Alaska Photography Tour | Chris Bray Photography
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alaska photo tour humpback whale
alaska photo tour brown bear catching salmon
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Alaska Photography Tour


Download Alaska Tour Brochure
Download Brochure
Photograph bears, puffins, whales, seals, sea otters, glaciers, eagles and so much more from our exclusive private expedition ship and tenders. Our incredible Alaska itinerary includes three mind-blowing days surrounded by dozens of brown/grizzly bears catching salmon so close they’ll splash you, four days cruising the secluded bays and wildlife-rich inside passages around Kodiak Island and two days exploring the glaciers and wildlife of Prince William Sound, staying at a cosy cliffside cabin. The very best of Alaska, without the crowds!


Alaska Tour Highlights


  • 10 Reasons
    to travel with us
    Perhaps the best wildlife photography experience in the world: Sitting unhurried ashore with virtually no-one else around, surrounded by dozens of huge grizzly bears interacting with each other and pouncing on salmon so close they might even splash you!
  • Our own exclusive, mini expedition ship (great food, lounges, large windows and extensive viewing decks) photographing the amazing wildlife around Kodiak Island including whales (orca, humpback, fin & minke whales are all regulars), sea otters, seals, porpoises, puffins, bald eagles etc., hopping ashore whenever we wish, kayaking and cruising the coastlines from our two landing craft.
  • Experiencing the explosive power of huge hunks of ice calving from the face of an active tidewater glacier and collapsing into the water with a thunderous roar.
  • Standing beside a river literally filled with salmon jostling their way upstream, watched by eagles, seals and possibly even see black bears.

Alaska Photo Tour Dates

21st Aug - 2nd Sep 2024
$16,795 USD
per guest (max 8), twin share, 12 nights. Includes all accommodation and all food & drinks. Hosts: Chris Bray & TBA.
15th Aug - 27th Aug 2025
$16,995 USD
per guest (max 8), twin share, 12 nights. Includes all accommodation and all food & drinks. Hosts: Chris Bray & TBA.
Maybe One Day?
Great! 😊 We can let you know about future dates, or if someone pulls out!
Email:

Alaska photo tour brochure

Alaska Tour Booklet


Everything you need to know about this Alaska photo tour!

Alaska Photo Tour FAQ

What is a Photo Tour?

Loved by non-photographers too, our photo tour holidays offer the ultimate, small-group travel experience to the world's most wonderful and unique places - with special access away from the crowds. I love to travel, but I hate being stuck with loads of other people (especially when we've got nothing in common), being taken to the regular, over-crowded tourist attractions or wasting hours in an amazing country just relaxing by some pool. I want to get the most out of my holidays - I want to see as many different animals as I can, I want to travel through different landscapes and be shown hidden gems off the beaten path, I want to experience the culture, taste the food, meet new friends with similar interests, enjoy some luxury and importantly, I want to have the time to take some beautiful and unique photos of it all. This is what we strive for with our photography tours and workshops.

It's not enough for me to spot a distant lion, tick it off and move on - I want to have the option to try and get closer, on the correct side for best lighting and even wait for him to lift his head and stare directly down the barrel of my camera lens for a great photo - or to move on when I'm done - I want flexibility. I want the inside tips for the best photo location to be ready when the sun rises over the horizon and spills across the bay onto those boulders - and if I can't quite get my photo to work, it'd be awesome to have a friendly pro-photographer right there to offer advice (not one who'll stand in front of me to get the best shot themselves!). If there's a seal colony out on an island nearby, then I'd want to charter a boat tour out there just with my friends onboard so we can spend as long or as short as we want to get the photos without being crowded on a regular sight-seeing tour. If the seal colony was a bit of a tourist attraction on a local beach then I'd want to wait for the crowds to leave, and go down onto the beach after hours - just us as a small group, and a private ranger guide to photograph them at our leisure in beautiful evening lighting.

You don't even need to be a photographer to love this style of holiday - who wouldn't like a bit of luxury and a bit of extra patience from their tour leaders, or to be given the opportunity to fly over lakes covered in pink flamingos in Africa in a doors-off plane or over a beautiful coastline in a doors-off helicopter for some epic views? Stay on a private island, learn some new skills with your photography, make some new friends and have an unforgettable, unique holiday - all at the same time! Sound good? Well, there's a reason more than half of our guests come back again, and again on our photo tours!

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Do I have to be a photographer?

Absolutely not! We have many non-photographers (and partners of photographers) enjoy our tours! As one guest said "It didn’t matter that I’m not a photographer - I used my iPhone. Just experiencing all these amazing locations at a relaxed pace, in comfort and without the crowds was wonderful!". The expert photography tuition is a bonus - the incredible access to experience the best places in a tiny group is the main thing! If you're traveling to take photos, or just as a holiday - in the end, it's all about seeing as many of the amazing animals as possible, experiencing the local food and culture, admiring the landscapes, breathing the fresh air and enjoying the whole unforgettable experience with a small group of friends. Whether or not you put a camera in front of your face doesn't really change this. We've had many non-photographers come on our tour, enjoying just spotting animals, identifying them, or watching their behaviour and by the end of the trip many of them do start picking up a camera (or borrowing one of ours) and start getting excited about photography too! Some have later gone on to become full-on photographers, to the delight of their partners! Either way, they have a ball and often come away with us again and again.

Most photography guests are beginner to keen-enthusiast level - so no need to stress that your photography may not be good enough - the whole point is to improve your photography, no matter what your level! Our tours are enjoyed by everyone from non-photographers, iPhone and happy-snap photographers right up to serious professionals. We start each tour with a quick photography crash-course, and our expert photography guides are there to help you throughout the whole tour. There is no better way to improve your photography than spending a solid week or two practicing, surrounded by amazingly inspiring subjects, with a small, friendly group of like-minded people. You will be amazed how much your photography will improve. We're there to offer as much or as little assistance as you'd like, at whatever level of complexity you're ready for.

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How fit do I need to be?

The level of physical activity varies for each of our tours (check the dropdown for each specific tour), however none involve strenuous hiking or anything like that. In Kenya, for example, the hardest thing you'll have to do is walk to and from your tour vehicle mostly, other destinations involve things like optional snorkelling, or may include short walks or humid conditions. We've had 83 year old guests, guests with bad knees and even heart-conditions do even what we consider our most strenuous tours, so rest assured the tour you're looking at is very likely achievable. If you're concerned, just ask us. The tour information booklet we provide for each tour gives a clearer indication of what's involved for each destination. We're very mindful of the abilities of our guests and can always provide less demanding alternatives for those wishing a break.

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What gear do I need?

For each of our tours, we've carefully prepared a detailed information booklet covering everything including our recommendations for what kind of clothes to bring, what type of power plug, what currency, what the climate is like, language tips and plenty of other information to help answer all your questions! We'll send you a copy of this information booklet when you book, or you can email us for one in advance. As for what kind of camera gear is best, whatever you have is fine, but if you've got too much and need help deciding what to bring and what to leave behind, or if you have a bit of money you could spend on getting something really perfect for the trip, please just contact us and we can certainly help you out with what's ideal for each particular tour!

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Traveling alone?

Fear not - more than half of our tour guests travel solo. To help you make friends before you even leave and to be reassured and aided by the advice of your fellow-travellers (and those who have gone before you), we've created an interactive Facebook group for our CBP Voyager Club members (that's anyone who's been on, or is going on any of our tours, which also gives them 5-10% OFF any future tours!). You can find out who's coming from your area, perhaps even meet up beforehand or fly together. This is a great resource and we encourage you to make the most of it if you're on Facebook! Anyone can read the CBP Voyager Club Facebook page, but you can only interact once you've paid your deposit.

And do not worry that most accommodation is twin-share - we're good at pairing you up with a roomie who you'll get along with - it has been the start of long-term friendships for many! We can't guarantee that we'll always be able to have you sharing with someone of the same sex - it depends on the gender split, but we do our best. You can request to purchase a single supplement (a room to yourself) if you really need to (subject to availability) though keep in mind that you're usually only in your rooms to sleep as we fill your waking hours with plenty to do, and the couple of occasions we have had guests request rooms to themselves, they end up regretting it when they see the amazing friendships that form between the other roomies.

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Can you cater for dietary needs?

Of course we can - even in places like Kenya we've successfully catered for vegan, gluten-free, lactose-intolerant and vegetarian guests, and all have had a wonderful tour.

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Worried about safety?

Rest assured that we do not travel through any of the major danger hot-spots like those highly warned against in travel advisory boards etc. For example, in Kenya, we do not even pass through downtown Nairobi and we operate completely away from the coast / Mombasa region and the Somali border. The fact that we like to take you to the more tranquil, less-touristy places on our tours conveniently means we only ever spend minimal time in busy, built up areas or large tourist attractions where thieves or terrorists might target - most of the places we stay at are quite rural and private, and you'll quickly feel right at home & safe.

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Booking Terms and Conditions?

Our cancelation policies are in line with other leading tourism operators, and you can read all about them here in our Booking Terms and Conditions. We are proud to employ industry best-practices.

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What is the CBP Voyager Club?

The Voyager Club is our photo tour loyalty program! As our photo tours apparently can be very addictive (we've had guests come to more than half a dozen of our tours!), we created the Chris Bray Photography Voyager Club, giving repeat guests 5% OFF future tours with automatic Silver Membership, and then 10% OFF as Gold Members after their fifth tour with us.

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How do I book in?

Either click the 'Book Now' button above and fill in your details, or simply contact us and let us know which tour you're keen to join us on, and we'll send you a deposit invoice to secure your spot, along with the tour information booklet and our Booking Terms and Conditions.

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Alaska Tour Itinerary

Day 1 - Meet & Dinner

Our Alaska tour adventure starts in the evening when we meet at the exquisitely restored Historic Anchorage Hotel for a quick welcome, photography crash course and briefing. We'll eat out, sampling some of the fine local cuisine before setting your camera batteries on charge, formatting memory cards and trying to get some sleep ready for the adventure to begin tomorrow.

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Day 2 - Prince William Sound

After breakfast at the hotel we'll depart for the sea-side community of Whittier, Alaska. The 90-min drive will take us past spectacular scenery of snow-capped mountains, valleys and through the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel - the longest highway tunnel in North America (almost 5km). We'll stop at Potters Marsh on the way to check for wildlife too - we have seen bald eagles, salmon, even moose here!

Prince William Sound in Alaska is home to a wonderfully diverse assortment of wildlife including orca, humpback and other whales, sea otters, sea lions, harbour seals and porpoises, black bear, over 220 species of birds including two species of puffins, bald eagles and guillemots and more, backdropped by breathtaking tidewater glaciers, towering mountain peaks and deep, calm fiords with gravelly beaches and waterfalls.

During the day today and tomorrow we'll be cruising around some of the best spots aboard our own private tender with plenty of deck space for photography, at our own pace, stopping for just as long as we need to get out fill of glacier shots, sea otters, sea lions etc and hop ashore in some places to stretch your legs (there's a toilet onboard the boat though!). One of the highlights of today will be experiencing a whole selection of astonishing tidewater glaciers. Our boat will drift silently in front of the frozen walls of jagged ice allowing you to experience the explosive power of huge hunks of ice calving from its face and collapsing into the water with a thunderous roar. This experience will stay with you for the rest of your life. There's plenty of glaciers to choose from, and the tides are in our favour, so we might even be able to step ashore and photograph some washed up hunks of dimpled blue ice on the shore!

In the evenings we'll return to our beautiful, comfy cliff-side cabin in Whittier, have a tasty dinner, go through our photos and get ready to head out again in the morning to explore different parts of the sound.

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Day 3 - Prince William Sound

We'll grab breakfast and a real coffee at The Lazy Otter cafe then jump back onboard our exclusively chartered vessel and back out into the sound, this time venturing into some other, less-often travelled corners for some more magic photo opportunities, some more glaciers but especially some more wildlife. There's a great sea lion haul out on some distant rocks we'll visit, and of course we're always on the look out for whales and orca too. There should be sea otters too, your first chance at puffins on a remote little islet and more! After another full day on the water, your memory cards will likely be filled and you’ll be exhausted, ready to come back to the comfort of our cliff-side cabin in Whittier and a solid Alaskan dinner!

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Day 4 - To Kodiak

After breakfast today, we'll hold an Adobe Lightroom tutorial session on the large TV in the cabin, showing you how to use this very useful program to get the most out of your photography. After this we'll head back to Anchorage Airport, grab some lunch just at the airport and our afternoon flight to Kodiak. This flight will take us over some beautiful Alaskan landscapes so try not to fall asleep! Arriving in Kodiak we’ll then be transferred to our accommodation at the comfortable Kodiak Inn (managed by Best Western, it’s the best of the two hotels in town) for the night.

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Day 5 to 11 (7 days) - Bears, otters & puffins

After a leisurely breakfast we’ll board our private motor vessel ‘Island C’ where you can spread out and make yourselves at home for the next 7 days! Our mini cruise ship is specially designed for exploring the more remote, hidden pockets of the Alaskan wilderness where the bigger ships cannot get to.

It’ll be twin share accommodation with shared bathroom facilities, but you’ll have access to washing machines and dryers every day, and there is a spacious saloon area for relaxing with expansive windows, open viewing areas and wonderfully accessible side decks on various levels for photography. All meals are prepared for us by our private chef in their kitchen onboard at a time that suits us, and can be enjoyed in the dining area as you to take in the incredible Alaskan scenery.

Our first couple of days on board will be spent cruising and photographing around Kodiak Island. Few places on earth enjoy the density and diversity of wildlife that exists in this region! We’ll visit various unique photographic locations including beaches, bays and natural harbours with the flexibility to customise our own itinerary, a luxury not afforded to the larger passenger liners, allowing for perfectly unspoilt photography without the crowds. With several whales common to spot (humpback, orca & fin); bald eagles; rafts of sea otters; sea lions and harbour seals; not to mention thousands of puffins - you’ll be in photography heaven!

After a couple of days around Kodiak Island, we’ll cross the Shelikof Strait to Geographic Harbour in the Katmai National park to share with you what is one of the most amazing wildlife photography experiences we’ve ever had (which is saying a lot!). These next few days will no doubt be a lifelong memory for you too. Each year in Alaska, huge brown bears leave their largely-solitary lives on the inland meadows to converge on the banks of various rivers to fish for spawning salmon. The bears are usually highly concentrated near the river mouth emptying into Geographic Harbour and incredibly, they are so focused on gorging themselves on the abundance of fish and are habituated enough to the presence of the small number of humans that observe them, that it is possible (with a bit of bear knowledge and common-sense) to safely step ashore, walk quietly amongst them and sit right beside any of the salmon-filled streams photographing them catching salmon til your heart’s content! As larger ships can’t access this harbour and it’s not on the main tourist path, most of the time our group will be the only group there - an entirely different, and far superior experience to Brooks Falls and other locations where bears gather! To be able to bring our tour guests to experience this incredible place is a total privilege for us. After three incredible days here, we may explore some of the even more remote inlets nearby for some change of scenery with more bears, and eventually we’ll cruise back towards Kodiak for another couple of days and another chance to nail that whale, puffin or bald eagle shot you’re hoping for.

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Day 12 - Back to Kodiak

Today we head back to Kodiak, arriving in the early afternoon to check into the comfortable Kodiak Inn (Best Western Hotel) once more. Tonight we’ll enjoy one final celebratory dinner together, sharing memories and stories from two of the most amazing weeks of your life! You’ll agree it’s been the ultimate Alaskan tour with unprecedented access to photograph Alaska’s best wildlife and landscapes without the hordes of tourists!

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Day 13 - End in Kodiak

That’s it folks! Our tour finishes after breakfast at the hotel in Kodiak. From here you’re welcome to stay longer and explore more of this beautiful area, or arrange your flight back to Anchorage and onwards towards home. Regardless of when and how you choose to travel home, you’ll be heading back with a lifetime of amazing memories you can re-live forever through your photos.

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Please Note

IMPORTANT - Ensure you have read our Tour Booking Conditions prior to booking. A copy will be sent with your deposit invoice, and must be signed and returned to us (an emailed scan/photo of your signed copy will suffice), before we accept and confirm your booking. The document covers everything from your rights, inclusions and payment schedule, to our cancellation policy and extent of liability.

All our photo tours are subject to minimum numbers. Please ensure you have read our tour Booking Conditions for our cancellation policy (above).

"Why don't we visit Denali National Park?" - I know some of you were keen on us including a visit to the Denali National Park in this program, and we gave this a LOT of thought and investigation, especially as it's certainly included in many of the 'usual Alaska tours', however we've decided against it. Despite initial glossy impressions in all other tour wordings, the park regulations can not deliver us the experience we'd be happy to offer you, nor which you'd imagine. The ONLY way inside the park (weather you're traveling alone or as part of any organised tour) is to board a huge, busy public tour bus, which spends all day arduously driving in along the main road stopping every hour for toilet breaks and not allowing any decent wildlife or landscape photo opportunities (beyond snapshots beside crowds). Once in, all tour group then either start the long drive back out again, or are deposited at hotels inside from where tourists have to do extended hikes to reach decent photo locations, with adventure tourism activities like hiking, rafting and biking being the main focus. You could always do Denali as a side-trip before or after our trip if you really wanted to.

All meals and drinks (including a responsible amount of alcohol) is included.

We will form our own private group - we will have our own guide, and all boat trips and day-trips etc will be just us.

A moderate level of fitness is required for this alaska tour. You need to be mobile enough to clamber in and out of boats/Zodiacs (or possibly on to rocks, mud and rough terrain) and wander around for a morning or afternoon with your camera bag on your back. If you're concerned, feel free to email us.

Sea Sickness - The majority of this tour will be based on boats so if you know you get sea sick easily, then remember to pack some anti-sea-sickness tablets, ginger, pressure bands or whatever it is that you find works for you! (By the way, when I go sailing, I use '15mg Stugeron tablets' which I buy online from Canada - seems to be the only stuff that works for me. Jess uses transdermscop (scopolamine 1.5) patches - the benefit of these being that you don't lose the medication if you do become sick!). Don't stress out, though, we'll be cruising and anchoring in very protected and sheltered areas within Prince William Sound, Kodiak and Geographic Harbour.

Price does not include flights from your home town to Anchorage, Alaska, nor your return flight from Kodiak back home. The tour does include the domestic flight between Anchorage and Kodiak.

After you book, we will email you an extensive information document telling you everything you need to know from what camera gear to bring, currency, power plug types, etc.

We do not loan out our own camera equipment for this alaska tour. Be prepared to be self sufficient regarding your camera gear.

A non-refundable, non-transferable $1,000 USD booking deposit is required.

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Tour Reviews

what is a photography tour

What is a Photo Tour?


Loved by non-photographers too, we seek out the world's most extraordinary wildlife, landscape and cultural experiences then tour small groups there in comfort, providing unique access away from the crowds with exclusive charter of ships, aircraft, vehicles and remote lodges for not only the most incredible, unhurried photography opportunities on Earth, but also an unforgettable holiday. I love to travel, but I hate being stuck with loads of other people (especially when we've got nothing in common), being taken to the regular, over-crowded tourist attractions or wasting hours in an amazing country just relaxing by some pool. I want to get the most out of my holidays - I want to see as many different animals as I can, I want to travel through different landscapes and be shown hidden gems off the beaten path, I want to experience the culture, taste the food, meet new friends with similar interests, enjoy some luxury and importantly, I want to have the time to take some beautiful and unique photos of it all. This is what we strive for with our photography tours and workshops.

It's not enough for me to spot a distant lion, tick it off and move on - I wan't to have the option to try and get closer, on the correct side for best lighting and even wait for him to lift his head and stare directly down the barrel of my camera lens for a great photo - or to move on when I'm done - I want flexibility. I want the inside tips for the best photo location to be ready when the sun rises over the horizon and spills across the bay onto those boulders - and if I can't quite get my photo to work, it'd be awesome to have a friendly pro-photographer right there to offer advice (not one who'll stand in front of me to get the best shot themselves!). If there's a seal colony out on an island nearby, then I'd want to charter a boat tour out there just with my friends onboard so we can spend as long or as short as we want to get the photos without being crowded on a regular sight-seeing tour. If the seal colony was a bit of a tourist attraction on a local beach then I'd want to wait for the crowds to leave, and go down onto the beach after hours - just us as a small group, and a private ranger guide to photograph them at our leisure in beautiful evening lighting.

You don't even need to be a photographer to love this style of holiday - who wouldn't like a bit of luxury and a bit of extra patience from their tour leaders, or to be given the opportunity to fly over lakes covered in pink flamingos in Africa in a doors-off plane or over a beautiful coastline in a doors-off helicopter for some epic views? Stay on a private island, learn some new skills with your photography, make some new friends and have an unforgettable, unique holiday - all at the same time! Sound good? Well, there's a reason more than half of our guests come back again, and again on our photo tours!
Photo Tour Destinations

Photo Tour Destinations


Most years we run photography tours from as far down as Antarctica, up through various parts of Africa, South America and Australia to as high as Alaska and even Iceland and Greenland in the Arctic - and we're adding new photo tours all the time. Take a look at our 'Photography Tour' page to see our list of tour destinations!

Who is Chris Bray?


Chris grew up sailing around the world then leading world-first expeditions across the arctic before becoming an award-winning Australian Geographic photographer, Lowepro ambassador and now Lumix global ambassador. Chris’s work has appeared in National Geographic and Discovery Channel along with Australian Geographic, TIME Magazine etc. He’s also an accomplished writer, with feature articles published around the world and even a successful book 'The 1000 Hour Day' (now an award-winning documentary 'The Crossing'), sits on the advisory committee for The Australian Geographic Society and is founder and CEO of Conservation United, aiming to crowd-funding the world’s critical conservation projects. Chris is also an International Fellow of 'The Explorers Club' and has been chairman of their Australia and New Zealand chapter.

Chris is also a keen high-latitude sailor the first to sail a junk-rig boat through the Northwest Passage over the arctic, on a little 29-foot wooden sailboat 'Teleport'. Australian Geographic Society's 'Young Adventurer of the Year' in 2004 for a Tasmanian wilderness hike, Chris has also been awarded their 'Spirit of Adventure' medal in 2009.

Chris still leads many of our tours and his passion for wildlife, photography and wild places continues to drive our growth.

Read more about our whole Chris Bray Photography team on our 'About' page.