Bear Touched by Gold

Hi Folks -- Been away from all things photography for the last week or so to catch up on some work deadlines, but I finally broke away for a bit today to process my first image from my most recent Alaska trip. Here it is! I will comment on some other posts tomorrow (it's midnight here), but for now, here is the image.

Image:

Female Grizzly Bear at Sunrise
Lake Clark National Park, Alaska.
July 2014.

This wild female grizzly bear was photographed at Lake Clark National Park in Alaska. This was taken at first light in the morning and the first rays of golden sunlight reflected in the tiny puddles of water along the sand flats on shore. It was low tide and the bear was searching and digging for razor clams. The glimmer of golden sun created just an amazing setting for an obvious silhouette opportunity. Wild, not baited, no compositional elements changed.

Equipment:

Canon 5D Mark 3.
Canon 500 f4 Mark II lens.
F8, 1/4000, ISO 200.
full manual mode.
spot focus, spot meter
Jobu Jr gimbal head, Oben tripod (as low as possible kneeling in the wet sand - thank goodness for waders)

Post processing (very minimal, thankfully):

Lightroom 5.6: very basic and minor global adjustments, slight crop, very slight rotation.
Photoshop CS6: two targeted luminosity mask adjustments (brightness and selective color enhancement) resized and sharpened.
edited on a color calibrated NEC P241W monitor.

As always, comments and critique welcomed!

Hi Marc,

great scene here with the backlight. Love the color in this one and overall. Just the FG is a bit bugging me. Maybe burning just from the bottom the LHS the highlights a tad. I just draws my attention there quite a bit. Well, see what the others say to that.

Have a great day

Ciao
Anette

Hi Mark - I love this. Beautiful light, warm colors and walking pose. I don't have a problem with the highlights on the left, though they are brighter than the right. Personal choice as to whether to burn them more. Nicely captured and processed. I would love to have this one in my files.

TFS,
Rachel

P.S. I removed the "theme" prefix. Our theme this month is close-ups and I don't think this qualifies :w3.

This is really nice, Mark. Love the way the light catches the bear outline and the sparkles in the sand. Nothing you can do about the glare on the water being a tad hot, often you need to underexpose so much that you lose the other detail you were going for. I'd perhaps shave some off the bottom?
Overall, wish it was mine :5

This is a beauty, Mark! Grabbed my eye as soon as the page came up and I really like the scene and the way you composed this. Colours are absolutely stunning, I find it a tad hot where the sun reflects in the water but not a deal breaker, very special image well processed and those sparkles in the sand create a very charming, almost magic environment/ surrounding for this lone bear.

Kind regards,

One of your best submissions so far Mark.:w3
Love the framing, golden lighting and subsequent silhouette here, not too much I'd change, and would also be proud to have this.
TFS

Love it Mark!

Agree with Morkel on shaving a bit of bottom, but a wee bit, you do not want to lose the reflection.

Wow - thanks for the great feedback and comments, everyone! I am humbled and appreciative. Here is a revised version. I reduce brightness even more on the glare on the water and I also cropped up a wee bit from the bottom to eliminate some of the highlights in the foreground (while retaining the reflection), especially those that were on the left side. I also slightly burned a few of the strongest highlights in the foreground.

This is a stunning image Mark. Ditto with all above except now that I see your repost I think I prefer the OP. Excellent

Lovely image mark, congrats. Lake Clark is on my bucket list, will go there sometime in the future for sure. Another vote for the OP. You may try to just burn the OOF or slightly crop the bottom, but not reduce the brightness elsewhere. TFS. Loi

RP crop is what I had in mind, mate. Again, congrats on a cracker...

Hi Mark , very nice and with the crop from RP a real "cracker " as Morkel said.Love the colors
TFS Andreas

Very nice shoot ...Well done the repost . Also light is better.
Congratulation