In the Field

The Spirit of the Rainforest. Great Bear Rainforest (on northern BC Coast), BC, Canada. October 12, 2011.

It's entirely possible that the only folks who'll appreciate this shot are those who have attempted to capture a nice "environmental" shot of the very rare Spirit Bear in the thick, dense temperate rainforest which it lives. But I'm OK with that! ;-)

In the autumn of 2011 I led two consecutive one-week "Spirit Bear" photo tours into the temperate rainforest of British Columbia that is known as the Great Bear Rainforest. On the first trip we found Spirit Bears fairly easily in a location we know they're commonly seen. But, on the second trip we had to REALLY push to find a Spirit Bear - it wasn't until the final few hours of the last day of the tour that we found Spirit Bear - the one pictured here. Fortunately for us the bear was in a spectacular setting in the rainforest.

Because the Spirit Bear is found only on a portion of the BC coast characterized by heavy, dense forests (which have - to a photographer - lots of "distracting" elements), I normally try to shoot tightly frame shots of these bears (to minimize distractions). Which means I have few "Spirit Bear in habitat" shots that I'm happy with. So...one of my personal goals in 2011 was to capture a nice "environmental" shot of a Spirit Bear. This shot is the result of my efforts. And, given that this shot has already been requested as a cover shot for a few publications, I guess I accomplished my goal of getting a decent environmental shot!

I sent this shot to a friend of mine (a photographer in Austria) and his response was "...very nice enviroscape". His classification of it as an "enviroscape" got me thinking - and I believe he's on to a useful term. There's a related term ("animalscape") that has become fairly commonplace and is - at least in my opinion - a valuable term. To me it means a shot with all the characteristics of a landscape shot (with the obvious dependencies on strong composition, good lighting, some depth and layering, a feeling of expansiveness, etc.) AND it contains a strategically-placed animal that works well within the overall scene.

So what's an "enviroscape"? Well, in my opinion it's similar to an animalscape, but the driving principle is creatively and tastefully showing the animal within its normal (or "preferred") environment or typical habitat. And, in an enviroscape I THINK the characteristics of a good animalscape (or landscape) are probably a little relaxed - after all, the preferred environment/habitat of some animal species simply don't lend themselves to good animalscape/landscape shots. I don't think there's need to try to define how large the subject should be in the frame of a good enviroscape shot (or how that relative proportion differs from an animalscape).

The obvious question: is there any need or value to adding a new term to a lexicon that is already confusing to many? I would argue the answer is "yes" - simply because adding the term "enviroscape" (and keeping it in your mind while shooting) can really help you THINK about what you're shooting and how you want to portray your chosen subject within the habitat you found it in. And, in my opinion, THINKING about your image captures - and making active decisions about how you're want to portray your subject within your frame, is a very good thing!

So here ya go - my first enviroscape of a Spirit Bear!

NOTE: This image was captured during one of my photo tours into a region of British Columbia known as "The Great Bear Rainforest". I offer both instructional photo tours and "photo op only" photo tours into the Great Bear Rainforest each spring and autumn. If you're interested in participating in one of these trips, just check out the Photo Tours page of this website!

Behind the Camera

The Spirit of the Rainforest. Great Bear Rainforest (on northern BC Coast), BC, Canada. October 12, 2011.

Digital Capture; Compressed RAW (NEF) 14-bit format; ISO 2200.

Nikon D3s with Nikkor 16-35mm f4 VRII lens @ 35mm - hand-held. VR on.

1/200s @ f6.3; -0.67 stop compensation from matrix-metered exposure setting.

At the Computer

The Spirit of the Rainforest. Great Bear Rainforest (on northern BC Coast), BC, Canada. October 12, 2011.

RAW Conversion to 16-bit TIFF, including first-pass/capture sharpening using Phase One's Capture One Pro 6. Two exposure variants covering a 0.5 stop total range.

Further digital corrections on resulting 16-bit TIFF files using Adobe's Photoshop CS5 and Light Craft's LightZone. Photoshop adjustments including compositing (layering and masking) the exposure variants, selective colour saturation and desaturation, and selective sharpening for web output. Final contrast/tone tweaking - primarily to the background forest - performed with LightZone using the tonemapper/re-light tool.

Conservation

The Spirit of the Rainforest. Great Bear Rainforest (on northern BC Coast), BC, Canada. October 12, 2011.

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

Species Status in Canada**: Not separately list by the Species At Risk Public Registry (lumped together with the common Black Bear)

The "Spirit" or "Kermode" Bear is a rare genetically-based colour variant of the common Black Bear (Ursus americana). It has been estimated that less than 200 Spirit Bears exist today. Because the Black Bear is not considered under threat as a species, the Spirit Bear suffers from having the same conservation designation (it should be acknowledged that in British Columbia - the jurisdiction of greatest Spirit Bear abundance - hunting of these white-coated bears is not permitted). For reasons that are not fully understood, the Spirit Bear occurs with greater frequency in a relatively small geographic area within The Great Bear Rainforest of the central and northern coast of British Columbia. In this area 10 to 30% of the bears possess white coats. Unfortunately, this globally unique habitat is under development pressure, especially from the forestry industry. If this unique environment is altered, we may lose the wonderful genetic anomaly known as the Spirit Bear.

*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