Photographing Wild Bears in the Forests of Finland
My name is Will McGugan, and I’m a photography enthusiast living in London. This year I spent my birthday in a forest in Finland with no company other than about dozen wild Eurasian brown bears and more mosquitoes than I care to count.
Forest Hide
After a night in the Wilderness centre we were to stay in the forest hide, which is regularly visited by a dozen or so bears and cubs. On the way to the hide, one of the other photographers suggested that my 500mm lens was too long. She was right: the large communal hide was directly in front of a clearing where food was left to attract the bears. At times the bears were so close all I could shoot was a patch of blurry fur.
Fortunately at the far side of the clearing there was enough distance to get the the bears in frame, and in the middle of the clearing I could get some decent mug-shots of the beasts.
Pond Hide
On the second night, I opted to stay in the pond hide. Now, when I hear the word pond, I think something a few meters across lily pads and frogs in somebody’s back garden. This body of water was, to my eyes, a lake.
The pond hide couldn’t be more different from the previous night. Where the forest hide was a large wooden hut with about 20 or so bunks and a composting toilet, this thing was just wide enough to contain a single bed and not tall enough to stand up in. Facilities were provided in the form of a bucket.
I was there for more than three hours poised with my camera and trying not to nod off before the first bear turned up. Bear paws in wet bog make quite a distinctive noise. Here’s a video of one that wandered right past my hide…
I was a bit worried that I would lose the light, as it was already dusk, but fortunately dusk lasts for hours in that part of the world. I did have to push the ISO really quite high but I think the photos came out better that the previous night, because the setting seemed more natural.
Gear Talk
I have both a Canon 5D Mark III and a Canon 7D Mark II. The 7D is often touted as being best for wildlife and sports shooters because the 1.6X crop factor gives you extra reach for free. I think that’s often true, but only when the light is good. I was shooting at dusk, and the shots that came out of the 5D were much less noisy due to the larger sensor.
Even if I were to crop a 5D shot to be the same frame as a 7D, the result would still be better. I think the takeaway from that is that the 7D is a better choice only if the light is good.
