Hey Folks
From our Alaska Brown Bears and Coastal Wildlife Photo Tour in July this summer. We were super blessed with some amazing weather for the duration of the trip, and some really, really great bear photography experiences.
From our time in Kukak Bay photographing various different bears on a whale carcass to great experiences with a couple of different sows and spring cubs (both triplets and quadruplets), the highlight was definitely this evening with excellent moments watching brown bears chasing salmon, bears fighting and some simply gorgeous light. Good times.
Hallo Bay can be such a golden place. Spectacular location, amazing bears, it can provide super nice light and some truly special moments for photographers and nature lovers.
We had ventured out to the water towards the late evening, after some nice hours on the grass flats with a sow and her 4 cubs. The tide was going out, fish running in, and right after we made our way to the beach, the bears started coming out.
And out they came. Within maybe 15 minutes there were no fewer than 10 bears along the shoreline or ni the water in front of us. One particularly energetic young sow ran hither and yon, every which way, after salmon in the water, while most of the larger bears simply stood and watched.
The second, however, she caught a fish, one of the larger males ran at her and stole it. This is the bear on the right-hand side (as you view) of this image.
On this occasion, he stole the fish and ventured toward the shore to eat it. Another bear raced in from our left, and challenged him. They roared at each other for a few seconds before it was on.
And on it went. For a couple of minutes, they fought and beat each other up over the fish. You can see the fish at the water’s edge between the 2 bears, just in front of the hind left foot of the bear on the left of the frame.
Eventually the larger male-dominated, the slightly smaller bear begrudgingly left the victor to his spoils and our group of photographers beamed from ear to ear. Fantastic stuff to watch.
Looking forward to getting back again in 2022. Wanna come along?
Cheers
Carl
