Photo Safara by Land and Sea in Juneau

One of the other highlights of our cruise was an amazing excursion that we had signed up for in Juneau. We were picked up by bus and taken on a Photo Safari by Land and Sea.

The first half of the time we would be aboard this brand new whale watching boat and guided by a photoguide who would help us learn how to take better pictures with our cameras.

 We boarded the boat at Auke Bay....can you say excited?

 Of course we were surrounded by Fishing Boats of all sizes.

First we learned how to take our cameras off the Auto setting and play with the shutter speed. This was my first try at it!

How we wished that the clouds would lift so that we could see the top of the mountains that were teasing us on all sides.

 It was exciting to see glaciers of all sizes.

 We were all excited to see this seal.....little did we know this was only the beginning.

We watched as the seal made it's way into the water while able the bald eagles watched.

A pair of bald eagles...mates for life!

Seals, seals and more seals!

Sea Lions barking at one another.

We were soooo excited when we saw our first whales....first the spouts, then the fins, and finally tails. But then near the end of our time on the water, we saw this one.....close enough to hear this Humpback Whale blow!

Mother and calf.

Scuff.....Humpback whales can be identified by their markings.

Smudge.

 

 Back on shore we all boarded another bus and headed back inland for our land portion of our photo safari and a hike up to the glacier. This time our photo-guide taught us about aperture settings and depth of field, and then we got to practice again.

I had to chuckle at all these photography lovers taking pictures while our guide was trying to keep us moving!

 Every step we took there was something else to photograph!!!

But then we heard the word that she had warned us meant we all had to move and gather around her 'fast'. "BEAR"!!!

And there he was off to our right......having lunch!!

He had caught himself a salmon in the stream....

And it obviously tasted better than he thought we would because other than a look right at the beginning he just ignored us for the rest of the time!

 I love this picture of the three guys in our group all trying to get the best shot!

On towards our destination...

Our first sight of the Mendenhall Glacier took our breath away.

A very Memorable Moment.

Kayaking among the ice flows...living dangerously.

It was only about 12 miles from Juneau.

One last picture in front of the glacier.....so amazing!

A bald eagle watches us leave.