http://kenbaehrphotos.zoomshare.com/:blog Ken Baehr Favorite Photos: Blog Sun, 25 Oct 2009 16:43:27 -0500 http://www.kenbaehrphotos.zoomshare.com/:blog?id=e28c686a28eadec1167127376dfc8306_4ae4c56e Sun, 25 Oct 2009 16:38:54 -0500 I just completed a new album entitled "Sandhill Cranes." The cranes are my favorite bird to photograph. They are tall, statuesque and graceful in flight. Each spring and fall they migrate between Alaska, Florida and New Mexico. I am not sure which birds go where, by they come to Alaska in the thousands. My favorite spots to photograph them include Creamer's Field, a bird sanctuary in Fairbanks, AK, The experimental farm in Wasilla, AK, an open field near the airport in Wasilla, AK, and Potter Marsh, just on the outskirts of Anchorage, AK. I am told that the birds can fly as high as 20,000 feet as they pass through the Alaska range on their way north or south. Imagine the endurance to fly with the limited oxygen, high winds and cold of 20,000 feet. There is more to come from this summer's images, so keep looking and enjoy. http://www.kenbaehrphotos.zoomshare.com/:blog?id=99a7ad8acbae3739e6bae8b05dd50abd_4ad2600c Sun, 11 Oct 2009 17:45:32 -0500 I truly had some great photographic opportunities this summer. It started with a six day jaunt along the Katmai Coast aboard the Coastal Explorer. We saw and photographed clamming bears, eagle nests, shore birds, landscapes and wild flowers. To be able to be close to truly wild animals in pristine wilderness is an experience of a lifetime. To be able to photograph the experience is something to make one truly grateful. I also had an opportunity to fly into another part of Katmai National Park to a stream chocked full of Red(Sockeye)Salmon high above the tree line. The fish attracted the bears and the river, narrowed by a deep gorge, concentrated them. It was an incredible opportunity. If that were not enough, my brother in law and I won a ticket in the annual road lottery in Denali National Park. Once a year, 400 cars get to drive the road into Denali. It is an opportunity to stop and go, to photograph at your leisure. Again, gratitude is the word. We usually get a lot of images of bears, but this year they were scarce. What we did see were caribou trekking across the open tundra. We also happened upon two full-curl Dall Sheep Rams high up in Polychrome Pass. I had never seen them in Polychrome before. These two were not only there, but decided to pose for us for nearly an hour. I updated the web site today in three albums, "The Katmai Coast," "Bears of Alaska," and "The Other Mammals. Take a look, and I hope you enjoy. http://www.kenbaehrphotos.zoomshare.com/:blog?id=ff37af5f9d948a367c9da2c2153bcc99_4a527027 Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:44:07 -0500 I just completed an extensive update of the photo pages. Chief among the changes is an added album titled "Ktmai Coast." I had a great opportunity to spend six days aboard a boat called the Coastal Explorer. Using the Explorer as a base of operations, we then worked our way around the countless beaches, inlets and islands of Kukak Bay and Geographic harbor in Katmai National Park. During the trip we must have seen over fifty individual bears, and got close enough to photograph at least twenty of them. By close, I mean within ten feet. I also added some new images to the Denali National Park Album, and the Moose Album. I am on a roll, so stand by for more. http://www.kenbaehrphotos.zoomshare.com/:blog?id=b883409c88d97b7c6031ecc70758b1ff_48f3b6b7 Mon, 13 Oct 2008 15:59:35 -0500 I have just completed a major update of the website. This summer has been good to me. I have added a number of new bear images. I also added a new album called "The Other Mammals." Although bear and moose generate the most excitement among visitors, there are lots of other creatures to enjoy in Alaska. This album show a few of them and hopefully will grow in the future. Speaking of moose, I added a number of new images to that album. Since I was lucky enough to hit Denali National park and the height of the fall colors, I added some landscape images to that album. Hope you all enjoy, till next time http://www.kenbaehrphotos.zoomshare.com/:blog?id=2d7b82e7595858e4ecbcb99c1befe796_48629e55 Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:36:53 -0500 Early this spring I bought a new macro lens. I have been playing with it ever since. It is not surprising that my update this month is mostly spring flowers shot with the new lens. Needless to say I enjoy the sharpness of the lens and its capability to get close. More to come... http://www.kenbaehrphotos.zoomshare.com/:blog?id=3793f689a869702fcfa63facdb4fd3bd_47fcf52a Wed, 09 Apr 2008 11:56:10 -0500 I have been travelling a lot in the last few weeks. My wife informed me that I have been remiss in updating the site. She was right. I did sit down, finally, and get some work done. I added our visit to Crazyhorse, a massive tribute to the American Indian. I also included The Mt Rushmore monument. In both cases the weather was unbearably hot, over 100 degrees, but the light was great for photos. Hope you enjoy. I also added a new album titled "Hawaii." It contains images from our cruise of Hawaii, Oahu, Maui and Kauai. The trip was a family reunion of the senior set, and we had a ball. Hope you like the images. http://www.kenbaehrphotos.zoomshare.com/:blog?id=da24f0a8492bc0fbf3076f7b72d3901b_46cca1fc Wed, 22 Aug 2007 15:52:12 -0500 Kaytie and I have returned safe and sound from our two month adventure, a motorhome trip from Anchorage to New York and back. I have updated the web site to include three pages that document the trip: Alaska to New York - ALCAN, Alaska to New York - Canada, and Alaska to New York - USA.As of this writing I have included images from Alaska to Niagara falls, but am still working on sorting images from New York, Iowa, and South Dakota. The first album, Alaska to New York - Alcan, is a collection of images that took us from Anchorage to Dawson Creek in the Yukon Territory of Canada along the Alaska Highway. It starts with an image of the Matanuska Glacier near Anchorage and finishes with the "0" Milepost marker at the beginning of the Alaska Highway in Dawson Creek, YT. Along the way we were amazed with the proliferation of wildlife we saw along the Highway. All the images you see were taken within 50 yards of the roadbed. We stayed in some great campgrounds, had pretty good weather, and experienced a minimum of construction along the way. We took about two weeks to make this part of the journey, and enjoyed every minute of it...well almost every minute of it. There was the matter of a flat tire in the middle of nowhere, a ride with a passing tourist to the nearest town, and a $300.00 tire changing bill, but ah the price of adventure. The second Album, Alaska to New York - Canada covers that part of the trip we spent in Canada. (My grasp of the obvious is improving) The Ol Pembina River Campground was a real find. Not only was the campground a great one, but the history buff owners had stocked it with tons of antiques on display throughout the campground. We also enjoyed Fort Macleod. The reconstructed Fort provided great insight into the role of the Canadian Mounted Police in opening up the territory to settlement. Not far away was the Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo-Jump. This international heritage site provided the history of the Plains Indians from and archeological and spiritual perspective at a site that had been use by four Indian cultures going back some 5700 years. That is older than the Pyramids. When we got to Calgary, we changed our itinerary just a bit. We had originally planned to drive across Canada to Niagara Falls. The price of gas in Canada averaged $4.50 per US gallon. Oh how we yearned for $3.00 a gallon gas in the USA. We decided to take US Highway 2 across the northern tier states, and then come up through Michigan back into Canada and Niagara Falls. We arrived at Fort Macleod on June 14th and left Niagara Falls on June 28th. The third album, Alaska to New York - USA is still a work in progress. I have added the images from Montana, North Dakota, Wisconsin and Michigan, but am still working on New York, Iowa, and South Dakota. Hopefully I will finish them in the next couple of days. By taking the smaller US 2 and avoiding the Interstates, we saw places that were alot more interesting than the rest stop on the Interstate Median. Havre (pronounced Hay-ver) Montana came complete with an underground city. Both Kaytie and I thoroughly enjoyed the tour. The plains states provided some beautiful scenery of wide open fields and big skies. I would miss the mountains after a while, but I did enjoy seeing the landscape. Our favorite stop along the way was the Driftwood Shores Campground on the very northern shore of Lake Michigan. The owner, Bill Mallory was a gracious and friendly host, and the campground itself provided for walks along the beach, bird habitat and a peaceful environment. We liked it so much we stayed an extra day. Niagara Falls speaks for itself. What surprised me a little is that the reality surpassed the hype. The falls were even more spectacular than I had imagined. Hope you enjoy. I will continue to work diligently to get the rest of the images uploaded. Till then, God bless. http://www.kenbaehrphotos.zoomshare.com/:blog?id=0d6dbfe8e2595d68fa7b456567f66f13_467dc929 Sat, 23 Jun 2007 20:30:17 -0500 I am writing this at a small campground on the shores of Lake Michigan near the top of the lake. We are near Thompson, a small town that used to ship logs across the lake to the paper mills along with Christmas trees and other wood products. All that is past. We passed the 4000 mile point a few miles back and have not killed each other yet, ha ha. In fact it has been great to just talk to each other, take long walks and simply enjoy each other's company. I updated the site with ten more images of a stop we made in western Canada after we officially completed the ALCAN at mile 0 in Dawson Creek. We found it by chance along the Pembina River and it was aptly named The Pembina River Campground. It was a really nice campground, but what made it especially interesting was the owners collections. They had one of the most extensive antique tractor collections I have ever seen in one spot. It included tractors dating as far back as 1919 and well into the 1970s. If that were not enough, they had installed a 1950s functional Soda Shop as part of the Campground. We spent a fun evening drinking coffee and yaking well into the night. Finally they had rebuilt some historical houses on the grounds and filled them with antiques and artifacts of the period. I can not begin to describe it all. But I did include some images at the end of the ALCAN section. I now have more photos to process than time, but I will keep on it. Till next time, enjoy. http://www.kenbaehrphotos.zoomshare.com/:blog?id=e58a9a2d4bbf21c74f74e79baf59a9bd_46721517 Thu, 14 Jun 2007 23:27:03 -0500 Kaytie and I have officially departed Canada as we have cleared customs and are back in the USA. I am writing this from a little town in Montana called Havre along Highway 2. We avoided the interstate thinking that we might see more interesting things along a smaller road system. I updated the ALCAN photo album with ten more images, most of which were shot between the Liard Hot Springs and Fort Nelson. I still have a number to post from the ALCAN and Western Canada. I will get to them when I have internet access again. Ten is enough for one night. The black bear mother and cub were shot right along the highway. As you can see they are covered with flies. The bugs bothered me alot more than the bears. I have also include a butterfly and some waterfowl. Hope you enjoy. http://www.kenbaehrphotos.zoomshare.com/:blog?id=1155faf73bd2462711ef6ea539380a4e_466ea903 Tue, 12 Jun 2007 09:09:07 -0500 I updated the ALCAN album with some new photos, and I still have many to add. I have discovered that upload times are very slow as I use the WIFI system at campgrounds along the highway. I think they use either satellite systems, or something tied into a radio phone. As of today there are 21 images in the album. The scenery has been spectacular. What really impressed me was the abundance of wildlife along the road between Liard Hot Springs and Fort Nelson. We saw Bison, Black Bear, Caribou, Deer, Moose, Beaver, Stone Sheep, Cayote and lots of water fowl. I have uploaded some of the images, with more to come. As of this writing, we are off the ALCAN in Grande Prairie, AB headed for Calgary. As we head south, the roads get wider and the terrain flatter. The weather has been good, although we did run through some heavy rain. Gas is averaging $4.29 per gallon, so I am looking forward to the cheap stuff in the U.S. Anyway, it is still cheaper than flying, and we are having a blast. Till next time.