A brown bear with shaggy, brown fur is about to catch a salmon in its mouth at the top of Brooks Falls, Alaska. The fish is only a few inches away from its gaping jaws. Shot with a Nikon D800 and a 28-300mm lens in Alaska, USA, in July 2015.

ISO 400, 300mm, f/9.0, 1/1600, 0 EV

This image won the Wildlife category in the Professional Photographer of the Year 2021, won a Gold award in The Societies’ March 2020 Monthly Image Competition (and led to me being shortlisted for Photographer of the Year), won the March 2020 Daily Competition and Readers' Choice, Guest Editor and Highly Commended awards on ePHOTOzine, won Best of Show in Grey Cube Gallery's Nature exhibition (see video), won the Animal Action category in the Wildlife Worldwide Photography Competition 2019, won first place in Art Room Gallery's 'Nature' competition in March 2018 (see video), won the Sunday Times/Audley Travel Big Shot competition in January 2017, won SINWP's 'In the Wild' Photography Competition, won Picture Frames Express’s ‘All Creatures Great and Small’, won Best of Contest in 35 Awards' Wildlife: Mammals competition, was part of the winning Wildlife Series in the 15th Pollux Awards/The Worldwide Photography Gala Awards, was a finalist in Fusion Art's 3rd Annual Animal Kingdom Art Exhibition in January 2018 (see video), was National Geographic's Photo of the Day on 2 August 2017 after being chosen in their Daily Dozen and was among the editors' favourites for Week 10 of their Travel Photographer of the Year competition. It also received nearly 25,000 likes on their Instagram page!

"Timing is everything in photography, and this image is a great example of that. Excellent use of your 300mm lens to capture this moment right here. I love how you composed the image and went with a medium frame and didn't get too close or tight on the bear. There's some nice spacing around the subject and this makes for an excellent wildlife image." Matt Adams - Producer, National Geographic Your Shot

It was also third in the Xposure 2017 Wildlife Photography Competition, commended in Photocrowd's 'The Colour Brown' competition, Highly Commended in Pursue Pictures’ Great Outdoors competition, SINWP's Wonders of Wildlife competition, given an Honourable Mention in Pursue Pictures' The Great Outdoors competition and the 2017 Neutral Density Photography Awards, chosen as an Editors' Pick in the ZEISS Photography Award 2018 and awarded a Mark of Excellence by the judges for the I SHOT IT Wildlife Photo Competition 2017.

"Well it is a well known spot for grizzly fishing but you have timed this perfectly earning a well deserved mark of excellence." Judge's comment

“So this isn't a landscape image, but this image is great! Wildlife photography is tricky: you rattle off a ton of shots, hoping to get a few good ones. This shot was captured at the perfect time, is composed well and is tack sharp, which can be hard to do with animals. It also tells the story of both the bear’s hunt for survival and the fish’s fight for survival.” Judge’s comment