Focused on the Wild

Many modern mountain dwellers feel spiritually connected to our still-wild neighbor, the bear. But one Tahoe resident has raised that connection to the level of art. Wildlife photographer Jenny Ross of Truckee has spent two years capturing images for her traveling exhibit "Bears! Icons of the Wild," which features images of every bear species in the world. The exhibit is currently on a tour of natural history museums and other venues.

Ross' extraordinary library of bear and other wildlife photos is the product of her seemingly endless patience and extensive knowledge of her subject. In order to photograph a black bear in Tahoe National Forest one early spring, Ross stood in fresh snow 25 feet from the mouth of a den. She knew a bear was inside, and that it would probably come out sometime that day. It did—six hours later.

For a photo of a mother grizzly fishing with her triplets in a salmon stream in Alaska, Ross waited for a threatening male grizzly to pass just in front of her camera position. She hoped the male would cause the family to glance naturally her way. He did.

Ross has slid into a bear's den in northern Canada to photograph twin cubs and bounced like a rag doll through Nepal, riding on an elephant, in search of the elusive sloth bear.

She guides several photo tours each year, which include a polar bear tour on the western shore of Hudson Bay for Frontiers North Adventures, as well as trips to Alaska and Africa. Participants receive fascinating insights into the lives of wild creatures along with the skills required to successfully photograph them.

On a recent tour to Hudson Bay, Ross led a giant tundra buggy full of amateur photographers on the hunt for polar bear images. Tundra buggies are 13-foot high vehicles that roll on tires originally made for huge farm tractors. Parked only 25 feet from a polar bear sleeping in a snowdrift, the group let their shutters click away. But after 30 minutes, all of the photographers except for Ross had put down their cameras. Her finger was still poised over the shutter button.

"What are you looking for?" a student asked.

"I'm waiting for the eyes to open," she whispered.

They did.

"Jenny is a student of the animal as much as a student of photography," says Ross' friend John Bykerk, who is the field supervisor for Frontiers North. "She anticipates better than most photographers I've seen."

As a child, Ross was a gifted and curious student, influenced by her Shakespearean- scholar father and fine-art painter mother. She loved animals, and studied natural sciences extensively in college. But she ultimately majored in philosophy at Stanford University, went on to graduate from Harvard Law School, and became a trial attorney.

In the late 1990s, Ross successfully argued a massive criminal case against Pacific, Gas & Electric. The intensity of 18-hour days and the death of her father caused her to reevaluate her life. So in 1999, she quit her law practice and took up wildlife photography, which had been only a hobby previously.

"I was concerned about wildlife conservation," she says, "and I decided I wanted to make a difference with my photographs. Most people think about animals as sort of generic, fungible objects: a bear, a cheetah. I view them as unique individuals."

It is her self-proclaimed perfectionism that keeps Ross glued to the camera for the time necessary to get the right shot. "I was waiting for the eyes to open," she says of the polar bear on Hudson Bay, "because I wanted to indicate not only that this bear is comfortable and peaceful, but at the same time, alert and wary. The image has a more dynamic feel to it with the eyes open."

Patience pays off for Ross, but so does her ability to seize the moment. One day in the Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya, Ross was searching for leopards when she spotted a gazelle fawn standing surprisingly close to a young female cheetah and its mother.

"The cheetahs had obviously just eaten a lot and were no longer hungry," she explains. "I realized that the sub-adult cheetah and the gazelle fawn were just hanging out together like buddies. It was positively surreal. I surmised that the cheetahs had killed the fawn's mother. The light was fading. I had a very short time in which to get a truly amazing photograph. I didn't even take the time to change to a faster film. I tried to keep my 600 mm lens steady on a beanbag in the virtually nonexistent light to make sure I got a sharp photograph."

Despite all of the time Ross has spent in close proximity to wild animals, she says that she has never been scared. "I'm extremely careful. I don't ever push the edge of the envelope, and I also feel that I have rapport with animals. I think that stems partly from the demeanor and body language I use to communicate with animals and also from my sensitivity to and respect for what they are communicating to me through their demeanor and body language."

Has she ever been surprised by a photo's results? "Rarely. I know what I'm trying to achieve," Ross says. "I don't press the shutter randomly. So when it works, it's wonderful."

–Laura Read

"Bears! Icons of the Wild" will be at the Lindsay Wildlife Museum in Walnut Creek, California through August 28. Next year, it travels to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.