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Thread: Brown Bear Pouncing

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    Default Brown Bear Pouncing

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    Here, at the remote Katmai National Park of Alaska, which could only be reached by float planes, I was with a small group of "crazy" photographers led by master photographer Chas Glatzer, searching for brown bears for days and finally sitting quietly at a river. The water reached my chest, I was wearing a chest wader and I was still freezing. But I wasn't sure the uncontrollable shivering of my body and my teeth was due to the ice cold water or the fear of facing the mighty animal in front of us. This wild grizzly bear was walking past us. All of a sudden, he changed direction. He looked at us. And he began to sprint towards us. One step, two step, and his 4 feet were almost air borne. Then with all his mighty power, he leaped into the sky and pounced down with his two extremely powerful arms. He was pouncing for a sockeye salmon which swam near us (If you can see the red color in the foreground). He was totally oblivious to our presence. And I still almost shxt my pants when I saw him approaching at lightning speed thru my viewfinder. The speed was so fast I couldn't even see clearly before I hit the shutter on my camera. And there, I witnessed one of the craziest wildlife moment in my life.

    Canon 1D Mark IV, 500mm f4, ISO 800, f5.6, 1/1600s
    LR4, CS6, Nik Color Efex

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    BPN Viewer Charles Glatzer's Avatar
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    Tin Man,

    AWESOME IMAGE!

    Chas

  3. #3
    Ken Watkins
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    Tin Man,
    Words fail me, IOTY

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    What an experience, thanks for sharing both it and the photo.

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    What can you say. Love the eyes, a concentrated, here comes dinner look!

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    Lifetime Member Markus Jais's Avatar
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    Absolutely fantastic shot! Amazing.

    Markus

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    Powerful image. Well worth the effort and standing in the cold water.

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    Wow, wow, wow. Words fail me.
    Andrew

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    Lifetime Member gail bisson's Avatar
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    hi Tin Man,
    this is simply incredible. the action, the splash, the nails ,the eyes and did
    I mention the action are amazing.
    This is a contest winner and an
    IOTW.
    well done,
    gail

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    Great stuff. Powerfal image - you guys are brave!

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    Lifetime Member Marina Scarr's Avatar
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    What a killer image, Tin Man. Looks as though you and Chas had quite an adventure. This capture does a super job of depicting the ferocious strength of these animals. I love the way you framed this one, and the visible eyes, flying hair, water splashes and visible claws all help to put this capture over the top.
    Marina Scarr
    Florida Master Naturalist
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    Thank you!! Yes in this case I made sure I could run faster than Chas :)
    But Chas kept suggesting me to take a break and eat my well sealed salmon sandwich.

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    Lifetime Member Jay Gould's Avatar
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    Tin Man, I have posted a comment about the difference in the color of your bear and Chas' bear in his thread: http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...d=1#post829521. My memory of the bears in the area is that they are the color of Chas' bear and there appears to be a redness to your bear that I do not recall. Since I know you were shooting side by side, and most likely you did processing together at night - isn't Chas an amazing teacher - I am curious about the explanation of the color difference.
    Cheers, Jay

    My Digital Art - "Nature Interpreted" - can now be view at http://www.luvntravlnphotography.com

    "Nature Interpreted" - Photography begins with your mind and eyes, and ends with an image representing your vision and your reality of the captured scene; photography exceeds the camera sensor's limitations. Capturing and Processing landscapes and seascapes allows me to express my vision and reality of Nature.

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    Thanks, Jay, I replied on Chas's thread.
    Oh yes, Chas, me and another 3 photographers shared a big cabin there, and most of the nights we all stayed at a long table together with our computers, so we could get as much help from Chas. So he's never off the hook.

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    BPN Member Morkel Erasmus's Avatar
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    Colour differences between the 2 images aside (this can be easily corrected in "color balance" by shifting slightly away from red and perhaps from yellow and magenta too) this is an amazing piece of wildlife action Tin Man!
    One to be very proud of!
    The low angle makes it even better!
    Morkel Erasmus

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    Hello Tin,

    What an amazing image! Well done. Is this a crop or full frame? Was your color balance on cloudy? (I do like the warm colors).

    Roger

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    Hi Roger, thanks for your comments. Interestingly, this photo posted was a horizontal crop of a vertical original. It was set as vertical because the bear was running right towards me. But in the end I liked this crop better. I was using auto white balance and just adjusted the vibrance of red and yellow in photoshop.

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    And the bear filled up the frame on both side of the vertical frame.

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    Stunning captrue and amazing timing.

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    WOW! What else to say?

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    Hey Tom, how are you doing, long time no see. Thanks for your kind words :)

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