The variety of bears that we encountered at Katmai National Park was just staggering. You could tell from watching them: they have distinct personalities. By and away our favorite bear was one that we nicknamed Mickey Mouse Bear.

Mickey Mouse bear looked to be a yearling cub, but mama was nowhere to be seen. By rights she probably should have been teaching him how to fish. Instead, he was going at it alone, and let's face it: he was not a good fisherbear. What he lacked in skill, however, he totally made up for in heart! He made more attempts at salmon than any other bear we saw that day, and even though we all wanted so badly for him to succeed, the fish just weren't swimming his way. During the hour or so we were on the lower viewer platform where he was fishing, there were many times where he perched up on a rock, bounded off across the river, stuck his face in the water, and tried like hell to catch some lunch. But even when he had just stuck his whole head in the water, his ears - oh, those ears - would still be disproportionally huge and fuzzy. In every photo I took of him (and there are probably hundreds) his ears are his most distinctive feature and they just make me want to go up, give him a huge hug, and fuzz up those ears even more.

Those fuzzy, fuzzy ears make me forget that he could - and would - totally eat my face.

Nikon D50 | 70-300mm f/4-5.6G AF | f/5.6 | 1/500 sec | 300mm | aperture priority mode

Last August, one of my friends offered to take me out to Hatcher Pass with her husband and nearly two year old son. It had been a miserable summer that was in the process of arching into an early fall, but I never pass up opportunities to go out there. It was to be one of their last trips out to their favorite place in Alaska since they were due to move back to the lower 28 in less than six weeks. I was exhausted on the trip since I had pulled a graveyard shift the night before and hadn't yet slept, but I find the area out there to be invigorating. Out at Independence Mine, I love to think about all the beautiful hidden lakes that are nestled in the mountains that surround you and imagine what season those lakes are experiencing at the time. That day, my friend's son was also acting as an energizing force - he was completely irresistible with his wooden sword and cute cabled jacket, his enormous brown eyes taking in all of the Adventure! that was all around him. He was too young to stiffen up in front of the camera, and later in the trip, the child's shoes sodden, his father stopped to help him out and I captured this shared moment between them.

Nikon D50 | 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED AF-S DX | f/5.6 | 1/250 sec | 55mm | manual mode

Don't let people tell you that Alaska only has two seasons: autumn is definitely one of the most underrated things about that great state. Though it is admittedly short, it crams enough spectacular scenery into the month of September to make sure that it counts. Likewise, It's not uncommon to see people trying to squeeze every last drop out of that un-snow-laded month - they're clearly trying to make fall count for them too. Among them is this angler I saw in the Susitna River, maybe trying to land himself a straggling salmon that hadn't already turned bright red. Or, perhaps more likely, he was simply using the fishing as an excuse to get out there and enjoy a stunning late autumn day in the state that does nothing by half-measures.

Nikon D50 | 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED AF-S DX | f/8 | 1/250 sec | 38mm | manual mode