this weekend I flew to Churchill with Classic Canadian Tours. It is a great tour - one day return, includes flight, breakfast, lunch dinner, tundra buggy on to the Tundra - for $1750 from Calgary you get to see 10-20 polar bears waiting for the ice to freeze.
Churchill is a special place. Churchill river enters the ocean at this point and the ocean is shallow. The combination of shallow water and fresh water poring in and regular currents bringing cold water from the north, means that this is the first place for the ocean to freeze over. The bears know this and start to congregate in October waiting for the ice to freeze.
The bears have come off the ice in Jun/July after feeding on ring seals the winter, really fat, and then they eat almost nothing until November when the ice comes in. They go into a walking hibernation.
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Anyway here are my best shots of a mom and 2 cubs sitting on the tundra waiting for the ocean to freeze. This is a dangerous activity for them because big males will kill them and eat them if they can catch them. And the mom would have to face down a bear that is 2x her size. Females range up to 600lbs whereas males can range up to 1500 lbs. So mom has to be wary.
Although these are shot with my new 7d2, it was rather a extreme attempt. I used the 600, 1.4x, and cropped about 1/2 or more, and shot through the falling snow with low light, hand held off a jostling vehicle. Its not often you get this close to a mom and little ones at any distance. These "babies" were likely born about November of last year.
Excuse the repetition - this was my most exciting opportunity. And one of these will go in my annual christmas calendar to friends. So please let me know which one you like best.
no 1 is holds my attention. amazing opportunity. i havent been to churchill since 1982...and one bear had broken down the back door of a house to get at a huge roast cooling in the kitchen. the woman shot off the lower jaw of the bear in the kitchen and it stormed out of the house, had to be destroyed. sad but that was a huge problem back then when they had an open garb age dump that drew the bears into town. i am glad that is no longer going on
Scott these are some beautiful intimate moments very nice indeed. I wish you would also post a couple of shots with lesser zoom/focal length and showcasing more of the landscape.
Tres bien Scott. 1 & 6 are the two most calendar suitable images IMO. All are quite nice, but those two have good appeal. Leaning slightly to #1 due to the mom's head angle, and the eye contact from the cub.
Thank you for sharing these Scott. Number 1 has the "Awww" factor, and eye contact, so it receives my vote. Glad to see the 7D2 is creating very useable images in challenging circumstances, as it was designed to do.