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Defending Alaska
Defending Alaska
January 26, 2025

For those who have followed me for a long time, you know that I have been using my photography for conservation for over 20 years. I also was in a past life an environmental law attorney, working for an Alaska non-profit law firm called Trustees for Alaska...

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A Lost Year?
A Lost Year?
January 7, 2025

It is that time of year when photographers share their favorite images and the stories behind them. Instead, I find myself reflecting on what kind of year 2024 was; in fact, what the last 18 months have been like for me as a photographer...

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In Praise of Dark Skies
In Praise of Dark Skies
April 17, 2023

When I take clients out on northern lights tours, there is a period of waiting. Once on location, we wait, looking up at dark skies, longing for that first sign of aurora appearing as a pale arc band across the northeastern sky...

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Is the EPA's
Is the EPA's "Final Determination" the Final Word for Bristol Bay?
January 30, 2023

In 2010, a group of Alaska Native tribes, commercial fishermen and others petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to exercise its authority under the Clean Water Act to stop the mine. Section 404(c) of the Clean Water Act authorizes the EPA to prohibit, restrict, or deny the use of any defined area in waters of the United States as a disposal site whenever it determines, after notice and opportunity for public hearing, that the discharge of dredged or fill material into the area will have an unacceptable adverse effect on fishery areas (including spawning and breeding areas)...

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An Authentic Dog Mushing Experience
An Authentic Dog Mushing Experience
January 20, 2023

In 2017, Michelle and I decided to give each other a trip for our 50th birthdays. Michelle wanted a road trip, so I designed a New England fall colors trip. What did I want? A multi-day guided dog mushing trip through some wild location in Scandinavia...

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Pondering the Question
Pondering the Question "Is that Photoshopped?"
January 19, 2023

One of the evils of the digital age is that professional nature or landscape photographers have to respond to the question, “Is that Photoshopped?” There are two problems with the question. One problem relates to meaning...

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Goodbye to Antelope Canyon
Goodbye to Antelope Canyon
January 13, 2023

There are many iconic landscape photography locations in the American Southwest: Delicate Arch in Arches National Park, Mesa Arch in Canyonlands National Park, the Horseshoe Bend near Page, Arizona, or the Wave in the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness...

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Favorites from 2022
Favorites from 2022
January 12, 2023

With 18,307 images captured (and still on my hard drive) from 2022, you might think it is a little challenging to select a few favorites from the year. But for me, selecting a core group of favorite images involves more than selecting images that I think are technically good or creatively compelling...

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National Bird Day - What should we celebrate?
National Bird Day - What should we celebrate?
January 5, 2023

My maternal grandmother was a bit of a stickler for grammar. So when I see the title National Bird Day, my grammar-sense kicks in. Are we celebrating our National Bird, the Bald Eagle, or are we as a nation celebrating birds in general?

The correct answer, of course, is the latter - we celebrate our love for birds as a nation...

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Photography Helps us Make Deeper Connections to Nature
Photography Helps us Make Deeper Connections to Nature
January 1, 1023

What is Nature? Are people a part of nature? Why do we value nature or wild places? Why do we enjoy photography?

These are all deeply personal, subjective concepts. We each connect with nature in different ways, and we assign different values to it...

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Bristol Bay One Step Closer to Protection
Bristol Bay One Step Closer to Protection
December 2, 2022

Whenever I give presentations outside of Alaska, I always ask the audience, “How many of you like salmon?” Most hands in the room go up. Then I ask, “How many of you have heard of Copper River Reds?” Many of the hands still remain up...

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2020-21 Aurora Season Recap
2020-21 Aurora Season Recap
May 17, 2021

The sun is the source of the energy that produces the aurora borealis. It goes through a roughly eleven-year cycle, transitioning from Solar Minimum to Solar Maximum and back to Solar Minimum again...

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All Creatures Great and Small
All Creatures Great and Small
May 10, 2021

I am sitting on a rock, with the tripod set so that the camera is at eye-height, remaining motionless as I watch and wait. I saw him scurrying around just a few minutes ago, so I am hoping that by sitting still long enough he will come out to forage again...

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Photographing in the
Photographing in the "Ugly" Season
April 30, 2021

There comes a time when we transition from winter to spring. In the time between the last snow melting and the trees starting to bud, things can be brown. Trash starts to show after a winter of hiding under the snow, decorating highway medians and lake shores...

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Reflections on Earth Day
Reflections on Earth Day
April 22, 2021

Astronaut photograph AS17-148-22727, the first "Blue Marble" photo, taken on December 7, 1972 during the Apollo 17 mission. Courtesy of the NASA Johnson Space Center (public domain)

I was born into the environmental equivalent of a horror movie, at that time when you realize that there is a threat but you don't know what to do about it...

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Sampling Wines in the Texas Hill Country
Sampling Wines in the Texas Hill Country
April 21, 2021

Texas may be known for longhorn cattle, big boots and buckles, football, and a variety of other things. But from what we can tell when we explain to friends that we brought home two cases of wine from the Texas Hill Country, it appears that people do not know as much about the quality of wines available in our smaller sister state...

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In Search of Texas Hill Country Wildflowers
In Search of Texas Hill Country Wildflowers
April 19, 2021

“Beautification is far more than a matter of cosmetics,” Lady Bird Johnson said in 1968. “For me, it describes the whole effort to bring the natural world and the man-made world into harmony; to bring order, usefulness — delight — to our whole environment, and that of course only begins with trees and flowers and landscaping...

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Out and About in the Hill Country
Out and About in the Hill Country
April 16, 2021

Back in 2007, when we had been dating for less than a year, Michelle and I decided to take our first out-of-state trip. Part of it was to visit my mom in Austin, Texas, and introduce her to Michelle...

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Spring Aurora in the Brooks Range
Spring Aurora in the Brooks Range
March 28, 2021

For years, longtime Wiseman resident Jack Reakoff has been telling me that the spring equinox is the absolute best time to see the aurora borealis (northern lights) in his part of the state. I decided this year to finally follow up on his observation and take a trip there to chase the lights...

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Aurora Adventure in the Alaskan Interior
Aurora Adventure in the Alaskan Interior
March 10, 2021

When it comes to photographing the aurora borealis in Alaska, I think the two best areas to do it are in the vicinity of Anchorage in the Southcentral region, and up in the Brooks Range, our northern-most mountain range...

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Top Ten Mistakes
Top Ten Mistakes
January 31, 2021

There is no simple rule to photography in the broad sense of the art, or the business. There are techniques, specifications, rules of composition, elements of design, digital flow practices, and all manners of guidance to discrete aspects of photography...

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Why I Love Winters in Alaska
Why I Love Winters in Alaska
January 24, 2021

I see on the news and social media a general hysteria about winter temperatures and conditions in the Lower 48, and I chuckle to myself a bit. We have more often than not had unusually warm winters in Alaska as of late...

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Developing the Gallery
Developing the Gallery
January 17, 2021

Along time ago, in a career far, far away, I had a small gallery downtown. It was at a time when I was doing any kind of photography work that would pay – commercial, portraits, weddings, sports, events...

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Best of 2020
Best of 2020
January 12, 2021

Like most people, photographers take the year's end to look back on what transpired in the previous year and to look ahead. But as a photographer, this is also a practice I engage in regularly. I look back on what I have photographed to see how I have grown, to reexamine my work, and look ahead to fill the gaps of what I have not photographed yet...

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Making a Photographic Bucket List
Making a Photographic Bucket List
December 20, 2020

We are all familiar with the concept of a "Bucket List." But how many of us have actually written one down?

For years, I have had conversations with people, from friends to guests on my tours or workshops, of my Alaska Photo Bucket List...

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Why the Long Reflection?
Why the Long Reflection?
December 13, 2020

I was giving a webinar through the North American Nature Photography Association on how to chase and photograph the aurora borealis. During the Q&A, someone asked why one image had stars that were casting a long reflection, rather than a pinpoint of light...

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How to Do Star Trails, Old and New
How to Do Star Trails, Old and New
December 11, 2020

On those clear starry nights when I am out searching for the aurora borealis, but no lights come out to play, I like to make sure that the effort of being out late and freezing my tuchus off is still worthwhile...

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How to Chase and Shoot the Aurora
How to Chase and Shoot the Aurora
December 10, 2020

Alaskans tend to take advantage of their long days in the summer by getting out and hiking, biking, camping, and fishing. We savor the opportunity to have six hours of sunlight to enjoy on a weekday after the work day is done...

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Ambler Road and the Destruction of Arctic Wilderness
Ambler Road and the Destruction of Arctic Wilderness
April 23, 2020

"The only words I had to say were simple after all — and only what this land has taught me. There is nothing worse they could do: for our land, for the caribou, for the people here, for our subsistence lifestyle; for our nation, and our world...

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Why Wilderness is Important to Me as an Artist
Why Wilderness is Important to Me as an Artist
April 22, 2020

In his book, The Singing Wilderness, Sigurd Olson said:  Simplicity in all things is the secret of the wilderness and one of its most valuable lessons. It is what we leave behind that is important...

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National Parks Help Shape Our Personal Stories
National Parks Help Shape Our Personal Stories
April 20, 2020

During this National Parks Week, I wanted to take time and think of how our National Park System has influenced my life over the years. This is something we should all do from time to time, because it is likely we can all find a thread that the parks have woven through our personal fabric over the years...

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Backyard Wildlife
Backyard Wildlife
April 4, 2020

Wildlife photographers are known to travel to the far reaches of the globe in search of their subjects, from Kamchatka, Russia, to Botswana, Africa. Here in Alaska, we have several remote locations that are desired for wildlife opportunities, from Anan Creek for black bears to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for caribou...

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A Decade of Discovery
A Decade of Discovery
January 7, 2020

For the past several years, I have conducted a year-in-review of my photography. Now, I take a look back at a decade. It was, as the title says, a decade of discovery. But it was also, for me as an artist, a decade of growth...

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Year in Review - 2019
Year in Review - 2019
January 6, 2020

It is a common practice for photographers, to look back on the previous year and consider where they have come. Everyone has their different approach and motivation, from highlighting trips to expounding on the artistic process of being a photographer...

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