An early November, 2008, guided trip with Sea Kayak Adventures to Baja, Mexico’s Sea of Cortez, an ideal time for warm water, pleasing temperatures, moderate wind, and—lucky for us—blooming wildflowers in the aftermath of hurricane Norbert. November, 2008, Loreto, Baja, MX. My wife Kate and I are on a guided kayak trip with Sea Kayak Adventures, joined by […]
Orca Whales, Johnstone Strait
On a guided trip with Sea Kayak Adventures, we kayak Johnstone Strait off Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, to see Orca Whales. September, 2008. Telegraph Cove, Vancouver Island, BC, Canada. The afternoon skies are a bright-overcast—photographer’s light—with just a wisp of a breeze that would make pulling the paddle through the tranquil water a joy if […]
Packing a Small Sea Kayak ____ 02/2008
Photographers carry a lot of photo gear, so a big-volume sea kayak logically meets the need. A long, large kayak can be fast as well, but can also be a heavy lift solo, and a bear wrestle in wind or in surf. Most photographers aren’t burly-burly men. They just want a kayak to get them […]
Photo Tip: Going Solo? Go Gorillapod! ___ 01/2008
Edited 03/15/2013. I often carry a Bogen Super Clamp or a tabletop tripod on kayak trips. The Clamp attaches to kayak U-bolts, rudders, or in camp from tree branches; the tabletop tucks under deck bungie for an action shot or gets the low-angle perspective while ashore. The Clamp weighs a full pound, so I never […]
Photo Tip: People in Nature ___ 11/2007
A missing element to make many a great scenic saleable can be pretty obvious. It’s an element that’s also ignored, overlooked, forgotten and even belittled by us nature photographers. Yet it’s an element we find endlessly fascinating, an element that grabs the attention in every scene. That element, of course, is people, and there’s no […]
Glacier Bay with Alaska On The Home Shore
Aboard the kayak mothership Home Shore, we paddle the kayaker must-do Glacier Bay National Park in Southeast Alaska for the tidewater glaciers, bears, whales and birds. May, 2008. Glacier Bay National Park, SE Alaska. The morning of our departure from Sitka aboard kayak mothership Home Shore (Alaska on the Home Shore), Captain Jim Kyle announced that the […]
Photo Tip: Beat the Gray Sky Blues ___ 04/2007
The Northwest (US) where I live features some of the planet’s grayest skies, a nightmare of gray on gray for sometimes unending weeks at a time. In summer, on the coast, it mostly ruins photography while kayaking, but those same gray sky conditions present opportunities as well. Just ask Ansel Adams. A gray sky provides […]
Ford’s Terror
Aboard the kayak mothership Home Shore, we travel from Petersburg to Sitka, paddling in Endicott Arm, Ford’s Terror, West Chichagof, Taylor Bay and other Southeast Alaska locations. July, 2006. Petersburg, Alaska. We motored out of Petersburg under gray skies, heading north aboard the Home Shore – my 8th, and, as it turned out, wettest tour aboard the […]
Photo Tip: Take Your Eye Off the Viewfinder __ 07/2006
Serious film photographers wouldn’t think of it, but point-and-shoot digital shooters routinely snap photos with camera at arms length. Not just holding the digicams straight out in front of them, but overhead, down low or off to the side. Some point-and-shoot LCD’s even cleverly fold out and twist to aid in composing, though this isn’t […]
Baja by Kayak Mothership Ursa Major
Sea Kayaking aboard Ursa Major in the Sea of Corez in Feb, 2006. We travel from La Paz to Loreto, and return. February, 2006. Baja, MX. After 28 or so consecutive rain days in a dreary Seattle, the sweet, dry desert air of La Paz, enveloped us in bliss. We boarded the charter yacht Ursa Major, […]