TOWNSEND, Tenn. (WVLT) – For a lot of us visiting the Smokies, we simply want to see the wildlife and take home a picture of that moment. But for Barry Spruce, a photographer who has taken photos of bears, deer, birds and all that’s in the Smokies for 17 years, the perfect picture comes with patience.

In his gallery in Townsend you can see his work and how he’s captured the moments of the animals, like one of the first pieces you’ll see of three bears hanging out in a tree.

“This is in Cades Cove,” he said to WVLT News as he pointed to the photograph. “This mom actually had four cubs, but one was higher in the tree and pretty much blocked by some of the leaf foliage. So I concentrated on the three.”

After retirement, Spruce took on a hobby he’d loved since childhood: photography.

He said bears are the most popular animals in the Great Smoky Mountains to take photographs of.

“They all have a certain range and then getting the idea of what they like to do when they like to do it. And then once you know the age of the bear, you tend to fall into knowing what they’re going to do year in and year out,” he said.

Because you’ll stay a good distance away from the animals, he suggests a long range lenses. There are great places all over the Smokies to see wildlife, but that picture perfect moment could take hours, if not days, to capture.

“Cades Cove gives you just about everything. Roaring Fork has some really good seasons. But cades cove has a little bit of everything because we do have fields and woods and berries and different things,” said Spruce

He said it takes time to learn the bears’ habits, like where and when they’ll feed and when they might just play around in the meadow.

“The best thing I can say once you find a bear is to stay your distance, but let it be natural. So when you let something be natural, that’s when you get the best photography,” he added.

Click here to see more of his work.

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