Churchill, Hudson Bay

Churchill, Hudson Bay

I stayed at Seal River Lodge in northern Manitoba, Canada for four nights last week in the hopes of bringing back some nice photographs of polar bears.  The lodge sits in the middle of the sub-Arctic tundra, miles from any other habitation and is prime polar bear territory from mid October to mid November — just before the Hudson Bay freezes and the bears move out onto the ice to hunt for seals. The only access to the lodge is via an eight passenger plane from the small town of Churchill, a half an hour south. It was the final morning of my trip and I had already gotten plenty of photos of the bears in all sorts of settings and in all sorts of lighting conditions. Satisfied with the four days of shooting, the group I was with wasn’t even certain if we would venture out on the final morning because we were due to catch the flight back to Churchill shortly after breakfast — and also because the temperature had dipped to minus – 27º Fahrenheit with the wind chill factor. But then everything came together perfectly and we all forgot about the wind and the cold and the fact that we had to catch a flight. First thing was the mist that was rising off the water of the bay for the first time all week. Then there was the low tide, exposing giant boulders of ice scattered across the shoreline. The sky was looking good with nice low clouds and a rising sun. Everything was perfect, except there were no bears. And then, on cue, three showed up and cooperatively walked right out into the middle of it all. The first photo was taken vertically because my lens was too long and I couldn’t get the sun in otherwise. The second was a few minutes later after I changed to a shorter lens.