Polar Bears in the Wild (not close-ups)

I really liked this image of the but and mother bear. There was wonderful interaction between the animals with no awareness that they were being watched. This competition had very few entries, but the quality of the entries was very good. Choosing the first was not an easy task.

I liked this image with the ivory gulls and other gull waiting their chance to get some food. Nature in the raw. The detail in the bear is astounding and shows the quality of the 500mm lens and 1.4x converter being used with the Canon 5D Mark III.

The snow at the top and right of the image is a distraction and the image could be improved by cropping these areas out. This could be done without losing the effect of the animal being in its natural environment.

There were two versions of this image entered. I preferred this one as the bears had more detail and were a more natural colour. To get this on a mobile phone is quite an achievement and draws attention to the quality of phone cameras.