As a photographer and writer, I was faced with the sobering reality that my wife, Mary Ann, and I simply did not have the diversity of Polar Bear photographs to adequately tell this bear’s wonderful story. Fortunately, we have friends who are talented amateur photographers, ecotourist guides, and professional photographers who, like us, lead tours to Polar Bear country. All were happy to help, and their contributions to this book were invaluable and helped to make this one of the most diverse collections of Polar Bear photographs ever published.
I must thank my two great friends, Tom Wester and Steve Metildi, who immediately came on board and offered their images, which include Tom’s Kermode Bear, a bear I’ve not seen in the wild, and Steve’s diverse images from Churchill.
Katherine Pierce’s credit, Katherine Pierce/CureUs Designs, tells it all, as profits from the sales of her images are donated to the American Cancer Society. On one of our photo tours, Kathy showed a few of her incredible mom-and-cub photos from Wapsuk National Park, and I’m glad I remembered her doing so. She’s spent more time there than anyone else I know and has the images to prove it!
My friend and our expedition leader for our Svalbard Polar Bear trips, Adam Rheborg, has been leading ecotourists and photographers to Svalbard and other Arctic destinations for over twenty years. As a guide, his focus is on his people, not his photography, but nevertheless, Adam has amassed an incredible collection of images, depicting behavior I’m still dying to see.
Years ago, Mary and I met a Denali guide and photographer, Hugh Rose, who later started his own company and now leads photo tours to the northern coast of Alaska and elsewhere. When I thought about getting complete coverage, I thought of Hugh, for his shots of bears on whales and his low-light, ground-level shots. Hugh’s incredible images of bears from this less well-known photography destination are superb.
Richard Day, a good friend and fellow photo tour leader, supplied more images from Churchill. Richard led photo tours to Churchill for over a decade and has perhaps the best coverage of Churchill’s bears and wildlife.
I was also very fortunate to have two other good friends, Sue Altenburg and Ivan Rothman, show portfolios on one of our tours that included their Polar Bears photos. Had that not happened, I’d have missed some great images included here.
Although I relied on a diverse number of books and resources in writing this book, I must thank Morten Jørgensen for really opening my eyes to the hunting and research issues involved with Polar Bear management in the far north. I’d strongly recommend Morten’s book, Polar Bears on the Edge (NHBS, 2015), for anyone concerned about bears, and their potential mismanagement.
I’d also like to thank Joe Johnson and his staff at Really Right Stuff, Clay Wimberley from Wimberley Tripod Heads, Lou Schmidt from Hoodman, and Chris Breeze from BreezeBrowser for all their help and support.
Last but certainly not least, I have to give the most credit to my wife, Mary Ann, who does most of the work in putting our photo tours together, does the tours and photographs, too, and helped me put together this book.
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