ikura

[greg cowle]

Caught this Kamchatka Brown Bear as it shook it's head and prey, August this year. Kuril Lake is the largest salmon spawning lake in Asia, feasting time for bears before winter. Amazing how much water comes out of the bear's fur. This capture to me is about the water swirls and the stream of roe, I also kept the reflection rather than cropping closer, as it illustrates how quick the action is, for all the fury to have taken place before waves propagate across the relatively calm water.
400mm, 1/2000, f4.5, ISO640
Greg

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Greg - Good action and I like the pop of color the sprayed ikura adds. For me the reflection isn't really adding much and I would much rather have more room above and to the left if you have it. Not sure what camera and lens you are using but you could up the ISO and gain some more dof. If it were mine I would back off on the sharpening of the splash.

TFS,
Rachel

[Morkel Erasmus]

You caught some great splashes and water trails here, as well as the trail of caviar.
I agree with Rachel, would have liked more room on top as opposed to below.

[John Mack]

The moment you captured is spot on. The water and the fish eggs are very nice. This would be a stronger image if the bear was more centered in the frame.

[greg cowle]

Thanks John, Morkel and Rachel for the comments. I had my focus point high in the frame when this happened, hoping for standing bear, so focus on the head got this result. I could crop differently, but as a nature story I find the flat water interesting, as I indicated. When I first looked at this I did start tighter. Maybe I will post another from the sequence at another time with a tighter view. Rachel, I did not sharpen this image, that said it is LR defaults for sharpening on the RAW and JPEG export. The water is sharp because it is sharply in focus. I did reduce highlights, but to me this image is about what we cannot see with the naked eye, the swirls in the water and the stream of roe, and those should stand out. Others may delete, but this is my type of shot. With respect to this image, what would more DOF add, slightly more detail on the rump, and less blurring of the background - those don't add to this image for me.

[Basil Dardagan]

Truly fantastic photography has created a mesmerizing image !! WOW !! IMHO I would leave the splash sharp however I would crop tighter to try and change the position of the bear in the frame as much as possible as i too dont feel the reflection or smooth water adds enough in oder to keep them

[greg cowle]

Thanks Basil, glad you like peak action. Understand the comments on the crop.

[Jonathan Ashton]

A really eye catching image, I understand in the heat of the moment you cannot always get the composition that may prove ideal, I too would prefer a little more space at the top. Sometimes focus lock is handy then you can recompose, the focus of course is not always bang on but it works sometimes.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Greg yeah this is a stunning action shot ....well timed and the flying water and fish eggs are a real bummer IMHO .
Color and tones are looking good ...
Well just the comp, isn´t working for me .
With whom did you go there ? Only Kuril Lake ?
TFS Andreas

Hey Jon .... could you explain how you would use focus lock in action shots ???????

[greg cowle]

Jonathan, I don't often use focus lock, but I will sometimes take my thumb off the focus when in servo, so similar. But in this instance it really happens far too quickly in this scenario. Surrounded 360 degrees by bears on a little island, you don't know where the action will break, when you see or hear something you need to quickly turn, focus, shoot. It is all over in less than a second in terms of peak action.

[greg cowle]

Andreas, I went to some of the volcanos for landscapes also (when not rained out), but only Kuril Lake for bears. I did see a few bears in the mountains, but not what I would call photo-bears. A South African company did the trip, but with a local Russian photographer also.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Andreas, focus lock, the way I use it: set camera on Servo focus AF and to lock focus press the AF ON button, mine is actually set to AF OFF see Custom Functions. I find this more intuitive than the other way round where you would use AF ON for focus and the shutter purely for shutter and metering.