A couple of years ago we did a fly-drive in the western USA. Flew into Vegas, drove up through central California to Sequoia National Park, then came back up towards San Francisco by way of Kings Canyon. If you have never done that drive, do. The scale of the place does something to you.
It was on that last leg, through Kings Canyon, that the vista appeared. The valley simply dropped away from the roadside into forest, with snow on the ground. There was no question of driving on. This was the shot.
Regular readers will know that in about half of my shoots there is no tripod to hand. So it was the old trick: find something solid, rest the camera on it, compose carefully. In this case the something solid was a big old sign by the roadside, and very steady it was too. I took my time, got what I needed, and stepped back, pleased with myself.
That was when I read the sign I had been leaning on.
"Warning: bears beyond this point."
I had spent several minutes standing very still, back to the forest, making myself as quiet as possible. In bear country. There is a word for that, and the word is bait.
We jumped back in the car and continued on to San Francisco, and I got the photograph you see here. I never saw a bear. But then, as I like to think, the bear never saw me either.
The Kings Canyon snowfall is in the shop as a framed print and a canvas.
For the photographers: Canon 70D at 28mm, 1/50s at f/22, no tripod - the camera resting on a roadside sign.
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