Dolphins and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

I just posted two galleries with photos from recent nature trips - one diving and one NDR.

1. The first trip was to Brooks Lodge in Katmai National Park in Alaska in early July to see and photograph big brown bears (same species as N. American grizzlies, but roughly twice as big!) feeding on sockeye salmon on the Brooks River. It was a great trip, booked through www.Travelwild.com (associated with www.photosafaris.com ) - the same company we used last year for our Spitsbergen polar bear trip.*

Photos from this Katmai brown bear trip, with my commentary captions, are at: http://www.underwaterreflections.com/galle...069/1/175666882

* The gallery for last year's polar bear trip is at http://www.underwaterreflections.com/gallery/1686195

Here's my best shot from that trip:

2. The second trip was the Wetpixel shark and dolphin diving in the Bahamas aboard M.V. ShearWater (my third time on that boat) only a few weeks ago. That trip included several days diving with sharks (Caribbean Reef Sharks, Lemon Sharks, and Tiger Sharks), and then two days snorkeling and free-diving (breath-hold diving) with wild dolphins. We were fortunate to encounter and swim with both bottlenose and spotted dolphins, and I got a few shots of each. I've posted a gallery of photos from that trip on my old website: http://seattleyates.com/UW%20Photos.htm

(Note: the last shot in that gallery is of me, and was taken by Cor.)

Here are a couple of shots from that trip:

Great stuff Bruce. love that Alaskan brown bear shot!

and the Tiger shark,

and the dolphins...

Well done Bruce.

I love photographing bears too so I have got to get up to Alaska.

Cheers

Todd

These shots are fantastic.

Really, really nice Bruce. You've set the bar pretty high. I leave for my second Shearwater trip this year on Monday.

OK, here's something weird. After lots of people have looked at my Bahamas gallery, the photo everyone consistently says is their favorite is the one below. I find this fascinating, since I consider it technically lacking (bubbles everywhere!), and I almost didn't even keep it! I can only assume that the "expression" on this shark's face - the Cheshire-cat grin - somehow "connects" with people... Go figure!

Bruce,

Yep, I connect. Sometimes bubbles just sort of "let you know" that it's an underwater photo - lol. People appreciate them sometimes and they can really add to a photo.

I too enjoyed going through your brown bear gallery today too. Is there a way to get Smugmug to allow me to see a thumbnail page?

Cheers

James

Bruce,

 

Yep, I connect. Sometimes bubbles just sort of "let you know" that it's an underwater photo - lol. People appreciate them sometimes and they can really add to a photo.

 

I too enjoyed going through your brown bear gallery today too. Is there a way to get Smugmug to allow me to see a thumbnail page?

 

Cheers

James

James, I changed the view so you can see 16 thumbnails at a time for you. Let me know when you're done so I can switch it back, OK?

I didn't want to make it all tiny thumbnails on one page (which IS one of the choices) because, well, lots of other people are viewing it, and I personally don't think that's the best way for them to see the captions I spent so long writing...

Nice stuff. It is a pity I had to rush off home after leg one of the Wetpixel trip, and didn't get a chance to see you leg 2 folks.

Alex

Very nice stuff. I love the shots of turtle hatchling on the surface.

Luke

Thanks Bruce, I'm finished. :-)