Going to Lake Clark National Park never gets old. Each year is new and exciting to me! The bears are never the same, but there are always bears. The clients change, but my groups are always so enjoyable and make the experience even better! There is nothing like seeing a clients face as an Alaskan brown bear walks by at a close distance, or when we are surrounded by thousands of flying puffins! Anytime I’m in the field photographing is fun.

This year’s trip to Lake Clark got started on a good note and on our first day we had a bear in a field of lupine! It was beautiful and you could see the rain coming down in the photo too. I was proud of my group for being patient on day 1, and their patience was rewarded with a great opportunity!

We had lots of great bird opportunities this year too! There was a very cooperative bald eagle that sat on a piece of drift wood and let us walk around and photograph it on two different occasions, and one time there was a very dramatic background! A side trip to puffin island was very productive and exciting, as the puffins really were everywhere and flying every direction. It was so much fun!

A couple of sub adult bears were hanging out together, and at times would play, but not when we were around. After a few days of being there, we still hadn’t had a chance to photograph them playing, so we spent more time with them in hopes of catching them playing. I don’t know how long we waited, and it seemed like nothing would happen, but again our patience was rewarded and we watched them play and play right in front of the mountains!

When the tide goes out in Lake Clark it is neat because the bears will go out on the tidal flats to dig for clams. When the light is nice on the flats, it can make for some very dramatic moments. A couple different days we had real nice light and took advantage of that by creating different types of shots. We even got to see a couple of other animals, and had a nice shoot with a moose and a baby porcupine.

It’s amazing how fast 5 days can go by when having fun. But we captured thousands of shots to remember those 5 days by, and we had a great trip!

Anytime I am photographing bears I am happy! Leading my photo tour to Lake Clark NP is always a good time! I had another great group of clients this year, and the bears gave us many great opportunities! It is really cool when we fly in and there are bears scattered across the tidal flats digging for clams. It gets the group real excited seeing bears immediately and the excitement continues to grow from there.

We had good opportunities with bears clamming for most days of the trip, and it’s always fun getting to photograph bears on the tidal flats. On day two, while photographing bears clamming, we saw in the distance a mother bear with a small cub. Cubs always get the group very excited, and this was a spring cub, or a first-year cub. They are so small at first and lots of fun to photograph. Getting to spend some time with the cub was great, and then later that evening we saw a mother with 3 spring cubs! Each day we kept seeing more and more bears!

On the third morning, we woke to the mother and 3 cubs being right out in front of the lodge. What a great way to wake up! They were across a river from us, but after we had been there a while, they decided to swim and come to us! Then the cubs ran around and played and really put on a show for us. In the afternoon it looked like it could be a long day because all the bears we could see were taking a nap. One bear when it woke up, got up and went to a different bear and started to play. They played and played and played for the longest time, and looked to be having so much fun! My group certainly enjoyed getting to spend so much time watching them play, and then one slept on a log in exhaustion. My group almost always gets the chance to photograph a bear sleeping on a log!

The next couple of days we got to see the mom and 1 cub a number of times, and each time it seemed like the cub was getting more comfortable in its new world. The cub started to show its personality, and it was such a joy to get to watch him run around and entertain us! It liked to run our direction, do a jump and spin, and then run back to mom. It also enjoyed chewing on its paws, which was super cute. Each day of the trip, the photography just got better and better! Spending time in the field around bears is what I look forward to most each year, and Lake Clark never disappoints.