Coastal Brown Bear Sow with Cubs (Ursus arctos) Hallo Bay, Katmai National Park, Alaska. Image Copyright ©Christopher Dodds. Sony Alpha a9 Mirrorless Camera & Sony FE100-400 F4.5-5.6 G Master OSS with 2X Tele-extender @ 542mm. Full frame image. ISO 2,000, f/11 @ 1/2,000s Manual exposure mode.
Here's a Coastal Brown Bear sow and her cubs from my annual Bear Boat trip to Katmai National Park in June. My wife, Julie joined the entire Alaska trip to Katmai and Saint Paul Island, and it was really special to share these places I know so well with her. There were many memorable moments from the trip, but having three sows with their five cubs in front of us for an afternoon on more than one occasion was a life high for me!
Sony 2X Tele-extender
I get a lot of questions about the image quality of the Sony 2X Tele-extender when used with the Sony 100-400 G Master Lens, and it is easy to say that the image quality does not degrade an ounce. There is no going back from the light weight, AF performance and high ISO abilities of the Sony kit. Walking around with the bears all day with just the a9, 100-400, 1.4X and 2X was a dream; having all of my camera gear in the small 18l Mindshift Gear Backlight camera bag which was only 18 pounds fully loaded with three camera bodies and three lenses (soaking wet) made air travel a worry free breeze! I'll post a review of my new favorite bag with images when I get back from my Deluxe Puffins Galore trip.
KUDOS
As an experienced wildlife & landscape photographer I would highly recommend you attend one of Chris Dodds' workshops - I have attended a number of Chris' workshops and each of them reflect Chris' caring. I just attended the St. Paul, Alaska workshop - typical of Chris' professionalism, and expertise. He only takes you to those unique shooting opportunities when he is convinced that the shoot will provide you the experience you are seeking. In the Saint Paul Island workshop's case he has visited this unique special remote island for over 25 years. The local small population obviously respects Chris and they do all they can to assist the experience. You shoot from a variety of locations, with many types of birds, complimented by wild fox, sea lions etc. Chris has the talent to assist both experienced and novice photographers - he makes sure you get the opportunities you want, and if you need extra help he enjoys jumping in and helping you. If you had to summarize Chris' workshops in a few words - Great well researched locations, tremendous local knowledge, dedicate to your photographic results being all you could possibly want. - Wynne Powell