In the Field

Faster Than a Blow-dryer! Khutzeymateen Inlet, BC, Canada. June 1, 2010.

Many people speak about the unpredictability of wildlife - that animals may do absolutely anything in their behavioural repertoire at any given time. To me this seems like a bit of an urban legend propagated by those (urbanites?) who haven't actually sat down and carefully watched animals. For instance, by the time you've watched grizzlies swim once or twice you realize that the first thing they're going to do the minute they're ashore is shake vigorously. In fact, often times they don't even wait until they've quite swimming before they shake! The shaking behaviour is so predictable that you can "set your watch (or camera!) by it." In this case I was close to 100% sure that this bear was about to shake (it had just climbed out of a channel in a coastal estuary), and I had a chance to set my camera accordingly. I chose to go after one of those tricky "freeze-blur" combinations where some portions of the image are frozen and others are blurred by motion. This is the result...

Anyone who has read even an introductory book on photographic composition will be aware of all the standard guidelines of composition: the rule of thirds, the power of leading lines, the strength of diagonal lines, etc. These guidelines are always worth keeping in mind, but I like to layer another principle on TOP of the standard compositional guidelines in my own photography. The principle I'm talking about is based on my belief that our visual system (and that of most animals) is designed to instantly detect visual contrast in a scene - if something is different it sticks out and our eye is drawn to it. For a photographer, this visual contrast can take on many forms: standard light/dark contrast (think about how a light subject on a dark background - or vice versa - sticks out); contrast in focus (sharp subject, out-of-focus background); contrast in motion (or in motion blurs - with some element of an image in sharp focus with other elements blurred), etc. So, when I'm in the field I'm always seeking out scenes (or subjects) where I can find a way to layer the principle of visual contrast on top of basic compositional principles.

Back to the shaking grizzly. When I was getting ready to shoot this image I was thinking about where to position the bear's eye (vertically) in the frame (i.e., the rule of thirds) and to ensure the bear's head was still entering the frame by leaving a little more in front of the head than behind it (using the standard principle of giving the subject "room to breathe" or "room to move" within the frame). But I also wanted to exploit the visual contrast in the scene. I did so in two ways. First, I chose a fairly wide aperture to ensure that the background was much more out of focus than the subject I was focused on. Second, I chose a shutter speed that was fast enough to absolutely freeze some elements of the image (in this case the bear's eye, face, and tooth) while leaving other parts of the image blurred by motion (e.g., the ear region, the nose, the fastest moving water droplets). You know - go for that old (and tricky) "freeze-blur" combination. In this case slowing down the shutter speed just a tad (to the 1/250s or the 1/350s range) may have worked a little better (produced a more pleasing image), but given the proximity to the subject (I was pretty darned close - this is close to full-frame), halving my shutter speed could have easily led to everything simply being a blurry mess.

The take home lesson? Well, for me it works to always being looking for ways to maximize (or - more correctly - optimize) the amount of visual contrast in a scene while keeping the tried-and-true standard compositional guidelines in the back of my mind. And I try to do this regardless of the type of image I'm shooting - wildlife, landscapes, portraits, or whatever! Just remember that visual contrast can take on many, many forms...but is almost always visually interesting.

This image was captured during my annual "Grizzlies of the Khutzeymateen" Instructional Photo Tour in the spring of 2010. If you're interested in joining me on one of my photo tours into the Great Bear Rainforest or other coastal destinations, check out the details on my "Photo Tours" page of this website. My Instructional Photo Tours into the Great Bear Rainforest are run in conjunction with Ocean Light II Adventures - they offer a number of amazing adventure tours (including top-notch bear-viewing tours as well as tours of exploration of the Queen Charlotte Islands) and I highly recommend them!

Behind the Camera

Faster Than a Blow-dryer! Khutzeymateen Inlet, BC, Canada. June 1, 2010.

Digital Capture; RAW 14-bit format; ISO 5000.

Nikon D3s with Nikkor 400mm f2.8 VR lens - handheld. VR on and set to "Normal" mode. Circular polarizing filter used.

1/500s @ f4; no compensation from matrix-metered exposure setting of camera.

At the Computer

Faster Than a Blow-dryer! Khutzeymateen Inlet, BC, Canada. June 1, 2010.

RAW Conversion to 16-bit TIFF, including first-pass/capture sharpening using Phase One's Capture One Pro 5. Two RAW conversions at different exposure settings. Exposure settings varying from -0.66 stops compensation (to retain highlight detail in water droplets and for background) through to 0 stops for remainder of image.

Further digital corrections on 16-bit TIFF file using Adobe's Photoshop CS5 and Light Craft's LightZone. Photoshop adjustments included compositing and masking of 2 exposure versions, selective saturation of colours and selective sharpening for web output. Final tonemapping and tweaking performed with LightZone use the (tonemapper/re-light tool). No noise reduction in post-processing (aside from "automatic" noise reduction during RAW conversion).

Conservation

Faster Than a Blow-dryer! Khutzeymateen Inlet, BC, Canada. June 1, 2010.

Ten percent of the revenue generated by this image will be donated to Pacific Wild*

Species Status in Canada**: Special Concern (May 2002).

While Grizzly Bears (Ursus arctos) are not technically listed as "Endangered" in Canada, they have been extirpated from most of their historical range. Grizzly Bears are far more sensitive to intrusion/disturbance in their habitat than are Black Bears and are being increasingly forced into marginal habitat by human encroachment. The Great Bear Rainforest along the central and northern coast of British Columbia is one of the last strongholds of the Grizzly Bear in Canada, and even this population is coming under increasing pressure.

*Pacific Wild is a non-profit conservation organization that is committed to:

1. Defending wildlife and their habitat on CanadaÕs Pacific coast by developing and implementing solution-based conservation strategies. Pacific Wild supports innovative research, public education, community outreach and awareness to achieve the goal of lasting environmental protection in the lands and waters of the Great Bear Rainforest.

2. Working with a diverse array of communities, First Nations, groups and individuals to ensure that biodiversity protection is at the forefront of land and marine use decisions.

3. Mobilizing a concerned global citizenry to achieve large-scale wildlife protection.

Natural Art Images supports the efforts of Pacific Wild and encourages you to do the same.

**as determined by COSEWIC: The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada