This image was worth the effort! Good focus and very sharp. BG nicely blurred and excellent exposure. I find that very dark hairy animals are very difficult to expose properly. You did it quite well here.
Boy, I remember being face-to-face with a few of these in Yellowstone and this really makes me remember that intial fear vividly! That is an incredible portrait and the lighting sets off the different tones in his fur in such a beautiful way. You managed to get crystal clear eyes with a head-on stare and it's breathtaking.
All you need now is a way to clone in some cold air blowing up out of those nostrils...
Steve,
This looks formidable. This is different that the other standing images, and gives a unique perspective. The lighting due to the snow - as Julie has mentioned - brings up details. Did you try the 400mm end for other images?
Cheers,
Sabyasachi
Hi Steve. The exposure, sharpness, and detail in the dark fur looks perfect to me. I like the pose and composition as well. The snow adds a nice wintery feel to the image. Well done.
Thank you all for the comments. This is a very small crop of the original. I thought about going even tighter on the original capture but I was rushing myself due to quickly fading light.
Robert,
I did manage to grab a couple of full body laying down shots.