Photographer Bernard Friel has been a contributor to UIG for nearly two decades. He is a nature photographer and is a charter and life member of the North American Nature Photography Assn. and served on its board and as its president.  Bernie was born and grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he practiced law with the firm of Briggs and Morgan (now the TAFT firm) for 58 years, from which he is now retired.

A serious bird watcher, his first nature photography subject matter was local bird life before a life changing event in 1969 expanded his photographic horizons. A serious heart attack at the age of 38 marked a significant change in his life. Out of fear and a concern for his family he challenged himself to develop a healthy lifestyle, having no idea where it would take him but intending that it would prevent an early death. Indeed, it did!  Bernie is about to celebrate his 96^th birthday!

Running became his exercise of choice. A mile a day then two, and finally eight.  Running used most of the time he could afford for exercise, and it became Bernie’s routine for over 20 years. He soon found that the Boundary Waters Canoe Area canoe trip portages were easier than before the heart attack, and in 1976, after medical clearance he ran his first marathon, never again questioning whether his health was any kind of barrier or risk to physically demanding adventures. 

In 1977 he became the photographer for Outward Bound International raft trips down the Colorado River through Cataract Canyon. But he was not just the photographer, he was a participant as well and learned new outdoor wilderness and photographic skills, which he would put to good use over the next four decades.

Bernie’s rafting skills were mentored by friends Dan Schaffer and Bill Parks on three trips down the Grand Canyon where a Nikonos underwater camera was the camera of choice. Bernie also designed, built and attached a platform for his raft on which he mounted a 16mm motorized film camera on which he recorded the raft running the canyon’s rapids. The platform also contained a Hasselblad for still shots.

In the years following the Outward Bound raft trips Bernie made many backpacking trips into the backcountry of Arches, Canyonlands, Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and Denali National Parks, often carrying a Hasselblad and a Crown Graphic 4X5 camera with his trusted 35mm Nikon FTN (and the necessary tripod and light meter). The larger formats were preferred by him for landscape photography and Anasazi petroglyphs and pictographs.

Adventure travel became a part of Bernie’s life by his early fifties. There was backpacking and rafting in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, photographing grizzly bears at the McNeil Refuge and Kodiak Island, mountaineering with successful climbs of Rainier and Kilimanjaro, solo climbs of St. Helens, Mount Elinor and Wheeler Peak, and unsuccessful attempts of Pico de Orizaba and the Chilkoot Trail. Following his retirement Bernie spent time hiking the Wave and White Pocket in Utah, and car camping and hiking in the Black Rock Desert and many other locations.

Following his heart attack and due to changes in Minnesota state law, Bernie became head of his firm’s Municipal Bond Department, and a few years later in 1979 was the principal founder and first president of The National Association of Bond Lawyers. That organization honored him in 1982, creating its most prestigious award in his name, the Bernard P. Friel Medal.

In 2007 the American Heart Association “In recognition of his outstanding recovery from heart disease and lifestyle change” presented Bernie with its “Heart Hero Award”.  A few years later his adventure travel, exploration, and photographic exploits led to his nomination by Ann Bancroft and Russ Kinne to the prestigious Explorers Club to which he was admitted in 2010.

Bernie has led over 60 wilderness trips and is proud of the fact that no participant ever suffered an injury that required more than a Band-Aid. He reports that while he enjoys the camaraderie of multiparty trips the quiet and solitude and simplified decision making of solo trips is hard to beat. Solo trips also make for better photography for he can take as much time or wait as long as necessary to capture the image he wants without disrupting a schedule.

Though Bernie claims to have no qualifying skills for sailing he was one of a four-member crew on friend Roger Swanson’s 57-foot ketch Cloud Nine for three separate four-to-six-week sails in the South Pacific, the Indian Ocean and the North Atlantic. On his first in the South Pacific, he had his “baptism of fire” when Cloud Nine was caught for six days and nights in the 30-40 foot seas of typhoon Lillie. 

His most unique adventure was a ten-day mission in Papua New Guinea searching for air crews lost there in WWII. It was quite rewarding for Bernie’s search group to locate four crash sites – two American and two Japanese.  Bernie’s photographic work includes Birds and other animals, landscapes, flowers, travel, aircraft (mostly WWII) and architecture. To see more of his work, please visit his website www.wampy.com

All images in this post are credited to Bernie Friel.  All images featured in this post and on Kaleidoscope are available for licensing.  Please contact us at info@universalimagesgroup.com