The Traveling Widower

Category: Camera gear

  • Kodiak Day 3 – A Hard Lesson

    A brown bear walking along a riverbank with green foliage in the background.

    August 27th, 2026

    Today is the 28th – this will be my last day of internet for four days, since we are flying out on the float plane to join the Ursus, our home away from home while we go on shore to photograph the bears. 

    Yesterday was a beautiful day in Kodiak, perfect weather with great opportunities for photography. I enjoyed the day, but had one of those hard lessons when it comes to photography gear. I know I’ve written about some of the gear I’ve bought since I started traveling – two new Sony cameras, which I’ve been really pleased with (but are now obsolete), and two long lenses. I struggled buying both of those – for the longer lens, 200-600MM, I had intended to buy the latest from Sony, but after seeing photographers struggle with the size and weight in crowded Zodiac boats, I thought it might be best to get something a bit more compact, and wound up with a Tamron 150-500MM. That worked out well for me in Antarctica. Then I decided I needed something a bit lighter and more compact for trips like Iceland, where I probably would not be photographing wildlife. Once again, I chose another Tamron lens based on the weight. It worked out sort of OK on that trip, although I wished that I had a longer lens for photographing the puffins. 

    Well, yesterday those decisions came back to haunt me. I brought along the Tamron 50-400, based on what one of the Natural Habitat experts said on a Zoom call – we will be so close to the bears that you do not need a long lens. Unfortunately yesterday, I did. We started our day, with perfect weather, on a small boat wildlife cruise in the waters around Kodiak – aside from whales, there are otters and a variety of birds, including my personal favorites, puffins. We did see a lot of them, but never close enough for my pitifully small 400mm lens. My soon-to-be roommate on the Ursus has a 400-800mm Sony lens, and captured some incredible shots of the puffins, one in flight carrying a bunch of fish. A classic shot for these birds. I came away with zilch. The same goes for the otters. I really needed a 600mm, or a teleconverter which boosts the reach (1.4 or 1.6X). Sony makes one of those, but only for Sony lenses. There are also a lot of features you only get when hooking up Sony lenses to Sony cameras which are useful for serious photography. 

    Our second outing of the day also hit home on making better choices on what lenses to buy and to bring along on trips. We drove around some of the local river parks, looking for bears – the salmon run is in full gear now, and the rivers are packed with salmon….and fishermen. The bears try to avoid people, which is a good thing – there’s a lot of room in the rivers, and plenty of fish to go around. We hiked in and spotted a bear that was heading to the river, and then followed it upstream to spot where we could hopefully photograph it feeding. We never got too close, and it was an awkward spot, so I never got the monopod hooked up. I did get one or two OK shots, but the majority were a bit blurred. The bear got annoyed with all the people, and headed off to the woods after a few minutes. Darn. A longer Sony lens would have been better for this situation – better stabilization, and more reach.

    I did get some nice shots of a juvenile bald eagle when the boat returned to the harbor – there’s nothing wrong with the lens, it’s great for some situations. Just not for distant puffins. 

    A juvenile eagle perched among lush green foliage, with its beak open as if calling out.

    I’m not disappointed at all – it was a fun day, got to see some amazing scenery, lots of wildlife, and my first look at the Kodiak bears. Every trip is a learning experience. I think I’ll be buying myself a Christmas present from my favorite camera store this year. 

    Peace

    Can’t beat the scenery here….

  • Overpacking For Alaska

    21st August, 2026

    My upcoming Grizzly Bear/Kodiak trip has been the most difficult to pack so far, which I find surprising given the activities I’ve had to cover for some of the earlier trips. This one is only 13 days total and theoretically, there is only one activity – photographing grizzly bears. but somehow or another, I’ve wound up almost at the weight limit (50lbs) for my checked-in bag, have to bring my largest camera bag (I have five), and had to pack/re-pack four times until today. What the heck!

    From a clothing perspective, the problem is the four days on the fishing boat – the trip starts out in the town of Kodiak. I’m there a day early to do some local photography (bald eagles I hope), and stay in a hotel for three nights. No problems so far. I can even do some laundry at the hotel. On the second day of the trip, we will do a cruise around the coast close to Kodiak, in search of ocean critters – warm clothing required but that’s expected. It’s Alaska, so you have to expect rain and cool weather in late summer. On the third day, we have to fly out on a small float plane to the Ursus, a converted fishing boat, where we spend the next four days looking for bears (and other beasties). There’s a limit on the size and weight of luggage we can take along, so I had to bring a water-resistant duffel bag along, packed in my suitcase. And, I needed to bring a water resistant backpack along as well, for my camera gear. That takes up a lot of space and extra weight in the suitcase. And then there are some extra gear requirements for the shore excursions – they provide chest wades and special boots, but you have to bring thermals, fleece pants and boot socks to wear under the waders. That’s a lot of extra gear to fit into a small duffel bag.

    This is a photo excursion, so scrimping on camera gear would not make a lot of sense. I participated in a zoom call with the lead for this trip, and he recommended just a reasonably sized zoom, no longer than 100MM. But when you see all the videos from this and other Kodiak bear trips, most of the photographers have 400-600MM lenses. Plus, there are opportunities for photographing otters, whales and PUFFINS!. And when I get to Anchorage, I’m hoping for moose and bald eagles. So, I’m packing 3 lenses, 2 camera bodies, and all the other odds and ends you need for serious photography, including a monopod. And I’m packing all of this in a real camera backpack, and bringing along a brand new, smaller, mostly waterproof pack that I just bought at REI. Where else would I shop?

    I did manage to fit everything into the two bags (see below), and used vacuum bags to organize all the clothing based on segments of the trip (I’m way too organized). I’m all set to go with three days to spare. Phew. 

    The three remaining trips for 2026 should be less complicated – Yosemite is a car trip, Patagonia is mostly on a Lindblad ship (laundry!!), and Baja is relatively short, on a ship with laundry service and mostly warm weather (although I’ll need snorkel gear). I’m not thinking about 2027 yet. 

    I should do advertising for luggage manufacturers.

    Peace