Cinnamon bear

One of my favorite memories and moments during my time in Yellowstone. This was the first wild bear I've ever seen in my life. My friend and I were driving towards Lamar valley on the second day of our trip to check on a carcass we had heard about (hoping to see wolves) when he yelled bear. As it was still early and I wasn't fully awake, it startled me and I frantically searched for what he said he had seen. At first, he said he saw a black bear. We slowed down until we came to a complete stop just after a large boulder on my side. A black bear was waiting right behind to cross the road. It looked like a statue almost. We crept forward to make a U-turn and allowed the bear to cross. Once we had stopped, another bear emerged from the same side of the road, this one, a cinnamon black bear with some battle scars. We eventually moved up a few hundred yards as more cars began to stop and eventually the rangers came. From where we were, we had the most amount of time to photograph them because they followed parallel to the road a mere 20 feet from the pullouts and towards us. Both bears came within 10 feet of our car and eventually disappeared. The bears came into view for one frame together looking in opposite directions and while I got the shot, it was through the windshield and took away from the quality of the image. This frame was my favorite, I love backlit animals, and even though it was hard to process, the setting was just too perfect. I really hope I can make it back this spring.

Canon 7d
Canon 400mm f5.6 @ f5.6
ISO 400
1/800 sec
handheld