This post is dedicated to my Aunty Maureen, and here's why:
My aunt, Maureen, was here visiting for the weekend from London, England and was thrilled to hear there had been numerous bear sightings in the area recently. She has never in her life seen a bear and so was quite looking forward to seeing one. After all, everyone else was seeing 'em, why wouldn't she? I emailed her prior to her trip to Gold River and told her to be prepared and to have her digital camera handy at all times. The bear which I saw recently (the one with the cataract) had been spotted by other people in the area and my other aunt and cousin, whom were also visiting this weekend, also saw it on their way here. Sadly, Maureen never saw the bear during her drive into town (miss number 1).
Uncle Bob, Maureen’s husband, Brett and my son decided to go for a drive along one of the local logging roads while we women sat in the backyard drinking coffee and visiting. The boys came back some time later, my son holding the digital camera proudly in his hands. You guessed it, they found a bear. Maureen wanted to hear nothing of it (miss number 2).
The next day we went out for dinner. When we returned, a neighbour was quick to phone over with the latest town news: the police just shot a bear just some 50 yards from our own backyard (miss number 3 – though it probably wouldn’t have been the greatest ‘first bear’ experience).
So, we all jumped into my car and headed off along the logging roads, determined to find Maureen a bear. After driving for a while, I spotted what I thought was a bear, though I couldn’t be certain as I had forgotten my glasses and the black dot was quite the distance away. We get out of the vehicle and Brett says he thinks it’s a false alarm, but then the black dot moved! Too far away to see in any good sort of way, we jump back in the vehicle and drive back down the road, looking for a break in the trees to walk closer to where we saw the bear. Maureen is in bare feet and flip-flops. Unfortunately for her, there is still snow on the ground this high up. She’s walking through the snow ever so carefully, equipped with (and here’s where I couldn’t stop laughing) a pathetic looking twig, thinking it will protect her from any sort of bear attack (miss number 4).
At last, as we’re driving home admitting defeat we see a bear! A big, black, furry bear only meters from our car, but it’s behind trees and moving quickly away from us. We must see the bear and capture it on camera! We all fly out of the car and run in the direction of the bear, all the while clicking our cameras in hopes some miracle will occur and we’ll have some National Geographic worthy photos as a result. At long last, Maureen had her bear ... but unfortunately she was unable to capture the moment as her memory card was full (miss number 5).
Unfortunately, Maureen never encountered any bears as she was leaving town either, and she’ll be returning home empty handed.
Maureen will be visiting again in September for our wedding, maybe she’ll have better luck then!
I must admit that I didn’t get any wonderful pictures (those bears can be pretty darned elusive), but here are a couple of my favourite shots from our adventure:
Maureen brandishing her weapon:-
...and here is Bob going back for our car (in the excitement of the moment, we ditched it in the middle of the road, lights on, doors open and engine running!):-
My cousin managed to get a picture of the cataract bear on her way here:-
So, if anybody has any advice as to how Maureen can improve her chances of capturing wildlife shots, please do post it. I’m sure that she’ll appreciate any and all suggestions!
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Rhonda Callow
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Digital Photography Blog
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Mar 2 2009, 10:06 PM