Monterey Bay – what a treasure! My buddy Matt Brandon and I were treated to Orcas on Monday. We came across a pod of 7 hunting killer whales and watched them feed. After Orcas eat, they start to play – slapping their tails, rolling, and generally goofing off. While they’re doing this it’s hard to imagine that they are the apex predator of the oceans.

We also saw Humpbacks, a Blue Shark, Pacific White Sided Dolphins, and Risso’s Dolphins. There aren’t many better ways to spend a day.

Last week I posted images of the Grizzly Bears of the Khutzeymateen Inlet. Here is a “behind the scenes look” at that crazy adventure. The idea for the trip started six months ago with a call from my friend David duChemin. All I remember from we call were the words “Grizzlies, sailboat, and zodiac” – he had me at “grizzlies”.

Getting to the Inlet is anything but straightforward. A commercial flight into a fishing town, then a float plane ride over the wild and beautiful scenery that is the BC coast. After touching down in a remote valley, a Zodiac ferried us to a sailboat – which was to be our home base for the trip.

The tiny Zodiac became our daytime home as we sought out bears along the shoreline. Our movements revolved around the high and low tides because we needed to get up in to the inlet and back before the waters receded. There were no close calls with bears, but a lot of tense moments as we skimmed along the shallow water. I consider it a minor miracle that we only broke one propeller!

It turns out that Tom Ellison, our zodiac pilot and bear guide, is the reason the sanctuary exists. Tom fell in love with the bears decades ago and worked with a small team of scientists and volunteers to survey the bear population around Khutzeymateen. If it weren’t for their efforts this pristine valley would have been logged clean and a vital bear habitat lost forever. Now it’s an 171 square mile haven for bears – and a photographer’s dream.

Photographing Grizzlies isn’t all hard work. As the last tide started to go out each day we’d head back to the boat for dinner, image editing, and of course, a few glasses of 18 year old whiskey to keep us warm!

In late May every year, grizzly bears gather at the Khutzeymateen Inlet in northern British Colombia to gorge on sedge grass. When they arrive they are thin and hungry – they have just slept for 4-5 months without eating. By the time they leave, they will look more like that grizzly that we have come to know … and fear.

At least this was the impression I arrived in Khutzeymateen with. I assumed grizzlies were scary and mean, and that photographing them would be an exercise in terror. I couldn’t have been more wrong! With grizzlies, it’s all about the food, and your attitude. If they are well fed and you respect them, they will invite you into their world. And what an amazing world it it.

My friend David DuChemin and I spent 3 days among these gentle giants. Often spending hours just sitting and watching in pure wonder. There wasn’t a single time we felt in danger. More often than not we felt humbled, awed, and privileged.

The Khutzeymateen Inlet is a treasure. It’s unlike anywhere I have ever traveled. Steep valley walls, snow, ice, water, bears. Regular readers of my blog will now how much I love Yosemite. Sorry Yosemite, you have nothing on the Khutzeymateen!

My first attempt at this image was last year when Michael Frye and I made the nighttime hike up to a ledge 1500 feet above the valley floor. The image I came home with was OK, but a number of things bothered me. There were star trails instead of pinpoint stars, the moonbow wasn’t as full as I wanted it, and the noise in the final image was too high to make a fine print.

So last week Rick Whitacre and I braved the climb again. We started at 9pm and were safely up on the ledge at 1:30am for a 2am photograph. Conditions were perfect and it was now or never. As the moonbow started to rise, a rare double moonbow arced half way up the falls. We both felt sheer terror as we started photographing. The panic came from the number of ways this could have gone wrong:

• It’s too dark to see through the view finder so you have to focus by gut feel.
• You can’t really see the moonbow with your naked eye.
• Exposure time needs to be less then 30 seconds – which pushes the camera to the absolute technical limit.
• After 4 hours of scrambling up the side of a mountain we were too tired to think straight!
• The moon needs to be in a very specific position in the sky for the moonbow to happen – and we might have gotten the math wrong.

At the end of the day, we both came away happy. My image was everything I hoped. The stars were sharp, the primary moonbow was bright, the double moonbow was visible. When we finally got back to the valley floor at 5:30am we were both exhausted, relieved, and awed by the show Yosemite had put on for us.

On this blog I normally let my photographs speak, not cluttering the page with my words. This post is different. For once I’ve decided to come out from behind my camera and give you a glimpse of me.

My wife Caren and I have been working in Kenya for more than 13 years. This is ironic. After our first trip to Kenya, we were convinced we’d never go back. Not that there was anything wrong with Kenya – there were just better places to see African wildlife (Zambia, Botswana, Tanzania), and more of the world to explore.

But on that trip, we met the local Kenyan people.

And the local Kenyan people had these wonderful, unforgettable, underserved kids.

Our story from there is as crazy as it is simple. We didn’t start out to become educators, fundraisers, project managers, and community organizers. We took this journey one step at a time, learning along the way. All because we wanted to help some kids.

A small gift became a school, which grew into another school, which multiplied to become The Kilgoris Project – a network of 6 schools blossoming with programs for more than 800 students, their families and the local community in southwestern Kenya. As the organization has grown, there has always been one consistent theme – “Serve the kids”.

Soon after we started building schools, we realized that there was no point trying to teach kids to read and write if they were too sick or too hungry to learn. Enter clean water, medical, and feeding efforts. We noticed that kids don’t come to school if their parents are too sick or desperately impoverished – cue community health education and economic development.

We’ve now sprouted an indigenous Kenyan staff, as well as a support staff in the US. We partner with the local Kilgoris community, international NGOs, US organizations and individuals all over the world. Even now, it feels like this journey is still just beginning. There is still much more to discover. As we go forward, we know we have a simple guiding principle “Serve the kids”.

We are often asked how our faith influences us and if our schools are “Christian”. Yes, our schools are Christian, in what we believe is the most authentic way. Jesus tell us “Anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf welcomes me”. Like Jesus, we accept anyone – rich, poor, healthy, sick, Christian, Muslim, atheist, whatever. We offer what we do with no agendas or strings. All are welcome, because it’s all about the kids.

Kids, photography and faith connect for me in such a natural way. I get to blend my passions and see amazing work happening half a world away. I never imagined I would get as lucky as this.

Ok, that’s enough personal exposure from this photographer. Time to jump back behind the camera where I belong. More images soon.

These images were taken after spending a week at The Kilgoris Project in Western Kenya. This month, The Kilgoris Project is raising money to add electricity to one of it’s schools.

Three years ago a friend (photographer Frans Lanting) and I noodled about getting cameras into The Kilgoris Project’s schools. Like most great ideas, we dreamed a little. Then the thoughts lay dormant for a while.

But in late November, the idea began to come to life. The Plus One Collection’s Ivan Makarov suggested using proceeds from an upcoming fundraiser to run the program. SeedLight’s Gavin Gough and Lesley Fisher joined for the implementation.

Last month Gavin and Lesley worked with 12 TKP primary students for a week. The kids covered everything from basic photography to composition and color. Over the next year, these junior photojournalists will take their cameras with them everywhere.

One of our goals is to let the students document their lives. This will create an intimate view of day-to-day life among the Maasai. The images from the first week alone give a beautiful perspective.

Another goal is to give the students a new medium for self-expression. Photography opens up a new way of speaking to the world. For the first time in their lives, these students will have free reign to create art.

Here is a first look at what the students captured:

These images were taken after spending a week at The Kilgoris Project in Western Kenya. This month, The Kilgoris Project is raising money to add electricity to one of it’s schools.

The Kilgoris Project started after my wife Caren and I heard about a school that met under a tree. While this might sound idyllic, no trees means no teaching materials, no school when it rains, short school days. Over the last 10 years we’ve built some great schools for Kilgoris kids. Not only do they now have walls and roofs, they also have medical care, clean water, Kindles, feeding programs, and truly dedicated teachers.

My trip to Kilgoris in February took me back to our early days. Matt Brandon and I visited two communities where class is still held outside. My first reaction was to feel sad. But as I looked deeper my feelings became ones of awe.

Here were communities who had nothing. No money. No infrastructure. No school. No future in the developed world. In spite of this they came together, collected what money they could to (occasionally) pay a teacher, and said “While we parents never had a chance at an education, we have decided our children will go to school”. Surely this is humanity at it’s absolute finest. I left humbled, inspired, and wanting to help.

These images were taken after spending a week at The Kilgoris Project in Western Kenya. This month, The Kilgoris Project is raising money to add electricity to one of it’s schools.

Of all of the time I’ve spent around African wildlife, last week’s encounter with a fully grown male leopard was the most extraordinary. While the leopard is an elusive cat and any time you see it is special, staring into the eyes of this apex predator from 4 feet away is truly a once in a lifetime experience. We had been watching him for a little while as he sat under a tree, then he stood, looked straight at us, walked towards us and came within a foot of the back of our truck before he veered off. I was in the very back corner closest to him as he passed and spent the rest of the day in mild shock from the experience. Just … wow …

These images were taken after spending a week at The Kilgoris Project in Western Kenya. This month, The Kilgoris Project is raising money to add electricity to one of it’s schools.

Hyenas get a bad wrap. Sure, they are ugly when they are all grown up, but baby Hyenas … ohh so cute! I watched this cub play with it’s mother one afternoon in Kenya. Rolling around, playing hide and seek, … it’s just a shame it grows up into such a maligned creature.

These images were taken after spending a week at The Kilgoris Project in Western Kenya. This month, The Kilgoris Project is raising money to add electricity to one of it’s schools.

As impressive as lions look (and they are impressive), the more you watch them, the more you realize they are just big goofy cats. Sleeping, yawning, scratching, playing around in the grass – yup – that’s the life of a lion.

These images were taken after spending a week at The Kilgoris Project in Western Kenya. This month, The Kilgoris Project is raising money to add electricity to one of it’s schools.