TTL_BOOK_v8 30.07.25 - Flipbook - Page 77
N°24
THE POLAR CROSSING
Svalbard, Norway
“Glacier crossing of the polar bear. I waited so long to get this photo,
and when it 昀椀nally happened, I had to time it well to capture the foot
movement.”
Michael Haluwana
BEYOND THE FRAME
Photographer Michael Haluwana remembers how “this particular
image was all about timing.” He “saw this polar bear walking across the
ice heading towards a glacier river, and had to wait so that [his] timing,
settings, the light and positioning was right.” He says he “was nervous
with anticipation in the hopes of getting this shot”, adding that “because
wildlife is unpredictable, it’s always hard to determine if your shot vision
will be realized.”
Polar bears are the largest bears in the world and considered a vulnerable species. They spend around half of
their time hunting for food and are great swimmers – the
Latin name for polar bears, Ursus maritimus, means “sea
bear.” There are around 3,000 polar bears in the Svalbard
archipelago and neighboring Barents Sea – a ninth of the
world’s global population of polar bears.
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