Know your tides

Alaska will humble you in ways you don't anticipate. One of the quietest lessons I've learned — almost the hard way — is that the coast doesn't wait for you to finish shooting.

I was working a stretch of inlet shoreline, focused on a group of bald eagles hunting the shallows. The light was right, the birds were active, and I was locked in. What I wasn't paying attention to was the water. By the time I looked down, it was around my boots and moving fast. What had been a firm sandbar twenty minutes earlier was becoming something else entirely.

In Alaska, tidal shifts can be extreme — twelve to twenty feet in some locations. A tidal pool you're exploring one moment becomes uneven sea floor the next. The window between safe access and a very cold problem can be shorter than a single shooting session.

Before you go: check the tide tables for your specific location. Know when low tide occurs and build your exit into your plan before you ever raise the camera. The shot isn't worth the story you'd have to tell afterward.