Prince William Sound is a treasure trove of abundant wildlife, glaciers and spectacular mountain scenery. Our 30-foot, 6-passenger boat, the M/V Sound Access, is exceptionally capable for photography. While any of our regular tours would provide good photo opportunities, serious photographers may find them limiting. As a photographer myself, I shoot as much as I can during these tours. However, needing to pilot the boat and be an attentive tour guide often leaves me little time for photography.

With tours that are designed specifically for photography, I aim to enhance photo opportunities for everyone aboard. The rationale and how the photo tours differ from my regular tours is described below. An evolving list of photo projects is described immediately below. For the current photo tour schedule, click here.

Canon 5D, EF100-400IS @ 400mm, 1/1250 @ f/8, ISO 200, hand-held

Horned puffins are among the subjects of our photo tours.

Dates: May to early June on any open date(s) in the regular tour schedule.

Duration: 8-10 hours

Cost: $429, 329 or 259 each, for 1,2 or 3 photographers. Add $6 each Whittier taxes.

Main Attractions: Mountain goats, Steller sea lions, harbor seals; good odds for humpback whales and Dall's porpoises, possibly orcas. Birds include bald eagles, tufted and horned puffins, parakeet auklets, pigeon guillemots, marbled murrelets, black-legged kittiwakes, glaucous-winged and mew gulls, black oystercatchers, surfbirds, red-necked phalaropes, late-migrating loons and grebes. Target species can be fine-tuned to clients' wishes. Two-day overnighters are possible.

In spring and early summer, fights between Steller sea lion bulls over territory and females leave some with visible wounds.

Dates: May to early June, on any open date(s) in the regular tour schedule.

Duration 4-5 hours

Cost: $224, 194 or 154 each, for 1,2 or 3 photographers. Add $6 each Whittier taxes.

Main Features: Five minutes out from Whittier has us at a teeming nesting colony of black-legged kittiwakes, glaucous-winged gulls, and pigeon guillemots. Bald eagles, ravens and black-billed magpies are often seen here too. Mountain goats are often seen near the water as soon as the snow melts and vegetation starts greening up. Scenic waterfalls, distant glaciers. Some chance for humpback whales.

Mountain goats often descend to within tens of feet of the water's edge in spring and pay little heed to boats immediately adjacent.

Dates: Mid-June through August, on any open date(s) in the regular tour schedule.

Duration: 8-10 hours

Cost: $429, 329 or 259 each, for 1,2 or 3 photographers. Add $6 each Whittier taxes.

Main Attractions: Steller sea lions, harbor seals, humpback whales, Dall's porpoises, some chance for orcas and black bears. Birds include bald eagles, tufted and horned puffins, parakeet auklets, pigeon guillemots, marbled murrelets, black-legged kittiwakes, glaucous-winged and mew gulls, Arctic terns, black oystercatchers, parasitic jaegers, fork-tailed storm petrels and more. Target species can be fine-tuned to clients' wishes. Two-day overnighters are possible.

Tufted puffins nest several places in Prince William Sound.

Dates: Mid-June through September, on any open date(s) in the regular tour schedule.

Duration: 8-10 hours

Cost: $429, 329 or 259 each, for 1,2 or 3 photographers
Add $6 each Whittier taxes.

College Fjord is a bonanza of five tidewater glaciers, icebergs, waterfalls and spectacular mountain scenery. At 1-1/2 miles wide at tidewater, Harvard Glacier is the Sound's second biggest, and is almost always actively calving ice. Wildlife includes good concentrations of Sea Otters and Harbor Seals, both of which often haul out on icebergs. Common birds include bald eagles, mew gulls, Arctic terns, black oystercatchers, harlequin ducks, common mergansers, marbled murrelets and the endangered-petitioned Kittlitz's murrelet. Itineraries can be fine-tuned to clients' wishes. Two-day overnighters (for up to two clients) are possible, and actually are necessary to do justice to the entire fjord in one trip.

Harbor Seals are abundant in College Fjord where they are often seen hauled out on icebergs.

Dates: August-September, on any open date(s) in the regular tour schedule.

Duration: 10-12 hours

Cost: $524, 424 or 324 each, for 1,2 or 3 photographers, plus $6/each Whittier taxes.

Humpback whales are common in southern Prince William Sound in summer and fall. The chances for encountering orcas as well increase beginning late summer, when different family groups (pods) form "super-pods" for socializing and the bulls from one pod cavort with females of another pod. Two-day option available.

Orcas occur year-round in Prince William Sound, but are the most common in late summer and fall.

Dates: August through mid-September, on any open date(s) in the regular tour schedule.

Duration: 7-8 hours

Cost: $379, 279 or 229 each, for 1,2 or 3 photographers, plus $6/each Whittier taxes.

Anchor off the mouth of a salmon stream to watch and photograph bears' social interactions and their feeding on Chum and/or Pink Salmon.

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Canon 5D, EF70-200mm +1.4X @ 280mm, f/4 @ 1/640, ISO 500, hand-held

This mama black bear and her two cubs were a little too early for the late chum salmon run in early August 2007.

A young black bear, its muzzle stained red from salmon blood, heads into the woods for a nap.