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Mike Rigney Photography

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Mike Rigney Photography

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06/02/2026

This is the first June in five years that I haven’t been to Alaska yet for the season, but only two more weeks until I get back to one of my favorite places in the world! Until then here is a swimming coastal brown bear from last year I took during my solo camping trip to Lake Clark National Park. I watched this beautiful bear clamming on the tidal flats for about an hour before she made her way back to the beach and cut through the woods inland. I knew exactly where she was headed (ok, I really hoped I knew) and hustled around to the river on the other side of the woods. Sure enough she came out and crossed the river right in front of me, with some authentic Alaskan rain to round out the image! I’m still going to call this one luck.

Taken on the R5ii at 400mm. And yes, of course I used Photo Studio for noise reduction and sharpening, but this time I used a new processing model - Wonder 3. This model combines sharpening, denoise, and upscale, and I was very happy with the result. The model is pretty processor intensive, so I used cloud processing which spit out the result in about 30 seconds. Swipe for a portrait of that very boop-able nose (warning: do not boop).

05/26/2026

I don’t normally like non-natural perches for birds but the rope is natural fiber so I’m going with it. I just loved these Asian green bee-eaters too much, and bee-eaters are one of my favorite ever avian subjects. I much prefer the landscape crop to give them a little breathing room but, you know, vertical is in.

Shot on the R5ii at 400mm.

For this edit I tried out the Photo AI’s new “noise-aware” sharpen tool and I was very impressed. Sometimes I can get some weird stuff happening when sharpening fine feathers like these — the software can try to sharpen noise, resulting in some unappealing detail. This did a nice job of sorting the signal from the noise prior to sharpening and I think it’s a big improvement. More testing to come on trickier noise situations. Scroll to the right to see the before and after detail shots. Subtle, but important for pixel peepers such as myself!

05/15/2026

One of my favorite sightings from our trip to the in Ohio - the golden-winged warbler! This was a life bird for me and lucky to have a super cooperative individual even if they were in some pretty dense foliage. I liked the way it came out in the wider crop amongst the leaves!

Shot on R5ii at 400mm. The autofocus was working hard to grab the VERY fast moving bird amongst the cluttered fore and backgrounds. I used Photo Studio to upscale the tighter crop and give a small amount of sharpening.

The golden-winged warbler numbers are falling fast due to habitat loss in both their breeding and wintering grounds, and are under review for protection by the Endangered Species Act.

Thank you for another amazing year!

05/09/2026

This year will be my latest arrival to Alaska since 2021 so I’m missing it dearly! This photo is from last fall in Katmai National Park and I can’t wait to return twice later this summer to catch up with these incredible animals.

This is the first photo I’ve used the Image Web platform to process which was just released in beta, and I’m starting to test out. It’s a great option if you’re using a computer that doesn’t have Topaz software installed, and everything is processed on the cloud.

Shot on R5ii at 400mm in the amazing

04/08/2026

These Asian Green Bee-Eaters are so fun to photograph - they’re colorful, acrobatic, and like to show off their meals. This one is from Keoladeo National Park in Rajasthan, India.

Shot on the R5ii at 800mm. This is a huge crop from the original image - it was perched on an ugly branch so decided to make this into a tight portrait to cut out all the distractions. I used Photo Studio to upscale to a reasonable resolution and I’m super happy with the result!

04/05/2026

Happy Easter to those who celebrate! and I have been saving our snowshoe hare shots from Katmai last summer just for this occasion. Swipe to the end to see the forest from the eye of this beautiful animal.

Shot on R5ii at 400mm. I used upscale and sharpening with Photo Studio on the eye closeup and the detail is crazy!

03/25/2026

One of my favorite moments with these incredible animals. We had watched this individual from across the valley all day and at dusk he finally began to move down to the river below and track alongside it. We were positioned high above on the cliffs looking down, but he always knew exactly where we were.

Shot on the R5ii at 800mm. The light was getting low and I was hand-holding a heavy lens, so needed a little extra shutter speed to compensate. I used Photo Studio to address the subsequent noise and also a small amount of sharpening.

02/04/2026

Lots more Alaska to share, so getting back to the bears! This was one of my favorite encounters in Katmai National Park during the fall, as this beautiful coastal brown bear searched the stream for salmon.

Shot on R5ii at 400mm. Sharpening and denoise with Photo Studio.

01/07/2026

It’s easy to see a post like this and think wow, how lucky I must have been to get this shot! I’m this case luck (and skill to a large extent) had nothing to do with it. I was in one of the hummingbird capitals of the world, with feeders nearby and a perfectly placed flower positioned specifically for a nice clean background. I didn’t just happen upon this situation — it was created. I don’t say this to cheapen the photo. I’m so happy to have gotten it. But I do say this to be transparent and to shed some light on photos like this that seem too good to be true. I am not against bird feeders, and they are widely accepted by most birding and ornithological societies including and if done correctly to avoid the spread of disease. What are your thoughts on photos like this?

Taken on R5ii at 400mm f2.8. Denoise and sharpening by Photo Studio and upscale applied to the close-up.

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