Mating Pair?

[Rachel Hollander]

I hope you're still not bored of bears. The question mark in the title is because these two seemed to be going through some of the typical courtship rituals but the young male seemed inexperienced and we're not sure they ever actually mated. Some of the guides speculated that the bears were actually siblings from the same mother in different years and that the mother had allowed the older daughter to still be nearby while raising the male so that they were more playmates than suitors. There was another male in the area but she chose to play/mate with the younger male on this particular evening.

Canon 7D2
100-400 II @ 400mm
1/1600
f5.6
ISO 800
HH, sliver off the top to remove a sliver of sky on top left, TK luminosity masks, levels, curves, color adjustments, sharpened in PSCC.

C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,

Rachel

P.S. Don't forget to get your animalscapes ready for March's theme.

[Marc Mol]

One of your best from your bear cub sequence here Rachel, gotta love the lighting and dominance behaviour with the eye contact & cheeky grin, the cherry on top

The blue sky BG does draw my attention somewhat and would consider a lower crop.

TFS

[Gabriela Plesea]

Dearest Rachel,

Wonderful behavioural capture and I like the placement of the two subjects in the frame. Colours are superb, love the golden fur of the bears and also detail, eye contact with both male and female is just great!

It all works so well my friend, and I am certain I shall never get bored with your bear images - please let us have some more!

Warmest regards,

[Glenn Pure]

Really excellent behaviour shot, Rachel (whatever it actually was - only the bears will know for sure). I like the backwards glance from the closer bear - it gets one thinking about what was going through her mind! Really excellent detail and up to your usual high standard. Like some other shots, I do find some of the highlights look a little thin to my eye although I don't think anything is clipped. Your choice of composition is quite interested and probably not what I would have chosen. Can you outline your thinking on this aspect?

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Marc, Gabriela and Glenn. I'm glad you all like this one. Glenn - I tend to like a good amount of negative space and, because the bears were traveling on a slant to the right and towards us, I put them near the ROT position on the lower left. The other alternative would have been to shoot them vertical but I prefer the negative space of the horizontal image. Now I'm curious, how would you have composed it?

Thanks again,
Rachel

[Glenn Pure]

Now I'm curious, how would you have composed it?

Thanks for your response, Rachel. In the original capture, I'd have placed the two bears so the 'thirds' line ran down the middle of them vertically and pointed down a bit more so there was a little more foreground. Then I would have cropped a little tighter to probably lose the sky altogether. Everyone is different though!

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Glenn. I prefer to generally avoid large crops and cropping out the sky would be a large crop for me. I don't mind the sky at all.

Thanks again,
Rachel

[Marc Mol]

Really excellent behaviour shot, Rachel (whatever it actually was - only the bears will know for sure). I like the backwards glance from the closer bear - it gets one thinking about what was going through her mind!

Most likely an assertive/dominance behaviour Glenn, quite common really. You'll see this from Elephants all the way down to primates and dogs. Both males to males and males to females.

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Hi Rachel this is wonderful, great interaction, lovely light and colours. No question of getting bored! Keep sharing!!

[Simon Davis]

Great detail on the bears Rachel and I like the comp.

[haseeb badar]

Hi Rachel -- I liked that expression on the Bear closer to the camera. Nice colours and details as usual . I would have liked a tighter frame to highlight the expressions and the moment but cropping tighter would impact the quality . It would have been possible only on the field . Cropping as presented has excessive negative space for my liking . A nice image nonetheless. TFS !

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Sanjeev, Simon and Haseeb. Much appreciated. Haseeb - As you know, I like a fair amount of negative space so am ok with it here. Getting closer with their bit of aggression and the other male in the area was not possible. We didn't want to be between them and the other male.

Thanks again,
Rachel