Picture perfect! Natuashish photographer captures 3 polar bears and a surprise visitor

It took a decade of stalking his prey the perfect shot but photographer Mark Nui of Natuashish finally brought his catch home.

After scoping out the coast for a month, he was rewarded on a recent snowmobile trip to the islands outside of Natuashishwhen he spotted three polar bears a mother and two cubs.

"My heart was racing, with excitement so I went up there immediately and had my camera out,hoping I wouldn't drop it from being overly excited," he said. He approached the largest bear and used a 300-millimetre lens from about 200 feet away, he says.

"It didn't appear to be afraid of me at all, and of course, it wouldn't."

Nui has been photographing for more than 15years, and has spotted tracks many times, but this bear sighting was a first.

From photo famine to feast

It wasn't just polar bears out on theice that day, he learned, when he saw another creature, one he said israre for Labrador.

"I spotted something black on the edge of the ice, and it was a walrus," Nui said.

At first glance, Nui thought the walrus was dead, as it wasn't moving.

"I yelled at it, and suddenly it moved, and startled me," Nui said.

The surprise marine mammalposed for photos between naps, according to Nui.

"This is my first time seeing a walrus and I have no way of measuring how big it is. To me it was huge;if you compared it to a big seal it's probably five times bigger than that," Nui said

Nui's next challenge for himself is to photograph a bald eagle.

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