In the Field

The Great Bear. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada. June 3, 2026.

I've never made my predilection for "animalscape" shots (AKA "environmental wildlife shots") a secret - I just love them. It can be tough to find environments that lend themselves to animalscape shots, but I have to say that the "massiveness" of many of the estuaries and locations in the Great Bear Rainforest often lends itself to scenes that can make for great 'scapes. The gorgeous forest in there - along with abundant wildlife - don't hurt either!

I shot this animalscape in one of my favourite mainland inlets of the Great Bear Rainforest. We had been watching this female grizzly - along with her two cubs - work their way along the shoreline from a distance. When I saw her climbing over the rocks and heading to the "mini viewpoint" - along with the gap between the bear and the more distant and more heavily shaded background forest - my interest quickly grew! Fortunately, mom did stop on the rock/viewpoint I wanted her to, and then promptly looked into the scene just the way I hoped she would! Clearly the god of animalscapes smiled upon me that morning!

When I begin talking about "animalscape" shots I find a lot of listeners/readers automatically think "wildlife shot with a wide-angle lens". While I suppose some wildlife photographer(s) somewhere have probably used a wide-angle lens to capture an animalscape shot, I never have! I personally like to use medium-to-long telephoto lenses for my animalscapes, partly for the "compression" effect you get with them, and partly because they allow you to more effectively "sub-sample" a scene and exclude a lot of extraneous detail you don't want in your shot. Of course, if you use longer lenses for animalscapes you have to work further away from your subject which, in turn, means you have to be able to "see" a distance scene the way your long lens does! And not everyone is good at that. Anyway...this animalscape shot was captured with a Sony 600mm f4 lens shot from a floating Zodiac (a LONG way away from the bear!).

Here's a larger version (4800 pixel) of this very detailed scene (with a tiny main subject!):

• The Great Bear: Download 4800 pixel image (JPEG: 8.9 MB)

ADDITIONAL NOTES:

1. These images - in all resolutions - are protected by copyright. I'm fine with personal uses of them (including use as desktop backgrounds or screensavers on your own computer), but unauthorized commercial use of the image is prohibited by law. Thanks in advance for respecting my copyright!

2. Like all photographs on this website, these images were captured following the strict ethical guidelines described in The Wildlife FIRST! Principles of Photographer Conduct. As such, no baiting or any form of attractant was used and, as always, we attempted to minimize our impact on the ongoing behaviour of the subjects. I strongly encourage all wildlife photographers to always put the welfare of their subjects above the value of their photographs.

3. This image was captured during my Spring in the Southern Great Bear Instructional photo tour in late spring of 2026. Each year I offer photo tours into the Great Bear Rainforest and, every other year, photo tours into the Khutzeymateen Grizzly Sanctuary (to photograph grizzlies, of course!). Details about these trips can be found on the Photo Tours page of this website.

Behind the Camera

The Great Bear. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada. June 3, 2026.

Compressed RAW (ARW) format; ISO 800.

Sony A1 II paired with Sony FE 600mm f4 GM OSS lens. Hand-held from floating Zodiac inflatable boat. OSS on and set to Mode 1. Spot XS (non-tracking) AF area mode with subject recognition mode set to Animal/Bird.

1/2000s @ f4; -0.7 stop compensation from multi-metered exposure setting.

At the Computer

The Great Bear. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada. June 3, 2026.

Initial noise reduction and capture sharpening on the .arw (raw) file using the DeepPRIME XD3 algorithm of DXO PhotoLab 9.5 Elite (using the appropriate camera/lens module).

Subsequent adjustments to the adjusted linear DNG file (exported from PhotoLab) and conversion to 16-bit TIFF file (and JPEG files for web use) - including all global and selective adjustments - made using Capture One Pro (build 16.8). In the case of this image I made two global adjustments - a slight increase in brightness (= mid tone exposure) and a contrast bump (using the levels tool). Selective local adjustments performed using Capture One Pro's layers and masking tools. In this case numerous small adjustments and minor tweaks were made on 5 separate layers, with the tweaks being associated with "exposure balancing" and contrast adjustments (such as adjustments to brightness, clarity, highlights, shadows, blacks, etc.).

Photoshop modifications included insertion of the watermark and/or text.

Conservation

The Great Bear. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada. June 3, 2026.

Species Status in Canada*: Special Concern (May 2002).

While Grizzly Bears (Ursus arctos) are not technically listed as "Endangered" in Canada, they have been extirpated from most of their historical range. Grizzly Bears are far more sensitive to intrusion/disturbance in their habitat than are Black Bears and are being increasingly forced into marginal habitat by human encroachment. The Great Bear Rainforest along the central and northern coast of British Columbia is one of the last strongholds of the Grizzly Bear in Canada, and even this population is coming under increasing pressure.

On December 18, 2017 the government of British Columbia banned grizzly hunting across the entire province. This major conservation victory came after decades of tireless work by many dedicated conservationists and ecologists and, most importantly, it reflects the opinion of the vast majority of British Columbians. And, it means that AT LEAST while the current government remains in power grizzlies are finally "safe" in British Columbia.

Now that we've at least temporarily won the battle to save grizzlies in BC, it's time to re-focus our efforts toward protecting ALL of BC's carnivores, including Gray Wolves, Black Bears, Cougars, Wolverines, and more! Simply put, there are no ecological, economic, or ethical arguments supporting the trophy hunting of carnivores.

*as determined by COSEWIC: The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada