Consistency and repetition are two of the primary keys that wildlife photographers use to unlock new and exciting images. Without them, our images run the risk of becoming outdated, unoriginal or just repetitious. Collectively over the years I’ve spent months sitting with Bears, photographing behavior that I’ve seen time and time again. During these excursions I enjoy photographing behavior that I’ve seen hundreds, if not thousands of times before and I do so in fairly similar conditions. But the consistency and repetition give me plentiful opportunities to capture new images and maybe see something I’ve been missing all along.

I was out photographing Bears one evening when I saw one such opportunity. It was a night like many others, there was nothing special about it. The sun was beginning its descent, I was at one of my favorite fishing holes and the Bears were actively fishing. The light was wonderful and at my back, well, because that’s where it’s supposed to be when you’re taking pictures. Right? Turning around to make sure there weren’t any Bears sneaking up behind me, a thought occurred to me. What if I repositioned myself and got some backlit or silhouette images instead? Those are images that I don’t have a lot of in my portfolio and it might be good to mix things up a bit.

I repositioned myself and was immediately grateful that I did. The vibrant and colorful light that I was working with moments before now added a stark contrast to everything. Bears became dark shapes as they ran through the water, details largely unidentifiable. The perfect conditions for silhouettes. Each time they pulled a fish out of the water, the backlight would shine through the tail and immediately start to glow a soft orange/red. But the coolest part was the water! As the Bears ran through the water, drops that I couldn’t see before would immediately start to shine a brilliant white.

I was photographing the bears in these amazing conditions when another thought occurred to me. What if I could get a bear shaking!? Excited for the potential image that I could see in my mind’s eye, I began to look for which bears were most likely to shake.

Some minutes later, I watched as it all unfolded and it was SPECTACULAR! A bear had launched itself into a deeper part of the river in hopes of catching a fish. It came up empty handed, or should I say empty pawed, and gave me a nice shake! The backlight darkened the details on the bear and shone through the thousands of water droplets, all of which immediately began to glow. Repetition, consistency and a little bit of creativity can go a long way!