I captured a lot of images of the bears of Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska. The majority of the photos I took were with a rented Canon 500mm f4L Mk II lens on my Canon 1-DX body. I duplicated many of the originals which I then cropped quite a bit in order to focus only on the faces of the bears (thank goodness for full-frame cameras). After a time, I began to notice unique differences in each face, their shape, their scars, expressions, and – to some extent – the color of their fur. Here are some of the portraits I took of the denizens of this park. FYI, I have also created a 2014 calendar with brown bear portraits in addition to other 2014 calendars. Here is the link to the site where I am selling the calendars, or click on any the calendar images to the left of this screen.
*Note: the park has stringent rules regarding human/bear interaction. If’ you read my article about Brooks Lodge written for the National Parks Traveler, you will have read some of the rules I listed and know that all of these photos captured were taken from the safety of the viewing platforms constructed for the viewing of the bears with the super-telephoto lens and then cropped.
Look at these portraits and you, too, will notice the characteristics that make each one of these bears as unique as you and I.
Where The Trails Take You Photography 