Black Bear Moms and Cubs, Minnesota, 2018

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I had a small group of photographers on an HW Safaris tour photographing black bear moms and cubs. While there are a lot of black bears that wander in and out of the meadow, it is a hurry up and wait game for us as we are there for moms with spring cubs. This area has a lot of black and cinnamon black bears. The various colour tones of black bears make wonderful subjects.

This year we were lucky enough to photograph a mom with three cubs. We saw her a couple times on both the first and second days. We saw a mom with four, although you’ll have to take my word for it because by the time we got in position to photograph her, she and her cubs took off into the bush. We photographed a second mom with triplets in the evening of the second day for an hour or so. On the third day it rained throughout the morning. Outside the 8 boars that were in the area, we got lucky photographing a yearling on a log.

The third day was pretty quiet, but we persevered and just before it was time to leave, a mom and a single cub wandered into the forest on the edge of the meadow. They gave us some nice opportunities to photograph the cub as the little one went up a tree. Shooting between the canopy of leaves we had a couple brief opportunities to get a couple good images of her. Our black bear gallery can be seen here.

Throughout our three days we estimate that we saw a total of approximately 50-60 different black bears.

Our next Black bear moms and cubs safari will be in June, 2019. Check our itinerary for the dates and details if you are interested in a great opportunity to photograph black bear moms and cubs in their natural environment.

Wildlife Photography Course

Wildlife Photography Course

If you live in the Edmonton area, we offer a wildlife photography course twice a year in the summer. Our next course will run September 8 & 9, 2018. To register, please visit Burwell School of Photography.

What better way to prepare for your safari than to learn some wildlife photography basics before you go. We start out with some classroom time then practice our techniques with my pet green winged macaw, Rio.

 We go back to the classroom to view our images and discuss what we can do to improve our wildlife portraits. Then we drive out to Tofield to photograph Saw Whet Owls and peregrine falcons.

On day two we analyze our images again, learn more techniques on speed photography then we practice our new skill by photographing Rio, flying toward the photographers.

This is a great course to prepare you for any one of our wildlife safaris. Join us in Alaska as we photograph brown bears or black bears in Minnesota or the Ultimate bucket list safari of them all. Masai, Mara, Kenya.

HW Photo & Safari. Africa & Alaska, 2019

Bucket List Tours with HW Photo & Safaris
Our Bucket List Masai Mara Wildlife Photo Safari is sold out. We have four spots open for our Masai Mara trip in February, 22 to March 7th, 2019. Visit HW Photo & Safaris for more details.

After each safari we make a video as a keepsake for our guests. Curious of what an HW Photo & Safari is like? Check out the video. 

Email greg@hwphoto.ca to register for this bucket list Safari in Kenya.

When we go the Mara, we support four schools. In February we were able to bring in 1300 pounds in donations. School supplies, teaching supplies, washable feminine hygiene products, books and soccer balls. We even had 900 soccer jerseys donated by Millwoods Soccer Association. We take care of the donations. Guests can donate or not. Many of our guests in February just donated their extra allowable checked luggage space. Everyone was able to examine the bag that had their name on it. We did the rest. We collected the donations, packed and organized the donations in our bags. 

Spending an afternoon with the children was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. Anyone who isn't interested in visiting the school were able to go on a game drive while we were at the school.

African Wildlife by Harvey Wildlife Photography

Cheetahs, Lions, Lion Cubs, Leopards, Leopard Cubs, Serval, Elephant, Zebra, Giraffes, Black Backed Jackals & Wild Dogs

Brown Bears of Lake Clark National Park

In June, 2019 we have a small group going to Alaska to photograph brown bears. Check out the link for more details.

This video was taken with an iPhone. That gives you an idea as to how habituated these wild bears are in this beautiful National Park in Alaska. This park is not accessible by road, so the brown bear viewing is much more special as there aren't crowds of people. Just a lot of bears. It is a very special wildlife experience. The below video is a fun video that we made for our last group.

We have 3 spots left. Please email greg@hwphoto.ca to register for this Alaskan Brown Bear Safari.

Alaskan Brown Bear Photo Gallery 1

Alaskan Brown Bear Photo Gallery 2