Nikon D850
150mm
1/2000
f/7.1
ISO 900
All three submissions are from the same trip and share many details.
Brooks Falls, Katmai National Park, Alaska. The location, circumstances, and subject all presented challenges.
Subject: This should be obvious. The subject is an Alaskan Peninsular Bear, a subspecies of brown bear roughly the size of a hatchback. Wild predators (that occasionally exceed 1,400 lbs.) are not renowned for cooperation and required safety precautions rightly limit access.
Location: As a resident of the US East Coast, visiting Alaska at all is costly and involves lengthy travel. Travel to many Western European destinations is faster and cheaper. Katmai adds its own unique complication: it is only accessible by boat and float plane. We arrived via float plane on Naknek Lake. High winds made the departure several days later from Brooks Lake rather more like an amusement park ride than is generally desirable for light plane travel.
Circumstances: There is a limited window of several weeks each year when the bears will be present at the falls in numbers for the salmon run. Careful advance planning is required to secure one of the limited number of campsites. Booking is very competitive, and the campground often fills within several minutes of reservations opening. One of the images I wanted going into the trip was of a large brown bear on the falls about to snap down on a jumping salmon. Thomas Mangelsen’s image of just that has become quite famous, and you’ve likely seen it, possibly without knowing the photographer’s name. As an aside, Mangelsen has a few galleries around the US that are wonderful, if you have the opportunity to visit. This image was taken from the Brooks Falls viewing platform, where I spent several hours a day for three days standing watching the bears. Timing an image to the moment a bear is about to snatch an airborne fish takes proper equipment, planning, and skill but also a considerable degree of luck. You can’t control the bears or fish. I focused on the bears at the top of falls, used a monopod braced against the railing and my feet (tripods are not permitted), and watched the scene directly instead of through the viewfinder. With the wider perspective, I had a moment more time to hit the shutter anytime I saw fish start to jump. To top it off, Katmai is plagued by apocalyptic swarms of biting black flies that time of year. Visitors walking about with blood running down their faces from bites is a common sight. I ended up bleeding from the ear, back of the neck, and center of my forehead, DEET be damned. One of my sun shirts is still blood stained.