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.

View fullsize

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.

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.

Sea Bears!!!

View fullsize

Just finished up our beluga whale and polar bear expedition out of Churchill, Canada, and all I can say is WOW, WOW, WOW! What an amazing trip. I have been trying to figure out what to write, and how to write it. The beluga boarding was beyond words amazing, and the polar bear action was… well I decided to write a blog about the bears first, because the different experiences were just so overwhelming for me. In a good way.

When I am out in nature and around wildlife, it recharges my damaged soul. I realize how much I need to be around animals. However, sometimes it can over power my senses and I get lost on how to feel, because the fire is so strong. So sometimes nature leaves me emotionally drained.

This week was one of those trips that leaves me drained (in a good way). So many amazing moments out there, I wasn’t sure what to share, so I am sharing a few highlighted moments from this trip, that I will write over a few blogs for you guys.

For now… Day One!

We saw bears every day of the trip, both in the water, and on land. Some of the bears were probably the same bears from the previous days, so I am not really sure how many different bears we encountered. For sure 6 different ones. The number didn’t matter to me, just seeing one bear this trip would have been a thrill for me.

I mean it’s a freaking polar bear!

Polar bears are the largest land predators on the planet. They are massive animals. The largest sea bear ever recorded weighed more than two thousand pounds and stood twelve feet tall. Now that is a big bear.

It is so humbling seeing one of these bears up close… pure magic.

Our first day on the water we went out at the end of the day, and we encountered three bears on the rocks. One was in the water swimming, the others were on land, hunting for Arctic tern chicks. The birds were losing their minds, dive bombing on the bears. The bears would just continue sniffing around, every once in a while acknowledging the birds stabbing them in the head.

One of the bears we photographed was in the water, it was watching the belugas and the belugas were watching the bear. I do not think they felt threatened by the bear, because the whales were coming in close. The bear made one attempt to try and catch one, after that it returned to shore, and went after easier prey, Arctic tern chicks.

polar bear unsuccessfully stalking belugas.

We left the bears to go find belugas to photograph, but after we were done, we returned to the point right at sunset and found two of the three bears again. They were still there being harassed by the terns. We were just going to watch them for a few minutes and then call it a day, however, the sun was going down fast and the sky was turning gold. So instead of motoring back to port we asked Jostlen, our boat captain and guide to stay a bit longer.

Of course she said yes, and it became a mad rush to try and position our boat to get the bears with that beautiful light behind them.

She gave it a try. We motored our boat as close as we safely could to the point. There are lots of boulders just below the surface that we can not see, and smacking into one, right at sunset with sea bears around is not a smart thing to do. But she tried the best she could.

The light was fading fast and it really is a hurry up and wait game when it comes to wildlife photography. I was running out of time. The bears were in the right spot for a nice image, but were not perfectly positioned. They had their backs to the camera, or their head was down buried in the rocks.

It was a challenge.

Finally the two bears positioned themselves decently so that I could pop a couple of shots. Thankfully it worked and I was able to snap a couple of keepers. They were not perfect and I would of loved to have been closer to the animals. But that is nature and I will take what I can get.

We finished up our first day of the expedition. I was on fire thinking about the next few days and the adventure that was in front of us. I had no idea how amazing this week was going to be.

Until the next blog. 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…

---

---