Streaming Cub

[Rachel Hollander]

This is one of the two year old cubs. It paused as it crossed this slough. No way to get lower as the banks of the slough are a bit steep and we were not allowed in the slough while they crossed for safety reasons.

Canon 5D3
100-400 II @ 250mm
1/1500
f6.7
ISO 800
HH, slight crop for comp, dropped exposure, levels, curves, TK luminosity masks, color adjustments, sharpened in PSCC.

C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,

Rachel

[Bill Dix]

Good one, Rachel. I like the open mouth, and the stream curving away out of sight. In this case, the POV worked nicely, and gave you the bear completely against the water, nicely framed by the banks. Had you been lower the bear would have intersected the far bank, not to mention getting your feet wet.

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

I like this Rachel and a nice one for the theme. The angle is OK and the subject is nicely placed in the frame.

[Jonathan Ashton]

I like the overall composition and the bear has been well portrayed in an engaging pose. I like the rendition of the river but the bear and the grasses look a bit pale, lacking in depth possibly. I have an alternative for you consideration WDYT? Perhaps it doesn't portray things as you recall them ?

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Rachel, I'm not loving the central position here, no idea on the location, but moving more right would you have had more 'curve' of the river to come into the RHS corner? This would push the bear to the LHS and the curve of the river lead the eye to the bear. Detail in the face isn't as good as previous to me and I think you could have perhaps dropped the SS a fraction, but I doubt you may have gained much in the ISO. Not 100% on colour, but that might be the laptop, but the blue appears pushed a little as there is a strong area of blue under the bear which I think looks odd, reducing that I think helps the water colour, but... The surrounding grasses do look light and perhaps reflective, but getting some more colour back in gives body and depth IMHO, and easy fix without hurting the overall colour palette.

Jon, your RP appears pushed with magenta coming through???

TFS
Steve

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks guys. I should have mentioned that it was pretty bright and the grasses on the near bank had an almost white/reflecting look to them. I took them down substantially and brought back color there already. No ability to move to the right because of the steep bank.

[Rachel Hollander]

Jon - Thanks for the rp. I have others in the series that when I originally processed them tended to the magenta too. Looking back at them months later I wasn't thrilled with the tint and colors so processed the op with cooler tones.

Thanks again,
Rachel

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Like the capture so much, Rachel I hope you don't mind that I tried my hand at a repost with a few corrections of this beautiful cub image.

Geoffrey

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Geoffrey - No problem on your doing a rp. I think the blues are even a bit stronger in yours and the grasses just weren't that dark.

Thanks,
Rachel

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Rachel,

Just when I thought you might have ran out of bear images...

Lovely Theme frame and I like the bear's pose, very much. Nice image design - composition works well for me.

I feel the image needs a bit more "punch" overall, especially when it comes to the vegetation on those river banks. Also, do you think you could try add more definition to the subject's face? Perhaps the eyes and that little bit of dried mud on the muzzle could do with some "contrast", WDYT?

Off topic, I have been looking the whole evening for a Theme image but ended up processing something else. Hope you don't mind, will find something tomorrow...

Thank you for sharing, Rachel. Have a wonderful evening

Warmest regards,