Steve and Angela Pressman recently completed their fifth polar bear safari with Churchill Wild.
Steve Pressman didn’t know how good a photographer he really was, until a few of his employees asked him if some of the photos on the wall in his store were taken by a National Geographic photographer.
The 67-year-old Florida pharmacist and owner of Pill Box Pharmacies & Medical Supply just returned from his fifth Churchill Wild safari with his wife Angela, this time on the Fall Dual Lodge Safari. But this trip was particularly memorable.
Angela was celebrating her birthday, Steve brought a box of his newly published photography books to the lodges, and one curious polar bear decided to spend the entire visit hanging around Nanuk Polar Bear Lodge.
Polar bear portrait. Nanuk Polar Bear Lodge. Steve Pressman / YouGottaLoveNature.com photo.
“When we went to Nanuk, there was one bear that was hanging around the lodge the whole time,” said Steve, and the encounter provided him with some of his most stunning polar bear photographs to date. Angela captured video of the bear standing upright, while Steve simultaneously shot still photographs.
“They look fake to me, but they’re not,” said Steve.
Five Safaris and Counting
A true tree hugger at Nanuk Polar Bear Lodge. Steve Pressman / YouGottaLoveNature.com photo.
The Pressmans have become Churchill Wild veterans since their first family trip on the Birds, Bears & Belugas Safari with their two sons, Daniel and Matthew. They’ve since returned for the Nanuk Emergence Quest and Polar Bear Safaris at both Nanuk and Seal River Heritage Lodge.
On previous trips, they’ve experienced the thrill of finding a polar bear mother and her two cubs deep in the Nanuk woods. They’ve also witnessed wolves at both lodges, including a memorable encounter when nine wolves approached them at Nanuk. “They were huge,” said Steve. “They came up together and split up on either side of us. I was thinking they were circling the wagons.”
They’ve also photographed moose covered in falling snow, captured beluga whale footage with a GoPro while hanging over the side of a Zodiac, and even witnessed the rare sight of a wolf and polar bear together near the Seal River.
“We saw a bear and a wolf together while in the river on the Zodiac,” said Steve. “They were pretty close to each other for a couple minutes. The bear didn’t care about us. The wolf was looking at us though. I got a quick photo of them together, but nothing I would put in a book.”
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A Birthday Celebration Across Two Lodges
This latest Fall Dual Lodge Safari added new dimensions to their Churchill Wild collection. The ten-night journey takes guests to both Seal River Heritage Lodge and Nanuk Polar Bear Lodge, providing two distinct perspectives on Hudson Bay’s polar bear habitat.
The trip began in Winnipeg with birthday dinner for Angela at 529 Wellington, one of the city’s finest restaurants. Angela also received birthday celebrations at both lodges, surrounded by the stark beauty of Hudson Bay’s autumn coastline at Seal River, then later at Nanuk after a spectacular 90-minute charter flight south over York Factory’s historic grounds.
The timing coincided with another milestone: Steve had just published his new photography book, “Photographic Adventures,” and he brought a box of copies with him to the lodges.
Photographic Adventures
New book! Photographic Adventures represents 15 years of wildlife photography for Steve Pressman of YouGottaLoveNature.com. Click the image for more information.
“Photographic Adventures” represents the culmination of Steve’s 15-year journey from casual tourist with a camera to accomplished wildlife photographer.
The book chronicles travels to Africa, Switzerland, Argentina, Alaska, Costa Rica, Vietnam, Russia, Iceland, Canada, Brazil, South Africa, Peru, Europe, Antarctica, South Georgia and beyond. It features everything from elephants to penguins, jaguars to polar bears, with Churchill Wild’s wolves and polar bears prominently featured. Two polar bear cubs from Nanuk Polar Bear Lodge grace the cover.
“I’ve got over 500,000 photos,” said Steve. “So you’ve got to pick the best of the best and you put them in an album. And then you have to pick the best of the best of the best to get it all the way down to a 120-page book.”
Each image is accompanied by anecdotes and stories from his trips, giving readers a sense of what it’s like to travel the world in pursuit of the perfect wildlife photograph.
From Brooklyn to the Arctic
Northern lights hiding under the clouds. Steve Pressman / YouGottaLoveNature.com photo.
Steve’s journey to wildlife photography began in 2008 when he discovered a PBS fundraiser auction offering a polar bear viewing trip.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, he fled south during an April snowstorm at age 24, settling in sunny Florida where he could wear shorts and a t-shirt most of the time. Yet ironically, his photography passion would eventually lead him back to cold climates.
“I like visiting those cold places,” said Steve. “You get the best photos with the wildlife in the snow.”
His first big wildlife photography trip was to the Galapagos Islands, followed by a trip to Churchill to see polar bears.
“That’s where and when my passion for photographing nature started,” Steve wrote on his website at YouGottaLoveNature.com. “It was no big deal at first. I took pretty good pictures. I also made a photo book — WOW — how exciting to be able to show your family and friends the pictures I took and what I experienced.”
But when he enlarged some images and hung them in his pharmacy, his employees started asking questions. They thought he bought them from National Geographic.
“That made me say, ‘Hey, maybe I’ve got some talent, maybe I should do something,'” said Steve. “I just fell in love with wildlife photography after that.”
The Churchill Wild Difference
Before the walk. Guests viewing a polar bear from inside the compound at Nanuk Polar Bear Lodge. Steve Pressman / YouGottaLoveNature.com photo.
Steve discovered Churchill Wild during an earlier trip to see the northern lights in Churchill. At the airport, he met Pennie Bell selling Polar Bear Wear t-shirts.
“She suggested I check out Churchill Wild,” said Steve. “When I was leaving to come home, I also saw the Churchill Wild electronic sign at the airport, so I looked into it and thought it looked pretty neat. We had to go back to Churchill with Churchill Wild.”
Steve has photographed polar bears from a boat in Svalbard and Wrangel Island, but says the experience is not the same as being on a Churchill Wild safari.
“You live on a boat and travel around in Svalbard,” said Steve. “We got a good photo of a polar bear there in April, which was kind of early. That just goes to show you that the ice is getting thinner, and global warming is real up there. You could never do an April trip there in the past. We saw a polar bear eating a seal and he was all covered in blood, but that was on the ship, we weren’t on land.
“We also went to Wrangel Island, but again it was from a boat. We did get to go on land, but it’s not like being at the Churchill Wild lodges. You have to walk fast, and you have to walk in a group. And if the polar bears are coming, you have to go back to the boat. The polar bears there have probably never seen people before.”
Wolf friends. Nanuk Polar Bear Lodge. Steve Pressman / YouGottaLoveNature.com photo.
“At Churchill Wild your guides know whether a bear is approachable or not,” Steve continued. “On the July trip we walked single file towards a bear lying on a rock and then fanned out as a group. We also had a bear come up to the fence at the lodge, sniff and walk around. That was pretty neat.”
The Churchill Wild experience proved so compelling that Steve keeps returning, even enduring frigid temperatures. At Nanuk in November, guides told him it was -40°C, then mentioned March would be “much worse.”
“And I’m thinking how much colder can it get?” said Steve. “How many more layers can I put on? I guess it can get to -50 when the wind is up. I bought more stuff to wear and heated electric gloves. And thank goodness you had those mitts made from moose hide at the lodge, because my fingers were going to fall off taking pictures. You know, you pull them out of the gloves for two minutes and it’s like, holy cow.”
More Than Just Bears
I am not a polar bear. Steve Pressman / YouGottaLoveNature.com photo.
While polar bears are the main attraction, Steve’s Churchill Wild photographs capture the full diversity of the northern ecosystem.
“When there’s no polar bears around, what do you do?” he said. “You take advantage of what you get.”
Steve has photographed wolves at close range, moose covered in falling snow at Nanuk, and even the smaller details many visitors overlook.
“If you look down on the ground, there’s colour,” said Steve. “There’s mushrooms and there’s cranberries. There’s all different kinds of plants and flowers.”
Moose in the willows. Nanuk Polar Bear Lodge. Steve Pressman / YouGottaLoveNature.com photo.
Tundra-Inspired Cuisine
One recurring theme in Steve’s Churchill Wild experiences is the exceptional food. Despite repeated requests to be fed “only lettuce” and “maybe throw in a carrot or two sometimes,” the reality of long days exploring the Arctic landscape makes such restraint impossible. “You just eat there like it’s going to be your last day on earth,” said Steve. ”
The lodges’ tundra-inspired cuisine, including fresh brook trout that Steve himself caught while ice fishing at Nanuk, makes moderation difficult.
“I want to live there,” said Steve.
Looking Ahead
Polar bear in the rocks at low tide. Seal River Heritage Lodge. Steve Pressman / YouGottaLoveNature.com photo.
With five Churchill Wild safaris completed and a photography book published, the Pressmans show no signs of slowing down their wildlife adventures. They’re already planning future trips, including a possible excursion to Mongolia and storm chasing at the end of June, along with return visits to Churchill Wild.
For Steve, who has visited Antarctica three times and travelled to virtually every continent in search of wildlife, Churchill Wild holds special meaning. The combination of ground-level polar bear encounters, diverse Arctic wildlife, expert guides, and the remote beauty of Hudson Bay keeps drawing him back.
Sunny day at Seal River. Steve Pressman / YouGottaLoveNature.com photo.
“My sons had the experience of a lifetime and loved being at Seal River Heritage Lodge with my wife Angela,” said Steve, reflecting on their family trips. “All loved the nature and adventure. The guides were excellent — Boomer (Jerritt), Terry (Elliott), and Jessica (Day) at Seal River, and Jad (Davenport) and Emri (Canvin) at Nanuk. They totally looked after us.”
The guides aren’t the only ones who looked after the Pressmans. That resident polar bear at Nanuk, the one who hung around the lodge for their entire visit, provided Steve with some of the best photographs of his career.
And that’s the beauty of Churchill Wild’s polar bear safaris. You don’t need AI or digital tricks or creative manipulation. When you’re standing at ground level with a polar bear in the wild, with nothing but your camera, your guides’ expertise, and the vast expanse of Hudson Bay stretching out before you, the real thing is more spectacular than anything artificial could ever be. Steve Pressman learned that lesson five safaris ago and he’ll be back to learn it again.
Images so sharp and perfectly composed that people online continue to question whether they’re real. But they are genuine.
Just like their author.
Backlit polar bear. Steve Pressman / YouGottaLoveNature.com photo.
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Churchill Wild Polar Bear Safaris 2025-2026
