Backlit Brown Bear on Tundra at Dusk, Katmai
Katmai National Park and Preserve
A brown bear walks across open tundra at dusk, the last of the sun rim-lighting its coat and setting the outline of the animal glowing against a dark background. Low, backlit light like this is one of the harder setups in wildlife photography because the dynamic range is brutal, but when it works it gives an image that nothing else really matches. Outside the famous river and falls, Katmai is also a landscape of wide-open tundra and glacial moraine where bears travel between feeding areas. Catching one crossing that open ground at the edge of the day is the kind of thing that rewards just staying out. Brown bear, Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Ursus arctos. Photo © copyright by Carl Donohue.