PHOTOGRAPHS FOR A MAGNIFICENT MONDAY: A MOTHER AND CHILD REUNION

Travel 365 is doing a Magnificent Monday  posting every Monday!! http://holesinmysoles.blogspot.com/2011/08/magnificent-monday-cycle-of-life.html This week is dedicated to the 'Cycle of Life'. I started wrapping my head around the concept and the best way for me to add to it, when Portia, writer of the wonderful site, http://me-abookworm.blogspot.com/ and I had a conversation. It was about war and the futility of hate and anger. 


Somehow those two thoughts started cohabiting in my mind and begat this post. Actually, it was a threesome with Paul Simon's singing," Mother and Child Reunion" in the background. You always need music when you're cohabiting or at least it helps!!! This song came out in 1972 and was Simon's reggae, Vietnam protest song. I always loved it and it's always there just lurking in my thoughts waiting to come out and this was one of those times. Maybe that's because we still have not learned the lessons of that period!! Now instead of 'Old men sending young men to war', we have 'Old people sending young men and women to war.'  We've come a long way baby!!! 


So for this post, listen to Simon's lament, "But the mother and child reunion is only a motion away." Look at my images of young and old. Not just the people of the world but of the animal world. We are all part of this and we will all suffer if the people of the world do not stop killing each other in the name of peace and love of country! 


                   This first image is Melissa and her mom!

http://grazieadio.blogspot.com/2011/07/affairs-of-heart.html?spref=fb

                This next image is Alpana and her daughter.

 http://motifsonthewall.blogspot.com/2011/08/life.html
                             

This next image is Kriti and her daughter

http://kriti-howaboutthis.blogspot.com/

     We will all lose and the 'Cycle of Life' will grow smaller and 
     smaller if we do not change our ways. We have had too many 
     mothers staring out at the sea waiting for solders that will not 
     becoming home. When will we stop?

PHOTOGRAPHING A CHARGING GRIZZLY

I ended my last post with all of us standing across a river from a group of grizzlies. After we were there for a short time, Chris , one of our guides, told us she wanted to try a different area about a half a mile away. She wanted to know if any of us wanted to make the trek to this different site. Phyllis and I talked and we decided she would stay with Ken and the larger group while I traveled with Chris and three others. I kissed Phyllis and took off with the group. 




We were hiking for about fifteen minutes when Chris pointed down toward an island and said that this was where we'd be heading. The woman next to me asked me how we were going to cross over to the island. I looked and said, "I don't think there's a bridge" and laughed. She asked if I thought we would need to wade across the river. I told her, "Now we know why we were given the boots!!!"


As I was speaking to her, I was also looking at the decline in the water. It was a pretty steep hillside with no real path. Chris stopped and pointed down to the river and told us that we would need to get down the hill. I'm thinking that I'm in boots that come up mid thigh and I'm carrying about twenty pounds of camera equipment. If I slipped going down or crossing the river, most of that equipment would be ruined. 


From our past hiking experience, Phyllis and I knew that going down steep hills can be more difficult and more dangerous than going uphill. I have also learned that if you feel yourself slipping, the best thing to do is let your legs go out from beneath you and fall on your bottom!! It's not very dignified and a little painful but with both hands holding equipment, this was the safest way. You just hope there is no sharp object or snake under you!! 


I was asked if I wanted to go down first so when I got to the bottom, I could help some of the ladies. I looked down and it kept getting steeper. Heck no, I didn't want to go first! So like most guys I looked right at Chris and said, "Sure, no problem." Sometimes we are the stupid sex !!! 


I started down and at one point did sit down. I looked back and told the three ladies and one man looking down at me, "I just wanted to show you what we have learned to do if you feel like your losing your balance." Yup, that's why I did it!!! I made it down with no further problems and then helped the ladies finish their trip down. Well, so far it was not bad but now we were standing at the edge of a fast flowing river. It wasn't deep, only about eight inches. The real problem was that we would be walking on a bed of small slick stones in water that were moving at a pretty good pace. 


Chris told us to pair up and hold hands to help with our balance. I was paired up with a very nice lady who was a little younger than me and as we started walking across she said, "Please catch me if I start falling". I laughed and said, "Okay, but if I start to fall, you should grab my camera." We made it across with no falls. We took our time but we made it. 


After a short walk, we were on the other side of the small island, on a beach that stopped at a wall of thick bushes. In front of us was a rushing river full of salmon and across from us was another group of bears about ninety feet away. Some of the bears were in the water and some were on the shore eating fish they'd caught. 


I set up my tripod and camera and started looking through my lens. I was capturing images as quickly as I could. I saw the brush on the other side moving and noticed that I was not the only one seeing this, as a few grizzlies had turned and looked. We soon saw the reason for the noise and the moving brush. A fairly large grizzly came walking down to the river's edge.

 
At this point, Chris was standing next to me and said, "Here he is. He's the mean one. I was wondering if he was going to be here." I looked at her, laughed and said, "He won't be a problem, right?" Chris answered quickly, maybe a little too quickly, "Nope, he won't be, don't worry, honestly!" But that's exactly when I started worrying. I've heard that word, honestly, said just that way. It was what I would say to Phyllis when I was trying to reassure her about something, even when I was just as worried as she was.


I decided to focus on the mean one, I wanted to keep my eye on him. He didn't give me much time to think as he started walking into the river.

He was large and walking at a pretty slow gait. He was looking around at the other grizzlies, into the river and in our direction. Then, I noticed he was moving faster as the other grizzlies moved away from where he was. One lone cub stood watching from 
the river's edge. Then I saw the water splashing and knew he had picked up speed. Remember, I am seeing all this through my camera's lens. 

I kept shooting, seeing he was moving in an east to west direction.

But then I realized he had changed position and was heading   straight in our direction. Chris whispered, "Don't worry." 
Without taking my eye away from the camera I replied, "Oh, no, I'm not worried!" I followed with what I'm sure was a very nervous laugh!!

I kept shooting and he kept charging. I could hear some of the ladies in our group asking Chris if he was charging us and now they sounded nervous!! I actually don't know if Chris answered them. For the next few seconds,  I didn't hear anything except maybe my heart beating loudly!! At this point, I was thinking that instead of that extra lens I brought, maybe a change of underwear would have been a better choice.

 If you look at the water in this image below you can see the red from the salmon, the river was loaded with them.

He was still charging now about twenty feet from me and as you can see, heading straight for me. I know there were four others there but at that moment, it was the grizzly, my lens and me. All at once he stopped, reared up and hit the water with his paws and jaw.

Instantly, I could see what had happened. It was not us that he was charging at me but at a salmon and he'd caught it. Just as quickly, he turned and walked back to the shore with this salmon firmly in his jaws.

He lumbered over to a spot then quickly pealed and ate his catch. No other grizzlies tried to steal or challenge him for his bounty. He had earned their respect, in more than a few fights by looking at his sides.

As I turned and looked, I started laughing. All the other members of my group had walked about ten feet away from me. As I looked, they all broke out in laughter as I did. Chris said they were all sure he would stop the charge but wanted to give me all the space I might need.  Sure that's what they were doing lol.

Well, I hope you enjoyed hearing about our trip to Alaska and seeing the images. By the way, if some of the images in this post don't seem as sharp as they usually do, well I'm sure the other members of the group might have bumped into my tripod. After all, it couldn't be that my hands were not as steady as usual. Sure, it must have been their fault!! Right???

If you enjoyed reading this please remember to stumble it...Thank You!!

PHOTOGRAPHING THE GRIZZLY BEAR IN ALASKA

The grizzly bear also known as the North American brown bear is a subspecies of the brown bear that generally lives in the uplands of western North America. They are thought to descend from the Ussuri Brown Bear which crossed to Alaska from eastern Russia 100,000 years ago, though they did not move south until 13,000 years ago. 


Grizzlies are normally solitary, active animals, but in coastal areas, the grizzly congregates alongside streams, lakes, rivers and ponds during the salmon spawn. Every other year the females (sows) produce one to four young (commonly two) which are small and weigh only 1 lb. (500 grams) A sow is very protective of her offspring and will attack if she thinks she or her cubs are threatened.


Most grizzly attacks happen for just that reason, a person will be hiking and inadvertently come between a sow and her cubs. The sow then attacks and the person will be very lucky if they survive.  Mothers protecting their children are responsible for 70% of all grizzly attacks. Grizzly bears normally avoid contact with people. 


In spite of their obvious physical advantages and many opportunities, they almost never view humans as prey; bears rarely actively hunt humans. Other than protecting their children, most other attacks result from the grizzly being surprised (although who is more surprised the bear or the person is pretty clear in my mind)  at very close range, especially if it has a supply of food to protect. In such situations, property may be damaged and the bear may physically harm the person.


Phyllis and I knew all this before the trip as we had read up on grizzlies and Chris and Ken also went over all this before we took off in their plane. As we were hiking, I did think about all of this and the fact that the only defensive weapons anyone had was bear spray. Chris' reputation and her demeanor really put me at ease. I just trusted her and her twenty years of experience.


After we hiked away from our first grizzly, we did not see another for awhile and I was left with appreciating the beauty of this place. When I am somewhere walking, in what I call a raw natural environment, everything seems to go quiet. I really am not aware of anyone speaking or for that matter even the sound of the wind. I just see the beauty of the land and smell the cleanliness of unsullied air. A feeling of serenity overcomes me and I rejoice in the wonder of our planet. This place was the rawest of anywhere I had ever been and I am sure my head looked like it was on a swivel as I looked everywhere taking it all in.


Chris and I were the last two in line as we hiked single file along a narrow path. After a while Ken held up his hand and to stop. He pointed down hill to a river we could just see on our left side. Between us and the river were lush green shrubs and bushes. Ken informed us that we would be following a path down to that river but would need to wait a minute. As he said that, he pointed down into the shrubs.


As I looked down trying to find what he was pointing at, I saw a large brown head stick up out of the green and understood why we would need to wait our turn.

  As we waited, we saw that it was not just one bear but a sow with   
  the first cub showing!

   Then another cub appeared out of the brush. The grizzly never 
  looked our way again, just continued on her way to the river.

Chris told us that the cubs were about a year old and she had seen them the previous year, a few days after they were born.


After a while we continued our hike down to the river. As we hiked along the river, we saw another sow with her cubs following the river on the other side.

It was amazing to see the relationship between the mother and her children, even at this distance. You could see that she seemed to always be looking in their direction, keeping a motherly eye out for danger.


We finally arrived at a point on the river where we were about two hundred feet from the opposite shore and on that shore were grizzlies. This older grizzly had a fresh wound on it side, probably from a fight with another grizzly over territory. It could also have been with a younger grizzly fighting for dominance over their brood, especially the females. 


If you click on this image you will be able to see the fresh wound. He kept watching us from across the river for awhile. Personally, I think he was trying to tell us that we should see what the other grizzly looked like after the fight!!!

It was amazing standing across the river from the bears knowing they were allowing us to be there. At any point, they could attack us, a grizzly can run at a top speed of 38 miles per hour. At their size to be able to generate that much speed is unbelievable. It is the reason you are told never to turn and run from a grizzly, it just puts them in a chase mode. In this race, the human will loose almost every time!


We saw more sows and their cubs across the river. The mother would go into the river, catch a salmon and bring it back to shore for all of them to eat. 

Chris told us that the year before, a sow walked over with two very small cubs, left them about four feet from her and went into the river. It was almost as if the mother bear was saying, "Here, mind the kids for a moment." Chris and Ken have been doing this for about twenty years and have witnessed the grizzlies grow from cubs to adults. They have a relationship with the bears but Chris said that she can never forget they are wild animals. They can attack at anytime, if provoked. 


At one point as I was photographing the bears, I heard one member of our group say, "Chris, quick there's a grizzly on this side walking towards us." That really caught my attention!! I turned and saw this grizzly lumbering towards us, occasionally looking up at us but mostly looking down at the shallow water he was walking in. Chris told us not to worry and not to run or even back up. 


At this point, the bear was about twenty yards from us. She said that when she told us to, we should all stand shoulder to shoulder which the bear would see as a very large body. It seems bears can not  distinguish between six or seven people standing together from one large body and would not attack such a large opponent. 


I'll be honest with you, at this point, I am having my doubts and looking around to see if there were at least two other people in our group that Phyllis and I could outrun. After all, do you need to outrun the bear or just some of the other people lol?? I'm guessing the bear will attack the first one he catches, right?? I saw at least three or four that we could outrun, especially with a grizzly running after us and especially if a few would trip, totally by accident as I was running by them.


(Okay, the last few thoughts are said with tongue firmly planted in cheek). You really don't think I would trip someone else to allow Phyllis and I to escape? Do You? :)


At this point the bear was about twenty feet from us but to be honest I was not really worried. First, because Chris did not seem worried  and she really inspired confidence. Also, the grizzly did not seem that interested in us. 

The bear did get to about twenty feet from us and stopped to smell the flowers! I kid you not, that is what it did, it stopped and putting its nose down, seemingly sniffed the wildflowers. Being that close, it was hard not to admire and appreciate its beauty, they really are such magnificent creatures. With their thick coat and puppy dog eyes, it could be easy to think of them as teddy bears. Until of course, they start walking in your direction!!

He stepped back into the river giving one last look back at us.

He then started running towards the other shore. He seemed to be having a wonderful time splashing and running, much like a big kid running at the beach!!

When he reached the other side, he stopped and shook himself getting rid of the river water.

 I was really excited I had been as close to a grizzly as I thought I ever would be. What an experience!! BUT, I was wrong! That would not be the closest I would get and it was not the most scary moment by a long shot. My next post will be about a charging grizzly and how he was charging in my direction, straight at me. 
Check in Friday to see if I survived my charging grizzly!!!

PHOTOGRAPHING ALASKA AND THE GRIZZLIES

A few years ago, Phyllis and I had the opportunity to photograph Alaska and the grizzlies that live there. This is still one of our top two or three trips we have ever taken. We rented an RV for our first and at this point, only time in an RV. If you want to really visit Alaska, I would recommend an RV. Doing so allows you to visit different areas and in Alaska. You can park RVs overnight pretty much anywhere, which allows you to be at one place at both sunset and sunrise. It is also really a lot of fun!!! 

Alaska is called the last frontier for good reason; it's a place of undeveloped wilderness, immense vistas and amazing wildlife. It's a huge state! iI you could imagine Alaska positioned over the lower 48 states, it would stretch from the Atlantic Ocean across the continent to the Pacific Ocean! 

Alaska is a place that in the summer (when we visited) has long days and very short nights. When we were there, sunset was at midnight and sunrise about four to five hours later! This image was taken in Homer, Alaska, along the harbor around 11PM. All the light is natural and this is truly what it looked like.

We visited different areas of the state. Our plane landed in Anchorage and after we picked up our RV, we started driving to Denali State Park. Denali is a nature preserve and spans 9,432 square miles. The most famous attraction is Mount McKinley or as it is called in Alaska, Denali. Denali, which means, 'the high one'

is 20,320 feet above sea level making it the highest peak in North America. It is a wonderful sight to see, looming high above the vista, looking like a great guard protecting the inhabitants of the park.

We spent a day in Denali riding the tour bus which is a good way of seeing the park but it does not offer you an opportunity to photograph wildlife. You can leave the bus and hike the park alone if you wish, maybe getting really up close and personal with the grizlies. We stayed with the bus!!!. We were allowed out at a few points to use the restrooms and at one point just to view the road ahead. This is that view.

 

I think this view really gives a great idea of just how large and undeveloped Denali is. Keep in mind that this is only a small part of the park.

Our next stop was Homer, Alaska. (This post and the next one will have images of this area). Homer is a city located in the Kenai Peninsula. When we visited in the summer of 2007, the census bureau estimated the population was 5,364. Its most distinguishing feature is the Homer Spit, a narrow 4.5 mile long gravel bar that extends into the bay on which is located the Homer Harbor. We stayed on the spit in an RV park called the Lantern.

I saw a few bumper stickers that proclaimed, 'Homer - a quaint little drinking village with a fishing problem!!!' I really liked Homer! We knew we were in Alaska when we parked our RV at the Lantern, climbed out, looked up at a light post and saw this!

An American Bald Eagle was perched on the very top of one of the lights in the park. We only saw a few eagles during our stay but in the winter, Homer is loaded with them. Now, Homer might be a small village but just like the rest of the USA, it does have its strip malls although a little different than other places. We found this one a block down from our RV park.

It was at this strip mall that we signed in for our most memorable part of our Alaska trip, a guided tour viewing grizzlies in the wild. We were told we might be as close as ten feet from a grizzly and would be going with a husband and wife team, Chris and Ken Day. We asked if either one would carry a gun, not an unreasonable question, we thought!!! We were told, "Oh no, we would never do anything to hurt the bears." Huh? 

A grizzly can weigh between 300 to 900 lbs. A few years before, a so called expert named Tim Treadwell and his girlfriend were attacked and eaten. We were told that he was a little crazy and a bad example of how to deal with the bears. He didn't respect them and treated them like pets. I have seen a video where he is petting a large older bear. It is believed that this same bear is the one who attacked them. 

Chris told us that they were the first to offer the tours and that in twenty years they have never had a problem with the bears. We signed up and were told to meet them at there house the next morning. We arrived and met the rest of the people who signed up, about eight in total. We were given boots to wear and taken out back to their seaplane, a ten seater prop plane. Here is the plane, a DeHavilland Otter and our pilot Ken!

 

At this point Phyllis wasn't worried about the bears anymore, she was more worried that we would not make it to the island! Have I ever mentioned that Phyllis is not crazy about flying on the large commercial planes. When she saw this, I am guessing she was seriously reconsidering this whole marriage thing lol!

We loaded into the plane and after a few minutes of instructions, took off. The plane held eight in the passenger area and two, including the pilot, up front. I sat in the back and this was my view. That is the back of Phyllis' head, on the right. If this was video, you would be able to see her head shaking in the recognized NO, what the hell am I doing, motion!!

As we approached Kodiak Island, I took this image out the window.

A very desolate island is where we would find the grizzlies. We landed in a pond about the size of the one in the picture, a great landing by a very experienced pilot.

We climbed out of the plane and started our hike on the tundra, single file. We were told we would be hiking in about a mile. As we  hiked, I scanned the tundra looking at this desolate beauty, so much green land with brown scattered throughout it. A few rocks littered the vista but mostly flat land was in front of us on the trail. 

I noticed a little brown mound about a quarter mile ahead and a few mountains in the background. Then I noticed that the little brown mound was moving and as we got closer, I could see a head. It was our first grizzly sighting!

Naturally, we kept walking towards it????? At one point we were about fifty yards from it. It just continued laying there but did not stop looking at us till we were beyond it. We hiked on, heading towards a river that Chris and Ken knew we could view the bears. 

On our next blog, I will have lots of images of the bears including one that charged in my direction coming to within twenty feet. 

Join us to see these great creatures in their natural environment. Besides, you do want to see if I survived, don't you???