This beautiful humpback whale was feeding when we cruised into the harbor. Our ship is a catamaran, so it doesn't cause a lot of waves and is relatively quiet. A long lens is a good help, too. Look at that snout. You can tell that a humpback whale is feeding when you spot a flock of seagulls flying overhead. And no good whale spotting is complete without a tale just above the water before the whale dives. Once these humpbacks dive, they can stay down for 30 minutes, but most of them come back up in 4 to 6 minutes. These photos were shot as we were heading north from Wrangell in the Inside Passage in Alaska. 09/04/2013

You can spend your entire life travelng to view wildlife and never shoot a photograph like this in the wild. Our guide carried a rifle, along with bear spray, just in case. We photographed a lot of black bears, and a brown bear by the shore. I have photos of bears eating fish and dripping blood down their chin to the rock below, but that might too gross for some of you. Here is the beginning of the path built by the National Forest Service. There are only 60 permits a day issued by the government for visitors. When we spotted our first eagle in Ketchikan, I felt so thrilled to spot such a magestic bird like an eagle in the wild. Now, ha, there are eagles everywhere, but I still get a kick when I spot one. They don't look so mean when they are soaring. This is a Sitka Spruce. It's so st... 08/31/2013