On the prowl

[Steve Kaluski]

Well just to get you girls in the mood for Svalbard, here's a Polar bear on the pack ice. Quite a young one who still was wary, but even so, this animal is perhaps the most dangerous you will photograph. Like all bears their colour changes and you will see that no two bears are alike with subtle changes in colouring to the fur.

Steve
Subject: Polar bear on pack ice (Ursus maritimus)
Camera: Canon MKIV
Lens: 500f/4 with 1.4x HH
Exposure: 1/2000s at f/7.1 ISO400 0 stop compensation

[Arno Ellmer]

Awesome , Steve . The power and menace in this bear is evident. I love the posture and the environment depicted here.Lovely exposure . Would have wished for a little more space at top and right.

[Gabriela Plesea]

You really know what to do with that camera, Steve! I love this, I also love the blue in the BG- a lot! I have not seen snow in twenty-four years, your image reminds me of winter and crisp white snow under my feet...The detail is amazing, I like the pose from the bear, perfect exposure, nice crop (would like a tad more at the top, but it's not a must), I like it that you left enough space for the bear to walk into, I like everything! A beauty!

Warmest regards,

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Steve, I can only hope to bring something back half as good as this :w3. Great techs, detail and pose as usual. I too really like the blues of the bg ice.

TFS,
Rachel

[Nancy Bell]

Awesome! I can even see lovely sparkles on the ice in the foreground.

[Marina Scarr]

This is truly an impressive image, and quite the impressive bear as well. Really loving all the blues and the sparkles in the ice. The stance of the bear really makes him look powerful. If this were mine, the only thing I would have wished for would be for the ice to be continuous behind the bear on the upper right.

[Loi Nguyen]

Steve, beautiful image, great detail and sharpness on the fur. You nailed the exposure here. I would wish to have more room at the top. Loi

[Jamie Douglas]

More room would have been nice as mentioned above but not an easy image to go back and recreate :) As for what you got though, the creamy fur tones look great against the blues and whites of the ice.

I like the sprawled front paw showing those large claws.

:5

[Morkel Erasmus]

Great pose, look&feel and mood here, Steve. I too like the blues in the ice.
Would love to do this one day.

[Don Railton]

A beautiful, powerful, menacing image... Nature at its best. well done Steve.

[Brendon Cremer]

Lovely image Steve, as with most of the above, i too like the ice. Image well exposed and nice colours all the way through, i may be smoking something but bear doesn't look your usual sharpness? As for the comp and we know this is very subjective, i would possibly have included more space on top with less FG as it doesnt add much to the image for me, where as more on top maybe would have added more to the scene.

[vishaljadhav]

Nice image , i love the way you handle the exposure on the whites all around and the bear
the details are so good and the pose is perfect
I am still trying to count the shades of Whites in the whole image , its lovely

[Anette Mossbacher]

Hi Steve,

as usual a great image with all details to the dot.
Am I glad that I read MKIV underneath :w3

What rubber boots have you been wearing when you have been there ?? :bg3:
Black, camouflage, green, pink, red, navy blue? :bg3: :tinysmile_shy_t: :c3: :wave:

Enjoy your evening

Ciao
Anette

[Steve Kaluski]

Sorry for the delay, been away, plus trying to add my thoughts to your own postings too. :S3:

Sadly that as much above the bear as possible and ice will form to what it wants too. Bears come in all sizes & colours, some are yellow creamy, others white creamy etc, but snow & ice will always be tricky to control as you ladies will find out, plus you will also be shooting at all times of the day, a great experience and sightings. :Whoa!:

[Steve Kaluski]

What rubber boots have you been wearing when you have been there ?? Black, camouflage, green, pink, red, navy blue?

Sorry Anette, I used my Sorrel boots, but isolated 'Muck' boots are good too. Rachel has a fairly good comprehensive list of stuff from me so I'm sure she can always fwd some replies back. However you can just drop me a line too. :wave: