Salmon Fishing - Bears!

This is what I was hoping to catch – bear actually doing the catching of the salmon.  Altho none of these will make the cover of National Geo Magazine, I think they were pretty great!  The first image was of a bear up at the top of the waterfall we were at.  There were many bear there, so each of these images (as well as the ones from the other entry) is most likely several different bears.  Each bear would catch a salmon, either eat it there or take it up into the woods to eat.  If he/she went into the woods, we couldn’t tell if the bear that returned from the woods was that same bear or another one!

This image is, I believe, the same bear that ran in the previous entry.  This catch happened shortly after the “truce” when the dominant bear went back to his favorite fishing spot.  This bear remained where he was and patiently selected just the perfect salmon to munch on.

Here’s another bear in the process of catching his tasty morsel!  It was really interesting to watch them  as they selected just the salmon they wanted.  As you could see from the other entry, there was really an embarrassment of riches for them.  And, of course, they would miss, and the salmon would get to live just a wee bit longer, but those don’t make for very exciting images! 

Here’s a great shot of a bear just as he raised his head up out of the river, victorious in his catch!  I took lots and lots of images to get just this one, so I’m pretty happy with it.  And, the salmon is in a good photographic position, too!

This is the “perfect moment” of this entire visit.  Perfect position, perfect lighting, and just truly captures the feeling of what it was like watching these magnificent creatures in their element!

Enjoy!

Bear Behavior

And, now, the bears!!!  We actually saw a couple of bears in the woods during the ¼ mile trek to their fishing spot, but I didn’t capture them with my camera – they moved too fast (in the opposite direction, thank goodness) and the trees sort of obscured them.  However, the image above is of the salmon, which is what they are fishing for!  You can barely see the water for the fish!  And, for those of you who might feel bad for the salmon caught by the bears, keep this in mind.  They are heading upstream to die anyway – it’s Nature.

This was the first bear we spotted, and he spotted us first.  It’s easy to forget that these are truly wild bear, and could really harm or kill us should they perceive us a threat or competition for this food.  There are black bear on this island, and they are not known for attacking humans, especially during this time of the year, when other food sources are much more prevalent.  Thank goodness!  This “little guy” is probably about 200 pounds or so!

Here are a couple of bears, with one establishing a sort of dominance over the other.  Joshua, our guide, explained that the bear that views itself as smaller, weaker, etc., than another bear it encounters will be the one to back off.  It appears that’s what’s happening here.

Here they seem to have established a tentative “truce”.  I don’t know if you can see it from this image, but they are both keeping an eye on each other.  I think it hindered their ability to fish because they didn’t stay this way for long.  The bear at the lower portion of the image moved back to his “regular” fishing position, and happily seemed to be catching his fill!

This bear was right below our viewing stand, and clearly saw us.  He watched us for several minutes, but then seemed to decide that we weren’t worthy of him asserting his dominance (thank you!), and slowly resumed fishing.  He did look back a few times, tho, as if to remind us that he could have his way with us should he want to.

Enjoy!

Float Plane Ride !

And, we’re off on our float plane and bear sighting adventure!  Ok, so it wasn’t as dangerous as the word “adventure” might imply – but it did have its share of perfect moments!  The above image was one I took as we took off from Ketchikan.  You can see the town itself, and our cruise ship is the first one in line.  Interestingly, the road that runs thru town only runs for a few miles outside of town along the shoreline, and then ends.  And, the roads that seem to run up away from the shoreline pretty much end after only a very short time – some are only a couple of hundred feet long!  You really can’t get over the mountains.  I guess the waterway into town is the true Main Street of this town!

Vibrant green, isn’t it?  A nice break from the grey!  We are approaching Prince of Wales Island where the bears are!  Aren’t these little islands quite lovely?  The sort of yellowish “rings” around the islands are due to it being low tide and that’s sea residue (my term!).



Our pilot has dropped us off on Prince of Wales Island and is flying back to Ketchikan with the group that visited the bears just before us.  Although I knew he’d be back, it was a bit of an odd feeling watching him leave and knowing that, for us, he was our only way off this island!  However, we weren’t alone – Joshua , our bear guide, was at our side.  He was quite the character, but I guess you had to be to live out on this Island, given how remote it is!





Adam, our pilot, did come back for us and this was one of the great views going back to Ketchikan.  I was sitting in the co-pilot seat on the way back, so that’s why I was able to capture this “pilot’s view” of the area.  We also saw some orca whales on our way back, but I wasn’t able to capture them with my camera – darn!!

Enjoy!

Ketchikan's Active Dockside

This collection of images was taken from our ship and seems to truly capture some great moments of an active dockside.  The first image, above, is one I really like, and captures all the fishing boats seemingly lined up to leave town to work for the day!  Now, in reality, not every ship was doing that, but I just loved the lines created by the boats and the shoreline.

It was fun to watch all the float planes taking off from alongside the ship, too.  It amazed me how they would take off and land in between all the fishing and touring boats that kept leaving the doc.  This image really captures the moment of lift off of the float plane, and the boat that was also in the area at the time.

I think this is a great shot.  I just love the silhouette of the float plane against the fog/clouds that wisp around the mountain.  There’s a freedom about this image that I think captures the spirit of the pilots of these little planes.

This image is definitely one of those perfect moments in a day that turned out to be filled with them.  Can you see the float plane up against the grey sky after it took off?  The solitude that these pilots must feel each time they fly is what I tried to reflect in this image.   Hopefully, I succeeded!

Enjoy!

In the Town of Ketchikan

I couldn’t resist shooting this image of the Fish House in Ketchikan.  It just seems to symbolize a typical shop front along the dock in the downtown area.  Of course, to a non-seafood/fish person, it doesn’t really sound all that appetizing, but that’s just me!

This was a charming little non-pretentious Episcopal church in town.  I just loved the red door, and so couldn’t resist taking the shot!

I also loved the windows.  Their design is very subtle, and hopefully you can see them in this image.



Totems are a big part of Alaska history.  I don’t know the story behind this totem, but the young guy who drove us to our float plane told us the story of the She Bear & Catch Bear (I think).  Too long to get into for this blog entry, but email me if you want the story!

This is one of my favorite images from dockside in town.  To me, it captures the spirit of the working town that Ketchikan is, and represents another perfect moment of this day – the float/sea plane, boat, and mountain in the background.  Again, a pretty grey day, but wonderfully perfect!

Enjoy!

Coming Into Port - Ketchikan, AK

Coming into port in Ketchikan, I was struck by the fact that it’s definitely a working town, and reflects that.  It’s also someplace that you can only get to by boat or float plane, so it’s not unusual to see homes with their float planes up in protected areas.  Did you notice the tracks that will make it easy for this homeowner to get his/her plane into the water?

I couldn’t resist this shot.  The “No Wake” sign makes reference to the fact that boats cannot go fast enough to create a wake in the water.  However, this seemed like such a sleepy Sunday morning at first glance, I got a chuckle thinking about the sign also asking for peace and quiet so the residents could catch a few extra winks!

Tourism is the largest source of income and industry for this town, with fishing a very close second.  Here are a couple of working boats.  There’s something about the patters of colors and lines that really appealed to me.  It also sort of reminded me of the quintessential New England fishing town, but, it’s a bit further north and west of New England!

Since float planes (also called sea planes) are a big part of the industry here, too, they are docked at piers as well.  However, notice how they are pulled out of the water when they are docked and not being used.  The pilot of the float plane we went on to see the bears (blog entries to come!) told us that the salt water will wreck havoc with the planes, so they pull them out of the water each night and actually hose them down with fresh water.

Enjoy!

Dawn Approaching Ketchikan

Isn’t this a great shot?  We weren’t quite at Ketchikan yet when dawn occurred.  It was such a spectacularly grey dawn; it was perfect in its own way.  This image really captured the feeling of vastness that is very different from the vastness that I often feel home in New Mexico.

This image is special to me because of how the fog just seems to wisp around the mountains.  It’s not a depressing sort of feeling, either, at least not yet for me!  I decided to just go with whatever the Universe was going to give me today, and figured that It knows best, and will send me the most beautiful things to see.

We’re getting closer to Ketchikan here, and you can see a couple of fishing boats heading out for their daily work, even tho it is Sunday.  There was something quite peaceful about this – helped by the quietness of all that was around us.  Thank goodness the ship wasn’t sounding its fog horn – that would have disturbed the moment!

This shot has to be my favorite of the dawn.  The sun trying to burn through and creating a sort of spot light of sorts on the bouy  guiding us toward Ketchikan.  What a perfectly peaceful moment.

Enjoy!