I love getting off the road and away from everyone and finding my own shot.  There are many times I spend hiking through the tundra or woods and don't come up with anything.  But those moments when you do find wildlife to yourself are the moments you never forget.  When I found these three bull moose together I was ecstatic.  I followed them for over three hours before this special moment occurred, and I was more than happy that I waited and followed to see what photographic opportunities they would present.  

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It is hard to understand just how vast Alaska is until you have been.  Denali is over 6 million acres, and the majority of that land is all backcountry access only.  Wildlife can truly live their lives and never be influenced by human activity.  A large moose takes advantage of a nice evening to eat from a pond and to get away from the bugs. 

Highly Honored Image-Nature’s Best Photography, National Park Competition

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Many waters in Alaska are crystal clear and you can see through to the bottom. This makes it especially neat when there are salmon and you can see all the salmon in the river. This brown bear could also see the fish and knew where to swim to, to catch them. I really like that you can see the bears paw under the water as it swims.

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Grizzly bear cubs are very playful when they are young. These cubs had been been playing and running around all evening. When they got a little further away from mother bear, this cub stood up to see where she was, and as when it did, it put its paws together to be able to stand and balance.

Highly Honored Photograph Nature’s Best Photography Competition

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There are moments that are hard to capture because of their incredible beauty! Nature surprises me all the time with how amazing it can be! I did my best to capture this moment to try and let others feel just how incredible it was. Having all the elements in nature come together was a moment to remember!

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Bald eagles take advantage of any opportunity to eat fish. Many of the fish are to large for the eagles to carry away, so they must wait on bears or other animals to eat some of the fish first. This eagle saw its opportunity and swooped in snag some fish.

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I’ve spent hundreds of hours on salmon rivers watching and photographing brown bears chase salmon. 99.99% of the time, the bears is not running in a way that is directly towards me. A bear can look like its running my direction, but if its looking to the side, it doesn’t give the same effect. I got a shot of a bear running right towards me many years ago, and I’m very excited to have finally gotten another bear charging through the water directly at me!

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Salmon are an incredible species because they know how to return to the exact river they were born in. They leave as a small fish to the ocean, and then migrate back as an adult with millions of other salmon. I had never found a location with so many fish in one spot until I found this area. As the bear sat in the river, the fish moved around the bear as they migrated up the river.

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It is not very often that you have a crystal clear view of Denali.  On my last camping trip of the summer I was fortunate to come across this scene.  In Wonder Lake was a mother and calf moose taking there time eating the grass of the bottom of the lake.  I could not think of a better way to end my summer. 

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When brown bears are fishing they can become very excited and chase any fish they see.  This brown bear was patrolling the river all afternoon when a salmon got stuck in shallow water near where I was standing.  She turned immediately when she saw this and bolted like a freight train after that salmon.  She had every determination to catch that fish, and she was successful.

Grand Prize Winner National Geographic Photo Contest

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In the mountains in the morning it is often foggy after a rain storm. The moisture in the air combined with the usually cooler temperature, can create a very heavy fog.  As the fog was beginning to burn off, the larger trees began to cast a shadow across the fog and add a neat effect to the look of the forest. 

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It is not a common sight to see a cub on its mother's back. This cub had climbed up while eating grass, and still had some in its mouth. Mother bear didn't seem to mind as its cub moved on her back.

Highly Honored Image-Nature’s Best Photography, National Park Competition

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Brown bears run many different directions while chasing salmon, and its hard to know where they will go, because they follow the fish. When a fish leads a bear my direction, it gets very exciting. This large brown bear showed off its large claws as it dove at the salmon right in front of me!

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Alaska is a very large state, and Denali National Park is over 6 million acres. In that amount of land, there is tons of backcountry and areas most people never see. While hiking across the tundra I was hoping to find moose, and one evening I finally found one. This moose was just in the tundra at first, but then made its way to the pond. It was incredible see the moose surrounded by the Alaskan backountry!

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I was watching the pink Aurora in amazement, when I noticed the green starting to appear too. The pink was so vivid and vibrant and shooting straight up, and the green was more dancing around. It was incredible to see both the colors and movements be different!

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Sea otters are a very playful animal. This otter had just finished playing hard with another otter and was ready for a rest. It looked as if it went to give the other otter a high-five to say it was fun playing with him.

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Photographing a mom and three cubs is difficult because it’s very rare for them to all be doing the same thing at the same time. When mom went to get a drink, her cubs all followed at the same time and somehow all got a drink at the same time!

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While watching other bears fish below them, mother bear got nervous with her cubs on the cliff. So, she bent this tree down and it made a great barrier for the cubs to not go past. I couldn’t believe all 4 cubs came and looked across the long at the same time though!

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Watching brown bears chase after salmon never gets old! The bears are so powerful, so determined, and they know it is the food they need to survive the winter. With this elevated view, it was fun watching this bear sneak up on the fish, and then charge after them from close range!

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Being able to see the northern lights will never get old. This night was the best I had ever seen them. The amount the lights changed and moved was so incredible I put my camera down for a while and just watched.

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When there is such a high food resource, brown bears will tolerate another bears presence. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of sockeye in the river. The bear on the left didn’t even mind the other bear swimming over to it, and then they played with the sockeye around them. With two bears I really like how the fish encircled both bears.

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I’ve been on many salmon rivers with hundreds of different bears, but not once did I see a wolf also fishing for salmon. I’ve heard them howl nearby, but not seen them fishing. To say this shot was a shot I have wanted for years would be an understatement! It was amazing watching this wolf catch this fish and hold it to show us what it had caught!

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Bears are just like humans when they wake up from a nap, groggy.  This bear family had a good rest on the tidal flats, and were woken by the rising tide.  They weren't ready to get up yet, but had to.  The two cubs clung to their mother and wanted more rest, but mom knew better because of the rising tide.

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A bald eagles wingspan can be greater than 7 feet. They are a beautiful bird and a very graceful soarer. When a fish below caught this eagles attention, it made a sharp turn to head to the river.

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I had seen this lynx just briefly as it crossed an opening and then disappeared. I wanted to find it again, but finding lynx is a very difficult task even if you know exactly where they are. After searching a while, I decided to try one more area, and as I walked around a tree our eyes met. It was an incredible feeling! Thankfully the lynx just sat there and looked at me and didn’t run away. Seeing a lynx’s eyes looking at you in the forest is just incredible!

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The contrast in the bright red fish and the dark bear is terrific. You can see in the fish's eyes that it knows it is doomed. Many of the fish that bears catch are not this bright and colorful. This bear is happy about its catch and ready to eat.

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In the summer in Alaska the sun doesn't set in some places of Alaska. In southeast Alaska it does set, but in the middle of the summer it is not until very late at night. It was worth staying up to see this sunset in Juneau.

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I’ve encountered many brown bear cubs on my trips, but this cub was one of my favorites! It had so much personality and always put on a show when we saw it. One of its favorite things to do was put its paw in its mouth and chew on it. I had never seen a cub do this before.

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When salmon really start to push up the river, bears start to show up from everywhere.  Salmon are high in protein, and every bear wants to eat salmon.  Congregations like this do not happen very often, but when they do bears tolerate each other fairly well because there is such a large supply of food.

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Bald eagles like to sit where they have a good overlook of the area. When I noticed this eagle, I hoped it would sit long enough for me to get close enough to get a good photo of it. It didn’t care I was there at all and I was able to capture this eagle with this amazing mountain behind it!

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When the salmon show up, brown bears get very excited. All bears have different methods of how they like to catch fish, but I like the ones that go hard for the salmon. This bear would take off, and then fully dive into the air and try to catch salmon that way.

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Going underneath a glacier into a cave that has formed underneath was very surreal.  The colors and natural design of the ice cave is indescribable until you have been in one.  An ice cave forms by a river that moves underneath the glacier.  The natural color and design of the ice was like nothing I had ever seen before.

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There is nothing like salmon to a brown bear. They know salmon are what sustain their life and help them make it through hibernation. Once this bear was close to the salmon, it puts its claws out to make sure there was no way the fish could escape.

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It's not often you come across three bull moose hanging out together.  I first only saw one moose, and it was only once I hiked up and over a hill did I see that there were three moose.  After spending over three hours with them and only getting mediocre pictures, that all changed in a heartbeat.  I couldn't believe my good fortune when they all left the pond and went up on the ridge and stood still for just a few moments.  Being all along with these moose with this setting was a moment I will never forget.  

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During the fall in Denali, the underbrush all turns a beautiful red.  The fall is also when moose shed their velvet and show their polished antlers.  This bull moose was just starting to shed his velvet and get into the spirit of fall.

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At night, you never know if the lights will show up, or where they will show up. I’ve gone to many places hoping they would appear over a certain area, only for them to not come close to where I wanted. On this night, the lights shown so bright it was hard to miss where they were!

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We found this bear taking a nap on the beach. We slowly approached, and it kept sleeping for a long time. When it began to wake up, it stretched its legs and sprawled out. For just a brief moment it brought its head down to its paws, and looked like a human relaxing on the beach. This type of look you don't see from bears very often at all!

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Glaciers start at the top of the mountains, and it takes hundreds of years for that ice to reach the sea. Being able to see where the glacier began at and the way it moved and carved its way to the sea is special.

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With the northern lights moving so fast on this night, it was hard to get my tripod situated. And shooting almost straight up is difficult to get right in the camera. But once I had it set up, the sky performed and the red and green colors moved across the sky in dramatic fashion!

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Everything about this picture screams beauty.  The night before I had no idea where the mountain even was because of clouds, and the next morning all of a sudden a 20,000 foot mountain appears from nowhere.  Walking around in a marsh, I was able to find some calm waters for this reflection picture.  Seeing Denali on a clear day is an experience I will not forget, especially since I did not even know what it looked like before that morning. 

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Brown bears go all out chasing salmon. But salmon are not easy to catch as they are very fast and change directions quickly. This bear was closing in on a salmon when it changed directions suddenly, and this bear had to make a hard right to keep up with the fish.

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Seeing the northern lights is more likely the further north you go in Alaska. I was very far north on this night, and set up on the river hoping to the see the lights over the river. I had been seeing the lights, and then for just a couple of minutes the lights danced over the river, and even a star shot across the northern lights.

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Humpback whales do a very neat feeding behavior called bubble feeding. The whales will get in a group and circle small fish and confuse them and then come up from below with their mouths open. These were the two largest whales in the group and always the first to come above the surface.

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In Alaska you just never know what you might encounter with wildlife.  There is such great diversity, and the animals are in numerous areas.  Once this bear noticed the bald eagle had a fish, it went over to investigate.  The eagle had eaten all it wanted and flew over the bear as it went to rest and digest its meal.

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When in Alaska, most people want to get further into land to take in the amazing scenery and mountains. One of the best ways to do that if you are on the coast, is a beautiful scenic train ride! This train in Skagway takes you high into the mountains and offers incredible views!

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Fishing far salmon takes skill and patience. If a bear were to run after each fish, it would burn more calories than it would gain from catching a fish. Large brown bears have learned over time that it pays to be more patient and let the fish come to them. This guy would just stand there, and then all of a sudden pounce and was usually successful and didn’t waste much energy.

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Seeing Denali in all its glory is rare, but spectacular. The fall is one of the best times because the weather is better and not as many cloudy days. Being in the backcountry on a morning that was cloudless and in the fall was a memory I will not forget.

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Sometimes I wish I could be a cub and just hang out. I know being a bear cub is not easy and living in nature is difficult. But when you see a cub in a tree hanging over limbs without a care in the world for that moment, it would be nice to also not have a care in the world.

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Just seeing a wolf with a salmon was high on my bucket list of things I wanted to photograph. But getting to actually photograph a wolf chasing after a salmon was incredible! I love that you can see the fish that the wolf is chasing after, and see all the action of. the chase in the water movement from both the salmon and the wolf!

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As the northern lights moved and changed, it turned into more of a waves of lights. It was neat seeing the waves come and go, but still often fill the sky above the forest.

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Humpback whales are usually a solitary animal.  The only time they will be with other whales, is during mating season and when food is at its peak.  These whales dove at the same time in hopes of rounding up little herring fish.  

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Grizzly bears normally have between 1 and 3 cubs.  4 cubs can happen, but is really rare.  This mother had her hands full caring for all of her cubs, and the cubs would closely follow her as she moved around looking for salmon.

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Observing the northern lights never gets old.  Each show is very different from the last, and unpredictable.  This night started off very slow, and then all of a sudden this beam appeared and started moving around!  Watching it move over the mountains was a memorable experience. 

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It’a amazing how all glaciers can look different. You would think because they are all made of ice and snow that they would look similar. However, no glaciers look similar at all and they each have distinct looks. I loved how this glacier was pleasing to the eye in how the ice all looked to move and curve in the same direction.

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The night before this while hiking in the mountain was fully enclosed in clouds and I had no idea where Denali was. I happened to wake at 4 a.m. and when I looked out my tent the great mountain was clearing from the clouds. I ran back to a marshy area from hiking in and got some amazing clear pictures on a beautiful calm morning.

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Most of the time whale watching humpback whales is seeing their tail before they dive. Just seeing that is neat because of how large they are. Every once in a while they jump and show just how large they are. Capturing this is hard because it is often unexpected and over in just a few seconds, but it so impressive seeing just how large these whales are.

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Moose are so big I forget how hard they can be to find. One moment there is nothing there, and the next there is a huge moose there. This moose just caught my eye before I went too far, and I quickly went back. The front of his antlers were unique and he was standing in a beautiful area of the tundra.

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As a wildlife photographer, it is always great to start off the day early with a good photo. There are many days I get no photos, or have to wait way longer into the day before I even have an opportunity to take a photo. It was nice to have this bald eagle on a beautiful perch close to me on this morning.

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When fish see a bear, they swim away to not get caught. They only have so much area they can go, so often they keep swimming around the bear. It was really neat to see a large circle around this bear as it kept trying to get closer and catch a fish.

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Not only were there no clouds over Denali, but the entire range that I could see was cloudless. Being fortunate to watch the sunrise while looking at a priceless view is why I love Alaska. Not only was it priceless, but me and a buddy were the only 2 people around for miles.

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Wild animals are incredible in learning how to survive. It’s said that only 10% of humpback whales know how to bubble feed, but it seems like to me that each summer I see the behavior in more areas and that likely means more whales are learning how to do it. I’d learn how to bubble feed if it meant the difference between 15 fish in one mouthful and over 100 in a mouthful.

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Brown bears will run and run in the river to catch a salmon. It’s amazing how fast they can move in the water chasing salmon. As this bear got close to the salmon, it lept with its claws out to catch a red sockeye salmon in the last light of the day!

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In the mountains in the morning it is often foggy after a rain storm. The moisture in the air combined with the usually cooler temperature, can create a very heavy fog.  As the fog was beginning to burn off, the larger trees began to cast a shadow across the fog and add a neat effect to the look of the forest. 

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Watching red foxes never gets tiring, because you never know what they will do.  When this fox turned back and looked at me, it looked as if it could never hurt anything.

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When cubs are real young, it is somewhat common for them to latch onto mom while she is swimming when they get tired. This little cub was tired of walking in the grass and decided to climb onto mom as she moved around and save its energy. Mom’s normally throw their cubs off if they climb on her back, but this evening she didn’t mind and let it ride.

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Seeing large tidal glaciers is a sight to see! Especially on a clear day when you can see the mountain tops of where the glaciers start! Most of the times I’ve visited coastal glaciers, it has been very cloudy and the glaciers disappear into the clouds. So seeing such a large tidewater glacier in all its glory was beautiful to see.

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Nature offers us many different views of one place. If you were to sit and look at one area throughout the course of a day, there would be times you wouldn’t recognize that same area because of the light, fog, rain, shadows and many other ways. Capturing a close up of this forest created a dramatic mood that would have been very different if I hadn’t zoomed in.

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The fall in Denali is my favorite time of the year. I love being in Denali in the fall because the color is spectacular, the animals are moving around a lot, and the weather is better. Catching Denali on a perfect calm day in the backcountry is why I love Denali in the fall!

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The fall in Denali is my favorite season of the year!  The colors and activity of the animals always gets me up early in the morning.  I hiked many miles to have an opportunity to photograph this moose.  I had gotten good shots, but after he moved up the hill to scare another bull moose off, did I finally get a shot that showed just how endless the valleys of Denali are. 

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In the summer in Alaska, the nights just turn dusky and not all the way dark.  It was nearly 11 p.m. when I spotted this mother and her 4 cubs for the first time.  I was getting ready for bed, but that quickly changed and I hurried to find them again.  They were moving down the lake shore looking for salmon to fish for.  It was my very first time ever seeing a mother and 4 cubs, and having them all walk in a line on the lake shore sure made my night a lot better.

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Black bear cubs are such amazing climbers. Not only that but they are completely comfortable in a tree and act as if they aren’t even off the ground and could fall. After walking pretty far out onto this branch, this cub found a good spot for it to lay down and rest.

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One of the best parts of nature is you never know what you are going to see! I saw a mom and 2 cubs come to the edge of a cliff and were looking down at the river. Another bear was approaching them, and got too close, so the mother took off and the cubs followed. Watching 4 bears run at full speed silhouetted on the ridge was quite the site and very unexpected!

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Glaciers move and change as they move down valley and carve out the mountain. I was on a long hike up the mountain in Juneau when I got a nice view of Mendenhall Glacier below. I zoomed in on a part of the glacier that looked abstract and beautiful to me.

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Sea otters are a fun animal to watch. They will eat a long time, but then they will want to play. This otter kept rolling over in the water and had its hands to its face looking like something had surprised it.

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This cub was one of my favorite cubs of all time. It always had so much energy and just wanted to play nonstop! I can’t even remember how many sticks it played with in the time I got to spend with it. In this moment it looked as if he was waving to make sure I saw it had the stick in its mouth!

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Large bull caribou can have really strange looking antlers once they are fully grown.  They roam the far north and are continuously on the move looking for food and to get away from the bugs.  There is not a really large herd in Denali like there use to be, but this large guy was alone one morning and went on a small ridge to look out over the valley and up at Denali.

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When something surprised these brothers they stood to see what it was.  One brother ran to the other and then they stood up.  After a long stand, and not quite what to do, they got down and ran some more. 

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The trademark of a humpback is its tail. Researchers can identify certain humpback whales by the markings on their tail. After being with this whale for a little while, it finally gave us a good dive in the direction we were hoping for with the mountains behind it.

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The entire coast of Alaska is beautiful. Everywhere I have been on a boat in Alaska, it is just amazing to me how the mountains never stop as far as I can see. These waters create an amazing habitat for numerous marine mammals, and humpback whales come to Alaska in the summer to feed in this paradise.

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Any time I see northern lights is a good night, but on this night it was pink, and that made it a great night! Pink is rare color to be seen, and up until this night, I had never seen pink. It was amazing seeing the sky just be pink at night!

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When the salmon show up, so do the bears. Different years have different amounts of salmon returning to the river, but this was a very good year for salmon return. This bear was swimming in the river and the fish would move as the bear got closer to them and the fish would encircle the bear.

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I always enjoy seeing bald eagles. It is hard to imagine that they were once endangered, because is places in Alaska now they are abundant. But I’m grateful that I get to see these birds because it would be very sad and a very different Alaska if they weren’t around.

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One of the largest and most impressive glaciers in Alaska is Hubbard Glacier. It is still growing while most of the glaciers are retreating. It’s hard to capture the glacier all in one shot because it is 6 miles wide!

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When I first saw this family from a distance, I got excited. As they came closer I got more excited because the cubs were so small and stayed close to moms side. Photographing them as they moved across this ridge with the mountains behind them was a shot I had hoped would happen the moment I saw them!

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There are many, many mornings I get up and don’t even take a photo. But the reason I keep getting up is because moments like this only happen in the morning. As the sun was just beginning to come over the ridge, a low fog in the valley ignited in an orange glow. This mom and cub were moving along a small ridge, which allowed them to be silhouetted against the fog. I loved how I could still see the mountain in the background above the fog and how peaceful the scene felt as the valley and sky lit up with the first light of the day!

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When there are multiple cubs, those cubs will play with each other a lot. Many moms of multiple cubs don’t play lots with their cubs, because the cubs entertain themselves. These cubs were playing, but this mom wanted in on the fun and started pushing the cubs around. It was so fun watching her interact and play with the cubs!

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In Juneau, the mendenhall glacier is not far from town. During the summer the fireweed bloom nearby and create an incredible foreground to the glacier and the large mountains around the glacier.

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Seeing any baby animal is exciting. They are often very playful and also very cute. Finding a new lynx kitten, and getting a photo of it, surpassed all my other animal baby encounters. It had such large feet for its small body, and was so curious and small. When it stopped for a moment and looked my way, it took everything in me to keep my camera steady.

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Polar bears are by far the largest bear. Seeing a large male in person made me feel so small. And when it came close, it really showed just how large this male was.

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The Aurora was very interesting on this night. I know there is the term dancing for the lights, as they seem to move and dance across the sky. But on this night, they would appear, and then disappear, and then appear again somewhere else quickly. It was different, but fun to try to capture!

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In the summer in Alaska the sun doesn't set in some places of Alaska. In southeast Alaska it does set, but in the middle of the summer it is not until very late at night. It was worth staying up to see this sunset in Juneau.

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When the fireweed grow later in the summer in Alaska it turns the entire state into a much prettier state! There can be field after field of fireweed, and they really liven everything up. When I saw Denali clearing, I knew I wanted to frame the mountain with fireweed and found some along the edge of this pond.

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This was this bear families first time out on the tidal flats. It was neat watching the three cubs experience and check out their new world. They would only get so far from mother, though, before running back to her.

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There were only a couple of bears that fished on Brooks Falls that were fast enough to catch salmon that did not jump right to them.  This bear was probably the most successful bear at catching salmon that there was.  As this salmon tried to sneak by, at the last second the bear turned its head and that salmon was caught.

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The coast of Alaska is very beautiful. There are many different looks and awe inspiring areas. Not that the coast needs it, but throw in an ice berg that has a beautiful design and the coast becomes even more beautiful.

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For many many years I have wanted and tried to get a great photo of a wolf in front of a great scene. Wolves are hard to find and photograph to begin with, so also getting them in front of a scene means the timing has to be insane. After years of searching and waiting, my moment finally arrived, when on the first nice day in days, a wolf walked in front of this volcano and I had the shot I had been wanting for years!

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Great horned owls are a very large owl. If you get to see them fly they can make you feel very small. I was fortunate to find one owl in this fall tree, when another owl came and landed beside it. It was incredible getting to photograph these two great horned owls resting in this fall aspen tree!

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Short-eared owls are a very small owl.  When sitting on a log, they are no more than 8 inches tall.  Without a sense of scale it is hard to tell how small exactly this owl is.  

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I search many hours looking for bears, and particularly bear cubs. Shortly after I found this bear, it wasn't really sure of what I was and stood and peered from behind a tree to look at me.

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Until this night, most of my northern lights experiences had been one streak of light in the sky.  I had seen some nice lights and very dramatic lights, but none that filled the whole sky.  Just standing and being able to look up and see the entire sky alive and dancing was an experience I would like to have again.

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Brown bears live in beautiful locations all over Alaska. I’ve been fortunate enough to visit many of those places, but I have to say this area was the most spectacular. The scenery and beauty of this place was unmatched. This bear family were enjoying the nice day in front of the amazing mountains!

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These wolf pups all had different personalities. Being able to observe them up close was so cool, because it allowed us to really see their individual personalities. One wanted a large stick, and another wanted anyone else’s stick. Once they got what they wanted they laid down and played with their sticks.

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Humpback whales are a huge whale that only show off their tail when they are going to dive.  They can hold their breath for over 30 minutes and surface miles from where they dove from.  This whale had come fairly close to us while following the fish it was dieting on, and then dove on a calm Alaskan morning.

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Denali is a park with over 6 million acres of protected land. There are only around 300 grizzly bears in the park, due to how hard it is to survive there. On a clear day, a grizzly bear roams the open tundra looking for berries in the fall.

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The unpredictability of the lights if often more frustrating than exciting. They truly have no pattern and can leave as quickly as they appeared. I was set up over these mountains, hoping the lights would move that direction, and I was pumped when they finally cooperated and danced high in the sky.

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While in Denali, I love being in the backcountry exploring on my own.  It is so fun to be off the beaten path and find animals by myself.  Once I found these moose, I did my best to track them across the endless tundra.  When they walked the ridge above this pond, I knew all the tracking I had done had more than been worth, and I could reflect back on how great the state of Alaska is!

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As the earth begins to warm, glaciers begin to melt faster and retreat further. It is neat to see the glaciers calve and fall into the ocean, but also sad at the same time because that means it is melting. This glacier is melting at a very fast rate and leaving hundreds of icebergs where the glacier use to be.

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Wolf pups are like any other young dog, and like to play. After the one pup on the left had played with the stick a while, the other pup decided it wanted to play with the same stick and came over and tried to take it.

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Caribou love the high country to try and get away from the bugs. They love the fall even more because the bugs begin to die and they can focus more on eating than running away from bugs. This nice bull caribou was moving the ridge when he stopped and looked at us before going back to eating.

Highly Honored Image-Nature’s Best Photography, National Park Competition

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Seeing large tidal glaciers is a sight to see! Especially on a clear day when you can see the mountain tops of where the glaciers start from. This very large tidal glacier had many ice bergs surrounding the glacier on this calm day in Alaska.

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The northern lights are a part of our world that will never get tiring. They come out in the northern latitudes, and are very unpredictable. From night to night they put on a different display, or decide not to show up at all.  On a very clear night I was able to have no wind and capture the big dipper reflected in the lake while the northern lights played above the mountains.

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Catching polar bears against the setting sun was above what I hoped for when I took this trip. It is cloudy a majority of the time where I was, and any light would have been great. I saw these polar bears at a distance and hoped they would keep walking on the same path and come closer. They did, and they went to the ridge of the sand back and the pink light hitting the clouds made for a special moment!

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Believe it or not, bear cubs do eventually tun out of energy. They re so fun to watch run around and be rambunctious. But eventually that gives way to being tired and nap time. This cub found a really good spot on a branch under the moss.

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The tundra is deceivingly tall. When you look out over the landscape it look nice and that you could easily walk on it. However, it is exactly the opposite and is so tall animals often disappear into it. Here, I was just tall enough to be able to see and photograph this caribou surrounded by the beautiful red tundra!

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It is hard to describe just how awesome a large tidewater glacier is! In Glacier Bay National Park there are a number of really large glaciers that come all the way down to the water from high in the mountains.  This particular glacier has carved out a massive area that has in the last few hundred years filled in with sea water.  The expansiveness of the area and the grandeur of the glacier and mountains was quite the site to see!

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After climbing up the mountain and searching for sheep, I finally found a few walking a ridge coming my direction. As this sheep paused to check me out, Mt. McKinley rose in the background.

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