Katmai Bears

Intimate Alaskan Brown Bear Photography

August 26 – September 4, 2023

• Our small private ship gets us up close and personal with coastal brown bears.
• Experienced local guides take us by zodiac to places you can’t get to by land.
• We can quickly move to where the bears are.
• Many more photo ops than other land-based Katmai photo trips.

Katmai National Park and Preserve is most widely known for its bears—more than 2,000 of the magnificent creatures are thought to inhabit the area. This is most evident in the summer months when bears (as well as many of the park’s forty or so other species of terrestrial mammal) gather near the coast to feed on a seasonal abundance of salmon. The park also hosts at least 137 species of birds, many using the region as a migratory corridor in spring and summer. Several species of marine mammals, including harbor seals, sea lions, sea otters, river otters, and humpback whales, frequent Katmai’s coastline, and belugas, orcas, and gray whales feed along the Shelikof Strait just beyond Katmai’s boundaries. It is an area dense with life, and one of the wildest and most unaltered places left on the planet.

To best photograph and explore this wild place, we’ve chartered our own private expedition ship, with a captain and crew exceptionally well-versed in the region. Functional and well-suited to our photographic purposes, our ship will act as our base and means of transportation around this roadless region. Two Zodiacs will enable us to get up close to our subjects. We’ll be photographing both from the Zodiacs and from onshore—but don’t worry, our local guides are experienced and knowledgeable, and the bears well-fed and relaxed. Unlike other bear viewing areas, there is no hunting here, and plenty of salmon means the bears are very non-confrontational, so we can get very close. Don’t try this elsewhere! There may also be opportunities for kayaking.

Your expedition leaders will not only help assure that you are safe and comfortable but also that you come home with some great shots and learn some new photography skills. We will work with you on the finer points of wildlife photography, spending time on the technical and artistic aspects. In addition to instruction in the field, we will make sure to make time for our signature Lightroom instruction and image reviews.

Up-close with the brown bears of Katmai National Park

Few wildlife experiences can rival being up-close with bears during a salmon run in Alaska. Find out why a trip to Katmai is special for wildlife photographers.