In 2016, Wilkes was approached by the Cetus Research & Conservation Society, a non-profit that works to minimize disturbances to marine mammals in B.C. waters through direct whale monitoring and public education. The organization pitched Wilkes on photographing Robson Bight (Michael Bigg) Ecological Reserve where, year after year, northern resident killer whales return to rub themselves on the rocks, exfoliating dead skin. 

““[They] come for a spa treatment basically,” says Wilkes.

Unsure if he would see any whales, Wilkes hunkered down for his usual 36 hours of watching the landscape. What unfolded next was one of the most magical experiences he’s had in Canada, he says.

With access to underwater microphones, Wilkes was able to hear whale families communicating as they came in and out of the bight. He recounts hearing “a huge vocalization that no other orca made” and getting behind his lens just as a humpback whale breached the surface of the water. This is reflected in the final composition by a large visible plume in the right third of the image, toward the back of the water. 

The final image depicts a day in Robson Bight: the coming and goings of several orca families, the humpback, swimming sea lions, flying bald eagles and the usual traffic of pleasure craft, fishing vessels, cruise ships and kayakers. 

Grizzly bears, Bella Coola, B.C., 2018

Photographing from a six-metre scaffold over 36 hours, Wilkes captured hungry grizzly bears feasting along the Bella Coola River during the salmon run. 

He watched, entranced, as a mother bear scolded her cub for wanting to eat the fish before she was done filleting it. And he had to think quickly when a male grizzly bear, attracted by the scent of the honey-eucalyptus lozenges Wilkes and his assistant were sucking on, approached the scaffold and stood on its hind legs, sniffing the air. “He was so close to me, I could smell his breath,” says Wilkes. 

Wilkes threw the lozenges into the river and the bear followed its nose away from the two humans. 

Of the bears, Wilkes says, “When they feel that you’re not respecting them, that’s when things can get very scary, and so you have to maintain a certain kind of energy and also a respect. And they have to feel that.” He adds that watching the bears go about their day, hunting and communicating, “I felt like, in a way, I had been invited into their home.”

Polar bears, Churchill, Man., 2019

In this image created in Churchill, Man., the day begins at the bottom of the image, where the ice of the Hudson Bay is not yet frozen, travels over the peaks and valleys formed by the freezing ice, past the supermoon in the center of the photo to moon rays at the top of the photo. The light and shadows change, and embedded within the scene are six polar bears, including a hungry male chasing a female with her two cubs. 

Wilkes says this image is one of his favourites because “it’s so arresting and has such a powerful message, storytelling-wise” — that of the sea ice being delayed and the impact that has on the bears’ ability to hunt for their preferred food. These bears will need to adapt to this change in their environment to survive. 

Grizzly bears, Chilko Lake, B.C., 2022

Wilkes returned to B.C. to photograph grizzlies again in 2022. This time, he captured the bears swimming in the glacial waters of Chilko Lake, the largest natural, high elevation freshwater lake in Canada. Shooting from the deck of a camp and looking down on the lake over 36 hours, Wilkes watched “very hardy” bears hike down to the lake to swim and fish for salmon and trout. 

“It was frankly magical,” he says of the experience. 

Wilkes says his goal with this photograph was to show how people can coexist with bears. In the upper right-hand part of the scene are two kayakers — a common sight on the lake. “People go about their lives,” Wilkes says. “They understand, they respect the bears, the bears respect them.” 

Wilkes also wanted to highlight the story of the Tsilhqot’in First Nation, which gained Indigenous title to the land in 2014 and has worked to protect grizzly bears within their territory. Their success is reflected in the way wildlife is “beginning to flourish again in those areas,” he says.  

Wood bison, Elk Island National Park, Alta., 2022

In a bid to save bison from extinction, the Canadian government introduced more than 700 wild bison into Alberta’s Elk Island National Park between 1907 and 1912. Among the trees and rivers of this park close to Edmonton, populations of both plains and wood bison flourished — so much so that according to Parks Canada, the park has transferred more than 2,500 bison to other conservation sites. Wilkes became interested in this successful conservation program and set out to capture an image of the animals in their home. 

While capturing the individual images for this composition, Wilkes was surprised at the curiosity of these huge “primordial” animals. “The curiosity of a species really for me becomes a wonderful element because it allows me to see them from different angles and actually see their behaviour change,” he says. 

However, he also describes the bison as “incredibly spookable.” To minimize disturbance to the animals, he and his team set up an elevated blind and waited for more than two days for the bison to naturally cross the scene. Wilkes says what he loves most about this image is the sandhill cranes flying through the autumn sky above the park: “They’re just magnificent creatures and it was just such a beautiful addition to all of the things that I’d witnessed with the wood bison.”

Northern mountain caribou, Carcross, Yukon, 2023

Wilkes describes this image he made of northern mountain caribou in southern Yukon as the most difficult he’s ever shot. He initially built a nearly eight-metre-tall tower overlooking an area where experts predicted the caribou would be passing through on their fall migration.

However, after three days of waiting in the tower, no caribou appeared, so Wilkes decided to return a month later. When he arrived via helicopter, the tower had toppled over in a snowstorm. He and his team rebuilt it only to have it blown over again within a week. 

With funds for another helicopter flight in short supply, friends on the ground told Wilkes that caribou were congregating at a dry riverbed he could access by car. So, piling all his equipment into two vehicles, he drove to a place near the town of Carcross. The final image was shot from inside a tent erected on top of a Toyota land cruiser that had just enough room for Wilkes and an assistant to sit with three feet of space above them. 

In the end, Wilkes says, it was worth the trouble to document the valley in fall. 

“Seeing the golden leaves, the way they contour the mountain range, and then seeing the wind creating these beautiful striations in the cloud formations, it was spectacular,” he says. 

Wilkes quips that his motto is “if I’m not uncomfortable, then I’m not working hard enough.”

“I think great creativity happens when you’re challenged,” he says.

Steller sea lions, Vancouver, 2025