While on a recent photo excursion on the beautiful ground of Yellowstone National Park, wildlife photographer Andrew Kane set out to do what his photographic title would imply – capture candid images of the plethora of majestic animals that call the world’s first national park home. For this, Kane decided to rent the recently released Nikon D4 from the good folks at Lens Rentals, pairing it with the equally adequate 600 f/4 VR super-telephoto lens.
To make the long story short, it’s a great thing Kane purchased that ever-important damage waiver, as the image above certainly does more than tell the tale of when a bear meets $10,000 photo equipment.
Here’s Andrew Kane’s account of the incident:
I recently rented a D4, Wimberly head, and 600VR from you, and the day
before yesterday, I had a little bit of an accident. I was photographing a
coyote here in Yellowstone and I followed it into the woods about 300yds
away from the road. As I am taking pictures of the coyote, I heard twigs
breaking behind me, and as I turned around I saw it was a grizzly bear. I
picked up the tripod with the D4 and 600 on it and slowly started to back
away. The bear got closer and closer as I tried to back up. When the bear
got to within 20 yds. of me, I bumped into a brush pile that I could not
lift the tripod over, so I had no choice but to leave the gear and continue
away from the bear.
Image Credit: Andrew Kane, moosephoto.smugmug.com
The moral of the story; make sure you opt for the damage protection plan next time you decide to rent some photo gear – you never know what may happen.
For additional analysis of the D4 bear attack, head over to the original post on Lens Rentals Blog.
Image Credit: Andrew Kane ( moosephoto.smugmug.com ) | Via: Lens Rentals & PopPhoto
Crickey…Cheeky bear…