Although our adventures were severely limited in 2020 we were able to make it to Alaska for our annual workshop. It took a lot of work to arrange including several covid tests, quarantining and a lot of common sense, hand sanitizer/washing hands and a lot of carefulling. And I’m so glad that we did though. The year would have felt like a total failure otherwise.
This year’s Alaska trip was one of the most memorable visits that we’ve had and I attribute it to the time that we spent with the grizzly bears on the Kenai River. When you spend several days in close proximity to a particular family of Alaska grizzly bears you start to become emotionally attached. In the four days that we spent watching and photographing them we all fell in love with this bear family. Their ultimate demise cemented their memory in our minds forever.
While we were there one of my workshop participants nicknamed them The Candy Family due to their caramel and chocolate colors. Sadly this family was dead within a week of us leaving. The momma and one cub were killed on the road the follows the river as they were crossing. Soon after a second cub was killed at the same spot. The third baby was put down by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game because it wouldn’t leave the scene and was deemed a hazard. All of us in the workshop were devastated when we heard the news. There’s more information about this sad news HERE.
To have these photos in my portfolio is a dream realized. Being around real live Alaska grizzly bears and photographing them has been a dream of mine for a very long time. This was the second time that I’ve been able to photograph the bears at a close distance and I’m looking forward to doing it again during next years workshop. Perhaps you’d consider joining us on our 2021 Alaska Adventure.
This is a series of the bears that I wanted to share as ten of my best, or favorite, photos of 2020. I will post ten of my favorite landscape photos soon. I hope that you enjoy them. Happy New Year my friends. Please be safe while driving and watch for wildlife.
#alaskagrizzlybears
