Another Grizzly

[Steve Kaluski]

We had been watching this bear slowly making his way over to us, as bears are quite curious, so after about 15 minutes he/she emerged from the tall grass and walked along the muddy shoreline of the inlet, sniffing & scenting along the way. The shot was taken about 9.00am in slightly overcast conditions. This grizzly was in prime condition, with a fantastic dark brown coat and stood out from the rest, a very handsome bear indeed.

Steve
Subject: Grizzly bear walking along shoreline (Ursus arctos horribilis)
Location: Katmai, Alaska
Camera: Canon MKIII
Lens: 500f/4, 1.4x - handheld
Exposure: 1/500s at f5.6 ISO 400. 0 stop compensation.
Crop: Slight crop for presentation (original capture vertical)

RAW convertor, exported to Adobe PS: Levels/Highlight & Shadow/Curves/Saturation/NR/USM

[Brendon Cremer]

Lovely image, great colours, well exposed and great detail, like the comp and space:w3

[Rachel Hollander]

Steve - this screams "cover shot" from the comp to the excellent IQ. Healthy looking bear with nice mid stride pose, I like that the back paw is up too.

:cheers:

TFS,
Rachel

[Steve Canuel]

Hey Steve,
Nice looking, well groomed bear. You picked a good one for this shot :bg3: I really like the leg positions in this one, especially the slightly upturned rear paw. The head turn and layers of habitat are also nice additions.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Perfect timing especially the rear left paw. I really like the composition - just one point, you obviously thought it worthwhile, but I am surprised you needed NR on a Mk111 at ISO 400?? Was it slightly underexposed??

[Nancy Bell]

A very powerful image, from the head and eyes looking upward to the uplifted feet showing those huge claws. I would be tempted to nick name this bear, John Wayne :c3:!

[Ofer Levy]

Very nicely done. Composition is different and interesting but it doesn't work that well for me. A bit too much space at the top although I undesrtand you wanted to incluse the blue sky. Here is a repost to show how I would have liked to see this.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Late to this one Steve...love the clarity, sharpness and IQ here. I like your OP as posted, maybe would just shave a tad off the bottom to have less OOF FG? :bg3:

[Jamie Douglas]

Thats a mighty impressive looking bear. Love the head turn and those feet and claws.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Ofer, thanks for the suggestion and I can see where you are coming from, but guess I still prefer the OP, but welcome any thoughts or suggestions in improving the shot.

Cheers Morkel & Jamie, Morkel you are sounding like Brad. :bg3:

[Ofer Levy]

Hi Ofer, thanks for the suggestion and I can see where you are coming from, but guess I still prefer the OP, but welcome any thoughts or suggestions in improving the shot.

Cheers Morkel & Jamie, Morkel you are sounding like Brad. :bg3:
No worries! It is always good to exchange ideas! Just one last note - If you look closely at the two versions you will see that in the OP the bear looks less impressive in size as the tall vegetation at the BG give this impression. This effect is less significant in the repost IMO.:w3

[Steve Kaluski]

Alway open to suggestions & exchange of thoughts, good point Ofer. I will post one for you which might address that issue. :bg3::bg3::bg3:

[Harshad Barve]

This is one of your best , may be among first three
TFS