Brown Bear With Dog Salmon - Alaska Wilderness

Frazer Leal

Image: Brown Bear With Dog Salmon - Alaska Wilderness

Frazer’s passion is to help photographers understand the tools of the trade and to maximise photo opportunities. He is a photo guide for World Photo Adventures. Frazer looks forward to helping you attain your creative goals.

Frazer first became serious in photography when he borrowed his dad’s camera while on a photo workshop on Fraser Island in his teens. He went on to win best photo that week with over 100 adult photographers. Frazer has an impressive record for exploring locations and experience in photography in a relatively short time. He has already guided groups of photographers to iconic locations in Australia and around the world. Frazer has worked in over 40 tours and workshops, featured in magazines and on TV.

What is your go to in your Alpha kit and why?

While Frazer helps all photographers during workshops and overseas tours, he loves his Sony kit and knows how to get the best from its performance. My go to lens - The Sony 200-600mm ƒ/5.6-6.3 G as it allows me to get into the action. The internal zoom enables me to control the lens better. I handheld this lens or use a monopod, a step further is to add the Sony 1.4x teleconverter. This offers me an effective maximum focal length of 840mm. Then, with the Sony Alpha 1's 50MP sensor, if required, I can crop. This all adds up to a killer combination for nature shoots from Africa to Australia - from tiny wrens to flying birds and giants like elephants.

Azure Kingfisher - Kakadu 1 / 10

Saltwater Crocodile - Kakadu 2 / 10

Bat Rein 3 / 10

Moonlit Bungle Bungles 4 / 10

White-bellied Sea Eagle - Woodgate QLD 5 / 10

Chalahn Falls - Lamington National Park 6 / 10

Dune 45 from Above - Sossusvlei 7 / 10

Alaskan Wilderness Iceberg 8 / 10

Paine Morning Glow - Torres del Paine Panorama 9 / 10

First Light - Mount Fitz Roy, El Chaltén 10 / 10

Most memorable moment shooting with Alpha?

I was in Alaska in August 2018, on tour with a group of photographers. We motored from our small exclusive ship to a creek delta. Our target was bears. On landing, a brown bear (grizzly) walked just past us, to fish. We waited patiently while he missed fish after fish. Still had fun getting a few shots with my Sony Alpha 7R III and 100-400mm GM lens. Then it happened! He caught a fish and not just any fish, but a giant Dog Salmon. Suddenly, from 200m away, another bear came sprinting at him. He ran in a curve very close to our group (trying to shake off the pursuing bear) - this is when I made the example image. The story of the bears goes on, as I (we) shot more great images. Put simply, it was one of the most amazing life experiences and one that we all raved about in the following days. How many people have had a grizzly run about 10m past them? Of course we were safe (with safety measures), as the bear is interested in salmon, not humans. I can’t wait to take another group to Alaska...