Two brother Grizzly cubs appear to roll around in uncontrollable fits of laughter. In a moment of perfect timing, I snapped this endearing moment one summer's day on the meadows of Whitehorn Mountain. The cubs are the young of Grizzly Bear 161 - who appeared to ignore her rambunctious offspring's behavior whilst she concentrated on nibbling dandelions.

At the start of every new year I write a list of goals that I would like to achieve, number 6 of this year’s being “Shortlist or place in a competition”.

One thing I’ve learnt in this densely saturated photography world, is shortlisting in most prestigious competitions is just as much as an achievement as winning first place title. The numbers of entrants can easily be in the thousands, and the quality of work is only getting tougher to stand out from due to increased access to professional gear, coupled with the ease of copying other photographer’s methods from social media.

My first experience of being shortlisted was in 2019 and the very first competition I ever entered - the Natural History Museum’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year - where my image was selected out of 48,000 entrants. I’d entered this competition fairly blindly, not reading the small print, and decided to pull my image out as I considered the background element of my shot too ‘adjusted’. Having a transparent reputation was worth far more than any chance of title at my earliest of stages. And funnily now, I have fully reverted and re-edited the image to it’s former natural self and prefer it’s simplicity.

This was a perfect example of many, of where I have conformed my work to the Instagram cookie-cutter, thinking that’s the only way it stood a chance. However ironically, since peeling off those ‘trends’ and posting again, that photo in particular is now my highest performing image to date - reaching thousands of people. Safe to say I will be re-submitting to future competitions.

However, the one image I’ve always considered my best work is ‘Brother Bear’ (The Punchline). I’ve submitted this piece to a few competitions both small and large, with no recognition and always felt it wasn’t getting what it deserved for the purity of the moment. It’s difficult to describe how I want the world to see this image, but the best way I can is that fully removing the ‘ego’ attached to it, I felt these two little cubs deserved their time in the limelight. What I mean by ego is that, I don’t care about the fact I have took it, it doesn’t matter who’s took the photo - I care less about my technical recognition with this one and more about the visual impact this moment provides to the onlooker.

In one moment this image provides a smile, warmth, a feeling of a true bond, a rare carefree moment and a slight heartache at the reality of the future Grizzlies in this area face. For me, it’s a glimpse of the way the wild should be if we hadn’t all come along wanting a slice of their paradise, or a trophy for our walls to feed that part of our ego that connects a kill with human ‘skill’.

So when I received the email earlier this week informing me Brother Bear had been shortlisted as a finalist, for non other than Canadian Geographic’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year, I was over the moon that it was this one out of all of my submissions to make the cut. It amazes me that out of thousands of entrants of some of the biggest names in the industry - of which some are my biggest idols in the Wildlife niche - my work made it to finalist level.

Update: Brother Bear is now published in Canadian Geographic Volume 141/6 November/December Issue. View here.