The Catch - Best of Nation Team Canada, World Photographic Cup 2023

The brown bears in Katmai National Park in Alaska have some mad fishing skills. Only the dominant bears fish at the top of the falls, and this mama bear was fierce. Not only did she hold this prime spot, she was also teaching her cub fishing techniques. Waiting and watching for 8 hours, action continually happening all around us, my patience and focus paid off, capturing this iconic moment…literally the last images on this day in Brooks Falls. This piece is called “The Catch” .After a charter from King Salmon, we hiked to the viewing platform at Brooks Falls. This momma bear was busy, fighting other bears for her prime fishing spot, watching to make sure her cub was safe on the sidelines, trying to focus on catching the fish jumping up the falls. Shooting in tough weather conditions, I had to underexpose so I didn't blow out the rushing water, knowing that I could bring back the detail in the bear. Even though my arms were getting tired holding the camera, I made sure my stance was tight as I watched and waited and the moment came when the lives of a bear and a salmon intersected...everything aligned, bear facing towards me, fish in the right spot and the water frozen and sharp.

Vantage Point -Grand Prize Small in the Frame - JOWP 2024

One of my favourite encounters in Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda was watching this leopard use a large cactus tree as the lookout to survey the savannah. We first spotted her in the early evening resting on the outer limbs. Waiting to see if she was comfortable with our presence, we watched her from a distance, elegantly moving from limb to limb, stopping often to look out over the African grasslands. She moved into the interior of the tree, making herself almost invisible cloaked in the entangled limbs of the cactus. Our driver slowly moved us around the tree capturing different images of this beautiful cat. The sun kept poking in and out of the clouds, challenging me to continually change my setting. I wanted to ensure I did not blow out the white in her fur and minimize the shadows, so I underexposed the image. Fun fact…did you know the spots on a leopard are called rosettes? Wildlife SOS has a great article on understanding feline fur. Back to the story. Coming out of the shadows she would lock onto something off in the distance with the most intense stare. The cactus tree was massive, providing the perfect camouflage for this stealthy hunter. To showcase the perspective and scale of the cactus tree to the leopard, I backed off my zoom lens to 100mm capturing this image called Vantage Point.

Squirrel Surprise - Eyes Top 100 WildArd Photographer of the Year 2022

Every spring, I travel the backroads around Cochrane, looking for thereturn of the Mountain Bluebirds that nest in the boxes in Alberta. On this day, I was checking on a box that was a regular home for the birds. To my surprise, it wasn't a bluebird looking back at me from the box, it was a squirrel! I captures this image as we stared at each other through the opening of the box!