In the Field

Lurking. Khutzeymateen Inlet, BC, Canada. May 31, 2010.

One of my favourite things about photographing bears is that after being in the company of them for awhile it becomes clear that each has its own personality. Some are bold and aggressive, others curious and playful. This adult female was quite shy and wary and seemed very reticent to ever show her eyes. She was always lurking, but almost always watched us from behind objects that obscured her eyes, which - more often than not - was usually long blades of grass.

I decided I wanted to capture an image of her in a pose that was suggestive of her personality, which meant that I wanted to capture her shy, reclusive nature. I thought showing her in the deep grass in which she liked to "hide" (and eat, of course) with much of her obscured would be just the ticket. Of course, I wanted to capture her beautiful eyes, and I did want both of them unobscured by the grasses. Which meant I had to wait (and wait, and wait!). But, eventually, she looked up just enough to give a clear view of both eyes and I captured this image. This shot will always remind me of this particularly beautiful but particularly shy female grizzly!

Those who know my work and thoughts on wildlife photography will already know that I often don't like images that have multiple out-of-focus zones in them. But this is one of those cases where I had to compromise a little and be willing to throw away my own biases. In this image I REALLY wanted the eyes to pop so I decided I wanted them to be the sharpest element in the image, with everything else somewhat softer. So I opened up the aperture on my 400mm f2.8 VR fully, even though I knew that meant the foreground grass would be rendered somewhat out-of-focus. I also knew that because the background vegetation was much further away from my focal point (compared to the foreground grass) that it would be rendered much softer than the foreground grass. Which meant that there would still be only one easily recognized sharpness gradient in the image, but that those eyes would just pop! Of course, shooting this image from a very low angle was critical to making it work - I shot this one from my knees (no, I wasn't praying) to ensure the camera would be on the same level as the bear's eyes.

A final technical note: This is the kind of shot where it's critical that your camera (or lens) has a manual over-ride on the autofocus system. While the right eye of the bear (left side on this image) is totally unobscured by vegetation and it is what I chose to focus on, the grass immediately below the eye was overlapping on the focus bracket I was using and confusing the AF system a little. I always leave my AF switch on my super-telephotos on the "M/A" setting, which means that when you have to over-ride the system your manual adjustment takes priority over the AF system. I did have to use the over-ride for this shot, and the manual over-ride setting worked like a charm!

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

Lurking. Khutzeymateen Inlet, BC, Canada. May 31, 2010.

Digital Capture; RAW 14-bit format; ISO 800.

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

1/500s @ f2.8; -0.33 stop compensation from matrix-metered exposure setting of camera.

At the Computer

Lurking. Khutzeymateen Inlet, BC, Canada. May 31, 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 of 0 stops compensation (for bulk of image); +0.4 stops for darker portions of the bear's face (to draw out shadow detail).

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

Lurking. Khutzeymateen Inlet, BC, Canada. May 31, 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