Sound Eco Adventures
P. O. Box 707, Whittier, AK . 99693 . USA
Email: sea@alaska.net . . .
Toll-Free: 1-888-471-2312
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BACKGROUND
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. |
Horned puffins are among the subjects of our photo tours. |
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Spring Wildlife
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. |
Canon 10D, EF100-400 @ 273mm, 1/750, f/4.0, ISO 200, hand-held In spring and early summer, fights between Steller sea lion bulls over territory and females leave some with visible wounds. |
Spring Wildlife Lite
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. |
Canon 5D, EF100-400 @ 400mm, 1/800, f/8.0, ISO 250, hand-held Mountain goats often descend to within tens of feet of the water's edge in spring and pay little heed to boats immediately adjacent. |
Summer Wildlife
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. |
Canon 5D, EF100-400IS @ 400mm, 1/1250, f/5.6, ISO 500, hand-held Tufted puffins nest several places in Prince William Sound. |
College Fjord
Duration: 8-10 hours
Cost: $429, 329 or 259 each, for 1,2 or 3 photographers
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. |
Canon 5D, EF70-200 @ 200mm, 1/640, f/7.1, ISO 400, hand-held Harbor Seals are abundant in College Fjord where they are often seen hauled out on icebergs. |
Whale Photography
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. |
Canon 10D, EF100-400mm @ 400mm, 1/1500 @ f/5.6, ISO 400, hand-held Orcas occur year-round in Prince William Sound, but are the most common in late summer and fall. |
Black Bear Photography
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. .
This mama black bear and her two cubs were a little too early for the late chum salmon run in early August 2007. |
Canon 10D, EF100-400mm @ 400mm, 1/500 @ f/5.6, ISO 400, hand-held A young black bear, its muzzle stained red from salmon blood, heads into the woods for a nap. |
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Rationale For Photography Tours
Tide - With the Sound's 16-foot tidal range, tide height is a major consideration that influences the occurrence and behavior of many wildlife species at any given location.
Time of Day - Time of day is important for finding some seabirds at their nesting colonies, especially in early season.
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Harvard Glacier, 1-1/2 miles wide at the head of College Fjord, is the Sound's second biggest glacier.
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Canon 10D, f/2.8 EF70-200mm @ 108mm, 1/2000 @ f/4, ISO 200, hand-held |
Iceberg detail, College Fjord. Generally, the bigger the glacier, the bigger the iceberg. College Fjord, Columbia Bay, and Icy Bay host the Sound's biggest glaciers and icebergs. |
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Breaching young humpback whale - Humpbacks are most common in the southern sector of Prince William Sound. |
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Flocks of surfbirds feed heavily on invertebrates in the rocky intertidal zone in early spring before dispersing widely into alpine tundra, where very little is known about their nesting behavior. |
Canon 5D, EF28-105mm @ 28mm, 1/500 @ f/20, ISO 100, hand-held |
Yale Glacier, at the head of Yale Arm in College Fjord, is visited infrequently because of its remoteness and iceberg-clogged approach. |
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1:00 AM at Naked Island
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Copyright © 2008-2009 by Sound Eco Adventures and Sound Expressions. All rights reserved. Updated March 29, 2009