A black and white rendition of this young polar bear approaching the camera. Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska.

Hey Folks,

Sometimes I wonder if anyone’s still here.

These days, when I do blog, it’s mostly over at Expeditions Alaska. I definitely recommend you check it out over there, if you’re interested, and click on the “Get It By Email” link to stay connected and updated with all the goings on.

I simply found keeping a couple blogs going not worth the time. Maybe I’ll post here from time to time when I get bored, LOL.

Anyway, here’s a polar bear photo from this past fall. We spent a couple weeks in the arctic, again, and had some great photography opportunities with the bears. Never ceases to amaze me how fascinating it is to observe and photograph these incredible creatures. I’ve never really found another animal quite like the polar bear.

I converted this photo to black and whit to see how ti might come out and was pleasantly pleased with the results. What do you think?

Cheers
Carl

The post Polar bears in black and white appeared first on Skolai Images.

Those who use big words,

…

and those who use diminutive ones.

The post Obiter dicta: Two Types of Writers appeared first on Skolai Images.

One fat young polar bear cub, sitting back on his haunches, totally chilling. It’s great to see a happy polar bear. Please click on the image above to view a larger version of this photo.

hey folks,

Just thought I’d wrap things up for the year with another polar bear photo. This one I took a couple of years ago, but I ran across it this evening doing some editing and so on and thought I’d post it. I just love the pose and feel of this shot.

Due a cancellation, I have some space on my 2016 polar bear trips. Please let me know if you’re interested, the few spots for this trip typically fill up early.

Hope you all had a good year, and wish you all the best for the holiday season and the coming year.

Cheers

Carl

The post Polar bear cub photo appeared first on Skolai Images.

Here’s a free ebook, available only to subscribers of my Expeditions Alaska newsletter. And, even better, here a bunch of absurdly great reasons why you want this ebook.

1. It’s free
2. It’s a great eBook
3. Over 80 polar bear photos
4. My newsletter is awesome
5. Polar bears are super cool, and
6. Nobody should need more than 5 reasons for this eBook.

So what is it? It’s a collection of photos of polar bears. Over 80 of them. I’ve written a piece or two about the bears as well. I think it’s a pretty cool little project. Download a copy and let me know what you think. I’d love to hear your review of it.

Just click on the image below.

Thanks so much,

Cheers

Carl

The post Free Polar Bear eBook appeared first on Skolai Images.

A grizzly bear (brown bear, Ursus arctos), charging up Brooks River chasing spawning Sockeye Salmon, fall colors on the forest in the background, Katmai National Park, Alaska.

Hey Folks

Welcome back! It’s been a while, indeed. Blogging isn’t my priority in the summer/fall, and now with 3 websites to keep up, and a bunch of other things to do, I let it get away. Here’s a young brown bear chasing a salmon, in Katmai National Park, Alaska.

Cheers

Carl

The post Brown bear chasing salmon appeared first on Skolai Images.

The northern lights soar above the mountains in arctic Alaska.

7 Reasons Not To Use Numbered Lists in Your Blog Post Titles

1) Numbered lists are overdone. 2003 is long, long gone.

2) Write something worthwhile reading, then you don’t need to use stupid click-bait headings to draw an audience.

3) The world has enough spam already.

4) Nobody ever actually has the same number of real points as they do numbers in their list; hence, the list inevitably includes a couple of good points, and a bunch of fluff to flesh it out.

5) Who actually talks like that?

6) It’s lame.

Cheers

Carl

The post 7 Reasons Not To Use Numbered Lists in Your Blog Post Titles appeared first on Skolai Images.

which, of course,

doesn’t necessarily mean both are correct.

The post Your opinion appeared first on Skolai Images.

Aurora borealis photo, over Fireweed Mountain, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska

Hey Folks,

It’s true. This post is the key to your success. This article is THE factor that will drive you to become the most popular, most retweeted, most faved, liked, mentioned and copied Photographer of All Time In The World Ever (and we all know how well those retweets and likes will pay your mortgage).

We’ll start here

1) Filters. Yes, you need them, you need more than you have, and they need to be newer.

2) The killer all in one 10-600mm f9.1 zoom is the lens in every pro’s bag that they don’t want you to know about.

3) Your photos don’t suck. They’re your art. The fact that you missed focus on all of them, the subject’s feet are cutoff and they’re 4 stops over-exposed is of no consequence. This is your vision.

4) Photoshop manipulation is no different to the traditional dark room tweaking. That’s why we see all those wonderful Ansel Adams photos of unicorns and goblins.

5) Yes, you’re a creative genius because you set your tripod down in the right tripod holes at The Wave but you so cleverly shot with a 15mm lens instead of oh-so-cliche-and-boring 16mm lens.

6) Photography isn’t about equipment, it’s about your eye and your creative vision. That $20 000 worth of gear you carry on your $25 000 annual travels has nothing to do with your creative vision.

7) Always title your blog posts with a number of reasons/myths/secrets whatever. It lends infinite credibility to your unsupported opinion commentary.

8) Stand up for what you believe is right. When you observe nature photographers breaking the law, behaving completely unethically, rudely, etc, claim your righteous moral-highground, and loudly denounce this on your blog. But don’t ever say who these people actually are/were.

9) Less is not more. Less is less. You need more. More pixels, more shutter speed, more focal length, more filters, more gizmos, more RAM, more fans, more followers, more likes, more retweets, more frequent traveler miles, more saturation, more  blog posts, more composition, more art, more photos, etc. Whatever it is, get more.

10) The rules of composition must be adhered to at all times.

11) There are no rules of composition.

12) On social media, you can talk all the smack you want about someone like Peter Lik; i.e., someone who’s never actually going to see or respond to your commentary. But don’t ever talk smack about someone who actually might respond. The makes you an a**hole, picking fights with people.

13) Photography without social media is like masturbation.

14) There’s nothing wrong with masturbation, it’s perfectly healthy.

15) Photographing captive animals is just like photographing real, proper, wild ones.

16) Just like any great journalist, the more embellishment you can add to the story of the ordeal it took for you to take this photo, the more attention you’ll receive. And attention will pay your mortgage.

17) Photographers don’t ever “take” photographs. They “make” them. Because we’re oh so f**kin’ cool.

Cheers

Staff Writer, Skolai Images Social Media Team Leader.

The post Top 13 Secret Reasons You Didn’t Know the 5 Myths that the 3 Top Pros Won’t Tell You The 7 Unkown Locations Why You Need to Click on This LINK to Read More appeared first on Skolai Images.

A bald eagle silhouetted against of glowing in the morning sunrise.

Hey Folks

Back from a couple of weeks in Haines with the eagles and tours. We had a nice time, everyone got some nice images, and the weather wasn’t too bad at all.

I shot this one the final morning of the trip.

Cheers
Carl

The post Bald Eagle Silhouette appeared first on Skolai Images.

A large male adult polar bear (Ursus maritimus) stalks across the frozen, snow-covered tundra of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, in Alaska.

Hey Folks

Earlier this month in the arctic, we got some great opportunities with this large adult male polar bear as he stalked across the snow-covered tundra. These bears are an incredibly impressive creature; huge bears! I shot a bunch of images of polar bears of all sizes, and will try to post a few to the blog as time permits. This is one of my favorites so far. Hope you enjoy the image.

Cheers

Carl

The post Male Polar Bear Photo appeared first on Skolai Images.