We caught this Alaskan grizzly bear chillin’ on the edge of a forest on a cool, overcast morning in mid-summer. With nails like that, who wouldn’t lie around admiring them? (Six more photos.)
The previous day, I (yours truly, Jack Donachy) managed to drop and break “the big lens.” But this sleepy guy barely paid us any attention as we photographed him from the safety of our Chevy, so the 70-200 mm with a 1.4 teleconverter got us close enough. Hard to say how many cars had driven by this big, blonde-brown hulk without noticing that morning. We stayed with him – and he with us – for about half an hour.
He’d doze off for a bit, wake up, think about whether or not to get up (or maybe he was trying to remember where he’d left his car keys last night), give a little sigh and then drop off to sleep again.
And then he’d wake and take a look around.
Eventually a scent on the air caught his attention…
And he ambled off. Almost looks like he’s posed in a diorama. The overcast morning light really made the colors pop.
CutterLight 
Great pictures! Sorry to hear about the death of gigantor :(. I think I would cry if I broke my teeny little lens.
Hi Cathy, Fortunately the wound to the larger lens wasn’t mortal, but we didn’t get it back from the Nikon factory till after we’d move to Mongolia. The positive that came out of all that was the teleconverter, which works quite well on both lenses. -24 here this morning. Hope it’s a little warmer than that in Alaska!
I’m jealous of the way you spend your free time! Cass
Good to hear from you, Cass! Hope you’re staying warm in California.
(Note to self – go and see Paddington at the flicks!)
Wow! As a Kiwi, I can’t imagine being that close to ANY bear in the wild!
Wow, kiwis… I love kiwis! Yum. 🙂 We shot from window of the pickup.
NB – I am not a kiwi fruit, although I do like to eat them. I am a Kiwi from the land of Kiwis!
kiwi
ˈkiːwiː
noun
1.
a flightless New Zealand bird with hair-like feathers, having a long downcurved bill with sensitive nostrils at the tip.
2.
informal
a New Zealander.
🙂
Oh wow, fantastic images…and what a great story board!
Thanks, Tammy! We were lucky he was totally unbothered by our presence.
I am glad he didn’t seem to notice you…you may have been bear food lol
Amazing how close you were to the bear! We saw a grizzly in Yellowstone couple of years back, we were so so excited, yet the he was so far away it was bear-ly visible… (eh eh?…Yes I’m slightly ashamed)
🙂 Fortunately the grizzlies in Yellowstone are generally pretty wary of humans. What is interesting to us about the bear we photographed is that many vehicles must’ve passed this guy without noticing. He was fast asleep when we pulled up. Sleeping off a good meal no doubt!
WOW JUST WOW! These photos are amazing, to have had that moment with this beautiful creature is truly incredible!
Thanks! We’ve seen lots of bears, but we rarely have had an opportunity to study one this close for this long – and he couldn’t have been any more handsome!