Humor in photography, originally uploaded by Nashua Telegraph.

Pun was intended. Had to dig this photo out of my archive to get some
humor going on this blog. Humor photography is something I’ve always
enjoyed capturing. Animals and people seem to be at the top of my list.
To me there’s something about expressions and rare moments frozen with a
still camera, that cannot be copied or repeated over time. This image
was taken with a 35 mm film camera and black & white film inside a rural
farmhouse using available light. Now bears are not extremely rare to see
in northern Minnesota, but a cub this age is usually protected and
hidden away by its mother.

Taken nearly 20 years ago for a small daily paper I worked at in Fergus
Falls, Minn., this tiny black bear cub was rescued from it’s den when
loggers in northern Minnesota damaged its den and the mother was killed.
It was one of two cubs brought to Marion Otnes who started up a wildlife
rehabilitation farm.

Although it was fed by a bottle as a tiny cub, the cute little thing
grew up into a juvenile and was later released into the wild. I can
remember going back to the farm to photograph it a few months later, and
it was already more than 20 pounds larger. That tiny squirrel-sized ball
of fur that I laid on the floor to photograph was scaling my leg with
it’s twin, digging in with its claws.

-Bob Hammerstrom