Sockeye salmon are unique in the world of anadromous fish - those species who are born in fresh water, live the majority of their life in the ocean, then return to freshwater to breed and die. While coho and kings and chum and pinks make do with a good gravel bed and clear water, the sockeye salmon push on. Up the rivers, into the mountains, and on to the inland lakes surrounded by the most stunning landscapes in North America where they complete their life cycle, sacrificing their own lives so their offspring may live.

After all the wildlife photographers of summer have gone home, as the snows begin to fall in the high country and the golden hues of autumn spread across the boreal forests, brown bears from all across the region make their way to natal lakes of these sockeye salmon.

By now, the bears themselves have entered into a phase of their life known as Hyperphagia, in which they begin eating almost non-stop to prepare for hibernation in October. It’s at this time in these locations that tremendous aggregations of bears can be found as they work both day and night in preparation for the long sleep ahead. On this workshop, we will likely photograph thirty different bears a day for this reason. And all set to a backdrop of true Alaskan wilderness.

For me, what makes this place so special and so incredibly different is the landscape and environment in which we can photograph bears. Images from places like Katmai and Lake Clark National Park all end up looking the same: bears on the river, bears on the beach, bears in the sedge. But this place is different.

Each day we will fly out by float plane, past glaciers and volcanoes, where black bears can be seen feeding on dwarf blue berries high above tree line and searching for den sites, before reaching our destination. Upon landing on the remote mountain lake, we will transfer to boats who they themselves had to be lashed to float planes and flown in to this location. Often a bear or two has already ambled passed before we have even pulled camera bags off the plane.

While we can photograph from the boats themselves, we prefer to use them as a means of transportation instead. Donning chest waders, we will climb into the water with the bears in order to have the greatest creative control over compositions and reflections in the water.

This workshop is not limited to just the field however. Upon returning to our base of operations for the workshop, we will then spend several hours each day reviewing photographs, and helping participants work through post-processing workflows with Lightroom and Photoshop.