{"id":1178816,"date":"2026-08-31T10:27:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T10:27:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1178816\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T10:27:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T10:27:18","slug":"eight-hours-after-drilling-an-adjacent-hole-in-the-arctic-ice-this-photographer-finally-captured-a-polar-bear-staring-straight-into-his-dslr-lens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1178816\/","title":{"rendered":"Eight hours after drilling an adjacent hole in the Arctic ice, this photographer finally captured a polar bear staring straight into his DSLR lens"},"content":{"rendered":"

Getting a camera eye-to-eye with a polar bear in the Arctic wilderness sounds like a wildlife photographer’s dream. But Audun Rikardsen<\/a> found a clever way to do it, placing his DSLR camera<\/a> beneath the sea ice so that the animal could be photographed from a seal’s perspective.<\/p>\n

The result, Icy Window, shows a polar bear peering straight down through a breathing hole \u2013 and has now been highlighted in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

After spotting polar bear tracks close to a seal’s breathing hole north of Svalbard, Norway, Rikardsen drilled one nearby and positioned a full-frame DSLR <\/a>from 2012 with dedicated underwater housing<\/a> and a wide-angle lens<\/a> beneath the ice. He connected the setup to a motion sensor, enabling the camera to trigger when the animal approached.<\/p>\n

Latest Videos FromDigital Camera World<\/p>\n

Eight hours later, the Norwegian photographer finally got the shot he had been waiting for: a polar bear looking straight down into his lens as it searched for seals. Rikardsen’s setup turned the animal’s natural behavior into an extraordinary seal’s-eye perspective, showing a unique view from below the ice.<\/p>\n

Gear and exposure info<\/p>\n

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\"A
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The Canon EOS 6D launched back in 2012, and it is more than capable of producing remarkable wildlife images today \u2013 it is famously known for being the “camera that Canon accidentally made too good” <\/a> (Image credit: Future)<\/p>\n

Technical details<\/strong>
Camera: Canon EOS<\/a> 6D
Lens: Canon EF 14mm f\/2.8L II USM
Accesories: Underwater housing customized camera rig; Camtraptions motion sensor<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

Exposure<\/strong>
1\/1250 sec, f\/9, ISO800<\/p>\n

Wildlife Photographer of the Year<\/p>\n

With a record-breaking number of submissions, at over 65,000 images, the world’s leading wildlife photography competition revealed a sneak peek of the exceptional photographs captured from around the world.<\/p>\n

The best camera deals, reviews, product advice, and unmissable photography news, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

Now in its 62nd year, Wildlife Photographer of the Year<\/a> \u2013 developed and produced by the Natural History Museum<\/a> in London \u2013 gives us rare insights into the remarkable inhabitants of our planet.<\/p>\n

We’ve previously highlighted some of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year highly commended images; from an unlikely friendship to a leopard\u2019s clumsy maneuver and more, you can discover the photos here.<\/a><\/p>\n

The category winners and the prestigious Grand Title and Young Grand Title awards will be announced on October 13. You can watch the ceremony live on YouTube<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The full set of highlighted images will be showcased in an exhibition<\/a> from October 16 at the Natural History Museum. Tickets are available here<\/a>, priced \u00a34.25 to \u00a321 per person.<\/p>\n

You might like…<\/p>\n

Browse the best DSLR cameras<\/a>, the best waterproof cameras<\/a> and the best underwater housings for cameras and phones.<\/a><\/p>\n

Looking for competitions to enter? Here are 10 global photo contests now open for entries from August 2026 to January 2027.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getting a camera eye-to-eye with a polar bear in the Arctic wilderness sounds like a wildlife photographer’s dream.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1178817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3939],"tags":[4021,4020,4022,77,16,15],"class_list":["post-1178816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117189651918542027","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1178816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1178816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1178816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1178817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1178816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1178816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1178816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}