In the Field

The Art of Hiding - UNmastered! Northern BC Coast (Great Bear Rainforest), BC. October 2, 2009.

This cute little grizzly cub-of-the-year was only about 6 months old when I shot this image. He/she was clearly still figuring out how the world worked and when it came to hiding, its inexperience showed! This cub (and its mother) were initially quite shy and elusive, but after a few days with us around they had calmed down considerably. Yet even when fully relaxed, this cub always kept track of just where we were. I also noticed that while it was keeping tabs on us it always seemed to put some obstacle between itself and us - in this case some thin grasses. At first I thought it was just coincidence that there were always grasses or other things directly in front of the cub's face, but when I looked up and down the shoreline I realized that there were so few obstacles that the cub must have been selecting them (to hide behind) in a non-random fashion! So this little beast had already figured out the concept of hiding, but hadn't really worked out all the details (like how big he/she was and how small and thin the grasses were!).

When it comes to processing images, I'm very reluctant to pull out Photoshop's cloning tool to clean up on nature (tho' I do NOT hesitate to use it to remove artifacts of the photographic process, like removing blotches that are the result of dust specks on my image sensor). I simply don't believe that the sanitization of nature (especially in wildlife photos) is all that necessary. And, in some cases, it's my opinion that using the clone tool to "sanitize" an image can actually detract from it, even if it's well done. For example, consider this image - I'm NOT a Photoshop guru, but I'm adept enough with it to easily remove the grasses that overlap the cub's face in only minutes. But, in this case, the grasses are critical in understanding the little bear's behaviour. Without the grasses, this is just a shot "of a" bear (albeit a cute bear). With them (and a well-chosen title or a little explanatory text) you have an interesting insight into the development of a reasonably complex behaviour (and a cute little story). There ARE ways to get around using the cloning tool!

One final comment about this image. This is an example of a shot where I was really glad I was shooting RAW format images. I had been shooting in another direction immediately before I shot this image and when I turned and fired this shot I had not yet re-adjusted my camera's settings. The result was that this shot was a full stop (or more) under-exposed (and the cub was not too much more than a silhouette). I made some quick re-adjustments and continued to capture images of this little guy. When I later looked at the files I was about to chuck this one out but then I noticed how pleasing the background was in it (compared to how bright it was when I had exposed the cub more accurately). When I played with both files (this under-exposed one and the brighter one) I found it worked better to retrieve shadow detail in this one rather than darken the background in the other image (no matter what I did the patterns in the background simply weren't as pleasing as on this image). So in my mind this image rates as a very "lucky dub" (like almost all of my very few good golf shots!).

This image was captured during my annual "Spirit Bears and the Great Bear Rainforest" Instructional Photo Tour in the autumn of 2009. If you're interested in joining me on one of my photo tours into the Great Bear Rainforest, check out the details on my "Photo Tours" page. 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

The Art of Hiding - UNmastered! Northern BC Coast (Great Bear Rainforest), BC. October 2, 2009.

Digital Capture; Compressed RAW (NEF) 14-bit format; ISO 200.

Nikon D3 with Nikkor 600 mm f/4G ED-IF AF-S VR lens - hand-held from floating Zodiac. VR on and set to "Normal" mode.

1/500s @ f5.6; -1.0 stop compensation from matrix-metered exposure setting of camera.

At the Computer

The Art of Hiding - UNmastered! Northern BC Coast (Great Bear Rainforest), BC. October 2, 2009.

RAW Conversion to 16-bit TIFF, including first-pass/capture sharpening using Phase One's Capture One Pro 5. Four RAW conversions at different exposure settings. Exposure settings of -1.0 stops (to darken the background rock wall) through to +1.75 stops (to recover shadow detail on the bear and foreground grasses).

Further digital corrections on 16-bit TIFF file using Adobe's Photoshop CS4 and Light Craft's LightZone. Photoshop adjustments included compositing and masking of 4 exposure versions, selective saturation and de-saturation of colours, and selective sharpening for web output. Final tonemapping, balancing and tweaking performed using the Tonemapper/Re-light tool in LightZone.

Conservation

The Art of Hiding - UNmastered! Northern BC Coast (Great Bear Rainforest), BC. October 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