Please BEAR With Me … but Later Tonight
Every kid needs a "hobby."
One of my "hobbies" is more like an addiction with an attached objective … that is, going into the forests of the Pennsylvania Pocono Mountains looking for Black Bears (and other critters) with the objective of photographing them in their natural settings … and marketing the photos to publishers.
I have no doubt that more bears have seen me and quietly gone their way, than my seeing them. And most bears I've seen were either too far from my lens or too obscured by tree parts, shrubs, boulders and portions of a forest floor to make for publisher-quality shots.
But today … success!
I came back to the house for dinner … after which I'll be going back out to fish for trout and bass and photograph the sunset!
If you're thinking … "this boy is blessed with a great life," … Yup!
After dark, I hope to process the bear photos and post them here.
Stay tuned!
Pennsylvania Black Bear
© A. Mac/A.G.
At this point in the sequence, I began to consider backing away.
© A. Mac/A.G.
© A. Mac/A.G.
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See ya' later!
Looking forward to the ''bare'' photos....Are those photos legal on NT?
Oh, your talking about a bare bear...Got it, your good to go Mac.
I am so pleased with this shot I can BEARLY stand it!
Second shot posted.
''I considered backing away''...LOL, good thinking Mac. The bear was looking at you as a Big Mac...
Excellent photos..
LOL, a big A.Mac
We established a kind of closeness … third shot posted.
Bear facial expressions:
1st shot: Curiosity
2nd shot: Anger developing
3rd shot: You'd better start running
It was a great experience; fortunately the photographer in me overcame the apprehension … the one other time I was within 20-30 feet of a bear in the woods, I only had a cell phone, and a fly rod.
Today, before I saw the bears (there were three), I spotted a Red Fox … he took off and I went looking for him … and there were the bears!
I started to look at my camera's LCD screen to check the shots … then realized it might be better to wait until a later æ duh!
Funny thing; last night I took Gracie out for her last walk of the day. The mountain road by my house has no street lights and my house is the only one with a porch or spot lights on … it's f'n dark and I take a flash light, which, last night, illuminated a pair of eyes on the forest edge across the road (the slope of a mountain ridge).
"Let's go home, Gracie," I said … and home we went.
The eyes were too large and too high to be a rabbit's, too small to be that of a deer … don't know … raccoon? Bear? Mountain Lion?
And it's 9:25 PM here in the Poconos which means Gracie and I are about to take that nightly walk.
Don't get me wrong … apprehensive as I am, in a sublime way … I'd like to see those eyes one more time.
Mac, walks at night in bear country are better taken with bear spray. We have bear, coyote, bobcat around here and there are cougars around bit I've never seen one. When i take the girls out at night they are on leash and we don't stray far.
We have bears in our neighborhood, and my yappy dog thinks he wants to make friends with the cubs, when there are cubs around. I hightailed it for home, dragging him behind me, before mama could make her opinion known.
Excellent photos Amac!!! I agree with Buzz.
Fabulous pics ! But 20-30 feet is toooo close for comfort.
BEARly enough visitors to this post … and I have so many more pictures to share.
Oh those are amazing shots Mac. 20 to 30 feet away you say... I guess he wasn't hungry, LOL!
Those are the times when a loooooooong telephoto lens is advisable.