They’re just playing, really…

They’re just playing, really…

Coastal Grizzlies

On our first full day of wildlife shooting in Alaska, we flew by bush plane to the Katmai National Park and Preserve. It is a one hour flight across the Cook Inlet from Homer, Alaska, one of the most beautiful places in North America. 

We flew over our destination first to see if our guides could spot any bears. Immediately, our pilot Joe said, we have bears! Katmai National Park doesn’t have any airports, so our runway was a beach that was littered with logs and other coastal debris. After we made of 3 point power slide landing not he beach, we geared up and headed towards the river where there was a mom and her three cubs fishing for salmon.

After a while, the cubs would get tired of fishing. As my friend Moose says, grizzlies are the definition of a coach potato. If they aren’t eating, they are sleeping. As siblings often do, they also like to play or antagonize each other. In this case, two of the cubs decided they were going to paw each other and cool around with one another. While tough to get a good exposure, in this case I wanted the backlight to illuminate the water spray and they moved about. Taken with the great Nikon Z 7 and super sharp Nikkor 180-400mm against a dark background, I think it communicates the shear power these bears have. 

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