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beykirch

09-18-2009, 03:52 PM

Ivory Gulls are sometimes named the "Ghosts of the Arctic".

The most interesting but hard encouter of our trip to Svalbard was an adult male polar bear feeding on an approx. 3 year old polar bear.

After the adult polar bear left the scene, the carcass was occupied by some Ivory Gulls. The scene and the flat light really proved their name as Ghosts of the Arctic.

http://www.seehase-beykirch.homepage.t-online.de/Arctic_Ghost.jpg

Canon 5DII, 4.0/400DO IS, 1.4xII, 320ISO, f7.1, 1/640sec

All comments are welcome

Bernd

Raymond Barlow

09-18-2009, 04:23 PM

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CRAYBAR%7E1%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5 Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><link rel="themeData" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CRAYBAR%7E1%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5 Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx"><link rel="colorSchemeMapping" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CRAYBAR%7E1%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5 Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml"><style>  </style> Not easy for me to see such a beautiful animal gone down, under any circumstances., but a fine image of life in such a harsh environment., well done.

Jim Fenton

09-18-2009, 07:35 PM

It certainly tells a story of nature...and fortunately, even with the young polar bears passing, it served the purpose of allowing others to continue on with their existence.

I know how tough Ivory Gulls are to photograph in flight against snow...the only thing I would have wished for was to have a darker patch of snow / ice behind the right wing for contracts, but obviously, it is presented as the scene existed.

Definitely a moody / moving scene.

Brian Barcelos

09-18-2009, 08:36 PM

Love the rawness of this image. Only wish the gull was facing us. Never the less a very telling photo. Congrats

Brian

Juan Aragonés

09-19-2009, 02:33 AM

It is a very raw scene of life and death but it is just the way nature is and I like the story that it tells instead of the fact of the dramatism of the photograph. Thanks for sharing

Ramon M. Casares

09-19-2009, 12:32 PM

Very dramatic but also very powerfull image. Superb natural moment and great document. Congratulations!

Jasper Doest

09-19-2009, 12:46 PM

Excellent story telling image. I hope you'll show the bear on bear interaction in the wildlife section as well. That must have been spectacular. Cruel, but as wild as wildlife can be.

Gyorgy Szimuly

09-19-2009, 06:34 PM

Awesome story. Too bad they eat each other... Gull doesn't really respect the status of the king of ice.
Nice image.

Szimi

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