Final Look

It was the last photograph I took in Katmai.

We had been following this mother bear and her two yearling cubs for hours. The cubs spent much of that time playing, while she did the work of fishing and keeping them safe. Eventually, a large, aggressive male drove them away from their fishing hole, forcing the family up out of the river and into the tundra. The cubs wandered ahead, but she stayed behind, climbing the steep bank before finally following them toward a place to sleep for the night.

As she reached the top, she stopped and looked back up the river. The setting sun caught her in profile, and for just a moment, everything became still. I took the shot knowing it would be my last of the trip.

Final Look isn't just the bear's glance back toward the river. For me, it's a look back at the entire experience—the last quiet moment of a long day spent watching a wild family simply try to make it through theirs.