Here I come… Photo Credit: Robert Postma
Award-winning photographer Robert Postma will be back at Churchill Wild again in 2014, this time to lead three different groups of photographers and guests in their quest for the perfect polar bear photograph at Seal River Heritage Lodge, Nanuk Polar Bear Lodge and Dymond Lake Eco-Lodge.
Postma will be at Nanuk Polar Bear Lodge from September 9-15 and will return to Seal River Heritage Lodge and Dymond Lake Eco-Lodge from November 2-13.
Never one to shy away from adventure, Postma split his time this winter between relaxing in Bolivia, South America, and on-call nursing at remote First Nations outposts in Yukon, Canada.
Wolf at Nanuk Polar Bear Lodge – Photo Credit: Robert Postma
“I’m hoping to catch the fall colours at Nanuk this year,” said Postma, who was at Nanuk Polar Bear Lodge for the first time in 2013. “We got some great shots last year. I caught a polar bear and a black bear in the same photo, wolves came right up to the tundra Rhino, and we also experienced a full-on intense thunderstorm. I just love photographing storms.”
Storm over Nanuk. Photo Credit: Robert Postma
Postma won the Canadian Geographic Photo Club’s Annual Photography Contest in 2011 when the theme was extreme weather and he’s certainly no stranger to winning photo contests. He also won the Banff Mountain Festival Photography Competition, The Nature of Things and Planet in Focus Environmental Photography Competition, the Show us your Canada photo contest, the Up Here Fantastic Photo Contest and Canadian Geographic Photo Club’s Annual Photography Contest, among others. And on April 2, 2012 his photo of a great horned owl bursting from an abandoned toolshed in Saskatchewan was the Photo of the Day on the National Geographic Web site.
“I haven’t been entering many contests lately,” said Postma. “I just haven’t had the time. I’m looking forward to getting back up to the Churchill Wild lodges. You just never know what’s going to show up when you go out the front door (of the lodges).”
Polar bears sparring at Seal River Heritage Lodge. Photo Credit: Robert Postma
“The arctic foxes, like the red foxes, will sometimes come right up to you at Seal River,” said Postma. “We caught a red fox watching two polar bears sparring last year. There’s also an elusive wolverine at Dymond Lake. And there’s something very special about a backlit polar bear walking towards you through the mist at Seal River, as the sunlight cuts through the steam rising off the icy coastal boulders.”
“If the weather is clear we should also be able to get some great shots of the aurora borealis,” said Postma, who wandered about the Nanuk compound in the wee hours of the morning last year helping guests photograph the northern lights. This year he’ll again be tasked with helping guests take better photographs, while also giving tutorials and slideshows during the evenings.
Northern lights over Nanuk. Photo Credit: Robert Postma
Postma has worked on Ellesmere Island in Nunavut and traveled all over North America, as well as to Iceland, Australia, Bolivia, Peru, Guyana and Lebanon. His photos have appeared in numerous publications including National Geographic, Canadian Geographic, Up Here, Our Canada, Mountain Equipment Co-op and Astronomy, as well as in brochures, annual reports and calendars. Examples of his work can be seen on the gallery section of his Web site at www.DistantHorizons.ca and on his Robert Postma Photography Facebook Page.
Postma prefers on-the-ground polar bear photography over the tundra buggy variety. He likes to get down low; to look into his subject’s eyes; in an effort to portray emotion in his photographs. Crouched down, lens ready, face-to-face with a polar bear, your heart pounding….
Could you take the shot?
Sometimes you do not need to see the entire bear… Photo Credit: Robert Postma
