Photographing Alaska (from an RV)
One thing that really surprised me in planning a trip to Alaska is that there was so little information for photographers… where to shoot, what to bring, hidden gems, etc. There are whole books on places in the lower 48 entirely dedicated to photograpy, but nothing equivalent for Alaska… at least that I could find. So, my hope is that this blog post proves useful to other photography lovers in planning their own Alaska journey.
Logistics
We started our trip in Anchorage where we rented a 33 foot RV, drove up to Denali, then on to Fairbanks and down the Richardson highway to Wrangell St.Elias NP. From there, we drove to Valdez, took the ferry to Whittier and then continued to Seward (and Kenai Fjord NP ) and on to Homer, before returning to Anchorage. In two weeks, we covered 1500 miles and the vast majority of the Alaskan paved highway system.
I was also traveling with family (including our two teens) so photography was very much a secondary consideration. When you are traveling via RV, you also can’t drive off on solo side quests. My advice — take whatever opportunities come your way and don’t worry about the ones you might miss.
Photography & Gear Considerations
It’s more difficult than I expected to make interesting photographs in Alaska. First off, the light is very unpredictable… we had lots of grey cloud cover for much of the trip and with the long summer days, you don’t really get much in terms of golden hours. Similarly, while there’s a lot of landscape, it’s quite difficult to find good vantage points, especially if you want interesting foreground. The threat of bears and moose also made me very weary of going too far off trail. Having said that, the landscape is in many ways actually more impressive than I expected.
My number one gear recommendation is to bring the longest lens you’ve got — and if you don’t have a long lens, buy or rent one. I had the Canon RF 100–500 and the 1.4X extender. There is a lot of wildlife to photograph in Alaska, but you need a lot of reach to fill the frame. I had considered bringing my 70–200, but while that’s a great lens, it would have been less than useful for a lot of the wildlife I encountered. 200mm is not enough for Alaska — even 700mm was not enough at times.
I also recommend a graduated neutral density filter. The combination of grey clouds, snow capped mountains and overall dull light, can make it very challenging to get an even exposure across the frame, without blowing highlights. I use the Lee system. There’s also at least a few waterfalls to photograph — a 6 to 10 stop ND filter will be your friend for these scenarios.
I’ve never run through as many batteries as I have on this trip. Some days, I used up to three. I expect that a lot of this was the battery drain due to using IS and focus tracking with a very long lens and also the overall cold weather. Bring spares.
A rain cover for your camera/lens would also be a good idea. I didn’t bring one, so just ended up toweling my equipment off pretty frequently.
Denali
Overall, I found Denali to be less scenic than I had imagined, though it’s a wonderful and unique National Park. The emphasis here is really on the wildlife. The main way to see the park is via the National Park bus tours, which I didn’t find to be great for photography. There is only one road through the park, and most of it is closed to private vehicles. The bus will stop when they spot wildlife but you can’t get off the bus (though the windows do at least open to shoot through). The bus does pull over at a few rest stops where there are some nice landscape opportunities.
If you have the opportunity, I’d highly recommend cycling into the park or driving your own vehicle as far as is permitted. You’ll have more opportunities to stop and shoot what you want.
The area right outside of the park gates is also very scenic. I made a few interesting shots here late one evening.
The best view of Denali itself is outside the park, at Denali Viewpoint South — which is a full hundred miles before the entrance to the park itself. I highly recommend stopping here. It’s worth walking up the short trail to the top viewpoint — you can make some nice compositions with the riever in the foreground. There’s also a nice view a few miles along the park road itself. However, the mountain is most often obscured by cloud, so you’ll maximize your chances by stopping off at any viewpoints along the way.
It’s also well worth checking out the Denali Dog Kennels, where you can visit the dogs and see a mushing demonstration. A long lens and a fast shutter speed is your friend here.
You can see my Denali photos here.
Fairbanks
There are a few nice rest areas with scenic views between Denali and Fairbanks which might be worth a stop.
Fairbanks itself doesn’t seem to have much to offer for photography — though we only spent one night here. I know that other tourists used this to fly to the Arctic Circle, which might be an interesting trip — though if you do the fly/bus option, it’s apparently a long and rough journey back to Fairbanks.
Richardson Highway
The drive along the Richardson Highway, from Fairbanks to Valdez, is surely one of the world’s great drives. Vast boreal forests, towering mountains and passes, alpine lakes, waterfalls — this drive has it all — and hardly any traffic to boot.
There are also quite a few opportunities to view the Trans-Alaska pipeline, which roughly follows the highway, and was one of the great engineering feats of the 20th century. The pipeline suspension bridge at Big Delta is a good stop.
Wrangell-St.Elias NP
America’s biggest National Park is also one of it’s best (well, at least in my limited sample size). This is a vast, vast and dramatic wilderness with hardly any settlements. You can drive to McCarthy, and the drive is said to be an experience — but it’s not possible in a rental RV. We flew in and out with Wrangell Mountain Air. The flight itself was nothing short of majestic — mountains, glaciers and old mining ruins.
You need to take single engined planes to see quite a bit of Alaska. I highly recomment NOT taking the front seat in these planes— the side windows are smaller and you can’t really shoot through the front window (the angle of the plane and the propellers are your enemy). In a six seater plane, either the second or third row should be fine. Try to sit beside someone you know so that you can lean over them to take shots on the other side. A mid-range lens (in my case 24–70) will likely be the most useful.
From McCarthy, you can explore the Kennecott Copper Mill (which I did) or trek to the Root Glacier. However, it would be difficult to do both in a single day. The starting point for both is about five miles up the road from McCarthy (theres a $5 shuttle service or you can walk).
McCarthy itself is a quirky, fun village to photograph.
Wrangel-St.Elias is the one place I wish I could have spent more time. I can’t recommend Wrangell Mountain Air enough. The flight into McCarthy was great, but I think a longer flightseeing tour over the park would also have been incredible and very worthwhile.
You can see my Wrangell-St.Elias photos here.
Valdez & Ferry to Whittier
The Thompson Pass on the road into Valdez has some dramatic scenery. There’s a very nice waterfall at the other end of the parking lot from the abandoned train tunnel, which is well signposted. The more popular Horsetail and Bridalveil falls are also worth stopping for. An ND filter will be helpful in shooting all of these falls. This was also one of the rare opportunities where I found my 15–35mm lens to be useful on this trip.
Valez itself has some dramatic scenery and is an interesting, somewhat rustic port town.
We were also able to see some cool wildlife in the nearby wetlands. Unfortunately it rained an insane amount the entire time we were there.
The ferry from Valez to Whittier takes about 6 hours and even on a grim, overcast day has some nice photo opportunities.
Kenai Fjords NP & Seward
I’m generally not a tourist-boat kind of person, but there aren’t a lot of other options to see Kenai Fjords National Park. To my immense surprise, the tour of Kenai Fjords with Major Marine was some of the best tourist dollars I’ve ever spent. Most tours go to either Aialik OR Holgate Glacier . Major Marine has a option which goes to both. I definitely recommend this as both glaciers are worth seeing and offer distinct photographic experiences.
Holgate glacier is the smaller of the two, but boats can get pretty close.
Aialik is much larger but not necessarily more impressive.
For both glaciers, I found the 100–500 to be more useful than wide or mid-range lenses, though I did use my 24–70. Everyone is going to go home with a pretty wide shot of the entire glacier. Yawn. You can make much more interesting compositions focusing on sections or specific parts of the glacier. If you can get sea birds or boats in the frame for some perspective, it will help (especially if you ever print your pictures)
Aside from glaciers, if you’re lucky, there’s also tons of wildlife to be seen in Kenai Fjords. We saw orcas, humpback whales, puffins, sea otters, black bears(!), porpoises, mountain goats and seals and sea lions. While they didn’t all make for great photos, they were incredible to see.
Again, and I’m going to bore you with this — take the longest lens you can get your hands on. Also, the opportunities to see wildlife are fleeting, so you need to be ready — spend as much time as you can outside, waiting for the moment. Use focus tracking and continuous shot mode if your camera supports them.
My Kenai Fjords photos are here.
Katmai National Park, Bear Viewing & Homer
The town of Homer is the gateway to Katmai National Park and bear viewing adventures.
But before you come to Homer you can travel to the very edge of the Americas connected highway system in tiny Anchor Point, where there are incredible opportunities to see and photograph Bald Eagles. If you can time your visit for the afternoon, when the fishing boats are coming back in, you’ll increase your chances for some good shots.
Closer to town, the Homer Spit is interesting to explore and (once again) if you visit in the late afternoon, you’ll get to see some of the day’s catch being brought in.
But anyway, the reason we went to Homer was to see bears. It’s the main gateway for bear viewing flights into either Katmai or Lake Clark National Parks.
We went with Sasquatch Alaska Adventures and they proved to be a great choice. Super nice folks, with tons of experience. Unfortunately, we traveled in mid-June, which I think was still too early for peak bear viewing. We saw lots of bears and I made some photos I love, but we remained further from the bears than I had hoped (again that 500mm + 1.4 extender was invaluable). It was too early in the season to see cubs and the bears have also not yet congregated at their salmon fishing spots (which are best from mid-July).
If we were in Alaska later, I would have chosen to travel to Brooks Falls to see the bears feeding on salmon. Having said that, the location we travelled to was certainly more unique and off the beaten path — you’re not going to end up with the same photos as everyone else.
The flight to Katmai was not as impressive as in Wrangell-St-Elias (lots of flying over water) but there may be opportunities for some nice landscapes.
My Katmai pictures are here.
My non-National Park Alaska photos can all be found here.
