Episode 14: Coastal Brown Bears in Alaska

In this episode, Jared and Analise begin their series on photographing brown bears along the coast of Alaska. Wildlife photographers the world over know about the legendary opportunities the combination of salmon and bears provide. From July through September, wildlife photographers willing to go the extra mile, willing to hop on bush planes and float planes and travel to the remote wilderness of this landscape are presented with what can be non-stop action photographing bears as they fish for salmon - the lifeblood of this ecosystem. 

This year in Lake Clark National Park, Jared and Annalise found themselves spending day after day with two sows with spring cubs. While they travel to this remote roadless national park each year for the salmon run, this year the tiny spring cubs stole the show. 

Key Takeaways 

• Summer and fall provide different photographic opportunities in Alaska for bears. Anyone who is trying to plan a trip to Alaska for brown bears needs to understand the differences so they can capture the types of photographs they are looking for. 
• When it comes to raising cubs in the wild, every bear has wildly different parenting styles that have an impact on how these bears behave around people, other bears, and most importantly, the survival rates of the cubs themselves. 
• In this episode, Jared and Annalise discuss the psychological impacts that compositions have on those who see our photography. 
• Simple tweaks to our angle of view dramatically change the look and feel of our photographs by creating the perception of three-dimensions in our wildlife photographs.
• Wildlife photographers can borrow strategies directly from portrait photographers and painters  to dramatically enhance their images of wild animals. 

For those who are interested in learning more about composition, Jared is in the middle of publishing an on-going series on the Art of Composition which can be found on the PhotoWILD Magazine membership dashboard. In addition access to all of the back issues of the magazine, and our library of ebooks, subscribers also have exclusive access to articles series such as the Art of Composition and Zen and the Art of Finding Wildlife.