The bears, a threatened species, had by the 1980s become rare in the GYE, so Mangelsen began going north, to Canada and Alaska, where there was less hunting and tourism pressure and the animals were more common.

From there, Mangelsen also went to nearby Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park and Preserve, where bears have long been observed feeding on fish heading upstream to spawn.

"[6] One week in 1988, Mangelsen camped out near Brooks Falls during salmon spawning season, when bears turn out in numbers to catch them.

He set his camera up with a cable release, allowing him to remotely trigger the shutter, and pointed it in the direction of the falls, pressing the button every time he saw a fish jump out of the water.

Mangelsen did not realize one of those images had captured a fish in the last moment before the bear's mouth closed on it until he began developing his film a month later.

"[6] Since Brooks Falls is easily accessible and has a viewing platform on the same bank Mangelsen used, many of the photographers who have visited Katmai during the bears' hunting season since 1988 have tried to capture a similar image.