Alaska Brown Bears 2016

August 16, 2016 in Alaska, Bear, brown bear, Tour, Travel, Travel report, Workshops

2016 Year End Wrap-up

Cubs wrestle in the meadows at Hallo Bay. Katmai NP Alaska, NIKON D500 and SIGMA 120-300 mm f/2.8 Sports lens @ 250mm, 1/1000 sec at f/3.5, manual mode, ISO 280. Image Copyright 2016 Robert OToole Photography.

After leading my three tours this year in June, July and August I feel really lucky to have been able to see and experience so many amazing moments in Katmai and even manage to capture a few alongside tour participants.

One of the highlights this year had to be wolves. We had multiple sightings at just about every spot we visited. The wolf in this image had no fear of humans and crossed in front of my group so close in fact I had to zoom out to 270mm just to fit it in the frame! This wolf hung out at Geographic for a few days just doing laps looking for stranded salmon or photographer's backpacks, whatever was available first.

Cub chomping on it's sibling at Hallo. Katmai NP Alaska, NIKON D500 and SIGMA 150-600 mm

Overall this year the action was great but it seemed like every spot we visited the opportunities for cubs seemed to be almost non stop. The most interesting action was with adopted bears and their new or at least temporary families. I have seen this kind of behavior a few times in the past but for some reason it was common this year making it hard to keep track of what was gong on in some cases.

At Hallo anytime is the best time for playing. Katmai NP Alaska, NIKON D500 and SIGMA 120-300

Sports lens @ 300mm, 1/1250 sec at f/3.5, manual mode, ISO 250,

The amount of time the bears spend playing varies in direct relation to how calm and cool the bears are. Light overcast with drizzle are always my favorite conditions for bear photography.

Out of all the spots at this river mouth this bear decided it wanted to sit on our gravel bar. Geographic, Katmai NP Alaska, NIKON D500 and SIGMA 120-300 Sports lens @ 300mm, 1/2000 sec at f/4, manual mode, ISO 400. Image Copyright 2016 Robert OToole Photography.

The bear photography opportunities really have been excellent over the last few years in Katmai so you should think about joining us next year, you wont regret it. My 2017 small group photo tour dates are available with a two spots left on each of the August tours, for more information follow this link for more information

http://www.robertotoole.com/workshop/brown-bears/

Shoot me an email, Robert at Robert OToole Photography.com, if you have any questions.

Alaska Bear Tour Report

July 21, 2016 in Alaska, Bear, brown bear, Tour, Travel, Travel report

Photographing Coastal Brown Bears in June

After finishing up my first two bear tours of the season, I am glad to report that June and early July were really good with a surprising number of bears at both Kukak and Hallo bay. I feel lucky to have been able to lead tours to locations like this with so many bears in mostly good weather with tons of action, so thanks to my trip participants for making this possible.

Mother bear at Hallo with lupine in the background. Katmai NP Alaska, NIKON D500 and SIGMA 18-300mm Contemporary

As soon as mother bear stopped and looked up I grabbed a Sigma 18-300 C travel and stopped down to f/14 to extend the depth of field for sharp Lupines and mountains in the background.

The Weather June can be a little slow after a harsh winter and spring but this year that was definitely not the case with so many bears and cubs out in force. Technically June, July, August are about equal in terms of rain but this June was a little wetter than normal this year with one tour losing a couple of days two to non-stop rain before recovering with beautiful cloudy skies and lots of great shooting.

Yearlings spending their morning sparring. Katmai NP Alaska, NIKON D500 and SIGMA 120-300 mm f/2.8 Sports lens @ 300mm, 1/1250 sec at f/3.5, manual mode, ISO 320. Image Copyright 2016 Robert OToole Photography.

Cloudy overcast mornings are typical for June in Katmai and as you can see in the image above not only is this kind of light not a problem with modern DSLRs but these conditions are preferred. Water droplets create lots of nice details with saturated colors and the cool temperatures mean more bear activity. Full sun on the other hand creates lots of issues with sharpness due to heat waves and dry chalky glacial mud everywhere and the heat in the middle of the day really slows the bears down.

Two yearlings having breakfast in the meadow. Katmai NP Alaska, NIKON D500 and SIGMA 120-300 mm f/2.8

The Bears

The number of bears and mothers with cubs around this year was just fantastic. At Hallo we had at least five mothers with cubs, Kukak had 12 bears around one morning. For some reason spring cubs were not around early this summer but there were lots of yearlings to keep the photographers really busy.

Two yearling cubs from different mothers rough-housing. Katmai NP Alaska, NIKON D500 and SIGMA 120-300 mm f/2.8

At Hallo we had the pleasure to see three mothers with adopted cubs. I have seen this before in years past but no this many at once. It was reported that there was a total of 5 mothers with adopted cubs this year a Hallo! This is always really interesting behavior to see and photograph.

Cub hopping over driftwood. Katmai NP Alaska, NIKON D500 and SIGMA 150-600 mm

Sports lens @ 190mm, 1/1250 sec at f/8, manual mode, ISO 280,

When this cub started running at me and I wanted to record that exact moment it would be in the air over the logs in the foreground so I locked on to the bear's head with 3D AF and carefully placed the mountains in the top of the frame and D500 and 150-600 sigma sports lens precisely tracked the bear perfectly.

The D500+150-600 S is one serious image maker with the best Image quality I have seen from a crop sensor body. I even managed to make a few frames up to ISO 5500 that looked fine without any noise reduction. The Nikon D810 is still my favorite overall camera but the D500 really makes a lot of sense for wildlife photography. Now that the D500 is out the D4 or D5 pro bodies slide further down my recommended equipment list for wildlife photography. For the price of a new D5 you can pick up a D810, D500 and a new Sigma 150-600 sports lens and still have money leftover for some new memory cards.

Chubby cub and mother bear. Hallo bay, Katmai NP Alaska, NIKON D500 and SIGMA 120-300 mm f/2.8

This year my bear tour schedule was split into 3 separate weeks in June, July and August and so far my experiment is really paying off.

Tour size is limited to 4 participants so there will always be plenty of time for personal assistance and instruction from the leader.

Each and every day I will strive to put you in the right place to make the very best images possible. Your image making will always be a priority over my own. My second goal is to make sure you return home safe and sound with images that are better than expected.

Mother and cub bonding. Kukak, Katmai NP Alaska, NIKON D500 and SIGMA 120-300 mm f/2.8

There are two islands that I know of where shy mother bears take cubs to live for extended periods. This always works out great for photography and this year was especially good on one island that ended up with two mothers with cubs!

Mother and cub stare down right before the pounce. Katmai NP Alaska, NIKON D500 and SIGMA 120-300 mm f/2.8

In Katmai biggest source of stress for a mother bear with a cub large adult male bears so an island is a solution that offers sanctuary from other bears and at the same time creates and ideal set up for photography.

Cubs having fun being cubs on bear island. Katmai NP Alaska, NIKON D500 and SIGMA 120-300 mm f/2.8

My 2017 small group photo tour dates are available with spots still available on all tours, for more information follow the link

here:

http://www.robertotoole.com/workshop/brown-bears/

Shoot me an email, Robert at Robert OToole Photography.com, if you have any questions.

Amazing Alaska

September 22, 2015 in Alaska, brown bear, Tour, Travel, Travel report, Workshops

Late afternoon light with mother and cub in bear paradise. Sigma 150-600 sports lens @ 600mm and Nikon D810, 1/1250s, f/8, ISO 1000, EV + .3, Manual mode, Auto-ISO, handheld.

Amazing opportunities and experiences

My time in August with my tour participants was unforgettable. Its really difficult to put some experiences into words. One of my most memorable experiences was one morning my group and I were out alone and at one point we had six brown bear mothers with cubs all around us fishing and not paying any attention to us. Not one other tour group even bothered to turn up that day. On another day a second year cub really surprised everyone by repeatedly catching salmon just like a pro, without help from it's mother!

Second year cub playing with a salmon. Sigma 150-600 sports lens @ 290mm and Nikon D810, 1/500s, f/14, ISO 1000, EV - .7, Manual mode, Auto-ISO, handheld.

At Hallo we had a cross fox spend at least 40 minutes hanging around showing off in front of us. The funny thing was that we had a mother bear with two second year cubs close by but all lenses were focused on the fox!

Portrait of Mr Cross Fox with fireweed background. Sigma 150-600 sports lens @ 600mm and Nikon D810, 1/1250s, f/8, ISO 1000, EV + .3, Manual mode, Auto-ISO, handheld.

Over our two weeks we split out time between Hallo and Geo with lots of strategic landings at selected spots in between. At some of the usual spots like Geographic we did have lots of other groups on the river at the same time, it is the peak time after all, but if you know your way around Katmai you know there even better locations.

Pink salmon just waiting to make a break for it. Sigma 150-600 sports lens @ 360mm and Nikon D810, 1/500s, f/11, ISO 2800, Manual mode, Auto-ISO, handheld.

The conditions this year were very very good with lots of salmon at all the spots and we had just enough rain to increase the river flows but not so much that it was a problem for photography. Our timing could not have been better since the first winter storm warning of the year was issued the very next day after the last day of the tour and Alaska got slammed.

For a photographer it doesn't get much better than Hallo bay in the late afternoon. Sigma 150-600 sports lens @ 600mm and Nikon D810, 1/2000s, f/7.1, ISO 720, EV + .3, Manual mode, Auto-ISO, handheld.

All new this year

This year I tried something completely new reducing my tour group size to just four photographers while most other bear tour groups are increasing group sizes to make more profit. The two biggest advantages of a smaller tour group size is much less pressure and less effect on the bears when you are on the move. Also a smaller group will spend lots less time getting ready, moving and setting up so this a smaller group will always be more agile and efficient to be able to in the right spot when the conditions all come together.

Spring cubs on the lookout for mother bear. Sigma 150-600 sports lens @ 600mm and Nikon D810, 1/500s, f/7.1, ISO 500, EV + .3, Manual mode, Auto-ISO, handheld.

Smaller is better

Small tour group sizes are the way to go judging by the feedback I received this year. For 2016 I have scheduled three of these exclusive tours, two are already sold out even before I announce them. I will post more information about the new tours later this week but if you are interested email me right away. Right now I have 2016, 2017 and 2018 tour dates available if you are interested let me know right away.

Where else in the world can you come across a bear gnawed whale vertebra on a beach walk?

Thanks

A big thanks to all of my awesome tour participants this summer, and special thanks to all of those that have re-signed for next year!

Bears In Alaska

July 29, 2015 in Alaska, Bear, brown bear, Travel, Travel report, Workshops

Trip Report : Tour One

Overall this tour was just about perfect. Even though I managed to step on and break my Maui Jim sunglasses in half on the first day of the trip and later having my old faithful MacBook Pro suffering a RAM failure and logic board failure didn't seem to really matter to me since I was working with such a great group of people including my hard working co-leader Mark Comon from Paul's Photo. The Photographic opportunities were fantastic from the first few minutes and seemed to get better and better up until the last minutes of the final shoot of the trip.

Plus size mother blonde bear checking out our group. Sigma 24-105 Art lens and Nikon D810, 1/1000s, f/5.6, 75mm, ISO 640, EV + .7, Manual mode, Auto-ISO, handheld.

The first few minutes after stepping off our floatplane I was faced with a tough decision, we had two bears (and later a wolf) fighting on top of a dead fin whale carcass, but the rest of our group was due to arrive in an hour or two. For the first couple of hours the harsh light made the dark bears on a white carcass unattractive so the decision was easy but after a 3 hour flight delay wait the light improved to the point where I decided to have the present half of the group suit up to take advantage of the scene in front of us. But before we could finish suiting up the rest of the group with Mark showed up, 3.5 hours late but just in time for the soft late afternoon light!

Lone bear morning walk at Hallo Bay. Sigma 150-600 Sports lens and Nikon D810, 1/500s, f/7.1, 360mm, ISO 280, Manual mode, Auto-ISO, Uniqball UBH 45X on tripod.

The Weather

July in Alaska always seems to deliver with a great balance of long hours of good light and good weather and this year was no exception. We had a single rain delay due in the entire seven day tour!

The Locations

This tour, the first of a series of three, was aimed at bears, their behavior and interactions mostly in Hallo Bay. The second and third tours this year that are taking place in August are targeting bears hunting for salmon at a spot down the coast called Geographic Harbor.

Hallo had just started to show a limited salmon run when we were there and had good numbers of bear and cubs. Kuliak had tons of pinks getting ready to run (and the dead whale) but Kukak seemed pretty slow but it still provided a hugh number, almost unbelievable number of eagles and eaglets, one nest had three good looking young ones!

Taking a break from eating a whale lunch to size up our group. Sigma 150-600 Sports lens and Nikon D810, 1/1250s, f/8, 500mm, ISO 450, EV -0.3, Manual mode, Auto-ISO, handheld.

Equipment

This year I went with the same lenses that performed so well on my Japan tour, the Sigma 120-300 f/2.8 (+1.4X), Sigma 150-600 sports, and a Sigma 24-105 all in my F-stop backpack / roller system. The 120-300 f2/8 sports lens was my go to lens for low light conditions, the 150-600 was my main lens the rest of the time. For bodies I brought a two Nikon D810s. The ability to go into CX mode with 6 fps and a 1.2X crop and DX mode with 7 fps and 1.5X crop with the increase in buffer size was great.

This year I brought three sets of waders, a convertible chest wader from Orvis, wading pants from Patagonia and a convertible thigh wader from Chota, all the ultra light Patagonia boots. The Chotas are good for warm afternoons since they pull down to boot level to keep cool.

Mother bear enjoying a roll in the warm sun and fresh sedge. Moments later the cub ran over to join her. Sigma 150-600 Sports lens and Nikon D810, 1/500s, f/7.1 600mm, ISO 3600, EV + 0.7, Manual mode, Auto-ISO, Uniqball UBH 45X on tripod.

The entire tour delivered lots of great opportunities up the final minutes of the tour when we had a surprise! I knew the area were scouting was great for red fox in years past but I was even surprised when Mark spotted a fox sunning on a patch of grass in perfect light. We motored closer and closer to what seemed like a few feet past the end of my legs that were hanging off the front of the skiff. Before our boat hit a rock and scared the fox away my lens EXIF reported a seven foot shooting distance.

Red fox taking a hunting break to enjoy the sun. Sigma 150-600 Sports lens and Nikon D810, 1/1250s, f/8, 550mm, ISO 900, EV + 0.3, Manual mode, Auto-ISO, handheld.

If you are interested in joining a 2016, 2017, or 2018 tour email me to be placed on the interest list. I should have solid dates by the end of August. Right now it looks like a tour at the end of June for bears and cubs and two August tours for bears fishing for salmon.

Sunday February 21st - Saturday March 5th, 2016, 14 Days: $8200. Deposit $3000.

Maximum 6 photographers + Leader Robert OToole and co-leader.

Any questions or comments? Leave a question below or send me an email.

Brown Bears of Katmai Photo Tour 2015

August 21, 2014 in Alaska, brown bear, Tour, Workshops

My annual brown bear tour visits some of the very best brown photo locations on the planet and the timing of the trips in late July and early August means we will have excellent photographic opportunities for brown bears, many with cubs, great weather, and good chances for bears fishing.© 2014 Robert OToole Photography

If you would like to join me next year my 2015 tour dates are open for registration and have just started to fill so email me as soon as you can if you are interested in joining us. Through experience I can tell you that the timing of these tours offers the best balance great action and good weather having led past tours at the same locations from the months of June to September.

For 2015 we will have the new updated accommodations and headquarters with plenty of room and space for the entire group.

July 19-25, 2015. 7 Days, 6 nights: $6500. Deposit $1500.

Maximum 12 photographers + leader: Robert O’Toole and co-leader.

August 9-15, 2015. 7 Days, 6 nights: $6500. Deposit $1500.

Maximum 4 photographers + leader Robert O’Toole and co-leader.

August 15-21, 2015. 7 Days, 6 nights: $6500. Deposit $1500.

Maximum 4 photographers + leader Robert O’Toole and co-leader.

For more information see the tour info page: http://www.robertotoole.com/workshop/brown-bears/

Any questions or comments? Leave a question below or send me an email.