Eight hours after drilling an adjoining gap within the Arctic ice, this photographer lastly captured a polar bear staring straight into his DSLR lens

Getting a digital camera eye-to-eye with a polar bear within the Arctic wilderness appears like a wildlife photographer’s dream. But Audun Rikardsen discovered a intelligent solution to do it, inserting his DSLR digital camera beneath the ocean ice in order that the animal could possibly be photographed from a seal’s perspective.

The consequence, Icy Window, exhibits a polar bear peering straight down via a respiration gap – and has now been highlighted within the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.

After recognizing polar bear tracks near a seal’s respiration gap north of Svalbard, Norway, Rikardsen drilled one close by and positioned a full-frame DSLR from 2012 with dedicated underwater housing and a wide-angle lens beneath the ice. He connected the setup to a motion sensor, enabling the camera to trigger when the animal approached.

Eight hours later, the Norwegian photographer finally got the shot he had been waiting for: a polar bear looking straight down into his lens as it searched for seals. Rikardsen’s setup turned the animal’s natural behavior into an extraordinary seal’s-eye perspective, showing a unique view from below the ice.

Gear and exposure info

Technical details
Camera: Canon EOS 6D
Lens: Canon EF 14mm f/2.8L II USM
Accesories: Underwater housing customized camera rig; Camtraptions motion sensor

Exposure
1/1250 sec, f/9, ISO800

Wildlife Photographer of the Year

With a record-breaking number of submissions, at over 65,000 images, the world’s leading wildlife photography competition revealed a sneak peek of the exceptional photographs captured from around the world.

Now in its 62nd year, Wildlife Photographer of the Year – developed and produced by the Natural History Museum in London – provides us uncommon insights into the exceptional inhabitants of our planet.

We’ve beforehand highlighted among the Wildlife Photographer of the Year extremely counseled photos; from an unlikely friendship to a leopard’s clumsy maneuver and extra, you’ll be able to uncover the photographs right here.

The class winners and the distinguished Grand Title and Young Grand Title awards will likely be introduced on October 13. You can watch the ceremony reside on YouTube.

The full set of highlighted photos will likely be showcased in an exhibition from October 16 on the Natural History Museum. Tickets are available here, priced £4.25 to £21 per individual.

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