PB eating sea weed! This PB reminded me of 'arc', our dogface. Our dog eats grass too, but have not thought that PB's eat sea weed. Well it is healthy! My explanation, "I assume they eat the sea weed, because they cannot find anything else. Or to clean their stomach like a dog" Just my thoughts on this.
This PB was on an island with an ice cap over it!. Posted already a image of this one crossing a creek.
Just a note on the side. I have no clue why my PB's are all dirty and Rachel's are all "clean"
LR as usual, CS6, Levels, curves,Mid-tone adjustment and addressing the highlights.
This is nearly FF. I only cropped a tiny tad on top, to get the sky out. THis was just on the RHS corner.
1Dx
ISO 800
70-200mm & 2x ext. III ( my fake Fiat 500 )
f/6.3 1/640
HH from drifting Zodiac
Hi Anette - Really interesting to see how different our sightings were. We never saw the PBs near the shore. We saw a few on land but further away and high up. I think mine are cleaner because they were in the water and ice rather than the dirt.
Nice walking pose, the seaweed in the mouth with the light hitting it adds to the image, good detail and control of the highlights. The image feels a little dark but that may be reflective of the conditions at the time. If it were mine I would consider cropping about half the water at the bottom.
Hi Anette,
one of the PB ladies battling with the other PB lady,very nice to watch you both posting images from the "same" location , very differently , so we can see how different Svalbard and its bears is.
Like the frame from the FG to the space behind the bear where BKG is fading off, but not enough i think, so i do find the BKG somehow a little disturbing.Too detailed for my tasting in this case.I would ask Steve , i have seen him using that lens blur or depth of field filter to eliminate unwanted depth in the image? If i remember correctly was looking very natural
I would fry first using the clarity in PS set to -50 or -70, maybe that helps already, if you like to.
Like the overall tones in the frame, but would think or try to get a tad more life in the eye area.
Ps: is he/she digging in the dust bin like the lioness?
thanks for your time and comments Always curious about thoughts
Rachel, your PB's must have smelled you miles away, thinking, oh Rachel comes, I need to take a bath now. She makes big prints of us and hangs them everywhere she can I wanna one too
My PB's thinking, oh there comes Anette, she digs in every dust hole in Africa, always dusty and dirty on all her Africa trips, not to mention in Borneo the mud and leeches on her!!!! We do not need to take a bath, she is used to it lots of giggling from my side. You really wanna come along someday Rachel ? There is no washing machine around where I dig
According to dark I think you are right. Will check, in Levels it is just right, will pull a few sliders. As well had to reduce Cyan a bit too!
Gabriela, I did post it on purpose nearly FF, that I get all your thoughts on a crop. Many thanks
Andreas, there is no battle with PB's, we both Rachel and me have been fortunate to see them and photograph them, just in different environment.
Dust bin is here: http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...rn-in-Svalbard you need to scroll down to my last RP in that thread!
BG, I will check with this lens blur and depth of field filter. Have seen once a tutorial on it. Will give it a shot.
BG I pulled the clarity slider back to -15, was not enough I assume. Will check with more, so glad I learned a while ago the Smart Object thingy Also when I see it in here, Rachel is right, might a tad to dark. It was overcast, the sun found a spot to get through from the left. Enough for me that I pulled the ISO more down.
Tad more life, Andreas, look in the image, he is standing, eating while walking will try to give him an excitement boost, maybe a look that the sea weed taste like meat
Many thanks everybody, wish you a fantastic eve
Ciao
Anette
Last edited by Anette Mossbacher; 11-27-2013 at 03:25 PM.
Hi Anette, another nice shot depicting both a different behavioural aspect & habitat.
I like the moody setting, but perhaps you could go just a fraction darker to 'sandwich' the bear, WDYT? I also like the way the light extenuates the bears form & muscular prowess. Initially I had the same thought as Rachel, loose some off the foot of the image, but happy as presented. Techs looks good, especially from a zodiac.
Just taking on board Andreas thought, how about something like this, just a subtle 'tweak', obviously you can adjust the strength, just personal taste, but you can at least see the effect.
TFS
Steve
Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.
Thanks so much Steve.
I did work on the BG with Lens blur. WDYT? Did not apply lens blur to the FG!
The tad darker I like a lot. I tried out Rachel's, a bit lighter, but a tad darker appeals to me more. I also cropped a bit from the bottom, not to much. I tried pano as well, somehow my crop appeals to me more. But this is just me. Everybody has a different taste!
Thank you very much Steve for your time and help
Have a great day
Ciao
Anette
PS Our son goes to London to have a Swim competition in your Olympic pool He loves that
I am late with comments but I have been reading up on polar bears to understand what is going on here...Although their main diet consists of the blubber of seals, it looks like these carnivores eat quite a lot of sea weed which provides them with much needed minerals. They also eat berries and goose eggs, even though the energy intake from such terrestrial food is very small. Read up quite a lot of interesting stuff on the internet, those interested may do a search under "Polar Bears: A Complete Guide to Their Biology and Behavior "
Very catching image Anette, this is one interesting behavioural shot and it made me do some reading since I knew not much about these animals. Apart from the bear and his sea weed munching, I must say I really like the crop because it includes quite a bit of the environment (glad you did not take off from the top and/or bottom) the rocks and weeds have taken the place of snow, I also think Steve's RP puts extra emphasis on the subject -nice touch, that blurred BG, I really like it. Exposure is great and there's plenty of detail on the bear, excellent shot and processing, thank you for sharing this-kept me busy doing polar bear research the whole day (in between patients, that is(LOL)...
Hi Anette, I had a good laugh. Yes, I'm a city girl at heart and like my creature comforts so we have different travel styles. I like what you and Steve have done, just seems to separate the bear a tiny bit more but makes a difference.
We were told that although the bears obviously prefer meat such as seals and whale carcasses, they will pretty much eat anything to survive in lean times, except apparently walrus unless they can pick off a young one away from the herd. Our naturalist said the PBs are afraid of the walruses' tusks and generally keep clear.
O-M-G … you did a " " yeah, I am proud of you. That is for sure the 38%RHS, my fav
I am so glad I made you laugh, but nothing beats the last time. Must work hard to find something like that again. I am sure you still giggle about it, when you think of it
According PB diet. Have read a few moons ago, that when the PB are really desperate for food and walruses are present they try their luck. Has been witnessed a few times! But I think they go for those you mentioned or the weak ones.
Have seen images of PB's climbing up steep mountains to get the eggs and chicks of the birds too. On the boat the tour leader showed us a few. The PB's are excellent climbers and runners as well. Swimmers as well. Scientist have records that a female PB was swimming over 600km with a cub. The cub drowned on the way, but the adult PB made it to the pack ice. When we had dinner, up in the pack ice, boat machines stopped. The intercom said: All eyes look out of the windows. I looked out and there passed us a PB swimming, he made it to the pack ice. We just left it and 100m behind us there it was. He/she was a lucky duck!