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churchill canada

Photographing Polar Bears in the Snow!!!

1/2500, f5.6, ISO 400.

Churchill, Canada, is often referred to as the "Polar Bear Capital of the World," and for a good reason. The bear activity here is absolutely EPIC!

With its breathtaking landscapes and opportunities for up-close encounters with amazing animals, it’s a dream destination for any wildlife photographer.

I had the privilege of spending the past two winter seasons on the tundra, capturing these iconic animals in their natural, snowy environment.

1/1600, f11, ISO 400.

1/1600, f11, ISO 800.

Churchill’s landscape is like something from another world. Endless stretches of snow and ice create a stunning white canvas, interrupted only by the occasional patch of frozen tundra, and boulders that pepper the landscape.

The light changes throughout the day. Most of the time it is amazing with a lot of sun, other times the cloud cover will darken it all. But those cloud covered days do help soften that harsh afternoon light, which allows us to shoot throughout the day.

Mornings are epic, with the golden hues of dawn casting a magical glow over the snow, creating perfect conditions for photography.

1/1000, f5.6, ISO 1000.

Winter is truly an epic time to be out here. It is beautiful, and romantic, and dramatic, and on and on and on… but damn it is COLD!!!

It can be so cold, that my fingers can only hold the camera for short spurts before I have to cover them up, because they hurt so bad.

Some days the conditions are just perfect, and you can shoot all day outside, but other days, man the air is sharp as daggers, and you have to seek shelter from it, because it hurts.

Being out here, you can’t help but feel a deep respect for the creatures that are so perfectly adapted to thrive in this unforgiving environment.

1/2000, f5.6, ISO 2000.

The real thrill of this adventure is being on the ground, capturing polar bears up close. We used vans that are tough and built for this weather and terrain, allowing us to get close to the bears without compromising our safety or theirs.

There’s something incredibly personal about being at ground level with these iconic predators. You feel their presence, and the sheer wildness of these guys.

They have these massive Tundra Buggies in Churchill, which are cool, but I have never been a fan of shooting from a raised platform or a distance. I prefer ground shooting… just love to get close.

Photographing polar bears from the ground is exhilarating, but it’s not without its risks.

I admit, you are never really safe anywhere you go on the Tundra. The bears keep you wary and always looking over your shoulder. Of course this is why we always have a bear guard with us at all times, when we are out there.

Their presence allowed us to focus on capturing the bears without that added worry of danger.

1/600, f5.6, ISO 500.

But I admit I love that feeling of knowing we are out in a raw and wild place where you are never truly safe. There are not many places left in the world that are still truly wild… Churchill is one of those places.

And maybe that’s why this experience means so much to me. It’s not just about the photos—it’s about feeling alive in a place where nature is still in control.

Churchill reminds me that there are places where we’re just visitors, and for me, that’s where the magic happens.

1/1600, f5.6, ISO 400.

Shooting in Churchill’s snowy conditions presented some unique challenges. The bright, white snow can easily fool a camera’s light meter, leading to overexposed images.

Here are the settings I used to get the best results:

  1. Exposure Compensation: I found that dialing in +1 to +1.5 exposure compensation helped prevent the camera from underexposing the scene. The snow tends to trick the meter into thinking it’s brighter than it is, so adding some exposure brings back the true detail.

  2. ISO: The light was often low, especially during dawn and dusk, so I used an ISO range of 400 to 800 to maintain a fast enough shutter speed while keeping noise at a manageable level.

  3. Shutter Speed: To freeze the action of a moving bear, I kept my shutter speed at 1/1000s or faster. When the bears were resting, I could drop it to 1/800s, but with these active animals, faster is generally better.

  4. Aperture: I shot with a fairly wide aperture, around f/4 to f/5.6, to create a shallow depth of field that allowed me to separate the bear from the background while keeping enough of the animal in focus.

  5. White Balance: I set my white balance manually to "Cloudy" or "Shade" to add warmth to the scene and counteract the blue tones that can dominate snowy environments.

  6. Focusing Mode: I used continuous autofocus (AI Servo) to track the bears as they moved. These animals can be unpredictable, and having the camera continuously adjust the focus was essential for getting sharp images.

1/1600, f5.6, ISO 320.

Churchill... We have arrived!

July 27, 2024 The official arrival day of the trip. Everyone is here. Tatiana and Kira arrived yesterday with me, and Christine made it today. Thomas was already here; he arrived last week to explore Churchill with his wife. He shared images from his time with another lodge and a visit to Fire Island. Lots of bears feeding there, fat on a beluga carcasses.

I need to get out there, man.

The boyz… Kenny and Jeromy.

Today, my friend and local bear guide Kenny took me out on his tinny (his boat). Just the two of us, it was cool. Jeromy, another good friend, was grumbling

because he wanted to go too. Lol, kids.

I get it; I would be jealous if they went without me. All of us are just grown-ass kids, wanting to do cool things all the time. Lol. It fills me with gratitude connecting with locals on these adventures. All of us with a strong love for nature and friendship that will last a lifetime.

We went out on the boat to find a bear that was at the point. We found it resting in the fog.

The fog was thick!

We motored around for a bit. I tried to get a photo of the bear, but the fog was too thick. So, we left the bear alone and just enjoyed watching the belugas circling our boat. They were really intrigued.

The tinny is great because you can hear the belugas. Their sounds echo.

With some editing I managed to remove the fog and bring out the bear. Even though the fog looked cool and spooky. I like to see the animals in my photos. lol

I think they might have been intrigued with the echo from the tinny and wanted to listen to it closer because they kept coming up to us over and over.

The belugas made some crazy noises that I recorded. That was wicked cool. I put together a video clip from the day. Going to be filming more stories on this trip.

I really do love storytelling.

So far, Churchill has been almost perfect.

The airline left my bag in Atlanta and has been slow to get it to me. It's been three days.

But despite not having my bag, I am filled with gratitude again. I had no issues getting here. All my flights were on time, and thankfully, I have my cameras with me. To help me survive waiting for my bag to catch up, I stopped at Walmart in Winnipeg to buy some extra clothes and toiletry stuff.

So I am blessed. All is well. Especially with the nightmares people have been experiencing at airports lately, I feel really lucky to have gotten to Churchill without any delays.

Sadly, I don't have my wetsuit, which is fine. I can rent it from the hotel. But my mask and snorkel, man! Gonna miss having that.

Hopefully, I will only have to deal with it for one more day.

The bag is supposed to arrive on Monday. Feeling confident it will be there for me.

Today is our first day in the water... the adventure is off to a great start!

Back to Writing... Sorry It has been a While.

Damn, what a year it has been. I realize I have not been updating my blog, so for those of you that read my blog, I apologize. The year has been busy, and I admit to being a bit overwhelmed with it all. The traveling, the wildlife, family, friends… all of it is taxing on the soul.

I love what I do. It truly is a privilege to travel around the world and hang out with amazing people, looking for wildlife to photograph. Telling stories and being a voice for the voiceless is my job. But damn, you do pay a price for life off the beaten path. Not being there for everything is definitely the most challenging part of this life. It is a knife in the gut.

But I am also addicted to nature, and adventure, and telling positive stories about wildlife. It's part of why I breathe. As a storyteller in this wildlife world, I get to sit in a different seat. My job is to share this world and try to help the reader slide into my mind and enjoy the journey and these wild places with me.

I am not sure if my writing style evokes any emotion from people, but I do try and capture my feelings when I am out there, and I hope that comes across in my writing. Still determining if it does, but gonna keep trying anyway.

So onto today's post.

I just got home from epic back-to-back trips… the first trip was to Churchill, Canada, for a chance to photograph polar bears in the snow. This is something I have dreamed of doing for many years. It was definitely worth the wait, and the experience exceeded my waking dreams.

What a special place Churchill is. This town and the people there are extraordinary. Everyone there lives with the knowledge that polar bears are all over the place. When I was there, they showed me a video of a polar bear trying to smash in a window at someone's house to try and get in their kitchen. That is a normal occurrence for them, no big deal.

They have a polar bear police unit that works 24-7.

It is insane… but it is also so damn cool! I freaking love it there and want to stay much longer. The idea that you are not free to go for a jog because you always have to be wary that the world's largest land predator might be sleeping on the side of the road, or behind a bush sounds like heaven to me.

More on this story and place later.

One last dance.

The second trip was to one of my favorite places on the planet… Tiger Beach. This was such a special trip for me because it was the official passing of the torch. I have been feeding and dancing with tiger sharks for over 14 years now, and this year I got to pass the bait box over to my son David. He has been feeding sharks for a few years now (mostly in Mexico), but this is his first full season working in the Bahamas with tiger sharks.

Pretty damn wild.

We got to both feed and work with the tigers on this trip, and it was truly a privilege to watch him work. Meanwhile, he was also enjoying sitting back and watching me work with the sharks -

that was tripping him out, easy to forget its your old man down there dancing with tigers.

David dancing and rolling.

He has seen me work with tigers many times before, but this was the first trip where we were both there as equals… watching each other's backs, helping each other out, and feeling the fear and adrenaline that comes with intimately interacting with big predatory sharks.

We did a night shark feed, something we do on all our Tiger Beach trips. It is always one of the highlights of the trip. They are never easy because we are feeding tigers at night, with limited visibility. The guests love it, but for me, they have always been super intense. I looked at David and said, "You are doing the feed." He said ok, not really knowing what to expect. It was his first night feed.

We had four big tigers show up, and I watched his back on the box, knowing full well that he was in the arena on fire inside… clenched! His adrenaline was spiking hard. I have been in that seat many times and I know how gnarly it can be. This was his first, and with all those big tigers, it was an intense and exciting dive.

He killed it out there… masterfully working with these animals. It was magical to see. I am not gonna lie, my heart was in my throat a few times, but that is all part of the magic. It is a game of inches.

I want to keep writing, but going to cut these stories short…the photo trip reports are coming soon. This blog was more of my need to get back to writing and sharing stories with you all again on our website.

It has been too damn long.

So until the next one, my friends, thank you for reading.

Goodbye Scotland, Hello Canada!

I do not even know where to begin with this blog. I sit here in a hotel room in Winnipeg, Canada, resting after a couple of long flying days, trying to gather my thoughts on what to write today. It has been one hell of a journey this summer, and it is far from over.

I just returned from a successful, yet unsuccessful Scotland trip, searching for basking sharks. Scotland was amazing, the place is a land of dreams; The castles, the landscape, the people. All of it is just magical.

The wildlife is epic as well… well that is if we had seen any. Sadly the basking sharks and the puffins were a no-show. We saw some Scottish red deer, and otters, and highland cows (that was pretty cool), But sadly, we missed the puffins by a couple of days, and the basking sharks were down deep.

The waters temperatures are changing and the places where we would normally find basking sharks were too cold. We needed the surface temperatures to warm up a bit so that the plankton would rise to the surface, attracting the sharks up.

So sadly we saw zero sharks. It happens. Nature can be cruel that way. All it means is we need to go back and try it again.


So here I sit, anxious to kick off the next adventure, which is to find beluga whales and polar bears in Churchill. My flight to Churchill is tomorrow morning and man I can’t wait. I have not been to Churchill since 2018. That was the last season they allowed snorkeling with the beluga whales. In 2019 they decided to ban all swimming with the whales, so we took a year off from visiting here to let the powers that be figure things out.

They did… they came up with beluga boarding. Which is, we are allowed to lay down on a floating mat, that gets towed behind the boat, and we can stick our faces and cameras in the water to see the approaching whales. We wanted to return in 2020, but covid hit and well, you know the rest of that.

Normally belugas are shy, and when we would jump in the water with them the whales would keep a healthy distance from us. However with this approach, the belugas are extremely curious and come right up to the cameras for a closer look. I am super excited about giving it a try to see how it works out.

Well, the waiting game and a new adventure to share with you all begins.

I am really excited to tell this tale, because Churchill is also a magical place. I am hoping the wifi will allow me to update you guys while I am out there. We will see, either way, I will be able to post thing on our social media pages. I just hope I can share stories on our website, which is where I prefer sharing things.

Until then thanks for reading.

Beluga Whale Trip Report - from 2018.

I am playing catch up with trip reports from previous trips. This is from our beluga whale expedition that we ran back in 2018. I know I am late posting it, but it had been on my mind and I always wanted to get it up. The adventure and the experience was so good it was a must share.

Sadly due to Covid we have not been back to Canada since this trip, but thankfully we will finally return to visit this magical place.

Super excited about sharing this very late trip report with you all. We hope you enjoy…



Weekly Featured Expedition! - Polar Bears off Churchill Canada!

So I started this new addition to my newsletter, but figured I would add it here for our website visitors as well. This is insights to up coming trips with my thoughts on them, why I chose this particular expedition, and what people can expect from it, if they join us out there.

polar bear 2 2.jpg

This week’s featured trip is our polar bear photography expedition off Churchill, Canada. Now I know I say photography trip, and it really is designed as a shooters trip, but wildlife enthusiasts, with iphones, for cameras, will love this trip as well. The reason I say it is designed as a photographer’s trip is because it is a very small group trip, like a maximum 4 people on this trip. We will be traveling in a private vehicle, so that when a bear is spotted, we will be able to get out of the vehicle for opportunities to set up shots. Either getting down low to the ground, to snap some images, or using tri-pods. And because it is our trip, we will be able to stay as long as we would like with an individual animal.

polar bear3.jpg

Of course respect, and safety is everything when it comes to these types of expeditions, for both the animal’s welfare and our own. We will have licensed guides with us, and they will have a rifle with them, which is for peace of mind, and they are required by law to carry one, for emergencies. But chances of them ever needing to use the gun, even a warning shot in the air is pretty much zero.

This one is a big trip for us, and I am super fired up about it, because of the opportunity to get close to the bears at ground level. I have never been thrilled about being up high in a tundra buggy, or on a ship, looking down on a bear as it is walking around. I would much rather be at ground level, looking at them, eye to eye, or up at the bear as it walks around in its natural habitat.

polar bear 2.jpg

I have photographed and seen polar bears in Churchill during the summer months when they are there hunting belugas, or hanging around the area, waiting for winter to return. Seeing bears during this time of year is special, but it is not the same as seeing them during the winter season, with snow all around. THAT is what I am hoping for all of us to see - a polar bear in it’s element, with snow blanketing the tundra, as far as the eye can see. To catch them in the snow, walking, resting, playing, or with their breathe turning to smoke when they breath, would be amazing.

dog 5.jpg

We are also hoping to visit and photograph the Canadian Eskimo dogs, hanging out with the polar bears. This is the area that was made famous for polar bears interacting with these dogs. The images of polar bears hugging and playing with the dogs went viral and we will visit the area where the dogs are to see if any bears are hanging around. They usually are, because they like to nibble on any left over food that the dogs leave behind.

Churchill is an amazing place and the opportunities to photograph other types of wildlife is really high, including; red foxes, arctic foxes, caribou, snowy owls, arctic hares and diverse bird species. Ok, I admit, I am just as fired up about seeing the other wildlife here, as much as I am about the polar bears - especially the arctic foxes. This iconic fox is really HIGH on my must see list of animals. I have photographed them before, but during the summer months, when they were wearing their summer coat. To see an arctic fox with that beautiful white fur, in the snow, is a dream come true.

aurora2.jpg

Another exciting opportunity here is photographing the Northern Lights. This is a great area for setting up your camera on a tripod to snap images of the auroras. We have always had good luck snapping images of the lights during the summer months. But the auroras in the winter season are so much better. Looking forward to seeing the lights again, when and if we get the chance. I say if, because we still need clear skies for a chance at photographing them.

So there it is, hoping this helps anyone that may be interested in joining us on this particular expedition, if you do… check out the trip page, send us an email, or give me a call on my cell, I would be happy to chat with you about it (956) 279-8119.

Thank you for reading guys.