear. Today was that day. And this bear was hungry. I watched the bear walking purposefully along the high tide coastline, peaking in and out of the forest as it cruised towards the river. I followed silently in my kayak, trying to keep my eye on it through the foliage. After busting out in...

The whale action has been intense lately in Southeast Alaska. I've been traveling the waterways of Alaska's Inside Passage   on the luxury adventure cruise ship Safari Quest. I absolutely love getting people out with the humpback whales on our small skiffs. The low vantage point, almost water level, gives a whole new perspective of how big these animals really are. When you are in a small inflatable boat the size of a suburban, and you are surrounded by animals the size of city school buses you can't help but feel in awe of their sheer size and power. Today was one of those lucky days where we had so many close humpback whale encounters from the skiff, and the water conditions were so calm, that I was able to get a bit creative in my whale photography. We were able to position our skiff to view the diving humpback whale in between us and the Safari Quest. I always like to think about the backgrounds in my pictures to see if I can use anything to help tell more of a st...

    Fortune favors the bold…the early bird gets the worm…    Here at Uncruise it should read, ‘never let a little rain hold you back.’         It was a beautiful drizzly grey afternoon as we pulled into Steamboat Harbor in Southeast Alaska. We had just seen dozens of humpback whales out the window during lunch. The conditions in the bay were perfect for open paddle, but with whales just outside the bay and within striking distance of a skiff, I also offered up an impromptu skiff tour for the guests.      Folks looked outside as the rain drops gathered on the railings of the Quests. They peered around inside at the beautiful lounge, bartender mixing drinks, and the library upstairs looking particular cozy for curling up and reading a book. I got the skiff ready and waited for the incoming guests to gather up… and waited… and waited…      One brave guests showed up. And it w...

Alaska : Land of Bears Africa : Land of Big Cats   I feel pretty lucky to be able to work and travel to some of the most photogenic places on earth. I have spent the summer running expeditions through Southeast Alaska's Inside Passage. It has been a wild and wonderful season with some pretty amazing guests, beautiful landscapes, and close encounters with wildlife. Masaai dance Tlingit Art and Dress    Now I'm gearing up for another destination, the fabled savannas of East Africa. I've put together a two week trip that encompasses the best of what Kenya has to offer. I'll try and show my group as much wildlife, and as many different animals as I can. We will visit seven different parks and game reserves throughout our safari. Glacier in Alaska Sunset colors over the African plains    The landscapes will be very different as I'm trading up glacier-filled fjords for sunset bathed open plains. The spruce root woven hats and beaded regali...

  This week we made a stop on Baranof Island to check out a little creek that I thought might have some salmon in it. Turns out the coho, or silver salmon were returning to the stream in droves. And luckily enough we weren’t the only ones to be drawn to this stream…brown bears were also there. I guess coho is pretty high on their menu because when we first glanced over the stream bank we found ourselves looking down at 12 brown bears.     The huge bears were so concentrated on catching salmon that we were able to hang out on the bank without disturbing them. Some of our group were taking pictures and movies, while others were just trying to savor the moment with their eyes and ears. Bears were biting into female salmon sending bright red roe arcing out. A few times fights broke out between the bears over who gets the salmon. Usually it wasn’t the bear who actually caught it.     To have all of this unfold so close to us was a true Alaskan...

Stellar Sea Lions and the Safari Quest Sea Lion in flight Fluffy Sea Otter saying hello Brown bear eating some grass  Sea otters, moose, and bears, oh my! My first week back in southeast Alaska, and my first time on the new Petersburg to Petersburg itinerary provided a blast of Alaskan wildlife. And as amazing as the wildlife show was this week, it wasn't even the guests' favorite part of the trip! (See next post for more on that) Regal Eagle on its perch    Our wildlife list quickly grew over the week as the sightings and encounters rolled in. We had humpback whales and cute little sea otters, plus an orca encounter before breakfast on the first full day onboard. Lots more sea otters followed at the Bay of Pillars, including new moms with tiny fluff balls riding on their stomach. Pigeon Guillemot Playful orca encounter Orca and Iceberg   Not only did we have a beautiful sunset orca encounter with a lone big male on night on...

Taking a Game Drive into the famous Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania, Africa Sunrise over the crater   One of the highlights of any visit to East Africa is a chance to explore the Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area. It is the world's largest inactive, unfilled volcanic craters at around 2,000ft deep and 100sq miles in area. It was voted as one of the seven natural wonders of the world, not in small part to the fact that the huge crater is packed with wild game. Dubbed a UNESCO world heritage site in 1979, everything from prides of lions to herds of buffalo can be seen living down in the crater year round.   We started out from the Crater Lodge at 6:15am, determined to get down into the crater before the rest of the dawdling safari goers. This worked out in our favor, especially since it was New Years Day and most people were still sleeping off the big night before. On our way a couple of our cars had a brief encounter with a serval. It was hunting next to the road and ...