Photo Safaris By Region AFRICA - Masai Mara Wildlife Reserve, Kenya - Namibia—Land of the Himba - Cape Town—Photo Tour for Women ANTARCTICA - Ultimate Antarctica ASIA - Angkor Wat & Bagan - China's Winter Tigers & Giant Pandas - Japan's Winter Wildlife - India—The Palace on Wheels - Snow Monkeys & Giant Pandas - Essential China—Iconic Landmarks & Landscapes - Great Rivers & Mountains of China & Tibet - Mongolia—The Golden Eagle Festival EUROPE - Britain's Winter Birdlife - Eclectic Holland - Wildlife of Hungary & Transylvania - Transylvania—Romania of Myth & Legend - Venice - Tuscany - Turkey—Continental Crossroads - Provence - Spitsbergen—The Pack Ice Voyage - Ultimate Puffins - Albania, Macedonia & Montenegro NORTH AMERICA - Ultimate Wolves - Ultimate Yellowstone - Horses & Icons of the Wild West in Winter - Nature & Digital Photo Seminars with John Shaw - Monument Valley & Slot Canyons - Great Smoky Mountains - Grand Canyon at Havasu Falls - Predatory Animals of North America - Action & Adventure Sports - Humpback Whales of Alaska's Inside Passage - Glacier National Park Field Workshop - Denali National Park in Autumn - Brown Bears of Katmai National Park in Autumn - South Dakota Wildlife—Bison Roundup & Mount Rushmore - World's Best Raptor Shoot - Nova Scotia—Photo Tour for Women PACIFICA - Papua New Guinea SOUTH & CENTRAL AMERICA - Patagonia' Mountain Landscapes - Baja California—Whales, Wildlife & Wilderness - Easter Island & Machu Picchu - Mexico's Colonial Heartland Photo Safaris By Date JANUARY - Ultimate Antarctica - Ultimate Wolves - Ultimate Yellowstone - Angkor Wat & Bagan - Britain's Winter Birdlife FEBRUARY - China's Winter Tigers & Giant Pandas - Horses & Icons of the Wild West in Winter - Nature & Digital Photo Seminars with John Shaw - Japan's Winter Wildlife MARCH - Baja California—Whales, Wildlife & Wilderness - Monument Valley & Slot Canyons - India—The Palace on Wheels APRIL - Nature & Digital Photo Seminar with John Shaw - Patagonia' Mountain Landscapes - Eclectic Holland - Great Smoky Mountains - Wildlife of Hungary & Transylvania MAY - Grand Canyon at Havasu Falls - Transylvania—Romania of Myth & Legend - Venice - Tuscany - Turkey—Continental Crossroads - Snow Monkeys & Giant Pandas JUNE - Predatory Animals of North America in Spring - Action & Adventure Sports - Essential China—Iconic Landmarks & Landscapes - Provence JULY - Spitsbergen—The Pack Ice Voyage - Ultimate Puffins AUGUST - Humpback Whales of Alaska's Inside Passage - Glacier National Park Field Workshop - Denali National Park in Autumn SEPTEMBER - Masai Mara Wildlife Reserve, Kenya - Brown Bears of Katmai National Park in Autumn - Great Rivers & Mountains of China & Tibet - Albania, Macedonia & Montenegro - Namibia—Land of the Himba - Mongolia—The Golden Eagle Festival - Predatory Animals of North America in Autumn - South Dakota Wildlife—Bison Roundup & Mount Rushmore OCTOBER - Papua New Guinea - World's Best Raptor Shoot - Nova Scotia—Photo Tour for Women - Nature & Digital Photo Seminars with John Shaw - Easter Island & Machu Picchu - Mexico's Colonial Heartland NOVEMBER - Wet & Wild—Andean Condors and Iquazú Falls DECEMBER - No tours scheduled for December 2008 JANUARY 2009 - Cape Town—Photo Tour for Women

		Ultimate Antarctica February 2–March 1, 2006 Spring Fever in Galapagos April 29–May 15, 2006 Polar Bears & Wildlife of Spitsbergen June 26–July 8, 2006 Masai Mara Wildlife Reserve, Kenya September 8–22, 2006 Emperor Penguins of Snow Hill Island, Antarctica October 19–November 3, 2006 and October 31–November 15, 2006 Photographing bears has enriched our lives more than any other subject.We began to seriously work with bears in October of 1982 on our first trip to Churchill, Manitoba, the self-proclaimed "Polar Bear Capital of the World."Since then we have logged roughly 220,000 miles traveling to bear country. Bears have given us some of our greatest adventures, and they have pushed us physically to complete some of our most challenging photo assignments. As well, bear photographs have earned us more money than any other subjectalmost two dollars for every mile we logged to see them. (Of course, those are Canadian dollars, but that's still a lot of loonies.) Bear photography is easy. Fill the frame, focus and fire. The greatest challenge is finding the bear.Over the years, we were surprised to discover that brown bears are relatively easy to find and photograph, polar bears not much harder, but black bears twice as hard as the other two combined. Here's a summary of seven great places to photograph bears. Newborn polar bear cubs are the most attractive of their kind. This particular shot is our all-time best selling bear photograph. CHURCHILL, MANITOBAPOLAR BEARS Everyone has heard about Churchill, and although it is certainly a different experience than it was 20 years ago, it is still one of the best locations in the world to photograph polar bears.The total polar bear population in western Hudson Bay is estimated to be around 1,300 to 1,500 animals. The bears congregate in the Churchill area because that is where the bay freezes first. Stranded ashore, many of the bears have been fasting for three months or more, and they are anxious to get onto the sea ice to hunt seals again. The prime season for photographing polar bears is the last half of October and the first half of November, but once the sea freezes, the bears may disappear in a day and the show is over for another year. Solitary bearsmainly adult males and subadultsare the most common sight. Sometimes females with yearlings or two-year-old cubs show up, but typically they are wary of adult males and stay clear of them because of the risk of infanticide. The one photo opportunity that is unique to Churchill is that of wrestling bears. The bears wrestle for a couple of reasons: to refine social behavior, and to test opponents and gain experience in assessing size and strength and other cues of superiority.A wrestling session may last over 30 minutes and the animals are often oblivious to the cluster of vehicles surrounding them. On our first trip to Churchill there was only one buggy in town. Today, there are at least a dozen such vehicles that take visitors out to view the bears.The drivers try to keep their vehicles apart, so despite the crowded parking lot, the experience is a still a good one. If you're the more adventurous type, you can spend three days and nights at the "Tundra Lodge"a permanent structure located out on the tundra.The Lodge gives you a chance to photograph bears in the golden light of early morning and late day, something that is not possible when you are rooming in town because the shuttle bus is usually on the road at those times.Having said that, don't expect to see a lot of sunshine on a visit to Churchill. The open water of Hudson Bay in October/November generates lots of clouds and many days are overcast, so bring a good supply of fast film (we now use Provia 100F) and hope you never get a chance to use it. There are two ways to visit Churchill: on your own or with a tour. If you come alone, you can rent a car and drive the 35 miles of roads that radiate out from town, hoping to stumble on a wandering bear. We've done it this way when arctic critters such as foxes and ptarmigan were our primary focus. However, if it's primarily bears you want, go with an organized tourand Joseph Van Os Photo Safaris offers two excellent choices. These two adult male polar bears played for over 20 minutes. SVALBARD, NORWAYPOLAR BEARS Svalbard is a cluster of arctic islands located 400 miles north of mainland Norway between 76 and 81 degrees north. This is truly one of the great arctic destinations in the world.Not only are there polar bears (1,8002,200 of them), walruses, seals and throngs of seabirds, but the glacier-carved landscape is breathtaking in scale and grandeur. Unlike Churchill, where the polar bears are usually lounging along the shoreline or in the nearby willows, the polar bears of Svalbard are most commonly seen wandering and hunting on the pack ice, which is where every self-respecting polar bruin wants to be. In the 1980s, Wayne spent weeks watching polar bears hunt in the Canadian High Arctic but it was always at a great distance, and it was never a photo opportunity.Svalbard is differentit's a photographer's dream for hunting bears. On every one of the three trips we have made to the islands we saw bears feeding on seal kills at very close range. On our last Svalbard Photo Safari in July 2002, the ship stayed beside the bear and its kill for over three hours! There's only one way to safely photograph polar bears in Svalbardfrom a ship or from one of the ship's rubber Zodiacs.Its always a wondrous surprise to watch a hungry polar bear totally ignore an ice-crunching, diesel-belching, propeller-throbbing, 230-foot metal monstrosity as it noses within a hundred feet of it. From the deck of the ship it's possible to use every lens from a 28mm to a 600mm with a teleconverter. Ivory gulls often add an exciting touch as they squawk and squabble around the bear.This past summer we saw fewer than a dozen bears; the year before over two dozen. But it's not the total number of bears that counts, it's the quality of the photo opportunity, and on every trip we had at least one bear provide spectacular shooting in a spectacular setting. This roadside black bear in Jasper ate dandelions for almost an hour as we drove along the road beside it. CANADIAN ROCKIESGRIZZLIES & BLACK BEARS Together, Jasper and Banff National Parks are an expansive tract of wildland, twice the size of Yellowstone, cloaking the eastern side of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Here, verdant alpine meadows sweep beneath lofty peaks that catch the firelight of sunrise. Below the alpine, are forests of sunlight and shadow, where the sweet music of thrushes and warblers mixes with the earthy fragrance of conifers. And in the valley bottoms, are legions of poplars, tumbling wild rivers, and miles of lakeshore that replay the echo of courting grebes and the scream of agitated eagles. The Canadian Rockies has so much wildlife and scenery to tantalize the photographer it's easy to forget that it's also a great place to photograph bears. At the end of May the high country is still buried in snow, yet black bears and grizzlies are out of hibernation and hungry. This is the time when both species move to the roadsides in the valley bottoms to feed on fresh greenery.Photography can be done from your vehicle or while standing on the edge of the road.Of course, as soon as you set up a tripod the circus comes to town. "What are you folks looking at?" is the most common question from passing drivers who seem unable to spot the 400-pound bruin foraging in the ditch.Our suggestion is to drive the roads during the weekdays when the locals are locked in the city. Also, don't flaunt that new 600mm f/4 that you just unboxed, and try to be as inconspicuous as possible. Even so, a "bear jam" will This handsome Jasper grizzly was captured from the window of our Jeep with a 600mm lens. To fill the frame with such a lens, the animal needs to be roughly 20 feet away. We don't recommend that you stand outside in such a circumstance. invariably develop and then along comes Ranger Bob.Boom go the cracker shells, and the bruin is history. In our experience, an individual bear may forage along the same short stretch of highway for many days in a row.If you come back, day after day, success is usually possible. In 2001, a female grizzly with two yearling cubs used the same quarter mile of highway near Lake Louise all summer long! We went looking for her three days in a row and found her every day. By midsummer both the black bears and the grizzlies have moved away from the highways and up avalanche slopes and alpine meadows where they are difficult to locate.Not to worry. The bruins return again when the berries ripen at the end of August.Thick stands of red soapberries flank many of the roads in Jasper and Banff, and the bears move into these to fatten for the winter. They may gobble down 200,000 berries in a single day!By the end of October they are down and out for another winter. Bear photography in the Canadian Rockies is best done on your own.Fly to Calgary or Edmonton, rent a car, pack a lunch and off you go. Most photo tours to the Rockies focus on the spectacular landscapes and more common wildlife.Waiting for hours for a chance that a bear will appear is not conducive to a group activity. KATMAI NATIONAL PARK, ALASKACOASTAL BROWN BEARS Katmai is located near the base of the Alaskan Peninsula.The park was originally created to preserve the volcanic wonders of the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes that was formed by a cataclysmic eruption in 1912.Bear photographers usually don't give a darn about ash and cinder, and the real attraction of Katmai is the spawning salmon and the bears they attract. The brochures claim "the park is a sanctuary for the largest unhunted population of coastal brown bears in the world." Getting to Katmai is easy. Traveling with Joseph Van Os Photo Safaris makes the trip effortlessand they book the prime dates annually.Daily jet service flies between Anchorage and King Salmon, and from there you climb into a small floatplane for the 30-minute flight to Brooks Camp. Another option is to use the public campground located near the lodge. No matter where you stay everyone has the same chance to view the bears. Three elevated wooden platforms have been built to minimize the disturbance that visitors pose to the bears. The upper platform is located beside a waterfall about a mile walk from the lodge. Here, photographers stand shoulder to shoulder, three tiers deep, to watch the spectacle of fishing bears. The falls at Katmai is the site of the famous leaping-salmon-gaping-bear photograph immortalized by photographer Tom Mangelsen. The light at the falls is best in the late afternoon and early evening, usually when many of the lodges non-photographer patrons are sidling up to the buffet table.A 300mm or 400mm is the lens of choice if you want to copy the Mangelsen image, but photos are possible with everything from a 28mm to an 800mm lens. Visitation to Katmai has increased so much in recent years that the park rangers now regulate how long you can stay at the upper viewing platform. When it is busy you may be limited to an hour, after which you go back along the elevated walkway to the rapids platform and wait in line again if you want another session. Some bear photography is possible from the rapids platform, but it is primarily a waiting area for visitors wanting to spend time at the upper platform. The third platform is located just a few hundred yards from the lodge where the Brooks River empties into Naknek Lake. During July, the bears routinely travel past this platform on their way to and from the upstream waterfalls. The lower platform is at its best in September. By then the salmon runs are over, the waterfalls are deserted and dead salmon float downstream and settle on the bottom of the river. Bears snorkel and dive for the salmon at close range. This is our favorite time to be in Katmai because the bears look fat and healthy, they have new winter coats, and the willows and grasses along the river are touched with gold. Cute sells, and not surprisingly, this grizzly cub from McNeil is our number two best selling bear image. McNEIL RIVER BROWN BEAR SANCTUARYCOASTAL BROWN BEARS Every bear junkie has heard about the McNeil River (Click here for McNeil River State Game Sanctuary web site). We think it qualifies as THE BEST location to photograph coastal brown bears. In the 1980s, we were lucky enough to spend many memorable weeks at McNeil. Times change, and although visitor stays are now more strictly controlled by a visitation lottery system, the bear viewing is every bit as good now as it was then. McNeil is only a floatplane ride from Brooks Camp in Katmai but it's a very different experience, largely due to biologist Larry Aumiller who has strictly controlled visitor behavior since 1976. For Larry, the bears come first. As a result, the bears of McNeil largely ignore the visitors and go about their business pretty much as they always have. The brown bears at McNeil, like those in Katmai, are drawn to the area by the lure of spawning salmon.In June, it's pink salmon in Mikfik Creek, and in July and early August it's chum salmon in the nearby McNeil River. One of the charms of McNeil is that visitation is tightly controlled. Only ten visitors per day may go out into the sanctuary. They travel as a group, accompanied by Larry (or one of his associates) who controls the behavior and movements of the people. The result? Brown bears at very close range (commonly less than 200 feet), nursing, mating, grazing, playing and fishing. It doesn't get any better than this.One pro boasted that he burned through 85 rolls of film in a single day at McNeil. Hope he remembered to focus. This photo was made at McNeil River Sanctuary in early June. At this time of the year, the bears spend more time grazing on sedges than they do fishing. If McNeil is so great, why don't more people visit?First you must enter a lottery with a $25 non-refundable fee, select one of the four-day blocks offered June 7August 25, submit your application by March 1, wait on tenterhooks until April when the draw is made, pay the user fee ($150 for Alaskan residents, $350 for non-residents), then get yourself by float plane to McNeil with all of your camping gear. That's right.No lodge, no hot showers, no restaurant, just a communal cooking cabin, and a thin nylon tent separating you from the bears and the big outdoors.Be prepared to apply for several years in a row. DENALI NATIONAL PARK, ALASKAGRIZZLIES Denali features all the big hairy critters any self-respecting wildlife shooter would want to target: moose, Dall's sheep, caribou, wolf, lynx, wolverine and grizzly bears. A 90-mile road traverses the park. Private vehicles, other than registered campers, are not allowed past the Savage River checkpoint, 15 miles from the park entrance. Shuttle buses operate a regular service along the entire length of the road, and passengers may disembark wherever they wishexcept, of course, when there is a large critter such as a grizzly bear nearby. Then, you are not permitted to leave the bus until Christmas.Well, maybe you don't have to stay aboard that long, but long enough for the bus to convert the bear into a dot in the distance. Bear photography from the shuttle bus window is wishful thinking, so that doesn't leave many options for the amateur photographer. Just for the record, pro photographers with enough published credits to impress the park service may obtain a professional photography permit that allows them to drive the park road using their own vehicle. The permit period extends from June 1 to September 12. Permits vary from 9 to 12 days, and cost $200$300.We've been to Denali perhaps half a dozen times, but only once using a pro permit. We like Denali, not so much for its grizzlies, but for its moose, sheep and spectacular views of the mountain in fall.Even so, we've had some great grizzly viewing and managed to snag a few nice photos along the way. HYDER, ALASKACOASTAL BROWN BEARS & BLACK BEARS For years we've heard photographers whisper about Hyder in southeast Alaska.You reach this fabled hideaway from central British Columbia. Travel north on Highway 37 and take the turnoff west to Stewart, BC. Since we've never been to Hyder we telephoned our friend, photographer Jared Hobbs, to give us the scoop. Jared confided that the area has two big attractions, glaciers and bears. Jared waxed on about the 20 or so glaciers in the area, the deep forested valleys, and the delicious overcast light in which coastal folks like him love to photograph. After he caught his breath he told us you reach Hyder by driving through the town of Stewart. A couple of miles past Stewart there is a US-Canada border crossing which leads to Hyder that bills itself as "the friendliest ghost town in America."Follow a logging road six miles out of Hyder and voil you're at a salmon-spawning stream.As many as a dozen brown bears and sometimes three or four black bears come to fish there on any given day.Jared thought the best time was late August and all through September.You shoot from the edge of the river in an open location, and during a one-week stay you'll usually get a mixture of sun and cloud.There's one hotel and a campground in Hyder, but not much else.What you DO get is a relatively unknown (until now) bear photo location with a minimum of regulations and controls.Thanks, Jared. This will be our last column on the Photo Safaris website.We started the column in September 1999 and it's been a great ride.Our heartfelt thanks go to all the readers who sent us kind words and encouraging comments over the past three years.

	Joseph Van Os Photo Safaris, Inc. P.O. Box 655, Vashon Island, Washington USA 98070 Phone: (206) 463-5383   Fax: (206) 463-5484    Email: info@photosafaris.com Copyright © 2008, Joseph Van Os Photo Safaris, Inc.