"[narrator] Every powerful photograph... has a powerful story behind it." "Celebrated wildlife photographer Art Wolfe, sets out to Alaska to freeze the action of the magnificent Brown Bears." "[Art] When they confuse the salmon, they likely will catch the salmon." "Now watch!" "[narrator] He then travels across the world to use new photographic techniques with the wildlife in East Africa." "[Art] Who would have ever thought that the cubs would come and just play with this thing." "Amazing!" "Wide angle, right from a ground perspective." "[narrator] Art then battles the impenetrable forest in Uganda searching for the elusive Mountain Gorillas." "[Art] This is really difficult, on a steep slope they keep moving fast." "I'm just getting little glimpses." "[uplifting music] [uplifting music] [uplifting music]" "[gentle music]" "[Art] Alaska represents wild life and true wilderness." "I love seeing animals in their natural environment." "Nothing is better for me." "And on this occasion I really want to go up and photograph the great brown bear, the largest of the grizzlies, where they catch beautiful coho salmon in a startling backdrop of mountains and glaciers." "[Jerry] Our coastal grizzlies in Alaska are also called Brown Bears." "They're the largest brown bear on the planet." "They'll range anywhere from 100 kilos to 800 kilos, so they can be huge bears." "They are magnificent animals." "[uplifting music] [uplifting music] [uplifting music]" "[Art] 20 years ago," "I'd have been happy with a bear standing in the water, just looking like a cow in a field." "As long as it was well exposed and sharp that was good enough, but not today." "In recent years, with the modern technology of high ISO cameras, fast shutter speeds, that means I can freeze the motion far better than I ever could have, just a few years ago." "I would love to get a shot of a bear just flying through the air, straight towards the camera, you hardly even see that with your naked eye but with these cameras, in a thousandth of a second" "that bear is flying, frozen in time." "If I can get that shot I'm a happy camper." "So we went up to the Alaska Peninsula at the perfect time of the year when the bears are following the creeks and they feed on the salmon." "[plane engine whirring]" "The only downside of walking through willows, like this, this is where bears like to sleep during the day, hidden away from other bears so they can get a sound sleep." "That's why it's always good to be talking." "Let the bears know you're coming." "Ah, little bit of bear fur!" "Smells clean." "That's really good wool." "Virtually every one of these branches has bear fur." "What do we have here?" "This is likely, the jaw bone of a baby bear and this also speaks volumes for the fact that mothers with cubs are in great danger moving through this landscape because there is a lot of boar bears moving around" "and they're likely to kill a cub just so that the female will come into oestrus and they can breed with her and then pass their stronger genes on." "This is the way wolves are, lions and bears." "Now last year I was here, and there was nothing less than 11 bears right in the river behind me." "And this year, not a single bear." "Am I discouraged?" "A little bit, but there's signs that there are bears around." "I can see gulls hovering around, now gulls hover over the water when bears are catching fish, they're eating the residue of a kill." "I'm thinking, up this creek, is where the bears are." "Yeah, beautiful bear, right in front of the gull, casually walking up, very nonchalant, very relaxed, all about salmon." "[narrator] In summer the rivers run red with salmon returning from the ocean in huge numbers to spawn." "Some believe that it is the Salmon's acute sense of smell that leads them back to the very stream that was their birthplace." "Bears are not a social animal as a rule, other than a sow with her cubs, they're solitary." "But they put up with the other bears in close proximity because there is such a food source and they've gotten used to getting the food source and putting up with both people and bears." "[loud splashing]" "[Art] These two bears are working in unison." "And when they confuse the salmon they're likely to catch the salmon." "Now watch!" "Nice!" "Good catch!" "[majestic music] [majestic music]" "Alright in this particular case, only one got the salmon..." "Hey, better luck next time!" "[rapid shutter clicking]" "[Art] Ahhh, that's really nice." "That mother has so much work, keeping those cubs out of harm's way and keeping them fed in the middle of a bunch of boar bears." "[narrator] A male bear intrudes on a sow and her cubs' territory only focused on the scattering salmon." "[mother bear growling]" "A mother will aggressively defend her cubs, putting herself at great risk in doing so." "[growling]" "On this occasion the male leaves the confrontation and continues to chase salmon into the shallows." "[Art] Wow!" "That was fantastic!" "This mother was chasing a big boar who's only interested in catching salmon, it comes out and it smacks him, but the bear is so interested in the salmon that it was on point, it actually got the salmon, as did she." "Amazing behavior." "[upbeat music] [upbeat music] [upbeat music]" "[Art] You know, we live in a time where virtually millions of photos are taken everyday." "And so, my goal is to provide new perspectives, new angles of view, and I really wanted to try these different techniques in East Africa." "[narrator] Africa is home to an incredible diversity of environments and living creatures." "The open plains of the Masai Mara provide perfect conditions for Art to get closer to the action than ever before." "[flame roars]" "[Art] So this is my 38th trip to the Mara and the first time I've been able to get above the land." "East Africa in late August and now in the month of September, it's all about the migration." "[narrator] The great wildebeest populations of East Africa perform a spectacular annual migration." "An endless quest for the fresh rains and the new pastures that follow." "While having the appearance of a frenzy, research has shown a herd of wildebeest possesses what is known as "swarm intelligence", whereby the animals systematically explore and overcome obstacles as one." "[Art] For me it's not so much the biology of the migration, but it's the graphic nature, it's the patterns." "It renders the scene into something much more, ah, like a painting in my mind." "So when you have a subject, and light, and atmospheric conditions like a herd of wildebeests, it just comes alive in terms of the graphic nature of it and that's really the first thing I ever want to shoot " "is the art of a subject." "[uplifting music] [uplifting music] [narrator] Predators that feed on wildebeest include lion, cheetah and crocodile." "Wildebeests can defend themselves, even against lions... but this one is not so lucky." "Art is keen to photograph these amazing predators in a completely new way." "[Art] I never really want to replicate my successes of my past," "I always want to see and photograph subjects in a new way." "So, we've brought a little vehicle that we can attach a camera to." "So, it's almost like you're laying there on the ground right in and amongst your subjects, seeing it, as your eye would." "And to be able to shoot with a wide angle where you're conveying a broader scale, it sets the animal in its environment and that you don't get with a telephoto." "[upbeat music] [upbeat music] [upbeat music] [shutter clicking]" "[quiet growling] [upbeat music] [shutter clicking and growling] [upbeat music]" "[Art] Who would have thought the cubs- and I had no idea there were so many cubs- would come and just play with this thing, they love this as a toy." "[Abe] The camera has been chewed, it's covered in saliva, there's puncture... teeth punctures," "I can't even move the lens hood on it." "[Art] This is completely trashed, it's completely trashed." "This is a camera you'll wanna save for your, ah, old age." "This has been mauled by a pride of lions." "[Art] Just before sunset, a pride of lionesses with their cubs show up out of nowhere." "And the shooting starts all over again." "[gentle music] [gentle music] [gentle music] [gentle music] [shutter clicks]" "[gentle music]" "[Art] You know what's amazing, I came to Africa to shoot the same subjects but in a different way and I got it!" "I mean, amazing, wide angle right from a ground perspective... that's incredible." "[uplifting music]" "[Art] East Africa is an amazing land of contrast, on one hand you have the open plains of Kenya and Tanzania, and then suddenly you're heading north into the tropical forests of Uganda." "When I came to Uganda in the late 90's, back then I was shooting film." "I would shoot 100 photos and maybe get two or three where they were actually acceptably sharp." "Today, with the high end cameras that I have," "I can not only get sharp shots but get personality." "The individualism of these mountain gorillas, they're all different, and so on this trip I wanted to capture that." "Biwindi's Impenetrable Forest is the most appropriately named forest I've ever seen." "And it's just this myriad of vines and plants, ferns and it's so easy to see how these gorillas are difficult to find." "[gentle music] [gentle music] [gentle music] [shutter clicks]" "This is our second band of gorillas and these are movers." "On a steep slope they keep moving fast," "I'm just getting little glimpses." "A lot of back sides walking away." "Right now I've got a... an adult just sitting here..." "And he's now moving, [shutter clicks] as expected." "I've had better days." "But that's part of the game, because tomorrow they could be all around me in an open forest, babies and mothers, that's what I think when I'm dealing with this, there's always a better day." "[narrator] Failing to capture the powerful gorilla images he wanted," "Art and his crew set out the next day for another attempt." "With the help of some additional local trackers and Ugandan military escorts, spirits are high that a great encounter will just be over the next ridgeline." "Having a large team is not without its risks." "Gorillas can be unpredictable." "[man] Jen... [narrator] Despite their dark color, the thick undergrowth can render them unnoticeable." "[loud clatter]" "I didn't see her," "I literally didn't see her there." "I was just photographing this baby through a group of branches and suddenly a hand came out and grabbed the lens and then I realized the mother was like two feet above me..." "I didn't even see it because it was right behind some ferns." "It's a very thick environment in other words." "[narrator] The team finally discover an open clearing in the forest... giving Art a photographic breakthrough." "[Art] This is a magnificent sight, there is at least eight or nine gorillas within sight of me, this troop has around 19 including 2 silverbacks, one of which is right here 15 feet away." "It doesn't get much better than that." "[shutter clicks] [gentle music] [gentle music]" "There's something about mountain gorillas, of all the primates I've ever photographed that is unique." "[gentle music]" "You know if you look at their arms and their hands there's such a connection with human form." "And they actually have expressions and body postures very much like a human." "They're very inviting, they're very engaging and the eye contact is constant." "[gentle music] [gentle music]" "I want my audience to be there right with me." "If I feel it when I'm taking the picture," "I want that connection passed on to my audience." "[uplifting music] [uplifting music]" "[Art] I'm high in the Simien Mountains and I'm all bundled up in long johns and warm clothing, it's hardly the experience people think of when they're in East Africa, but up here, at altitude, rare animals exist." "[narrator] These mountains are home to another endemic primate, the Gelada Baboon." "A distant relative of the gorilla, the Gelada are an old world monkey who graze the grassy edges of the Simien escarpment." "[Art] I once did a book, primates of the world." "I spent a lot of time in the rainforests but never up in the mountains like this." "And look it, unlike the mountain gorillas there's a sea of these guys." "This is such an extraordinary environment, and in fact these gelada baboons are so unique in the sense that they live above 10,000 feet, so they have a really interesting snout on them, they have inordinately long fur," "which makes them almost look like a male lion." "[shutter clicking]" "This is a nice scene right now, these junipers up at this high elevation almost look like olive trees so they're beautiful trees and when they're surrounded by all of these gelada baboons [shutter clicks] it makes a beautiful habitat." "It's like Sunday in the park." "[upbeat music]" "[narrator] As Art is about to end his journey and return home, he discovers that a rare bird of prey that frequents the Simien Mountains and has been spotted nearby." "An elusive bearded vulture known as the lammergeyer." "[Art] I really wanted a great shot of a lammergeyer for years," "I spent two full days in the Gobi Desert in a blind being bitten by spiders trying to photograph a lammergeyer and I got one but it was so far away I never was happy." "I'm intending to get a great shot today." "[rapid shutterclicking]" "Wow.." "At 10,000 feet holding your breath, trying to get a good shot, it takes everything, every skill I got plus the latest technology." "Follow focusing, going in and out of cliffs." "It's a little bit of a challenge." "These guys are built to fly," "I want them in the air, not sitting on the cliff, not standing like a chicken but flying with their magnificent wings that's what I'm after." "These birds are giving me plenty of opportunity, now it's up to me to fulfil it." "Oh, right there, right there." "[rapid shutter clicking]" "[uplifting music] [rapid shutter clicking]" "I know I got him that time." "That was a perfect pass, let's get one more." "Yes." "[rapid shutter clicking]" "I know I nailed it right there." "[gentle music]" "[Art] We live in a great time to be photographers." "Technology is coming so fast that it's hard to keep up." "And yet that new technology equips me with the enthusiasm to move onto the next subject, over the next horizon, surely there's a new subject that I haven't done but I'm going to embrace." "And that keeps me moving forward and has kept me moving forward for the last forty years." "[uplifting music] [uplifting music] [uplifting music]"