Field Notes
June 2023
Listen along with Alaska Public Media to learn more about Mark Kelley.
January 2023
The Juneau Empire covered the story of Mark’s winning photo portfolio in the 2022 annual National Wildlife® Photo Contest.
December 2022
The National Wildlife Federation has announced the winners of its 2022 annual National Wildlife® Photo Contest. Thousands of photographers from around the world submitted more than 30,000 photos of wildlife, rich landscapes, and incredible encounters with nature. The collection of ten images of the bears of Anan Creek I submitted in the portfolio category reached first place. I am so honored and excited that the images, all shot over the last thirteen years, now get to tell the Anan story to a larger audience far and wide. Camera: #Nikon cameras, #Lens 24-70mm, 80-400mm, Digital Capture: ©Mark Kelley
November 2022
Each year Lynden Inc. produces an annual calendar as a thank-you gift for their customers throughout the US, Canada, and the world. The calendar is an extremely well-designed and beautifully printed oversized calendar, 23 by 19 inches, featuring Alaska. This image of the Castner Glacier is featured during the month of January. The small entrance to the Castner Glacier ice cave, which has since disappeared, opened up into a huge ice room dwarfing anything I have ever seen. Temperatures hovered around minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit. All the warm moist air in the cave had collected on the ceiling creating a layer of frost hanging down maybe a foot or more. This ice world was too cool for words.
May 2021
My good friend and proud new owner of the Wrangell Sentinel, Larry Persily, chose my photo of two black bear cubs at Anan Creek as the cover of the newspaper’s 2021 Visitors Guide.
April 2021
Nancy Lehnhart, the Juneau School District’s Elementary Art Specialist, created this video for an art project built around my 2021 calendars. The project came out of a conversation I had with her about having an overabundance of 2021 Mark Kelley calendars after the cruise ship season was called off in 2020. I wondered out loud if I could give away calendars to all Juneau elementary school children. She was all in and developed art kits which included a Mark Kelley 2021calendar. She disturbed the kits to 1,600 Juneau K-5 students with an accompanying instructional video. Enjoy the video.
January 2021
On Jan. 7, 2021, the Wrangell Sentinel ran a photo of mine, of bears and eagles from Anan Creek, across five columns on the front page. My dear friend, Larry Persily, recently bought the struggling small-town paper and wanted to make a splash with the first issue under his new ownership.
November 2020
I am honored and pleased to announce my image of a pup and mother seal snuggling together on an iceberg in Tracy Arm is a winner in the National Wildlife Federation 49th Annual Photo Contest. The judges edited through 29,800 images submitted by 3,200 photographers to pick 17 winners in eight different categories. This image won second place in the Baby Animal category and will be featured in the December 2020 issue of National Wildlife Magazine. USA Today and the Daily News in the UK picked up the story.
August 2020
I am thrilled to announce that National Wildlife Magazine is featuring one of my favorite images on their cover of the August-September 2020 issue, which I call “Drizzly Bear…Reigning over the Tongass.” For me this image represents the very essence of the Tongass. The forest’s apex predator stands in a tree in the middle of the ever expanding old-growth forest, surveying its domain in a drenching rain, while in a total state of grace. I love telling a whole story with one image. Thank you National Wildlife Federation for selecting this image. “Drizzly Bear” is a well-published image as celebrated in this short video. Make sure to watch all Mark Kelley produced videos in HD!
January 2019
One of the most stunning views in all of Alaska is the sunrise over Denali, the Alaska Range, and Wonder Lake in Denali National Park. Spending a sunny morning walking around the northern end of the lake is the closest thing to heaven I know. I am happy the Alaska Conservation Foundation was able to use this image in their latest fundraising efforts. Conservation of Alaska’s natural environment helps sustain my work as a nature photographer.
December 2018
I am so proud and honored to announce that National Wildlife® Magazine selected this image of my wife cross-country skiing through the snowy field in Spaulding Meadows for first place in the “People In Nature” category in their 2018 photo contest. Over 23,000 images were entered in eight different categories. The image was featured in National Wildlife® magazine’s December-January 2018 issue.
