By Jenn Gidman
Images by Rick Sheremeta
Alaska's McNeil River Game Sanctuary, sprawled over 200 square miles of land about 250 miles southwest of Anchorage, has protected wildlife in the region for nearly 50 years, including red fox, harbor seals, moose, and bald eagles. It also hosts the world's largest concentration of wild brown bears, which is what Rick Sheremeta focused his camera on when he visited there in early August.
"Most of the bears have been there through their entire life cycle," he says. "They show up at Mikfit Creek in the spring, after hibernation, because that's where the first of the sockeye salmon spawn, then move on to McNeil Falls and the lower river as the season progresses and the salmon run changes. We just pitch our tents in this sort of protected compound, which is enclosed by thick alders. We get provided with propane for cooking, and there's a shack where you can store and cook food, as well as anything else that has an odor, like soap or toothpaste."
Rick and his group enjoyed five days with the bears, heading out around 10 a.m. each day and observing them for up to 10 hours before nightfall. On his camera he used the Tamron SP 150-600mm VC lens to capture the action. "For its focal length, the lens is relatively light and compact," he says. "Its range let me get in a lot closer without having to get closer to the bears. And I was happy with the sharpness, which helped me nicely capture all the details."
The 150-600mm's Vibration Compensation (VC) feature came in handy during particularly gusty days. "I shot everything on a tripod and didn't normally have the VC on, but there were occasions when the wind was blowing hard," Rick says. "What I normally do with a large lens is take my left arm and drape it over the full length of the lens to weight it down in the front. I'd counter that with my right hand on the camera so I could still rotate it and still keep it rock-steady. But when it was really windy, with so much area exposed by the lens, shake was somewhat of a concern, so the VC was useful in those instances to help keep my images from blurring."
The bears in the preserve are mainly interested in feeding and reproduction, Rick explains—not sparring with people. "They fish and sleep, and the boars chase the sows. They've come to know that humans aren't a threat to them," he says. "We travel in groups of no more than 10 people, move slowly, and stay tight together so it presents a large profile for the bears to see. We're able to plop our stadium seats right down on the rocks and in the sand and mud and watch them for hours on end."
It wasn't high season when Rick visited this time around (it's his third visit), but his group still saw ample action. "During peak times, you may see 70 different bears an hour," he says. "We averaged about 25 unique bears a day, with about 100 average sightings or unique encounters a day, which is still pretty good as this allows you to concentrate on individual bears as opposed to mass bedlam. There were times when we'd twiddle our thumbs for 15 or 20 minutes, but most of the time there were plenty of bears around."
Even though the bears are acclimated to human presence, they're still wild animals with their own social hierarchy, a mesmerizing thing to observe. "They come and go as they please, when they please," Rick says. "You can tell who's top dog—when a 1,400-pound bear comes walking down the stream, the other bears take notice. There are a lot of bluffs and posturing and walking that bow-legged walk like cowboys do in the old Westerns."
Sometimes there are conflicts, too, as evidenced by the bears' scars, Rick notes. "Very often one of them will back off," he says. "But sometimes they go at it and it's like an explosion, where it's all tooth and claw."
With thousands of photos of the bears under his belt, Rick has learned what to look for as he's waiting on the riverbed. "As a result of knowing the bear behavior, I can conserve pushing the shutter down and be very selective on the number of shots and how I approach them," he says. "I watch what the animal is doing and look for expressions, personality, and action—running through the water, shaking, posturing, interacting with other bears. The cubs especially are so photogenic, because they're constantly carrying on and playing. Typically I just focus in on one bear, watch what it's doing, and when I think it's the appropriate moment, take the picture."
All of the images shown here were shot in Shutter Priority, with Rick's ISO set at 400. The images were also all taken at 600mm, with the exception of a portrait he captured of one pensive bear staring right into his camera. "He looks so content, and you have to wonder what's going on in his mind," he says. "I took this photo at 400mm because he was actually so close. If I were at 600mm, I may have cut his ears off in the image."
Rick usually set his minimum exposure between 1/1,000th and 1/1,200th of a second, but his camera adjusted the shutter speed based on the compensation he set in Shutter Priority and the ambient light level. For a photo of one of the bears lumbering into the frame, for example, he ended up taking the photo at 1/200th of a second. "I used evaluative metering for this one, because even though it was overcast, the lighting was fairly uniform," he says. "I photographed at zero compensation and it turned out nicely. I adjusted the tonality afterward in Lightroom."
The bear in this image was warily checking out another bear, and it was simply a matter of tracking it as it moved to capture a compelling photo. "You can see his ears pulled back a little bit," Rick says. "I approach an image like this by trying to anticipate what's going to happen. I focus only on the eyes and try to hold off just until I see that catchlight—that's when I hit the shutter. Usually, I take just one frame."
One of the few times Rick did shoot multiple frames on this trip was when he spotted a bear emerging from the water. "From experience, I can usually tell what they're doing and what they're about to do," he say. "When they're in the water and soaking wet, and there aren't fish or other bears around diverting their attention, they'll usually come out of the water and do a big shake. I saw this bear emerging and decided to shoot multiple frames to capture just the right spot in the action when he started shaking."
Although the bears are accustomed to humans, it's other bears they're constantly on the lookout for. "Their heads are always on a swivel," Rick explains. "They're always aware of what's in their environment and what's coming. They also sleep very lightly, so when another bear starts approaching, they'll hear it splashing through the water. A photo I took of a bear in the river looking somewhat ferocious was because it spotted another bear coming closer."
One of Rick's main goals this year was to photograph the cubs. "A lot of the bigger, more dominant bears had moved on to other areas by the time we arrived, and for that reason, I think the sows with young cubs felt more comfortable being there," he says. "We spotted a mother bear with her two cubs a couple hundred feet away in a lagoon where the McNeil River and Mikfit Creek join before heading into Kamishak Bay. She was so relaxed—the locals call her Lax, in fact—and decided to take a nap, and the cubs, a brother and sister, were just playing around. The salmon there die after they spawn and litter the beach, so I was able to capture the female cub as she was playing with one of the dead salmon."
Other mama bears weren't quite so chill. "Another sow we spotted with her two cubs was a little more skittish," Rick says. "She was constantly on the lookout, and anytime she'd see a bear coming, she'd take those two cubs and scoot. She camped out in a sheltered bluff on the other side of the river, so we set up on our bank about 150 feet away. You can tell from this image that she must have seen something coming up the river, because she's drooling and agitated."
Unwinding with the bears will always be at the top of Rick's photographic list. "I've been up there with some people who bring their teenagers, and usually the kids will be on the side of the river sleeping," he says. "But I don't get tired of watching the bears. It's so fascinating what they do, how they do it, how they react to the presence of other bears, and how they pretty much ignore the human presence. Others apparently feel the same way: It was the sixth visit for the guy I went with, and the eighth time for another woman we met up there. If you like bears, this is the place to go."
To see more of Rick and Dody Sheremeta's work, go to www.alpenglowproductions.com.