I was lucky enough to get up Browning Pass on Vancouver Island this past week and we happened upon some black bears. This particular image was taken from the bow of the boat as the bear foraged for crabs amongst the rocks of the shore line. Pretty impressive to watch them pushing 200lb rocks to the side with relative ease.
Nikon D3 with 600mm F4 VR
f/5.6
1/320sec
ISO 1600
+0.7
I found it particularly hard to deal with the vibration of the motor...a bean bag of some sort would probably have been better than the tripod. The other problem was dealing with the black fur of the bear and the stark white barnacles on the shoreline rocks.
grey overcast skies is going to be your best bet for this shot considering the tonal range in the frame. the rocks being bright and the underbelly of the bear being the darkest. personally i think you did as well as you could here. i'd only like to see a little more canvas below and right. nice detail in the face and that's really what matters!!
Hi Grant, Harold made some good points. I would also tone down the rocks a bit. When framing a subject like this try and give yourself a little more room around it. If it's a bit too much you can always take some away.
I feel you averaged the exposure well..
Great comments and fully agree !! ... not sure I would try shooting with a tripod from any boat? Best bet is handholding the big lens !!! Could bump the ISO more, had a D3 and know what it can do ... just make sure you do not under expose when using high ISO !!
Thanks for the comments everyone, I better hit the gym... That 600 quickly gets very heavy hand holding it. But I've often been in situations where if I had been hand holding I would have been able to get a far better image as those few seconds putting the tripod down are a bit too long.
Alfred, your right I'm typically comfortable bumping the ISO up to the 2000-2500 mark. Not sure why I didn't here. I do know in deeply shadowed or dark under exposed areas the noise can creep in, but I doubt I was thinking that much ;-)
I'll post an image of the mother and cubs when I get a chance.
Black Bear Sow
