Black Bear

[John Mack]

This image was created in the Great Smoky Mountains 8/3/20 at 7:49PM. Image processed in Lightroom and Photoshop.

Hand held, Small crop.

Canon 5D MarkIV
Canon 500 f/4 IS USM
ISO 2000
f4.0
1/1000sec

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

A very nice alert pose with good eye contact and those upright ears. Nice clean BG. Great IQ. TfS.

[Steve Kaluski]

I find the subject a bit too central John, a sliver less on the LHS & more to the right would be helpful IMHO. Cropping a little off the top to loose the bright green also helps and the eyes are less drawn. The DoF is too shallow, eyes are sharp, nose isn't. The file is slightly under exposed and overall the BKG requires NR. The central white flower needs to go. Love the HA and paws, the bugs are a nice addition.

TFS
Steve

[haseeb badar]

Striking image John, especially the BKG is nice and clean, you should get rid of that noise in there. Details could have been better , looks slightly subdued. I liked the pose and the FG adds to scene , also those flies / bugs are a good addition. Overall a lovely image. You definitely can improve upon with another hand at PP.

Nice one, TFS !

[Gabriela Plesea]

Dear John,

I have such a smile on my face, viewing this image, you have no idea... you truly made my evening Super cute pose, just look at those paws and facial expression, and the little flies add so much to the image!

I can see this on the cover of a wildlife magazine... yes, at F4 eyes are sharp and nose a little soft, but I think you can get away with it... If you follow Steve's advice to remove the white flower, do some more NR on the BG, crop a bit off the top and try move this cutie off centre...you have a winner

Kind regards,

[Brian Sump]

John, without a ton of experience in non-Avian I would tell you at first glance this was very attractive to me. I stared so much at the eyes and the flies that I missed the point suggested above.

That said, they seem worthwhile and enhancing an already super frame is meritable.

Very cool for me!

[Jonathan Ashton]

Super shot John I like it very much super timing. I know we can't make OOF in focus but if you apply a few "Sharpen" brushings on his nose it does help a little.