Brown Bear

[Rachel Hollander]

Andreas asked what predator was next on my leopard profile thread. Not a full profile but close and another predator, the Brown Bear or Grizzly. Taken in July 2010 at Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park, Alaska.

Canon 50D
100-400 @ 400mm
1/1000
f7.1
ISO 800
EC +.67
Tripod from platform, cropped for comp, luminosity mask, levels, curves, selective color adjustments, reduced the reds, Nik Detail Extractor at 4% selectively, sharpened in CCPS.

C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,

Rachel

P.S. Don't forget the new theme starts tomorrow (or in less than an hour my time). April's Theme is black and white or toned images.

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

Nice one as usual from you, Rachel! Now why couldn't it rather look at you? Oh, I forgot - it was fishing!

[Don Railton]

Hi Rachel,
Nice intense stare and I like the comp. Nice and sharp, but I bet you wish you had the 5D3 with you at this time...

regards

DON

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Tobie and Don. Don - what was even worse was that my then new 7D had taken a tumble so back-up became prime body.

Thanks again,
Rachel

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Rachel,
thanks for fulfilling my wish .But i thought i `d get a tighter one .
Classical Brooks shot , but where is the fish , have you cloned it out ?

I quite like the pose of the bear and the placement in the image. Great detail in the water and the bear.Good overall tonality and lovely colors , the mid tones and the blacks does look a bit thin to me, think you knew i will say that. But up to you.
I feel the 50 D isn`t that bad , and as a back up the outcome is quite acceptable even for todays level, looking at other images posted here.

TFS Andreas

[Morkel Erasmus]

Nice clarity and detail here, Rachel, the 50D certainly is no slouch in the right hands.
I would go for a closer near-square crop here? Lose some off the RHS? WDYT?

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Andreas and Morkel. Andreas, the bear was wondering where the fish were too. Morkel, your crop would work but I wanted to show it was on the edge of the falls waiting for the jumping salmon.

Thanks again,
Rachel

[Gabriela Plesea]

Dear Rachel,

I just love to see the concentration on this bear's face, and that crystal water bursting past his front limbs-well captured! The subject is so focused and so well anchored, steady on its feet and waiting for its delicious catch! Would love to see this in real life.
Don't know if I would crop tighter here, to me the water helps make this image, I might be wrong though...Enjoyed viewing this, thank you for posting it Rachel!

Warmest regards,

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Gabriela, much appreciated.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Rachel, I like the idea of going square and adding some mid tone to the bear, but just watch that eye. Did you lighten any of the shadow areas of the bear, or use DE? I would perhaps expect blown areas in the water unless it was really overcast, therefore could the water be lifted a little, brighter in parts?

TFS
Steve

Just a very quick though.

[Rachel Hollander]

Steve - Late evening shot and overcast so that's why the water isn't blown. As stated in my OP, DE at 4%. Personally I prefer the wider view but that could just be me.

Thanks,
Rachel

[Andre Pretorius]

Hi Rachel

Stunning moment captured, my untrained eye see nothing wrong with IQ.

The OP and Steve's RP have two different effects, I personally prefer the wider.

Agree with Steve on eye, was my only crit before looking at other comments.

Still thinking about purchasing that DE…..

Andre

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Andre. I have only just started experimenting a bit more with the Nik plug-ins. I find that a little bit of DE works well on images from the older cameras that didn't quite have the same IQ as the newer ones. It's also fun to play with Silver Efex.

Rachel