2 Wild Light Katmai National Park and Preserve is a wonderland of bears - giant brown bears, a close cousin of the grizzly, and sometimes just as big. A pair them sleep in the sun fifty yards from where you deboard. You remember that old joke, “I don’t need to be faster than the bear, I just need to be faster than you…” Twice a year, bears from all over descend on Katmai to feast on the salmon. Truly, it is Jurassic Park with bears. You see one bobbing in the water, only his head visible above the waterline, a picture in a storybook. You find them feeding in the waterfalls along Brooks River, dozens of them, such staggering numbers. The great big ones, the alphas, stay to themselves, carving out their own corner of the stream, snarling at any bear that comes near. The smaller ones sniff around the human encampment, as curious about us as we are of them. I will do anything to get my shot – forge rivers, climb cliffs, you name it, but in all my years as a photographer, I’ve never gone in for excessive risk. I’m a problem solver. I’ll figure a way to get the shot without breaking my neck or getting myself hurt. Sometimes, though, you have to break your own rules… Through the trees, I saw a giant bear feeding on salmon in the Strait. As easy as you please, he ambled onto the shore…and I followed. He was sniffing out food. I was sniffing out my shot. I wanted to get close enough to get something no one else had ever captured, but I also knew that he outweighed ME by at least 1000 pounds. I crawled up as close as I could get without being seen...so quiet, I don’t think he knew I was there. I rose up on one knee...and was suddenly struck by the absurdity of my situation. Here I was, hiding behind 6 measly blades of grass, not 50 feet from a giant beast that could tear me limb from limb. In an instant, I changed focus – in mind and with my lens. My image would reflect not on what I was seeing, but how I felt in the moment, focusing on the grass instead and letting the bear be a mystery. This is one of the treasured moments of my life and the best photograph I’ve ever taken. Incidentally, the bear finished his lunch and never gave a sign that he saw me, so it turns out I didn’t ruin his day either! RIGHT BISON, YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, WY