Chilko Lake 3

Big lenses for big bears

I got my best results photographing grizzly bears when I was out in a small boat, close to water level, using a large telephoto lens (500 mm) that allowed me to stay a safe distance from the bears and not disturb their natural behaviour. Hand holding the lens worked best for me, as I could respond faster to action. Personally I find tripods or monopods are pretty useless on boats. I always shot on Auto ISO, trying to use higher aperture and higher speed settings to get good depth of field and freeze the action. This often meant shooting at higher ISO (max ~6000), but these days cameras and post-production software have gotten very good at handling noise.

technical detailswildlife photographygrizzly bearsbig lensesboatphotographersshorelinetreeswaterreflectionsCariboo ChilcotinBritish Columbia