This Polar Bear Wants to be a Wildlife Photographer

Photographer and Nikon Israel Ambassador Roie Galitz was recently testing the new Nikon 180-400mm f/4 lens in Svalbard, Norway, when he came across a polar bear who dreams of being a wildlife photographer.

“As a professional wildlife photographer, I travel to Svalbard often to shoot stills and video for magazines and special productions, the most recent of which is the BBC’s Snow Bears film,” Galitz tells PetaPixel. “A couple of weeks ago I was in Svalbard again for one of those special productions and I was photographing this big polar bear male walking near the glacier.”

When the bear suddenly wanted a turn with the DSLRs, Galitz had to abandon his gear to make way for it.

“Suddenly he changed his path and started to quickly walk in our direction!” Galitz says. “There was little time to think, so we had to leave our gear and hop on the snowmobile to evacuate and get out of danger.

“The bear approached the cameras, too a quick sniff, smelled that it’s not food, and continued off with his path. When I saw him approach the cameras, I was quick with my other camera, a Nikon D850 and Nikon 180-400mm f/4, and got this cool image of him looking through the viewfinder.”

You can find more of Galitz’s photos on his website and Instagram.