In the Field

Spirit Bear Fishing in Stream. Great Bear Rainforest (northern BC coast), Canada. September 10, 2005.

We were "parked" along the edge of this small stream in the middle of the autumn salmon run when this rare white-phased Black Bear (also known as the Spirit or Kermode Bear) made his appearance. It emerged from the rainforest and slowly made its way downstream while passing through both near-black shadows and brilliant sunlight. It was a tremendously exciting but technically challenging photographic situation: I had to be extremely careful to choose an exposure that didn't blow out the highlights yet retained shadow detail. This is a case where I was very happy to be shooting digital and in RAW format - no film ever made could have captured the range of light in this scene!

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 about one of these tours, details are available on the Photo Tours page of this website!

Behind the Camera

Spirit Bear Fishing in Stream. Great Bear Rainforest (northern BC coast), Canada. September 10, 2005.

Digital Capture; Compressed RAW (NEF) format; ISO 100.

Nikon D2X with Nikon 200-400 mm f/4G ED-IF AF-S VR lens @ 400 mm (600 mm equivalent with digital conversion factor) supported on bean bag.

1/125s @f5.6; -2 stop exposure compensation from matrix-metered exposure setting.

At the Computer

Spirit Bear Fishing in Stream. Great Bear Rainforest (northern BC coast), Canada. September 10, 2005.

RAW Conversion to 16-bit TIFF, including first-pass sharpening, using Phase One's C1 Pro. Multiple RAW conversions (at different exposure settings) to extend dynamic range of captured image.

All further digital correction on 16-bit TIFF file using Adobe's Photoshop CS2, including compositing and masking of various exposure versions, selective tone curve adjustment, and selective sharpening for web output.

Conservation

Spirit Bear Fishing in Stream. Great Bear Rainforest (northern BC coast), Canada. September 10, 2005.

Ten percent of the revenue generated by this image will be donated to Raincoast.

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.

The Raincoast Conservation Society (and Foundation) is an effective and efficient organization that has been fighting for protection of this unique habitat. If you are looking for a meaningful way to contribute to the conservation of this amazing ecosystem, Raincoast will provide maximal "bang" for your conservation dollars.