polar adventure

The habitat that will soon be gone .. and with it, the polar bear!

polar adventure ... Larry Calof

I had the good fortune and pleasure this year to visit Churchill, Canada, whose claim to fame is the polar bear capital of the world. Having only visited Churchill, I am in no position to defend or dispute the claim, but certainly the tundra and ice around Churchill on the edge of Hudson Bay provided ample opportunity to photograph the polar bears as well as some of their colleagues, arctic fox and arctic hare.

Sparring is learned behavior
from birth

I signed up with Frontiers North America, which operates the Tundra Buggy Adventures. Once out on the tundra, you basically do not set foot on the ground, due to the danger posed by the bears. In the tundra buggies, which ride on 6 foot diameter tires, there is no risk of a bad encounter, so long as you do not drop cameras, lenses or accessories out the window when you are shooting. One person dropped a hat, which was recovered a few days later, with some nice chew marks in it. You have two basic choices on these trips: stay in Churchill and drive out each day for about 1 ½ hours each way, or stay out at the “lodge” which consists of a sleeping car or two (bunks), a lounge car and dining car. These are a bit like railroad cars, but on big tires, although they do not move. Your tundra buggy is the vehicle you travel around on during the day for photography. You get a lot more photographic opportunities if you stay at the “lodge”, and the accommodations are perfectly comfortable. It is a short season, about 6- 8 weeks. I was there the first week in November, which seemed like an ideal time. We were told that prior trips did not get to see bears sparring because the weather had not gotten cold enough. We saw sparring bears every day.

Their livelihood depends on the vanishing pack ice

Photographing the polar bears in the arctic environment was relatively straight-forward. Shooting white bears on the snow and ice required that you increase your image compensation by anywhere from ¾ stop to 1 ½ stops depending on the light. We mostly had overcast days so ¾ stop worked well. The overcast days also meant that there was no reason to use a filter.

The Northern Lights ...
the other show!

I shot morning and late afternoon at 200 ISO, and dropped it back to 100 ISO during the main part of the day. While I brought several lenses, mostly I used my 500mm, occasionally with a 1.4 extender. I also used my 70-200. These bears do not move real fast, so shooting at a shutter speed of 125 was usually fine. I took it up for the sparring bears. I used the 24-70 lens to photograph the northern lights, but an even wider lens would have been useful for the northern lights. Batteries were not really a problem shooting from the Tundra Buggy, but outside shooting the northern lights (30 seconds to 60 seconds exposures), I went through batteries quickly. Bring a couple extra. We did our photography from the vehicle dropping down the windows when we found the bears. Some of the individuals in the group had fancy window brackets. I found that a good bean bag did just as well, since the vibration was only from people moving in the vehicle and the window mounts did not reduce that vibration. There is not a lot of Photoshop work to be done with the bears. Polar bears have a lot of yellow in their fur, and the polar ice has a definite blue and cyan cast. I found that I did not want to eliminate these effects entirely, so merely reduced the yellow, blue and/or cyan in a hue/saturation adjustment layer, with an occasional curves adjustment. The polar bear shoot involved the least amount of Photoshop adjustments I have made.

Most scientists think it's now sunset for these magnificent giants

We saw the polar bears in all their familiar poses, sleeping, sparring, mother bears with cubs, bears rolling over and bears coming across the ice. The bears look very sweet, and you have to remind yourself that they are some of the most ferocious carnivores on the planet (they originally evolved from grizzly bears that migrated from Russia). Sadly, global warming, regardless of the cause, is taking its toll on the polar bear population. The bears rely on there being sufficient sea ice to support hunting and just living. Global warming has had a dramatic effect on reducing the amount of sea ice, and it is likely that the polar bear population will continue to decline over the next few decades, until very few will be left. There are several organizations working to save the bears (Polar Bears International and NRDC, for example), but it may already be too late. Nonetheless, I would encourage all to contribute to these organizations.

An arctic hare is part of
this environment also

Notwithstanding the plight of the polar bears, the trip was outstanding. We saw probably 50 different bears and were able to photograph them easily from the open windows of our tundra buggy vehicle. We also had two clear nights, which gave us dramatic views of the Northern Lights.

You cannot help falling in love with these animals. I was surprised to find in our group that there were a number of couples, where only one of the spouses was a photographer. There was also another group at the “lodge” when we were there which consisted of people just interested in seeing the bears and the arctic. They loved the experience as well as the photo group did. I enjoy photographing animals and sharing the images with anyone who is interested. Polar bears seem to touch an emotional cord in many people, making even more fun to share the images and talk about the experience. Friends have asked me if this was a once in a lifetime experience. I am hesitant to say yes, because I would love to go back. The only issue for me is that there are a lot of other places I would like to see and photograph, so I am not sure when I will return. I can only say to those who think it might be of interest, it is a fabulous trip. Don’t wait.

I highly recommend the experience and would happily answer anyone’s questions. I will have polar bear images up on my website in late January or February.