Brown Bears of Katmai National Park and Preserve

Katmai is an American national park and Preserve, located in southern Alaska, notable for the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes and for its Brown Bears. The park and preserve encompass 4,093,077 acres (6,395.43 sq mi; 16,564.09 km²).  Most of the national park is a designated wilderness area. The park is named afterMount Katmai and is located on the Alaska Peninsula. The area was first designated a National Park in 1918 to protect the area around the major 1912 volcanic eruption of Novarupta, which formed the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, a 40-square-mile (100 km²), 100-to-700-foot-deep (30 to 213 m) pyroclastic flow.  The park includes as many as 18 individual volcanos, seven of which have been active since 1900.

Our daily activity fallowed the same pattern, Fly in to the source by float plane to reach the wilderness where the Salmon and bears are,  after our landing on the alpine lakes we hike around 5 to 6 miles looking for bear activity. This year it was a record salmon run, which slowed down the bear action. Usually the bears will migrates with the Salmon up the river to the spooning ground, but do to the abundance of salmon the bears were despairs along the river with longer hikes to reach the action activity.

Palouse is the South east region of Washington stat, this  are is a unique destination for Rural Landscape photography. Palouse area provides an endless rolling hills and mixture of colors , reminiscent to Tuscany Italy.  This area is not just about landscapes,  is about the farmers and they’re estates with old red barns, old machinery and the lifestyle. This previous workshop we spend time visiting the usual and unusual locations, including the Steptoe Butte, the wheel museum, rolling hills covered in Canola flowers, endless blue sky and historical barns. Our daily activity included morning and afternoon shooting , with a mid day break , in some of the best locations of Palouse around Polman. 

Equipment used: 35mm Cameras, 16-35mm, 24-70mm, 70-200mm and on some occasions 100-400mm lenses, we used Tripods in the low light situation in the early morning and late evenings. During the day we used hang hold to photograph, hand holding gives you the flexibility to explore challenging angle with your wide angle lenses 

Despite the Coved 19 Epidemic, with the social distancing and wearing mask we manage to conduct a workshop this passed weekend. It was a great workshop with great cooperating participants. The weather was unpredictable but we manage to get some unique photographs. Here are few photographs.Photographing the coastal forest in the mist

Fur forest in the costal mist

Misty forest

Autumn foliage and river

Fall color

Macro world of the Forest floor

Mossy stream

Thank you Art Wolfe and Libby Pfeiffer for making this workshop amazing.

Another celebration in Khon Kaen city, Loy Krathong.The evening of Loy Krathong is one of the most picturesque festivals in Khon Kaen county. This festival is celebrated for a handful of reasons. Is the end of the riny season and close to the beginning of rice harvest. It is believed that Loy Krathong, or ‘the festival of light originated in the ancient city of Sukhothai, located about three hours west of Khon Kaen. It is not a religious holiday, but you will see many Thais praying to the water goddess, Mae Khongkha, as they send their decorated ‘boats’ down the river. Many Thais will give thanks to the water goddess for the fortune of having water while others will ask for forgiveness for using too much or contaminating it. Each candle has a prayer, memory, or wish attached to it as it makes it way down whatever body of water it finds itself on. That is the basic idea of the entire festival: it is a new beginning of sorts. Thais participating in the festival let go of whatever their misfortunes are and let the water carry them downstream and away for good. Burning incense and lighted candles cover the tops of the krathongs, which are the circular objects, usually made of banana leaves and flowers, floating down the river. Loy means ‘to float.’ It is certainly an amazing sight to watch thousands of lighted banana-leaf boats float down waterways all over the country.

The Fish trap baskets are in the Hung Yen Province, about one hour southeast of capital Hanoi. This traps are used for catching any actually creatures such as fish, crabs, snails and more.

The weaving is done by the woman from strips of bamboo and calamus palm wood and the man harvest the bamboo. The man splits and strips the bamboo in small thin long pieces before they get weave in to baskets by the local woman This is a few century old tradition and many people in this village are making their living just our of making and selling baskets.

This photographs are from Luong Son Bac, basket making family. Thank you for allowing us to photograph your propriety and fallow you in the village

Incense has a special significance in the spiritual life of Asian countries, including Vietnam.

Burning incense is part of Vietnamese culture and beliefs

It is always challenging to come up with new way to photograph a site that was photographed thousands and thousands of times. But always there is a way to be different, you just need to be creative and get out of the box. Be your own stile and don’t be afraid to break the rolls of composition.