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Guiding Polar Bear Wildlife Photography Tours

Another piece of the annual photo tour cycle filled!

 

It’s official, I’ll be guiding several polar bear wildlife photography speciality tours up in Churchill, Manitoba late this Fall for Frontiers North Adventures.  Yep, there goes another tick off of the outdoor photography bucket list.  I may do this every year for the foreseeable future.

 

Snowdome Sunset on the Columbia Icefields near the base of Mount Columbia.  © www.brianmerry.ca

The photo above isn’t in Churchill, it’s near my home in the Canadian Rockies.

But, it helped to provide the inspiration needed to fulfill one of my professional photographic dreams.

 

You asked and now I can deliver!

Some of  you have asked me if I would consider hosting a polar bear wildlife photography tour in Churchill Manitoba.  I already have an extensive list of diverse landscape photography tours spanning the globe with more international photography tours in development.  Watch for more on those tours to World famous destinations coming down the pipe too!  A Churchill, Manitoba polar bear tour was one of those tours in development.  I’ve been listening to your event suggestions seriously over the years.  A wildlife tour to Churchill is one of your suggestions that I’ve been getting from many of you too.  I’ve been researching the possibility of building and offering my own polar bear wildlife photography tour.  I’ve discovered that I’d need to use the established infrastructure in Churchill to make a wildlife photography tour there viable.

Building tours that offer you the best value is a core paradigm in all the photography tours I design

I discovered that Frontiers North Adventures already offers an amazing and diverse lineup of quality wildlife photography specific tours at Cape Churchill.   They already offer tours to photographers at reasonable prices given the high production costs of hosting a quality tour in Churchill, Manitoba.  In good conscious, I felt that I couldn’t add enough additional value over what Frontiers North’s Wildlife Photography specific tours were already offering for the price that I would have to charge.  After all, I’m going to have to mark up the tour costs to pay for my expenses and make a profit too.   I concluded that Frontiers North already has the best valued polar bear wildlife photography tour available.  

The best polar bear tour available is to stay out on Churchill Point at the Tundra Buggy Lodge, owned and operated by Frontiers North Adventures.  Additionally, you sould stay at the lodge in the town of Churchill and do day tours out to Churchill Point. 

The people who run the Tundra Buggy Lodge are the good people who I’m going to be contracting with leading some their polar bears wildlife photography tours out on the legendary Cape Churchill for three weeks during the usual peak of the early winter polar bear viewing season.  This is the period of time right before the polar bears head out onto the ice for the winter.  Imagine polar bears lazing around and playing in fresh snow on the shores of Cape Churchill on Hudson’s Bay.  They’re waiting for the pack ice to get thick enough for them to head out onto it for the winter.  This makes them very approachable for wildlife photography.  This is the life I’m going to be living and sharing with my guests at the Tundra Buggy Lodge on Cape Churchill in Wapusk National Park.

Why is staying at the Tundra Buggy Lodge the best option to maximize your polar bear viewing time?

Commercial access on Churchill Point is strictly controlled by the national park managers, and Frontiers North Adventures is the only tour operator allowed to operate polar bear photography tours based out of the lodge right on Churchill Point.  Frontiers North is the company that owns and operates the famous Tundra Buggy Lodge.  I’ll be leading tours out of the Tundra Buggy Lodge during during my tenure with them.  Parks Canada has an excellent management plan in place for wildlife viewing.  In this plan they manage access to the highly vulnerable habitat found at Churchill Point.  Frontiers North Adventures is only tour operator permitted to operate a seasonal lodge right on Churchill Point.  This is right in the middle of the polar bear action.  This is where you want to be to see polar bears!

Why reinvent the wheel?

So, I parked my “go it alone” ego and decided to join who I think operates the best polar bear tours up there.  Thankfully, Frontiers North thought I would be a good fit in their professionally lead wildlife photography theme tours too.  If you’d like to join me to photography the famous polar bears then come on up!  I’ll be one of their professional photographers on staff for three weeks during the usual peak of polar bear photography.  The bears will be milling about in the fresh snow waiting for the ice to get thick enough to venture out onto for the winter.  I’ll be there Oct. 28th – Nov. 19th.  When you call to reserve your tour, let them know that I sent you.  I may be your wildlife photography guide in Churchill this Fall. 

Let’s capture one the trophy wildlife photographs that many wildlife photographers have on their list.  Come on up and join me if polar bears are on your wildlife photography bucket list too!