You might have noticed the metal fence behind her, which crossed the length of the stream. This was put in place by the Department of Fish & Game to keep most of the salmon in the lower part of the stream in order to facilitate the collection of eggs for hatchery use. This created quite a concentration of salmon right at the gate, and the local bears definitely figured that out!
Here's a "making of" shot for this image sequence, courtesy of my wife. We were up on a stream bank (along with many other people watching the bear) and were remarkably close. In any other situation it would have felt too close, however, it was clear from the relaxed behavior of this bear that she was only interested in the fish, and she barely paid attention to the throngs of people watching along the shore.
And since this shot clearly shows my baseball allegiance, I'll sneak in a "Let's Go Giants!!" -- we're up 2-1 in the NLCS!
Awh. T Ulrich gets her own watermark :)
ReplyDeleteOh man; Lucky! That's such an awesome opportunity. I'd love to have more then 5 bear photographs in my collection. The fence can be a killer, but you did a great job of distracting it from the viewer. Plus images that have contrasting items good or bad I find have a place in a story or teaching lesson somewhere down the road. You gotta see the rocky mountain elk out in Pennsylvania. Big 'mommaluke' but so much housing I just couldn't get around it! Win some, lose some. I love how your wife got you in the heat of the action. She's got a great eye for composition too by the way.
ReplyDeleteOn a baseball note go Giants! My Mets are incredibly disappointing so I say down with Philly and down with the Yankees!
@Laura: Yep, she certainly does!
ReplyDelete@Jarred: Thanks! This was a really awesome opportunity, and I always thought you'd have to go to Alaska to see something like this. It was a bit of a bummer that they spent so much time right up next to the salmon fence, but I can't really blame the bears -- that's where the fish were so concentrated in the stream that it took very little effort to pull one out.