The Art of the Grizzly: A Lifetime Portfolio
Bringing a Jess Lee Grizzly bear print into your space is more than an aesthetic choice; it is an investment in 50 years of field mastery. These images are not the result of luck, but of half a century spent understanding the rhythms of the wild—from the rugged coasts of Lake Clark and Katmai National Park.
Why Collectors Invest in Jess Lee Bear Prints:
- Decades of Field Experience: With over 50 years specializing in bear behavior, Jess Lee captures moments that require extraordinary patience—nursing cubs, high-speed salmon hunts, and rare territorial displays.
- Published Excellence: A long-time contributor to National Geographic, National Wildlife, and Smithsonian, Jess’s work is recognized globally for its technical precision and emotional depth.
- Iconic Subjects: Featuring legendary bears, these prints document the most famous lineages in wildlife history.
- Unrivaled Print Quality: Every image is available in museum-grade formats, including Lumachrome HD Trulife® Acrylic and Chromaluxe Metal, designed to preserve the vibrant detail of the Alaskan and Greater Yellowstone ecosystems for a lifetime.
How to Photograph A Grizzly?
Grizzlies are one of the most impressive subjects for wildlife photographers and capturing great pictures of bears in their natural habitat, behaving naturally and not affect by hordes of photographers can be a challenge. The best way to overcome that challenge is to join a photo workshop especially designed for photographing Grizzly bears. But even going a photography workshop will not guarantee great bear pictures. Popular places such as Silver Salmon Creek, Brooks Falls and the Katmai coast can on occasion provide good opportunities but are becoming more difficult due to the over crowding by tour groups. In the past twenty years the bears have become fewer at these popular location as the bears have found other more remote locations to follow their seasonal routines. That said these places still seem like a wilderness paradise compared to the grid lock bears jams of the lower 48 National Parks like Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and Glacier. Still these are currently the best places to safely photograph the great bears.
Brown Bear Or Grizzly ?
Brown and grizzly are common names for the same species, Ursus arctos; the difference between the two is geographic location, which influences diet, size, and behavior. Those that live in coastal areas of Alaska are called brown bears, while typically inland bears that have limited or no access to marine-derived food resources are often smaller and called grizzlies. Both have the same distinctive body shape described below.
- Distinctive shoulder hump.
- Rump is lower than shoulder hump.
- Face profile appears dished in between the eyes and tip of the snout.
- Ears are short and round.
- Front claws are slightly curved and 2-4 inches longs, depending on how much digging the individual bear does.
- Toes are close together, and form a farily straight line. A line drawn under the big toe across the top of the pad runs through or below the bottom half of the little toe on grizzly/brown bear tracks. Claw marks are often visible in the tracks.
- Brown bears are larger than black bears, standing 3-5 feet at the shoulder when on all fours.
This is per the National Park Service
