Coastal brown bears, Stan Price Wildlife Sanctuary, Admiralty Island – Image 2788

This is one of my favorite photos of the year. I shot this image of this pair of two-year-old juvenile brown bears at Pack Creek in August 2011. It looks like they might be fighting but in actuality they are playing. They wrestled and boxed on and off for a good ten minutes. It was one of the most fun things I have been able to witness while photographing wildlife. If I was not concentrating so hard on making the photo, I would have been laughing at their antics. They were having such a good time and were totally oblivious of us. They did not make a sound as they tumbled around. Often people wonder how long it takes to get images like this. I waited close to eight hours on the viewing spit for this event to happen and it happened about half an hour before we had to leave. I had gotten a number of other shots during the day but nothing really special or different. But, those ten minutes made the day-long wait well worth it, and the week long boat trip through Southeast Alaska a success. I got this shot while I was traveling as the photo leader with Ron Patterson’s Dolphin Charters onboard the “Delphinus” (www.dolphincharters.com) The image illustrates the month of August in my Southeast Alaska 2013 Calendar. Enjoy and the photo and thanks for visiting. Camera body: D300, Lens: Nikkor 70-200mm f/4 /digital capture/ISO 800/ 1.4 teleconverter © Mark Kelley