In the Field

October. Great Bear Rainforest (on northern BC Coast), BC, Canada. October 9, 2011.

October in the Great Bear Rainforest brings rain, spectacular fall colours, and creatures preparing for a foreboding winter season. In most drainages the autumn salmon run is nearing completion and grizzly bears begin supplementing their sky-high caloric demands by digging up and eating large quantities of nutritious roots. This grizzly took a few seconds out from digging to survey its surroundings and ensure it was safe for both her and her cub to be exposed in open terrain. Her cub showed complete trust in its mother's abilities - over a period of several hours it dug up roots with almost never raising its head! Good for the efficiency of root collection and consumption - but bad for photographers!

One of my favourite "tools" to capture wildlife photos is a 400mm f2.8 super-telephoto lens. Many wildlife shooters opt for the lighter and slightly "longer" 500mm f4 lens (or the 600mm f4), but between the sharpness of the 400mm lens and its super-wide aperture, it provides a wildlife photographer with an almost unmatched ability to separate a subject from its background. This image is a good example of what I mean - I definitely wanted to include both the small evergreen and the yellow-leafed bush in the image (to provide the viewer with both a sense of place AND time). But, I wanted the bear to "pop" away from the potentially distracting elements - both to focus the viewer's eye on the bear and to create depth and almost a 3D look to the image. So...I cranked the aperture wide open (to f2.8) and simply waited for the bear to look up and to its left (with, of course, the trees positioned mostly behind the bear and to the right side of the frame for visual balance in the scene).

Every image captured involves an "optimization" process (in terms of balancing shutter speed, ISO, and aperture to satisfy both technical constraints and the photographer's creative goals) and some compromising. Personally I tend not to like out-of-focus foregrounds, especially if the foreground is somewhat "chaotic" (like this one is). Because I was shooting wide open here it meant I had a very shallow depth-of-field - that allowed me to separate the background the way I wanted but provided me with a VERY thin band of in-focus foreground. To avoid having a visually distracting, out-of-focus foreground I placed the bear very close to the bottom of the frame (essentially at the "front" of the frame). Some may dislike how close this places the feet to the bottom of the frame (yes, the "virtual feet" ARE in the frame!), but placing them there was a compromise I was aware of and am prepared to accept (to prevent the image from having a distracting out-of-focus foreground). Compromises...

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!

Alert - Digitally Manipulated Image: This image clearly crosses the line from simple digital correction to digital manipulation. In the case of this image, I digitally removed (using the clone tool) a leafy plant that was overlapping the bear's lower left leg.

It is my policy to clearly identify ANY images on this website that overstep the bounds of digital correction and enter the territory of digital manipulation (see Voice: Commentary: Digital Correction vs. Digital Manipulation).

Behind the Camera

October. Great Bear Rainforest (on northern BC Coast), BC, Canada. October 9, 2011.

Digital Capture; Compressed RAW (NEF) 14-bit format; ISO 800

Nikon D3s with Nikkor 400mm f2.8 VRII lens - supported on carbon fibre Gitzo 1348 tripod with Wimberley head. VR on and in "Normal" mode.

1/250s @ f2.8; -0.33 stop compensation from matrix-metered exposure setting.

At the Computer

October. Great Bear Rainforest (on northern BC Coast), BC, Canada. October 9, 2011.

RAW Conversion to 16-bit TIFF, including first-pass/capture sharpening using Phase One's Capture One Pro 6. Three exposure variants covering a 0.7 stop total range.

Further digital corrections on 16-bit TIFF file using Adobe's Photoshop CS5 and Light Craft's LightZone. Photoshop adjustments including compositing (layering and masking) the exposure variants, a global desaturation of colour (-10), and sharpening for web output. Final contrast/tone tweaking - particularly to mid-tones - performed with LightZone using the tonemapper/re-light tool.

Conservation

October. Great Bear Rainforest (on northern BC Coast), BC, Canada. October 9, 2011.

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.

The region this image was shot in is, at the time of this writing (October 19, 2011), facing a new and potentially catastrophic threat. There is a proposal to bring oil super-tankers through the narrow and treacherous channels of the Great Bear Rainforest. Any mishap - such as the one that sunk the Queen of the North ferry on March 22, 2006 - could result in an oilspill with disasterous consequences. Please visit the "No Pipeline/No Tankers Action Page" on Pacific Wild's website for suggestions on what YOU can do to help stop the tankers and/or sign the petition to Stop Oil Tankers. Thanks - this one is worth the effort to fight!

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

1. Defending wildlife and their habitat on Canada's 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