Morning Reflection

[Rachel Hollander]

Spending 5 nights at Silver Salmon Creek Lodge allowed me to experiment a bit. Early the last morning we had a low tide and found one male bear exploring the flats. I can't really say he was clamming because I don't think he found any. He was moving around fairly quickly and keeping his distance a little so I used the opportunity to try some silhouettes emphasizing the reflection. Here's one where I like the seagull in the frame as well.

Canon 5D3
100-400 II @ 321mm
1/750
f8
ISO 800
HH, slight crop for comp, levels, curves, TK lumo mask, color adjustments, sharpened in PSCC.

C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,

Rachel

[John Mack]

Wish the bear had some light on his face. Like the reflections and the gulls.

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Hi Rachel, I like the reflection here & the inclusion of the gulls is a nice touch. Nice composition. TFS.

[keith mitchell]

That's different and I like it Rachel,Bear ,Gulls and a nice reflection make for a very interesting image,would love to witness this .

Keith.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Rachel, I'm not sure this qualifies for a 'silhouette', I would have thought that would be where the subject is almost in darkness with a rim light and lighter backdrop, almost backlit?

I like the 'foraging' aspect and the small splashes from the paws and the full reflection. I just wonder if moving to your left there would have been more sun to illuminate the subject? The gulls I find distracting, nothing you can do, they just follow the bears, but without them the image I feel is better. An alternative is to reduce the blue, add some depth to the FG and up the saturation to bring some 'colour' back into the image, it might be reflective of the time, but it looks a bit flat, this is where we add our 'artistic' brush to the image at times, just a thought.

TFS
Steve

[Jonathan Ashton]

Rachel it doesn't quite work for me, I love the light on the flank but not the lack of light onthe head, had the bear been in total light or conversely shadow I think it would have been better. I like to see the reflection in the water.

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks everyone. I had a feeling this would get mixed reviews. I have a few more from the same morning that are a bit more traditional in lighting, comp, etc.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Rachel fully understand the mixed feeling you had .....but i think this works for me as presented .
Having the light coming from behind left , what would one expect ? Just this ..... so you did well i think even having some detail on the dark side .
I do like the refection and the gull on RHS ....that other gull destroys the scenery for me ....and needs to go !!!
Lovely color and mood .

TFS Andreas

[haseeb badar]

Hi Rachel -- I agree with Steve and Andreas , i think you have handled the light quite well and composed it well enough but for me that gull in the BKG is a big distraction and is not helping the image at all .

TFS !

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Andreas and Haseeb, much appreciated.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Dearest Rachel,

Looking at this image, the "picture" that comes to mind is one of a solitary bear at sunrise and absolute silence interrupted from time to time by the tiny splash of his paws in the water, to me this would be magic without the presence of gulls.

I like the POV here, reflection, and also behavioural aspect of the frame. The composition is great. Interested in what Steve said about saturation and reducing the blues, in doing so you might achieve a slightly warmer "feel" and a different "mood" altogether, worth a try?

Thank you so much for sharing, I like to see you experimenting and it reminds me to do the same, lately I have been working quite hard and somehow forgotten to play

Warmest regards,

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Gabriela. I actually really like the blue and purplish tones to this one so no going warmer for me.