The past couple of years I have been trying to concentrate on photographing wildlife within their natural habitat as opposed to portraits.  Not that I dislike portraits – portraits of animals are often very challenging and when everything comes together, the results can be quite magical.

I find it a bit more challenging to photograph wildlife this way.  Basically you have to combine all the challenges of wildlife photography with the challenges of landscape photography.  Often times, the animal is a relatively small part of a bigger picture, and can be enjoyable composing the photograph.

I was in Juneau in July of 2009 and was out photographing with Bob Armstrong, a dear friend and a wonderful photographer and naturalist.  Bob has spent over 50 years photographing and documenting Alaska’s natural history and is a wealth of information.  You can find his website here, and be prepared to be amazed! 

I mentioned to him that I would really enjoy photographing a black bear with Mendenhall Glacier in the background.  He took me to one of his favorite spots and within the hour a bear appeared and began fishing.  Even though this bear is brownish in color, it is still a black bear (Ursus americanus).  Black bears can be black, brown, cinnamon, or on rare occasions white or cream colored known as a Kermode or Spirit Bear.

We observed and photographed this bear for 15 or 20 minutes before it wandered down the creek in search of more salmon.  It was a wonderful experience and photographing wildlife within their natural habitat has become one of my favorite aspects of enjoying our beautiful natural world.