Most photo tours view polar bears from monster tundra buggies that place photographers about 15 feet above the ground. This means you are looking down on the bears, and photographically that's a terrible perspective. You really see the power and majesty of these amazing predators when shooting from ground level. This gives the bears greater stature, and you really get a sense of their immensity and strength. That's what people in my groups can do. We shoot next to the vehicle, so when a bear gets too close for comfort, we simply get into the van for protection. I took this shot with a fixed 500mm f/4 Canon lens, and the bear was so close I couldn't fill his entire bulk in the frame. That's why I traded my large lens for the 100-500mm Canon telephoto. It's much smaller, lighter, and has a fabulous zoom range which gives me flexibility in composition. And, it is easily hand-holdable. My settings were 1/800, f/7.1, and 800 ISO.
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