The grizzly looms large—thousands of pounds of tooth and claw. It is mere feet away from vulnerable human flesh but this is no time for panic, but for concentration and aim. Getting that critical shot—at a proper exposure and aperture setting—is the calling of Uncasville-based wildlife photographer John Fast.

“The excitement is beyond words,” he says, describing the experience of photographing the bears. “It is nerve racking.”

The first time he went to McNeill, AK, there were 63 bears in the gorge, catching salmon from the river. He and the other photographers there had entered a lottery for the rare opportunity to see bears in a natural habitat.

A state ranger with the group appeared utterly unconcerned by the massive predators.

At McNeill, photographers were not allowed to approach that animals but would stay in a designated place and wait for the bears to make their move. “There’s an element of risk, but they’ve never had a bad encounter,” Fast says.

The danger of the bears is less at McNeill because the tight regulations on visitors limit the bears' contact with humans. In more populated areas, where people might litter or leave food lying around, the bears are more likely to see human beings as a dining option.

How close do the bears come to the photographers?

“As close as you are,” he says, looking across the small café table.

 The start of it

It is 1997 and Fast has recently retired from his job with General Electric. Already an experienced and diligent photographer, he is also a woodworker, fly fisherman and a pilot.

“I had all kinds of interests, but everywhere I went, I had the camera with me,” he says. After Alaska brought him his first experience with wildlife photography, the camera overshadowed all else. “I let all my other passions disappear,” says Fast.

His travels have since brought him back to Alaska three times, including another visit to McNeill and two visits at Anan Creek, where he photographed black bears.

Though he says the grizzly bears are his favorite subject, he also enjoys going to other North American locations such as Maine and Nova Scotia for capturing moose, and to Florida for bird photography.

“The Southwest is a big favorite,” he says. The large open spaces, unobstructed by trees or buildings, are where he likes to take his landscape shots. As for the area around southern New England, he admits there is little that he likes to photograph.

“It’s either wildlife or scenery,” he says of his repertoire. “I do very few people.”

In a few weeks ,he will be heading to Banff in the Canadian Rockies to partake in the Digital Imaging Association’s conference. While he’s in the area, he plans on capturing the local grizzlies, elk and black bears.

The digital difference

Currently, he stays busy as a member of the Digital Imaging Association and teaches classes in digital imaging and photoshop and color management at Three Rivers Community College and at The Granite Street Gallery in New London. He also does color management work for printing business in Connecticut. His work adorns the walls of the Pacific Street Gallery in New London and The Village Bake House in Niantic.

Now an experienced digital photographer, Fast got his start with film. When he was 12 he joined his father for a year in the west of Africa. He recalls using a Kodak Rangefinder to capture scenery in the Gold Coast, Ghana and other countries in the region.

Despite the decades of photography dueing which he used film cameras, Fast is unsentimental about the days before digital.

 “I don’t miss it at all," he says. “A lot of people say they miss it; I don’t.”

Three years ago, he sold all his film equipment.

“The digital advantage is huge,” he says. He credits the digital camera with giving him more flexibility—he no longer has to worry about running out of film and can see results immediately.

The time and expense of developing film made him reluctant to press the shutter. Now with the essentially unlimited memory of his cameras, he still finds it difficult to unlearn the old habits.

One thing he doesn't find difficult to live without is the time that he spent in the darkroom.

“You spent hours mixing chemicals and cleaning glassware.”

Digital photography has allowed him to have far more control over the image than before.

One example of this is “high dynamic range photography,” in which a photographer shoots a scene multiple times at different exposures and then uses software to create a composite image.

Pointing to one of his own pictures of a dark blue sky framed by red canyon walls, Fast explains how a single photo would have limited him to either a sky that was too bright or walls that were lost in shadow.

Still, Fast says that he does not use Photoshop to alter the truth of his image. He  sets up the composition that he wants while shooting, rather than altering it afterwards. “I’m a fan of realism in my work,” says Fast.

A good photo is taken with a camera, he says, not created with a computer. “The rules of photography haven’t changed because of digitals,” he says. “Photoshop can’t do everything for you."

It's not all good

One disadvantage of the new technology, he says, is that it has fostered an overly casual approach to pictures. He cites people who hold their arms far out from their body when taking snapshots, (more likely to cause tilted shots or blur) or casually aim the lens without paying attention to composition.

“Tripods are a good thing to have and use,” he says.

There is also a swell of information about digital that can be confusing and misleading to beginners. For instance, many people are aware of the number of megapixels in their cameras but don’t realize that the size of those pixels is also important.

Cameras that have small pixels in their sensor bulbs are more likely to have unappealing “noise” or a grainy quality to their pictures, especially for photographs taken in low light.

Image-size is often a confusing concept to people who don’t understand why the 2 mega-pixel image on their screen won’t translate to a full-sized print on paper.

“They can’t take a 16 by 20 off their cell phones,” Fast says.

Another thing that digital hasn’t changed is the importance of being in the right place at the right time.

To photograph landscapes, he recommends going out slightly before and after sunrise or sunset.

“That’s when the lighting is very special,” he says.

Beautiful weather is not required to make beautiful pictures. “Overcast days can be very good."

In terms of photographing wildlife the challenge is finding the right place and waiting for the animals. “The key word is patience” Fast says. “I can stand in one place for hours and hours and hours.”