Photo Safaris - Photographing Denali National Park



				Ultimate Antarctica January 5–February 1, 2008

Our trip began in rain and the prospect of making wildlife photographs, let alone seeing North Americas highest mountain, on our first day in Denali National Park looked slim. But as we traveled the ninety-mile dirt road that snakes through the park the western sky showed signs of breaking. Faint patches of gray-blue sky appeared; shafts-of-God beams transformed the once somber tundra into spotty palettes of glowing reds and yellows; and a clear outline on the horizon held promise of no further rain. At Eielson Visitor Center, about 70 miles into the park, more patches of blue sky appeared; and there, at a seemingly impossible height, the snow-capped summit of Denali slowly materialized between the wispy lines of clouds.

I always love seeing Denali in this way, peeking above the clouds at a position in the sky that one believes must be too high for any mountain. Yet there it is and, if luck holds and the encircling clouds slip away, the full height and majesty of this 20,320-foot mountain looms before you. To me, this element of visual surprise and delight presents a much stronger first impression than seeing Denali for the first time on a bluebird-sky day.

While there is plenty to photograph in this great national park, it is the mountain — Denali — that acts as a magnet for nature and wildlife photographers. When the mountain is visible, one is driven to include Denali in virtually every composition. But when is the big if, for cloud cover often hides the mountain. Of course the other mountains in the adjacent Alaska Range also present wonderful backdrops for photographs, as do the nameless hills and ridges that parallel much of the park road. Even without Denali, the landscape is simply grand, and one is truly overwhelmed and dwarfed by its immensity.

Wildlife photography in Denali can be challenging and is a bit more difficult than in another target-rich area that comes to mind — Yellowstone. The two locations share many of the same mammal species — moose, grizzly bear, wolf, sheep (bighorn in Yellowstone, Dall in Denali) and red fox — but the mammal diversity is far greater in Yellowstone. Denali, however, offers the promise of arctic and subarctic species as well, and that is part of its charm. Caribou are a near certainty, and theres the alluring hope of spotting a lynx or wolverine. Mountain goat, coyote and black bear are also within the park, but are not commonly seen.

For most visitors, wildlife and landscape photography takes place from the windows of the buses that regularly traverse the only park road. The park buses run on schedules, so even a great wildlife photographic opportunity might be cut short by the need to move on. Thats incredibly frustrating, but part of a typical Denali visit for the average sightseer.

If you are fit and adventurous, you can leave a bus hoping to pick up another one later, provided there is an open seat available. In the peak summer season buses are crowded, and you may have to wait for hours. Camping in the park offers another option, and the special backpacker and camper bus may provide a bit more access. By camping, too, youll have more time to spend negotiating through the parks bus system.

An extremely lucky few photographers are granted a special photography permit to drive a private vehicle into the park. The qualifications to even be eligible for this permit are stringent and the chance of being selected for the limited number available makes winning the lottery look easy.

Although the above paragraphs paint a rather bleak picture for the average visitor, things arent quite as bad as they appear. Most photo tours to Denali stay deep within the park at the terminus of the ninety-mile road. Several lodges and camps are located in an area that was once outside of the park boundaries, in the former mining community of Kantishna. In the 1980s the park was expanded and the Kantishna area was included within Denalis borders. Park visitors using these lodges are transported through the park on private buses that have a bit more freedom in the duration of the photo stops.

Once at a lodge or private camp, photography is centered around the Wonder Lake area, as most private buses do not have driving privileges for daily excursions into the park. While it might seem frustrating to be based in just one small section of this enormous park, it actually works out fairly well. The area around Wonder Lake offers a great sampling of the parks wildlife, and Ive filmed moose, grizzly bear, beaver, caribou, willow ptarmigan, common loon and red-throated grebe here.

The key to success, weve found, is simply to have the patience to let things happen. In a tundra habitat animals move constantly, and weve frequently filmed caribou in what was, hours earlier, an endless vista of barren tundra. At Wonder Lake a moose may suddenly appear,

working its way into the shallows to forage on aquatic plants. Willow ptarmigan, grouse-like birds that change plumage from a mottled brown in summer to snow-white in winter, are often quite common in the tundra and, once spotted, are usually approachable.

There are several beaver dams within walking distance of Wonder Lake and weve had incredible luck here as Denalis beavers are, by necessity, diurnal. In most locations beavers are most active at night; so having the chance to film beaver chomping on dwarf willow stems or repairing their lodge or swimming with a branch clamped between their huge orange teeth is a real photographic treat.

Most visitors usually get at least one shooting opportunity with grizzly bears, either on the ride in or on the trip out. Ive never filmed one while afoot in Denali and I dont expect to. Although there have been no bear attacks here, I would not advise approaching a bear on foot to be close enough for a great shot. Content yourself with what youll get from the bus.

Several wolf packs roam the park, but in summer most wolves travel alone or in pairs. Still, any wolf sighting is a treasure, and it was only on our last trip that we finally had several good sightings, including one where a pair of wolves walked unconcernedly down the road before us.

While most of the above species can be found in national parks in the lower 48, our two favorite Denali mammals — Dall sheep and caribou — cannot. Almost all visitors to Denali see both, but filming either is a different matter. On a typical bus ride through the park Dall sheep are usually spotted as tiny white dots on a slate-gray mountain hillside. Unless you are extremely lucky, photography from the roadside is impossible. To film sheep you must get off the road and hike, and thats difficult to do if you have limited time, especially if you are based in the Kantishna area.

The best sheep country is located toward the middle of the park, and reaching this area is difficult to do on a typical visit. And thats only part of the challenge. Even if you can get to the sheep areas, hiking up to them can be physically taxing. Ive lugged a 600mm up the 1,000-foot incline at Eielson and suffered every vertical inch of the way. Fortunately, the sheep are quite tame, and if you find them, a really big lens isnt necessary. Anyone willing to hike into sheep country would do quite well with a lightweight 80-400 or 100-400mm zoom lens.

Caribou are much easier to film, as theyre found on the rolling tundra that extends throughout much of the park. Theyre often seen around Wonder Lake, where they may stake out a temporary territory. In late August and early September bull caribou shed their antlers velvet and, if youre lucky, you might find a great bull with bloody, velvet-dripping antlers. As in most national parks, there is a 25-yard minimum distance photographers must observe, which is just about a frame-filling shot with a 300mm lens.

Caribou are generally rather tame, but if one spooks at your approach you can forget about catching up. Caribou move easily across spongy tundra, but you wont. If you try approaching a caribou, advance slowly forward with your arms held above your head in a V, mimicking — crudely — the shape of a caribous antlers. If your camera isnt tripod-mounted you can invert the tripod and let the legs accomplish the same thing. Using this decoy, a caribou might allow you to get closer than you could otherwise. We never try to get too close, stopping far short of the 25-yard minimum to avoid spooking the caribou. However, by sitting still and waiting, weve had caribou walk up to us — sometimes close enough for headshots!

Although we love to photograph wildlife, Denalis scenics constantly draw our attention as well. For landscape photography, weve used focal lengths from 17mm wide-angle lenses to 24mm Tilt-and-Shift lenses to 600mm telephotos. Some of our favorite images incorporate a powerful foreground element that leads the eye to the mountain in the background. Wide-angle lenses work well for this, if done correctly, but using a wide-angle lens effectively can be tricky. Most folks simply use a wide-angle to record the big picture, including as much in the frame as they can. In Denali, for instance, that generally translates into an image of a distant line of tiny mountains stretched across the 35mm frame. Having a foreground element up close — be that colorful tundra, a glacial erratic boulder or a pond — adds a visual anchor that provides a sense of depth to the scene.

Wed recommend having at least two filters along for your scenic shooting, a polarizing filter and a graduated neutral density filter. Denalis location in relation to most roadside views makes it perfect for maximum polarization of the skies. Be careful, however, if you use Velvia film, as too much polarization may turn your skies to a very unnatural dark blue. With Velvia, little if any polarization is required. Kodak VS film has a similar color snap as Velvia, but with VS polarized skies dont shift in an objectionable way.

Graduated neutral density filters will help reduce the contrast between bright snow and sky and the much duller tundra below. When using a graduated ND filter, make sure you meter the area below the portion of the image that will be filtered. After that exposure is set, the filter will effectively reduce the exposure in the brighter area above. Some folks report success in just letting their cameras matrix or evaluative metering determine the exposure once a filter is in place. While I havent tried that, it seems like this metering method should work.

A macro lens can also be useful for detailing the tundra, especially in the fall when bearberry leaves turn crimson and bushes are heavy with berries of various shades. Close-up views of the tundra reveal exciting, intimate details that can be easily overlooked. Mushrooms, lichens and berries are everywhere and make great subjects. Mary loves using a 180mm macro here, but generally I opt to use extension tubes with a 100-400mm or 70-200mm instead, which saves me the weight of carrying another lens.

Denalis mountain landscapes are perfect for panoramas, too. For these Ive gone two ways. If I dont have much time Ill use the Hasselblad 35mm Pan-X camera with either the 45mm or 90mm lens. The 45mm has a panoramic coverage approximating a 28mm on the wide side, and the 90mm the width of a 50mm. Of course, the vertical height is still the same as a traditional 35mm format for a 45mm or 90mm lens, so image size is still quite large.

If I have enough time Ill use my EOS3 with a telephoto and shoot several overlapping sections for a computer-generated panoramic image. Using Photoshop or PhotoStitch, its fairly easy to make a composite, and the impact of a panoramic mountain landscape shot with a 400mm lens is breathtaking.

The park is open from June until mid-September when the Sub Arctics first snows close the park road. Expect nearly 24 hours of daylight and plenty of mosquitoes during a June visit, and a good possibility of snow for a trip in late August or early September. However, the weather is extremely changeable, and it may snow anytime during the summer months.

Mary and I prefer the end of the season — late August and early September — as the bugs are almost gone, the light is low and angular at a reasonable time for mountain landscapes, and wildlife are in their best fall pelage. According to the records at Eielson, theres a better chance of seeing Denali in late August and September than at other times during the tourist season. In all of our visits during this time of year we havent been skunked once. At seasons end there is a good possibility of photographing moose or caribou in the rut, fighting or stripping velvet from their antlers. Park buses are less full and photographers who hope to catch several buses during a day of shooting have an excellent chance of doing so.

Of all of North Americas great wildlife photography destinations, none come even close to Denali for its scenic splendor. Seeing moose and caribou and tundra grizzly bear is always a treat, but being inside Denali surrounded by the almost indescribable scenic beauty of this landscape... Thats not a treat; its a blessing. Denali will draw you back again and again, as it certainly has with us.



	Joseph Van Os Photo Safaris, Inc. P.O. Box 655, Vashon Island, Washington USA 98070 Phone: (206) 463-5383 Fax: (206) 463-5484 Email: info@photosafaris.com Copyright © 2008, Joseph Van Os Photo Safaris, Inc.