A Beautiful Beginning

Nunavut

A Beautiful Beginning not only to my morning, but life itself, and these little cubs. How fortunate to experience the miracle of life and its beginnings. Mother bear in this photo exhibits all the qualities of being proud, protective, and a great provider for her young little cubs!  To get a shot like this, ten things must line up and in this case nine out of ten did. Four of them I had influence over and the other five were up to Mother Nature, I hope everyone realizes what a gift this image is from Mother Nature for all of us! This is a piece that speaks to my dedication to polar bears, as capturing this image was extremely difficult! The previous evening, I had the good fortune to come across this mother bear and her cubs feeding on a seal. This was a cooperative young mother and she allowed us to get close. I used a piece of equipment I developed called “The Tracker”. Upon sending it out, I didn’t realize there was a drop-off and the equipment became disabled very close to the bear. After making several attempts to ‘rescue’ it with no luck, a decision was made between myself and my Inuit friend to stay the night out on the ice. Given the shortness of the night and the fact that I didn’t want to leave my equipment there in case the bear got curious and damaged it, it would have been a costly loss, we stayed. The cubs nuzzled in and they slept with us as we kept a protective watch. A few other bears came by throughout the night, but luckily went the other direction. In the morning we made 3 attempts to rescue the tracker and eventually were successful. We repaired the equipment and sent it back out in time to capture “A Beautiful Beginning”. I was ecstatic! Staying the night on the ice in polar bear country was a once in a lifetime experience and it pushed me out of my comfort zone. As a photographer it is good to push myself sometimes to give me a new perspective on the world I am capturing!

Limited Edition 8x10 and larger to 900

Conservation Edition 30x40 to 25