May 26, 2012
Black Bear Cubs in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Yesterday was by my sixteenth, and final, day in Yellowstone National Park, and it was a really short day. First thing in the morning I headed straight to where I had seen the Black Bear sow with the two cubs-of-the-year. After some searching, I found the sow sleeping at the base of a tree. It started snowing and the clouds were solid and gray, so I decided to leave the park as planned instead of waiting out the snowy weather that was forecast to last two days. I photographed the two Black Bear cubs-of-the-year very late on the evening before I left. It had been raining, sleeting, and snowing off and on all day, and most people had gone home by the time I found the cubs. The weather had mostly cleared by this time too, but it was still dark down in the valley about 45 minutes before the official sunset time. I bumped up my ISO and shot wide open and still only had 1/30 sec for a shutter speed. So, I waited until the cubs slowed down and then fired off a bunch of shots hoping to catch them when they were practically still. I got a few keepers, including this image.