As 2018 came to a close, I scanned my images from traveling with groups with Wild Departures this year in order to select some of my favorites from Alaska, Kenya, Tanzania, Wyoming, and Colorado. It’s been an incredible year and I’ve been blessed to share it with so many other adventurous souls from around the globe–people I now call my friends! Without further ado, I’ll show you which images I fell in love with this year and tell you why. Feel free to share.
I had to wait for the perfect moment to shoot this lion drinking from a watering hole in Kenya’s Masai Mara. Reflections only happen when the water is completely still, and I kept watching until he lifted his head high enough for his eyes to be visible in the adjacent, quiet puddle of water below him.
Incoming! This puffin watches as another flies toward him in Lake Clark National Park, Alaska. I used the incoming puffins webbed feet to frame the shot and kept my focus and depth of field on the stationary puffin to maximize the impact.
A coastal grizzly catches a fish from atop Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park, Alaska. This was my third trip to Brooks Falls to try to capture this iconic image, made famous by Tom Mengelson in the 1980s. Bears use all types of fishing techniques and thankfully, a few still wait at the top of the waterfall to snag spawning salmon as they try to leap up to the next portion of the river. The conditions have to be right: leaping salmon and bears who are successful at catching them in mid-flight. This image graced the cover of Alaska’s November issue.
Polar bear cubs play in the ice and snow in Kaktovik, Alaska in the waters of ANWR. This was my fourth trip north to try to capture polar bears on ice and snow. Global warming has made these types of images tougher to get!
After 3 trips to Kaktovik and 2 to Churchill, Manitoba I’m happy to report that I finally got images of polar bears in snow and on ice on this polar bear photography trip.
