This is an outstanding photo of an animal in his natural habitat. Beautiful sunlight and shadows. The framing looks perfect too! Thanks for sharing!

Amazing photo of this bear. He looks a bit scruffy too but I guess we're just so used to seeing them in zoos where they're so well taken care of. I agree with above statement. The framing works really well and I can't tell your hands were shaking at all. Thanks for posting.

Fantastic photo of this bear. The lighting & framing are perfect. He does look like he is on a mission though, perhaps to catch some fish. Well done.

Aw I want one! He's adorable and that's pretty much terrifying how close you had to get to get this shot. It's amazing, nature.

very very nice picture. he looks big! great composition, and i can't tell that your hands were shaking. well done.

What a great shot of a magnificent animal in his normal surroundings. Wow Valentin you have done a fine job here. Well done!

Terrific shot! My hat's off to you for having the courage to even attempt this!!

Really great picture. Very brave of you to go so close but well worth it for us. Excellent.

amazing shot! looks a bit skinny for a bear, luckily for you he was just looking for some fish eh :P

Don't feel bad about sharing, most of us will never get the opportunity to go there, so we get to see it thanks to you. Nice shot, and thank you for sharing!

Outstanding capture, I would have hot footed it out of there long before it got that close:) Amazing work to get such perfect colours and composition in that situation.

Cheers............

Hey, thank you all for your comments :D if you leave a comment you could vote for it too. that would help a lot. thanks peopleZZ

Really amazing shot Valentin! Doubly so for having such a beast so close, and still holding the camera straight :)

Valentin you are very brave.These bears are very dangerous especially the females around their cubs.You brought this one back and came back alive to send it to us.Bravo!!
Peace&Respect Jojo

Great picture, he/she looks very calm. I think nice that you sheard this, i dont think all of us will perhaps get the chance to see such beauty as this bear.

Thanks

Amazing image. The lighting and coloring could not be any more perfect. Great job!

Woah this is sooo cool. I love your Image and it must have been quite a experience to take that picture :) Well keep up the good work I say

What an experience to run into a bear!
And what bear, look at that size. So what happened after this shot. Did you just stay there and see that big hugh pass by?
Congratulations for an experience of a lifetime!
Paul

Excellent shot. You did bring a change of clothes didn't you? Good work.

Wow! This is so great! Thanks for the description of the shot. I too want to know what you did after you took the shot. How close were you or did you have a big zoom lens! I would have passed out! I have always wanted to go to AK, I had a friend that lived there but I was never able to get there. Thanks so much for the pic and I would love to hear more of the story!!!
Melody

Valentin, that is part of why this website is so totally wonderful....we can experience places that we may never see. It's all about sharing and creativeness and realizing what a beautiful world we all live in. This is quite an amazing photo! I am awed. Thanks so very very much for sharing your experiences with us!

Thanks a lot to all of you kind comments!!!!!! well, for those who wanted to know what had happened later: The bear really didn't care for me and my friend, who was with me that moment, because he had way too much fish to bother with humans :D. so he completely disregarded us and we were able to whatch him fishing for about a half hour!! no joke, and i don't wanna show off here, but that was really a crazy experience. i've got a couple other good shots from that half hour. maybe i'll upload some of them. this picture has no important zoom, the bear was about 20 meters away from me. at one time he was about 3 meters (about 9 feet) away. i've got a pic of that too, but it's not a "arty beautiful" one, so i'll wait putting it on. maybe i could make a series of some of the bear pics on one big backround :)

You did an awesome job here, and your comment about feeling bad to post coz you think it's better we see for ourselves.... / what a great thing you DID share, because so many are shut-ins and many cannot afford to travel, so you helped us see thru your eyes! This is stunning.

Wow, great image!!!! 89/10!!!

hey thanks!! forestwolf34 gave me 89 out of ten!!!! that's quite a lot man, thank you!!!

What a fantastic experience. I imagine it would be too easy to get carried away by the moment and let them get too close. I hope I can do this one day... thanks for sharing.

What a wonderful shot!

Amazing!!!! Good color, composition, and subject. My dream vacation is to spend a month touring Alaska! My mom was born in Ancorage, Alaska. She has told me so many stories. One was when they were eating, she said a moose came up to the window and poked his head through the window. To me that is SOOo AWESOME!!