Grizzley on a Rock

[Mike Landwehr]

This image was comes from one of Robert OToole's Katmai bear boat workshops last July. Our first evening, in Geographic Bay, we photographed this brown bear as it grazed along a rocky beach, digging clams and eating other tidbits dug from the sand. At one point, the bear waded into the shallow water, and climbed up on this rock, where it proceeded to use its paws to crush the barnacles encrusting the rock, and then lick the resulting barnacles and crushed shells. The bear graciously provided us with a number of different poses during the several minutes it spent on the rock. C & C welcomed. I'd be interested in your opinion as to whether the image is best cropped this wide (2 x 3), or would be better cropped tighter on the sides (perhaps 4 x 5).

Mark IV
500 mm
ISO 400
1/125 @ f/5.6
Tripod


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[bhavya joshi]

Beautiful image, love the pose and Looks like Grizzly is Balancing on rocks Hope you Didn't captured fallen bear in water..:bg3:
Thanks for Sharing.

[Marina Scarr]

Terrific, quirky pose you managed to capture here. Well exposed with nice details.

[Morkel Erasmus]

blisteringly sharp and a great moment captured, Mike
:cheers:

Since my eyes look to the rock for levelling, I might be tempted to rotate very slightly CCW?
Love it! :5

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Mike, well my question straight aways is, did you shoot this portrait too? The position of the bear, the reflection are all crying out to have captured it in both formats, as you had the time, the bear was happy to pose and all it took was a quick rotation and click, job done. However, as it stands I might go for say 12mm trimmed off both sides cropping 1024 x 724px. Darkening the BKG slightly or running a gradient down through the shoreline or through the water adds a little more depth I feel, but leave the bear as is. An interesting image & behaviour.

BTW the image has an untagged Profile.

TFS
Steve

[Mike Landwehr]

Hi Steve,

Many thanks for your feedback. I captured a lot of images of this bear during the 18 minutes he spent on the rock. Only about ten of those images were verticals. I probably don't shoot enough verticals when photographing wildlife. Too often, I find that when I'm at the distance I prefer for horizontals, and then switch to verticals, the result is images that don't provide the subject with enough space in the direction it is looking/moving. Backing away from the subject to provide the space needed to look/move into often results in a subject that is too small in the frame. In this particular image, with the bear looking in the general direction of the camera, I agree that a vertical would have been a good idea. I'll post a vertical, cropped from the horizontal, which supports your point (the water in the foreground hasn't been cleaned up).

You mentioned running a gradient through the background, or the water, to add some depth. I'm not familiar with this technique. Do you know of any notes explaining "how to"?

I agree with your thoughts on cropping the width of the horizontal image down just a bit. And I appreciate your mention of the untagged profile. I chased this problem down, and found that I have been blanking out the "color space" field when I run EXIF Tag Remover against files before uploading them to BPN. I just need to be more selective about which EXIF fields I remove.

Thanks again,

Mike

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Mike, very much appreciate the feedback, thanks. I fully appreciate the circumstances you were in and like the majority here, we have all been in similar situations.

Firstly, fix lenses can be your best friend, or your worse enemy, as it really limits what you can and cannot do, why Canon are taking their time in launching the 200-400 I don't know, as they were used at this years Olympics. I would always start with obtaining the image you really want, then if you have time, then moving providing it would not disturb other colleagues, but more importantly the subject, then changing format, or moving back in this case can be done quietly & slowly, giving more space all round to shoot in. Personally I have found changing format can often bring a different POV/option to the table and at times been better than the original train of thought. The other option is to shoot with two bodies with different lenses and to have a 1.4 easily to hand.

Regarding the Gradient thre are two ways, one is with LR if you use this, or you can create one in PS/CS, which do you use?

Regarding the Exif data etc, seems very long winded and not sure of the process you use, but if it works for you fine, most of the time is not checking a box in save for web :S3:

Look forward to hearing from you soon.

All the best.
Steve

[Steve Kaluski]

Mike adding to the FG/water/rock (rock optional) works well IMHO, this is very roughly done & you can adjust the amount applied too.

Hope this helps, just let me know what you use.

[Mike Landwehr]

Hi Steve, thanks for your help! I'm using LR 3.5 for reviewing and quick editing of my images, but still use Photoshop (CS5) for more serious image processing.

Mike

[Steve Kaluski]

OK, if you are using CS5 then go back to ACR and open the image:

- Select the gradient Filter tool (G) up in the tool bar, 10, or 11th icon in from the LHS, an option panel then pops up.
- start by dragging the exposure slider to the left
- Press and hold the shift key to keep it straight, click on the bottom/centre of the image and drag straight up, it should darken. Drag it to the water edge in the BKG

Trying to go from memory as I use LR4.2, you can adjust this if need be too.

Now the only issue is that it goes over the bear too, so you will need to export two files, combine & mask, easy as a Smart object, or perhaps the simpliest way is to then use the adjustment brush and paint over the areas you do NOT wish to include, good luck. :cheers:

[Mike Landwehr]

HI Steve, I understand. Thanks a lot for all your help.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Good suggestions from Steve. I viewed the image on the "away laptop" and it rocked, still does, but viewing the 'whopper' as Steve calls it certainly shows that there is subtle room for improvement. Steve's repost with selective darkening/contrast works very well.

[Shreyas Mantri]

Hello Mike, excellent pose - as if this guy is ready for the Olympics :bg3:
Great discussion on PP too, and I do like Steve's PP. Now looking forward to the verticals that you have clicked with this 18 minute model!!
TFS