POLAR BEARS PHOTO WORKSHOP
- Photo Workshop
- August 24-September 2, 2024
- August 24-September 2, 2025
- Riding Mountain extension
- September 2-7, 2024
- September 2-7, 2025
August and September is a great time to visit Churchill, Manitoba to photograph a great variety of wildlife including Polar Bears, Beluga Whales, Birds, Foxes and the Aurora Borealis. This is the only time of year when all of these are available at the same time. During this photo tour you will be photographing the bears, birds and wildlife on foot with an experienced local guide. We will have 9 wildlife drives where we locate the animals and birds and then get out of the vehicle and walk a bit to photograph them. We also have 3 zodiac tours to photograph the Beluga Whales which congregate in the thousands in the bay at this time of year. In the evenings our guides will be on the lookout for good nights to photograph the amazing borealis. This workshop includes 8 days in the field which is more than most Polar Bear tours.
Maximum participants: This workshop is limited to 5 total participants.
Cost and Logistics
$9,900 with a $1,000 single supplement. Cost includes all activities, lodging in both Winnipeg and Churchill, Manitoba, internal flights from Winnipeg to Churchill and back, guiding and instruction. It does not include meals, drinks, flights to Winnipeg from your home, tips or items of a personal nature. 2025 Cost: Photographer $10,400, nonphotographer spouse/companion $9,900, deposit $4,000, single supplement $1,100.
Itinerary
August 24th – Arrival to Winnipeg, Canada, transfer to a nice hotel.
August 25th – Morning flight to Churchill, Manitoba. Check in to hotel and afternoon town and wildlife photo tour. Hotel: Polar Inn and Suites, this is one of the few hotels in Churchill with en suite bathrooms.
August 26th-31st – Each day we will have two adventures, over the course of the workshop we will have 9 vehicle safaris where we go locate the wildlife by vehicle and then get out to photograph. Polar Bears are our top target. At this time of year they are starting to arrive in the area but not in large numbers yet. So when we find a bear we will typically spend a long time with it. Often they will be resting when we find them but eventually they will typically get up and walk around. However, we will be on the lookout for other wildlife including both Arctic and Red Foxes which are usually easily approached, Arctic Hares and a wide variety of birds including Bald Eagles and other raptors, Snow Geese, Common Eiders and a wide variety of waterfowl, shorebirds, loons, grebes, Sandhill Cranes and smaller birds such as Lapland Longspurs, Redpolls and Rusty Blackbirds. On the 3 zodiac boat tours, the main targets are the Beluga Whales which congregate in Hudson’s Bay in the tens of thousands at this time of year. Sometimes Polar Bears are also seen and photographed on the zodiac tours. We will be on the lookout during these trips for various gulls, terns and jaegers. Hotel: The Polar Inn and Suites
September 1st – We will have one more Polar Bear and wildlife safari, then return to our hotel, check out and in the afternoon fly back to Winnipeg, Manitoba. A nice hotel in Winnipeg.
September 2nd – Transfer to the airport for your return trip home.
Riding Mountain Extension, September 2-7, 2024. We will spend five days exploring Riding Mountain National Park and photographing the Black Bears, Elk, Bison, Beavers, Loons, Grebes, Grouse and other birds and mammals of the park, returning to Winnipeg on the evening of the 7th for flights home on the 8th. Cost: $2,950, $400 single supplement.
Ken Archer
Ken Archer has been a professional wildlife photographer for the last 25 years. His work is widely published and he is a former first place category winner in Nature’s Best Photo Contest and an overall winner of the Wyoming Wildlife Photo Contest. He has spent a great deal of time photographing wildlife in the American West. Ken uses Canon.
