One of the most interested shoots I’ve done was when I worked for a company that manufactured copier parts. As part of a promotional campaign, we were doing a shoot that needed a live cougar and a bear.

We found a place about an hour away that had the animals we needed — they were “animal actors.” The place had about 100 acres of land and every animal that’s native to Minnesota, including a pack of wolves and a few bison. It’s at places like this that the vast majority of wildlife photography is actually shot. They have some land, the photographer chooses the animals he wants, and the animal handlers bring them out and try to coax them into doing what the photographer wants.

Our first shoot needed the cougar, also known as a mountain lion. The handler drove up with Rocky in a cage in the back of a pickup. Rocky was huge, but sweet. He was rubbing his head against the bars for the handler to scratch his ears for all the world like a giant kitty. He was adorable.

And then we got the safety talk. That was a sobering experience. It went something like this:

“Don’t have any food in your pockets, and don’t chew gum. He’s attracted to the smells and might attack. Don’t make any sudden movements. Don’t try to pet him. Don’t make eye contact with him – that might make him attack. Everyone stand together in a group, and don’t leave the group. Cougars are attracted to prey that is alone. These two guys have cattle prods and will stand with the group. Everyone stay here.

“Okay Brian, you can come over here to get the shot.”

And sure enough as I walked away from the group, Rocky – previously sitting there drowsing – suddenly got very, very interested in me. I watched him tracking my movement, then caught myself looking him in the eyes. It was amazing how deadly this previously adorable cat suddenly seemed.

And I can only imagine how the model felt, who had to be standing right next to him. Just off frame in this photo is the handler hiding behind a tree with a cattle prod. When the model took the chain off the cougar, it was supposed to walk away (handler luring it out with some meat). But instead it just turned and looked up at the model, considering whether to eat her I presume.

In the end the shoot went more or less as planned. Once Rocky took off into the woods for a bit of a run (and in the process going – I’m dead serious here – through a fence, blowing it apart) but the trainer lured him back with some cat & mouse games.

Then we switched to the bears, even bigger and more massive than the cougar, but strangely less threatening. Immediately the extra guys with cattle prods went away and the trainer came out with a bag full of gummy bears.

“Here,” he said to one of the models. “Put this in your lips and the bear will eat it out of your mouth!”