In the Field

At Peace in the Great Bear Rainforest. Khutzeymateen Inlet (Great Bear Rainforest), BC, Canada. June 2, 2009.

Sometimes the simplest looking images are the toughest to pull off! To me this shot just screams "Great Bear Rainforest" and goes a long way towards explaining why I return to the Great Bear Rainforest on an annual basis. As the largest remaining tract of temperate rainforest left on the planet (and virtually the ONLY one with all "original" members of it's historical ecosystem still present) it's just so spectacular and there's ALWAYS something new to photograph there.

I've had this shot (or one similar to it) sitting in my head for a LONG time - and it wasn't until the spring of 2009 that I actually got the opportunity to capture it. Between getting the soft light right, having a bear in the right spot, having the tide sitting at just the right level, and, of course, having the right gear ready to go...well..if you're persistent, eventually the planets have to align - right?

This was one of those very fortunate times when what I was forced to do (by the physical/technical constraints) perfectly matched what I WANTED to do with a shot. In this case, that basically meant shooting with the aperture on my lens wide open. I HAD to do this simply by the low levels of light - combined of course with my need to find as much shutter speed as possible - I shot this image while hand-holding a 600mm lens from a floating Zodiac and you don't want to pull that trick when shooting at a shutter speed of 1/30s!

I WANTED to shoot wide open to throw virtually everything in the image out-of-focus except the subject - I wanted the foreground and background as soft as possible to make the bear stand out (or "pop") AND to give the image a dreamy feel.

Personally, I find shooting wildlife images with a thin depth of field (or DoF) very challenging (and really, really easy to blow!). This is especially true with animalscapes where you're going to end up with much of the contents of the frame out-of-focus. I've never been a fan of images where there are very obvious multiple, distinct out-of-focus bands stretching from edge to edge of the frame. To me it often looks extremely unnatural and screams "telephoto lens" so loudly that this becomes the dominant visual impression left by the image. This is especially true if the out-of-focus foreground contains irregular objects, like rocks or trees that end up being little more than distracting blobs! To work for me, an animalscape with a paper thin DoF almost always requires a very simple foreground that extends BEYOND the subject and into the background. The background CAN, in some instances, contain some irregular objects without being particularly distracting and interfering with the eyeflow (but the background still has to be rendered very softly and the "irregularities" usually have to fall within the same overall colour palette).

In this case the most critical element allowing this image to work is the dark green water in the foreground that extends a significant distance into the background. Without this continuous water, or if there were any distracting elements in or on it (like floating logs or a protruding rock) and, in my opinion, this scene and image simply wouldn't have been worth shooting...

NOTE: This image was captured in 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 more information, just check out the Photo Tours page of this website!

Behind the Camera

At Peace in the Great Bear Rainforest. Khutzeymateen Inlet (Great Bear Rainforest), BC, Canada. June 2, 2009.

Digital Capture; RAW 14-bit format; ISO 1600.

Nikon D3 with Nikkor 600mm f4 VR lens - handheld from floating Zodiac boat. VR on and in "Normal" mode.

1/200s @ f4; no compensation from matrix-metered exposure setting.

At the Computer

At Peace in the Great Bear Rainforest. Khutzeymateen Inlet (Great Bear Rainforest), BC, Canada. June 2, 2009.

RAW Conversion to 16-bit TIFF, including first-pass/capture sharpening using Phase One's Capture One Pro 6. Two raw conversions varying in exposure settings: one at -1.0 stops to darken the foreground water and background (and to richen colours); one at -0.5 stops for bear.

Further digital corrections on 16-bit TIFF file using Adobe's Photoshop CS5 and Light Craft's LightZone. Photoshop adjustments included compositing the two exposure versions, selective exposure and tone curve adjustment, selective colour saturation and desaturation, and selective sharpening for web output. Final tonemapping and contrast/tone tweaking - especially to midtones - performed with LightZone using the tonemapper/re-light tool.

Conservation

At Peace in the Great Bear Rainforest. Khutzeymateen Inlet (Great Bear Rainforest), BC, Canada. June 2, 2009.

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