Polar Bear Photo Safari Day Six. Triplets!...

I didn't get a chance to see triplets last year and have been looking forward to it. Finally today we hit pay dirt!


It snowed a couple inches last night which meant that all the old tracks would be covered over and that only the freshest tracks from the morning would be seen. We started out by finding two day dens and a main den with tracks coming and going from each, but not leaving the area. We set up and waited for a couple hours. The backdrop was perfect. The lighting was perfect. Triplets would be the tri-fecta. Unfortunately the bears never came out of their den.

Polar Bear Den

After a couple hours we got a call that Morris had found a mother and cub about 8 miles away. We packed up and headed out. On the way, we found more tracks. A mother and triplets. We followed the tracks and found the mother and cubs. She rested in a day bed surrounded by spruce. It wasn't a view that showed off her cubs really well, but one by one they did pop their little heads up. The smallest cub was just a little runt, about half the size of the other two. After a couple hours, mom got up and took her cubs up the hill. The pictures on the way were pretty good. The ABC guys got stunning video footage of the mom and little ones. Perfect timing too as they are catching the train to Churchill at 3:30a.m. tomorrow morning. All in all a great day. We never did make it to the single cub that Morris had found and I'm not sure that the mom and cubs that we were watching for this morning came out of their den. By the time we drove by it was dark, so it was difficult to see if there were more tracks leading out of the den or not.

Triplets! The third bear was just tiny. About half the size of the other two.

I got a refresher from Mike, the owner of the lodge on what 'Watchee' means and the history of it. Mike's family owns this land and the lodge was built by the Canadian Navy. They used it, then left  it. Mike and his brother Morris decided to use the lodge as a polar bear safari lodge for moms and cubs. Although their father thought it sounded strange, he gave his blessing and today the lodge has a long waiting list of people wanting to get in each year. Watchee means trees on a hill. The lodge is at the top of a hill surrounded by trees.
New Edit:
The ABC piece from this safari day ran on nightline. You can see it here: 
Tomorrow. Day 7 of 8. I have a good feeling about tomorrow. The forecast is supposed to be similar to today... Which by the way was sunny and the thermometer showed -13 this morning. I dressed a little down thinking it would be warm. Although it wasn't bad, with the wind it certainly wasn't balmy. My fingers are still burning from trying to change a camera card.
Pictures from my polar bear safari in 2010 and 2011 may be found at my new website here:

Polar Bear Photo Safari Day Five...Forty Below and a High Wind...

My dad used to always kid that it was forty below and a high wind any time it was cold outside. Being from Edmonton, I don't think I have ever actually truly experienced that kind of weather. And if I did, it was only very briefly as we hustled from one building to another. Today was definitely that day. Not only was it exactly that day, but to get the images we were looking for we stood outside in the wind for 6 straight hours. We only went back into the vans very briefly in case of necessity, not wanting to miss out on a potential great shot.

Today we found the bears after lunch around 12:30 ish. We found another mother with only one cub. The cub was busy and posed a bit for us, then curled up with his mommy and went to sleep. For most of the day they just stayed curled up. As the wind blew, they got completely covered with snow. Finally as we were starting to pack up close to 7p.m., the bears heard the snowmobiles and looked up briefly. I have to credit all of the photographers who stood outside all day waiting for that one shot. We wouldn't dare take a break any longer than absolutely necessary in case we missed "the shot" that we were all looking for... The picture of momma bear standing up and shaking the snow off her back. In the end we didn't get that shot, but we did manage to get some shots of her shaking the snow off her head. 

The same bears after three or four hours of wind.
The snow almost buried them.

The hardest part of the day for me was exchanging camera cards. It was so cold that taking off a glove, and switching cards took about ten minutes. (in the summer it would take literally 15 seconds). When your hands freeze instantly, they become much less nimble and the cards are very small. Not to mention that the cameras are made of metal, so touching something metal for any period of time with bare skin in that weather is not pleasant.


Tomorrow we cross our fingers and hope for the Wapusk National Park trifecta; active triplets, good light and a nice background.

Polar Bear Photo Safari Day Four...

We caught up with the polar bear mom and cub that we left last night. The mom had a collar on her. When we noticed her collar the photographers sighed and the WWF crew were elated that they were watching a bear that is being studied. It was kind of a funny contrast moment. This mom is apparently 22 years old. This year she only had one cub, so it was really healthy looking as it gets all of mom's milk. 

After the bear and cub took off, we had lunch. The trackers didn't see anything today, so we drove all day looking for dens. We didn't find anything of significance, but we did get stuck five times. Everyone gets out of the van and they tow us out. Considering the tracks get buried completely and the snow is up to the frame of the truck, the van tows out pretty easily each time.


Photo opportunities were pretty slim today. The cub was pretty active, but was behind and amidst a lot of willows, so the few pictures that we took certainly weren't the greatest.


It was somewhere between -30 to -35 today. Much nicer than yesterday. Still pretty damn cold if your gloves are off for any period of time.


Myself and the others that I came with have four photo days left. We're half way through. We have enjoyed nice clear weather and have seen bears every day but one. Unfortunately so far we have had nice light, bears and nice backgrounds, but not all at once. When we have the background, the bears don't come out. When we have the bears, the background is nasty. Now hopefully, we will get the light, the bears and the background all at once. Triplets would be nice too. In the past two years I have yet to see triplets.


Until tomorrow...


*New Post* Several months after we got back from this safari, I found a WWF youtube video from this day. You can find it here. My gallery from this safari and from my 2010 polar bear safari can be found here.

Polar Bear Photo Safari Day Three...

On Wednesday we spent the day with a video team that is partly responsible for the filming of Disney's African Cats Nature Series. Gaye and I were in Kenya while they were filming this movie in September and saw them videoing for the movie. The videographers from Disney were up doing a documentary on North American animals. From here, they were off to Florida to video the aligators. Yesterday we not only had a slow day with no bears, but half the photographers in the lodge left, so we were down to 9 photographers yesterday. Last night another crew came in. Today we had a crew from ABC. They are doing a piece for nightline on polar bears. Along with the ABC crew are a crew from WWF (not the wrestlers, the world wildlife fund).

It was an interesting day. At about -45 with a wind chill, we stayed out for about 6 hours, only coming in about two or three times to quickly warm up and get a bite to eat. (It amazes me how warm those parkas are!). We were watching over a fresh den. At 2p.m., a cub poked his little head out of the den. Just my luck, I was in the van warming my toes up! Finally by about 6p.m. tired and cold, 20 photographers started taking down their gear and loading up the vans. With only a few people left outside, the little guy poked his head out of the hole and started almost posing a little bit. Most of us rushed back out. The light was great and we got some pretty good baby polar bear images. 15 minutes later, the light died and we left back for the lodge. I got about 3 or 4 pretty good images. In the end, not bad for 6 hours in the cold.
New Edit:
Several months after we got back from this safari, WWF posted a video from this day on youtube. It is ultra cute. You can view it here:

Images on my new website from this safari can be found here.


On the drive home, we found another set of tracks. I think this bodes well for tomorrow. We have one den that should serve us well tomorrow along with tracks and another den that they know of that may be active. Also, the sun is supposed to come out tomorrow and polar bears photograph the best in nice sunlight.

Polar Photo Safari Day Two...

Bears one, photographers one. We got skunked today. Not much to report. -35 degrees. Bad light. I was sick, sick, sick. Damn motion sickness! Eight hours of nothing but motion sickness.It is difficult when you can't see any horizons. Yucky! On a bright note, they found two active dens at the end of the day. We will go check them out first thing tomorrow. It is supposed to be -45 tomorrow. The light will still likely be yucky for one more day. Fingers crossed, but the forecast is looking good after tomorrow.

Polar Bear Photo Safari Day One...

A respectable first day. We found a mother all curled up at about 11:30a.m. We watched her for an hour or so, then finally one cub emerged. It was pretty active and played all around his mommy for at least an hour. We figured that he must be alone, when a second cub emerged. Although the background was horrible, it was still a pretty fun sighting as we stayed until 6:30p.m. 

The weather was pretty decent. It was only about -20 to -25 which is really warm for up here. That being said, we   stood at our cameras for six hours until we lost the light. Crappy background, but all in all a fun day and a good start to our safari. I took about 3400 pictures today. I have been trying to post some pictures to this blog, but they won't upload easily for some reason. I guess I will have to try later. In the meantime, you can see a few shots on my facebook page.

Polar Bears: Travel Day...

Interesting first day. The flight from Edmonton to Winnipeg was fine. The luggage arrived, all was good. I saw a photographer standing over by the check in area with what seemed like camera equipment coming out of every orfice. Oldest trick in the book. Weigh yourself down with camera gear in every pocket imaginable (Richard was wearing a photo vest with pockets all over). Then when they weigh your bags you remain under weight. As soon as they weigh your bags, you put all the equipment back in the bags again and load the plane. For some reason it doesn't register that perhaps the photographer is wearing 20 pounds in camera equipment. They only look at his bag on the scale. Anyway, we go to register and we of course each have a few bags, so they ask us "which bag would you like to go to Churchill? Which one is necessary?" I don't know about you, but I always go on photography excursions with unnecessary equipment. We are stunned and both reply "All of them." To which they explain that we can only choose one bag and the rest will get sent to us in a day or two. Miss two days of photography in the mean time??Yeah, that doesn't work so well for us, so after a lengthy discussion, we figure out that we can call a cab and go over to the cargo hanger and have it sent up as cargo. That works. Glad we thought of it.

Okay, so we get to Churchill and eventually so does our gear. We pick up my parka and get a bite to eat. Low and behold there is a bone in my hamburger. Go figure. A bone?! Oh well, it was good and now it was free. I was hungry. I didn't care. It kind of makes me wonder what kind of "burger" I just ate though.

The train to Chesnae is broken down, so we pile in the van and off we go. Two hours later, the van breaks down. The transmission is leaking, so we wait for reinforcements to come and pick us up. Finally at 11:30p.m. we arrive at the Lodge. Long day, but we are looking forward to tomorrow. Hopefully we will see bears. Sounds like it has been hit and miss this year with the bears. Some good sightings, a few really good sightings and lots of sitting on dens waiting for them to come out. Sometimes a whole day of waiting on a den empty handed. Oh well, win a few, lose a few. Hopefully tomorrow is the day for us. We'll see. I'll blog about it tomorrow night when we get in.