The first animal we photographed at the Triple D Game Farm was a grizzly bear. I can’t remember for sure, but I think her name was Rose. We started shooting pretty early in the morning before the sun had risen above the mountains to the East. This gave us good, soft, low contrast light. Tomorrow I’ll post some of the images from later in the session when the sun was shining directly on our location.
The grizzly was between 20-40 yds away from us most of the time. There was a small electric and additional waist-high wire fence between her and us. The trainer kept her attention away from us by giving her plenty of treats, but we were told to make no sudden moves and to stay together as a group. We also were not allowed to crouch down or get low in any way. Despite all the cautions, I never felt like I was in any danger. It was pretty cool to be that close to such a big and powerful animal…and to get pictures.
The first images is my favorite of the grizzly bear set. I like the reflection in the water. I also like the running shot.
This was our first animal so most of the group was just firing away regardless of what the bear was doing…me included. I think we all got just a little too excited. I threw out hundreds of shots from this session alone. But, we all got better at being more selective as we moved on to other animals.









