Alaska Brown Bears

These three were on a local river salt flat over the 4th of July.

How cool that you have these guys nearby, Bruce! Are they very commonly seen? Are they tolerant of humans getting reasonable close? If they stay in the same area for a few weeks, perhaps you can make a real project out of pursuing them with a camera.

Great that you were able to see these. I like the 2nd shot, the bear looks so human and friendly. Makes you want to get closer. Er, maybe not.

The first capture is great. Makes me wonder what the three of them are on the look out for.

Great shots ! I like them both .

Hello,

Thanks for the nice comments.

The three bears were startled by an oaf shooting off bottle rockets from a boat in a nearby bay. (Sheesh....sounds like the start of a redneck fairy tale doesn't it?) These guys are seen most every night on this flat. The pinks are starting to return to the river and the three are ready for the feast. I wish I had time to make these guys a project. One bay over is a sow and four (4) cubs from this year. Rare, I would like to photograph them. Time will tell.

And they lived happily ever after...

Bruce

I think your fairly tale should end something like...

And he married his grade school sweetheart, his sister...

Nice pics!@\

I love bears. Nice pictures.

She showed up with her cubs again tonight. Also a younger male was in the area. Plenty of food here so I think the cubs are safe. They are fun to watch and photograph.

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Redirected to error image by FLICKR

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Redirected to error image by FLICKR

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Redirected to error image by FLICKR

That 2nd image is sweet! (the one of the griz in the water) Nice even lighting and detail. Very well done.

BTW, do you think you can get any lower when shooting these guys when they're in the water? If you could get in the water yourself (at a reasonable safe distance) it may five you some very interesting images. Perhaps a pair of chest waders would be in order. I realize it may be a bit dangerous to get down a their level, but it would make for some sweet compositions.

Again, I only recommend this if you can do so at a safe distance.

She's looking right at you in #2. How close were you? What camera/lens were you using?

Tom and philk54,

The lower POV would have been a bonus. I was just carying a 17-55 mm when I took these. A couple other things were working against being in the water. There were other people in the immediate area and someone in the water would have just removed an option for the bears to exit through. Another issue was that the cubs were taking pieces of salmon and running across the river into the grass. This would have been place where I would have opted to take pictures from. The sow was fishing but the cubs were randomly moving. Finally, I had the wrong lens. The lower POV would have been a bonus though. Often times when I am in my boat on the larger river systems it provides more options for POV.

In the second photo I was 60 feet from her but on a foot bridge that she had passed under before. That photo was taken with an ef-s 17-55 mm 2.8 IS.

The first batch were taken with a 70-200 mm 2.8 IS. That is the lens I should have had for the second group of photos I posted.

Thanks for the ideas, comments and questions.

Bruce