Dengler Images

A sense of place – Chilkat River, Klehini River, Chilkoot Lake

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While these iPhone photos do not show the main focus of my trip to Alaska — photographing bald eagles, the photos do show some of places near my bald eagle photography locations. As the photos show, the rivers are not yet frozen, which is very unusual and not good for my bald eagle photography. When the Chilkat River is frozen, it forces all the eagles to feed on salmon in a mile and a half area that is slow to freeze. This situation is about to change. The forecast is calling for temperatures in the teens to 20s with winds 30-50 mph to 50 mph with gusts up to 75 mph. Needless to say I will be adding more layers of clothing.

The sun rises above the Chilkat River near Haines, Alaska. The mountains the background are of the Chilkat Range and Takhinsha Range. SPECIAL NOTE: This iPhone photo is composed of multiple iPhone photos stitched together as a panorama. (John L. Dengler)

The Chilkat and Takhinsha Ranges rise above the Chilkat River near Haines, Alaska. The Chilkat River is where most of my bald eagle photography is taking place. The above photograph is comprised of multiple iPhone images stitched together on the iPhone using the AutoStitch iPhone app.

Fresh snow dusts the Klehini River gravel bar in southeast Alaska near Haines. SPECIAL NOTE: iPhone photo (John L. Dengler)

The Klehini River is one of the rivers that flows into the Chilkat River where I am primarily photographing bald eagles. This photo shows the Klehini River near the U.S. – Canadian border near the abandoned gold mining district known as Porcupine.

Mount Kashagnak is reflected in the calm waters of Chhilkoot Lake. Chilkoot Lake is a popular fishing, camping and recreation destination near Haines, Alaska and the Lynn Canal. The lake is part of the Chilkoot Lake State Recreational Site and managed by Alaska State Parks. SPECIAL NOTE: iPhone photo (John L. Dengler)

Last year I did quite a bit of my bald eagle photography on the Chilkoot River near Chilkoot Lake (above). This year there were few eagles here.

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Reflecting on Mendenhall Lake

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Reflections on Mendenhall Glacier from John L. Dengler on Vimeo.

This is the first time I have tried a video blog posting from the field using only my iPhone to shoot, edit, and post the video. Unfortunately in this report from the Mendenhall Glacier near Juneau, Alaska, there is virtually no movement in the video due to the unusual lack of wind. (oh well, at least I tried)

Because these iPhone posts are not up to my usual quality they will not appear on my home page, but will appear on the blog.

I see this particular post as a short prototype for future posts of this type. Let me know what you think.

Tomorrow, I will FINALLY arrive in Haines.

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Off again to the valley of the eagles

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The final rays of the sun at sunset baths mountain tops in light as an Alaska Marine Highway System ferry travels down the Chilkoot Inlet of the Lynn Canal in this photo taken just outside Haines, Alaska. (John L. Dengler)

By the time you are reading this, I will have begun three days of traveling by air and ship to reach my favorite spot for photographing bald eagles at the confluence of the Tsirku and Chilkat Rivers, near Haines, Alaska. By the time I get back to Springfield I will have traveled roughly 9,392 miles. It’s a long arduous trip but well worth the effort to see what is the largest congregation of bald eagles in the world. The part of the traveling that I do enjoy is the portion of the trip on the Alaska Marine Highway System.

This state run fleet of ferries is the only way to access much of southeast Alaska as much of this part of the state does not have highways that connect to the lower 48, or to the rest of Alaska or Canada for that matter. Unless you are on one of the fleet’s fast catamaran style ferries, the trip will be slow-paced allowing time to take in the amazing scenery of the Lynn Canal and the Inside Passage.

My trip from Juneau to Haines will take roughly 4 and one-half hours which will allow time for photography (if it’s not snowing too hard or the winds too strong) and a bite of food in the on-board restaurant. The ships in the fleet are pretty amazing in what they offer. Besides the restaurant, there are typically on-board cabins for those having to travel several days, several observation lounges, showers, a movie theater, game room, and of course the amazing car deck.

I’m always surprised at just how many cars, buses, and semi-trailers can fit into these ships. During the summer, there is a mix of tourists and locals, but come winter it’s strictly a local affair. Local folks use the system to travel to do grocery shopping, get their car serviced, see the doctor, play another sports team or even to travel to the hospital to have a baby. As you can imagine, it’s a real look at real Alaskans going about their daily lives.

Once in Haines I will less than an hour’s drive to the magical Chilkat River valley. I can wait to be on the river to see the first light of the day like in the photo below to begin what is always an amazing day photographing the magnificent bald eagles.

A sliver of an early morning sunrise shines on the slopes of Mount Jonathan Ward outside Haines, Alaska near the Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve. (John L. Dengler)

 

TOP PHOTO: The final rays of the sun at sunset baths mountain tops in light as an Alaska Marine Highway System ferry travels down the Chilkoot Inlet of the Lynn Canal in this photo taken just outside Haines, Alaska.

ABOVE PHOTO: A sliver of an early morning sunrise shines on the the slope of Mt. Jonathan Ward outside Haines, Alaska near the Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve.

To license image, click image. To see our collection of fine art prints, click here.

How does a grizzly bear scratch itself?

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Ever wonder how a grizzly bear scratches itself? I would imagine carefully given that its long 3 1/2” fore claws can kill with one powerful swipe.

In reality, most bear itches are resolved through rubbing up against an object. Grizzly bears are an itchy lot so it’s not unusual to see them scratching up against trees, bushes, boulders, road signs and even cabins. I’ve read that they even purposefully walk over brush to give their bellies a good scratching too.

I was fortunate to witness a grizzly bear in the midst of a crazed itch frenzy while traveling through the Sable Pass corridor in Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska. This self-given back rub against a small spruce tree must have been ecstasy for the bear as it continued for several minutes.

I knew while photographing the bear this was a good example of where video would be an effective story telling tool. For lack of a video camera, my next best solution was to create a time-lapse sequence of the bear’s antics. A time-lapse video made up of still images however was going to prove difficult because I was hand-holding the 600 mm lens with 1.4 teleconverter and was impossible to keep the lens in the exact locked-down position that you can do with a tripod. My solution — once back to the office, I used the auto-align feature of Adobe Photoshop to align the images in the sequence to be in the same position relative to each other. This allows the background to stay reasonably constant showing only the movement of the bear.

While the resulting video above is a bit corny and unpolished, it does capture just how good that back scratching session felt. To see the sequence longer, the video repeats the sequence twice. Click the replay button should you get the itch to see it again.

ABOVE: Time-lapse of a grizzly bear scratching itself against a small spruce tree as seen from the park road in the Sable Pass area of Denali National Park in Alaska.

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