AWARDS

2014 GLOBAL ARCTIC AWARDS – GOLD MEDAL
2011 GDT – HIGHLY COMMENDED
2010 TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR – JUDGES SPECIAL MENTION
2010 NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATON – HONORABLE MENTION

BEHIND THE SCENE

Polar bears are normally solitary animals. Every year, though, in late fall, they congregate along the coast of Manitoba's Hudson Bay. They’re waiting for the water to freeze and form pack ice thick enough to support their weight so they can finally venture on it looking for seals.
Play-fighting during this period is common. It’s practice for the more serious confrontations that will occur during mating season.
I took this image from a Tundra Buggy, an enormous all-terrain vehicle fitted with 5.5 foot (1.7 metre) tires. The two bears were playing in a depression as we approached the top of a small hill. The vantage point gave me a bird’s-eye view of the scene below.
I used a 600mm lens with a 2x teleconverter, using a half-frame camera. This allowed me to focus exclusively on the bears’ heads and eyes as they formed a near-perfect yin-yang position.

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