Gone Polar(bear)

IPT

Active member
Nothing to do with reefin', but thought you'll might like to see some photos from a recent trip to Churchill Canada I took. Once in a lifetime (unless I go again :)), expensive as hell, and worth every penny. Absoutely amazing.

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Excellent photos Louis! that must have been quite an adventure. That last shot is priceless.

Thanks for sharing.
 
Yeah, the last one was taken as we were PULLING AWAY! We were late by 45 min already and the "perfect light" only had so much pull I guess. It was killing me watching it all from the rear window :( (though, I did manage to get a few good shots before the departure). A guide the next day had said the light that night had been the nicest of the season. It was for sure about as perfect as it could be. A dream almost.

Thanks.
 
Those are great Louis. Looks like an amazing trip. Being that far North and seeing the Aurora is also one of my life goals. I'm envious.


Cheers,
Doug
 
Thanks Doug. Man, I see the Aurora all the time (as a matter of fact that is a self portrait in my avitar of one of the less common red ones). My parents have never seen them yet. They even came up here (Alaska) to visit in March and we went to Fairbanks (one of the best places to see them) and didn't get to see them. They really hoped to see them in Churchill in addition to the bears. We were beat from travel and crashed the first night. Wouldn't you know the next day people said they were cranking! Then for the next 3 nights, nada. So, they still have something to look forward too.

You would love the Photographic opportunites up here Doug. The Reefing opportunities up this way are sort of weak though :).
 
Wow, those are great shots. I love how the fox stands out against the snow. What type of lens did you use, a 300mm?
 
300mm f2.8 (borrowed from a friend) and 1.4 tele on full sensor camera (so essentialy a 420mm lens). Yeah, we think of these critters being so white but against the true white of the snow they really do have more of a yellow tinge to them.

Those Arctic foxes are quite small. Much smaller than the Red fox. More like a really big cat I'd say. Real skitish too, but quite cute none the less. This guy did little more than open an eye while we watched him. We did see one the night before cruising around a bear. They apparently follow them because the bears eat a lot of the blubber leaving meat behind. Thus these critters get a free meal essentially.
 
LOL, Marc - you were talking about the red fox weren't you? Sorry, 200mm. He ended up walking over toward us so I never had time (or need) to swap lenses. We got real lucky the first day we were there. The area was covered in Hoar Frost so EVERYTHING not living was white. It was quite spectatcular.
 
How about a "Tundra Buggy". Actually, the first day was in a plain old school bus. Almost slipped off the road, no, did slip off the road at one point but we managed to get out. That was in town basically. Thats where we saw the fox on a bluff overlooking the bay. The second was on a 4WD school bus lifted with about 30+ inch tires running about 15 PSI. That was fun. More exporatory. The last day we were on these monster 6WD rigs on 5ft tall tires. Though then we were more on beat down tracks.

I asked the guide if people were careful about walking around in town. His reply, "not as careful as they should be". One night a bear came into town. They basically followed it around and shot exploding shells at it until it left. They have a hotline to call if one is spotted. They don't want them in town and respond pretty quickly if they come in. They even have a "Polar Bear Jail" :).

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Yeah, "in" the truck is the key word here. I for one would not want to play this game with an animal that is known to kill humans!! Talk about an adrenaline rush!




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LOL - that last shot is funny. To me, sitting comfortably at home in front of my monitor, that is. ;)
 
I can only imagine what's goin' through that guys mind. One slip and it could be ugly. The poor guy probably needed a change of underwear afterwards.
 
The 2nd shot should win an award. I definitely enjoyed the emotions it pocesses and clearly feel the harsh weathers in that one.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13850073#post13850073 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MrSandman
I can only imagine what's goin' through that guys mind. One slip and it could be ugly. The poor guy probably needed a change of underwear afterwards.


At least he's wearing brown pants.
 
Anyone know what finally actually happened to that guy, besides being turned into a pile of polar poo?
 
I've seen the whole series of shots and read a little story about it (I'm an Alaskan too) and the bear eventually gave up.

What makes me laugh is someone was sitting there taking pictures instead of trying to shoo the bear off or doing something helpful ;)
 
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