Grizzly

I don't think you could have gotten a better shot to illustrate your story, Sadly, I'm sure the point you make is echoed too many times in too many places around this great planet. Thanks for sharing with us.

Ken

Hi Arthur,

Your image supports your story well - it is easy to believe the bear is "checking to see if all is clear" before coming out. I quite like how the sun is striking the snout and eyes of the bear as it's emerging from behind the tree.

The type of situation you describe is very common in the national parks of western Canada. It's ironic that the offenders commit their harmful acts out of a genuine interest in seeing (and sometimes photographing) wildlife in natural settings - sort of a case of "loving them to death." I try - not always successfully - to take solace in the fact that no matter how much they interfere or stress with the bears, they tend to do less damage to the bears than someone putting a bullet in them does (now THAT's a stressor!). I do all my bear photography in extremely remote settings where there is virtually no chance of encountering "tourists"...

Cheers...thanks for posting the image and commentary...

Brad

Arthur, thanks for the shocking story... though it kind of spoils my good mood this morning. What's wrong with people

I love your image. The head sticking out from behind the tree is 'story-telling' The cluttered BG is OOF enough not to be distracting and now is contributing to the scene, by setting this bear in its habitat. I would only tone down the few very bright spots. Composition wise I think this would have been even better with the camera pointed a bit more to the left, excluding a slice of the tree and including a bit more forest BG and room for the bear to look into.

This makes you see bears in a different way.

A really cool image Arthur, the soft light and the bear peeking around the tree make for a very strong image. It also really supports your story, how sad it may be.

I agree with Brad that it's better to have people show interest in a bear in this way then actually shooting them, but still, the behaviour of some people.... I do wonder however if this behaviour is born from either a lack of education, maybe they do not know the bears get stressed when they do this? (how stupid can you be but hey) Or that it is born from plain old indifference... And about the culture, sometimes I think of humanity not as the crown on evolution, but as the biggest virus... (yes im cynical that way ) Luckily there is always someone to prove me wrong

I love this photo and the story it conveys. Thanks for your text and relating the encounters you witness!

I love the peeking behavior. Nice light and colors.

The sense of story is overwhelming! This image begs to accompany a good article or work of fiction. I agree with trying to tone down the bright spots in the center of the image.

Thank you all very much for your comments! But especially in reply to Jorne, there is a point that I have already tried to stress in a previous photo from this area: it is wrong to generalise and speak badly of humankind as a whole. That is doing great injustice to all the people of past and present who lived in tribal communities and who lived their life knowing that they were just another part of the community of life, no more and no less unique and sacred than any other species. When discussing the human influence as seen on this picture, we are really only talking about our own culture (or conglomerate of very related sub-cultures around the whole world), the culture that as a whole sees humanity (and really actually only our own culture) as the rulers or stewards of the community of life and as the only really unique and sacred beings on the planet! And because we (generalizing here too, but for the culture as a whole it certainly counts) are brought up believing that humans are more important than any other species, we also learn from the very start that it is our full right to develop on and on at the expense of the rest of the community of life. Oh… of course we have a duty to do that as well as we can (the steward approach), but… our track record so far is unfortunately rather shameful, isn’t it? One could say that as stewards we are a complete failure. How could that be? Well, possibly because we lack the knowledge to see what is good and what is wrong in the greater decision-making necessary to make the whole community of life function well. And on a larger scale at least, and on the level where many decisions are made, we probably lack the real will to make the right decisions too. After all, an unbiased spectator might just think it is odd for a steward or for the crown of creation/evolution to practically always decide in favor of itself and thus practically always act at the expense of all the other members of the community. And all that is really beside the point at any rate, because really… the community of life has functioned beautifully for many many millions of years without stewards. That alone should make it quite clear that stewarding is not very necessary. But if that should not be enough, you only have to look at how much damage the stewards brought upon the community of life and the whole idea becomes a big, albeit painful, joke.

Our culture - the culture that sees itself as the only really viable option for people to live, that keeps food and resources behind lock and key and that sees everything as its own property - is guilty of this, but only ours. All other cultures in past and present have lived as a part of the community of life. Not because the people of those cultures are so much better than we are, but because our culture is so much corrupting than theirs was and is! Not because they were so exceptionally wise to understand that all species in the community of life are all in the same boat together, but because our culture makes us believe the exceptionally silly lie that it is not only right to continuously push other species (and cultures) overboard, but also to make holes in the hull!

Just in case these ideas sound interesting, you might want to read "Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn. You'll find a little quote from the book in my signature, which explains this whole point "nicely".

Arthur thank you for the book reference, I'll look it up. I probably should have refined my remark about humanity to point out I mean the majority of our current/contemporary culture (not going to be naming it western since the same thing happens all over the world). I won't go any deeper then this here since I think this is not the right place for a lengthy discussion on this

great shot. great thoughts.

This shot is perfectly composed as is. The progression of perspective created by the foreground tree on the right, which relates to the bear in the middle ground and trees in the background, is excellent. Also, recomposing more to the left would destroy the careful placement of the fallen tree in the lower right, which acts as a leading line pointing to the bear, thus increasing the compositional complexity and richness of the image and placing stronger emphasis on the main subject. The whole "add more space for the animal to look into" rule is too often reflexively quoted by wildlife shooters but IMHO is poorly understood and overused. To have done so here would ruin an otherwise perfect composition that made the best use of elements available at the scene.

Great capture. Congrats.