Photography Tips

WHAT LENSES SHOULD I BRING?
In Alaska, a telephoto lens is particularly useful for taking pictures of wildlife. You may get lucky and have wildlife just off the side of the road but in general, to get closer images of a bear or an eagle, a 300 mm or greater lens is probably required. To avoid carrying a myriad of lenses, two useful zooms would be a 24-70 mm and a 100-300 mm or similar zoom lenses. The more serious photographer can find wonderful subject matter with a full range of lenses from macro lenses through to the extreme wide-angles and telephotos.

HOW MUCH STORAGE (MEMORY CARDS, HARD DRIVES, ETC.) SHOULD I PACK?
Estimate what you might need for a normal day on vacation, and then double it. Supplies in remote Alaska can sometimes be difficult to find and more expensive than what you would spend at home.

DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY Be sure to bring extra batteries, your charger and manual. This technology is a wonderful way of capturing your Alaska adventures, offering the advantage of instant viewing, optional deleting and sharing images over the internet. It's a great way of cutting down on botched shots, and also a green method of photography as it reduces development chemical use and quantity of printed pictures.

PHOTOGRAPHING INCLEMENT WEATHER
Alaska is known for having variable and sometimes inclement weather. These conditions can add ambience to a photograph, especially to scenic photos. Whether it is a drizzle or a downpour, rain can give a glossy appearance to hard surfaces. Most important, don't put your camera away just because the weather is bad! A couple of plastic bags carried with your camera gear can come in handy when walking in the rain or rafting down the Kenai River. Keeping a camera inside your jacket can cause condensation and fogging -- a plastic bag is a simple solution. Many companies offer custom camera covers for your model as well. Fogging will happen whenever you have a change in temperature and humidity. It is best to allow your camera time to adjust to the temperature before you start shooting.

FOREGROUND
Big subjects and broad scenes often need a foreground subject to give them depth. Use people, trees, etc. for foregrounds, which will also aid in size comparisons to depict the magnitude of the Alaskan scenery.

SHOOTING SNOW COVERED MOUNTAINS
Photographing snow-covered mountains can fool your camera's metering system; a simple exposure adjustment will insure proper exposure. If you photograph snow on a bright sunny day the camera's meter "assumes" that it is an average scene and will "underexpose" your film. To expose properly, overexpose your film by one to two f-stops. This is where that exposure compensation button comes in handy!

DIFFICULT LIGHTING CONDITIONS
If you are not quite sure about the lighting conditions, one way to assure good exposure is to bracket your exposures. Bracket means to take a series of photographs of the same subject at different exposures to insure the "correct" exposure. Usually three frames will assure a proper exposure. One stop below normal, one at normal exposure and one f-stop above should be sufficient. Keeping an eye on your histogram helps as well. If you see those white "blinkies," you're losing all detail. If your graph is extremely weighted to the right, your image may be underexposed and yield muddy prints.

WILDLIFE
For your sake and safety, as well as the wildlife's, use binoculars for observation and telephoto lenses for photography. Remember, the best photos are of undisturbed animals. Alarm cries and displays are an animal's request that you keep away. Chasing or disturbing animals to "create an action shot" for your camera can cause injuries. If you encounter a wild animal, don't crowd it -- move slowly. Be quiet and patient and you will improve your chances for a good photo.

For those of you without telephoto lenses there will still be many opportunities to bring home that shot you hoped for. The full day boat tour of Kenai Fjords National Park and the bus trip through Denali National Park will be full of great chances for that special shot.

Often moose, bear and caribou are near the road in Denali. For safety reasons, your bus driver will not allow you to exit the bus; however, shooting out of an open bus window can produce some nice images. The added height will give you a higher angle, often bringing you above the trees and bushes, giving you a clean shot of your subject.

If you have to shoot through a closed window, shoot at an angle to the window -- this will reduce reflections. This technique also works well when shooting from an airplane.