If a picture is worth a proverbial thousand words, you probably have most of the story from the look on this cub's face and the title. I'll fill you in on a couple details and explain my decisions on the shot and comp.
This summer was an EPIC summer for our family in spotting bears...in fact we finished the season with 173 sightings (yes, many were sightings of bears we had spotted previously, but many more were separate individuals). But four bears caught our attention and devotion in particular.
In early August a young brown-phase black bear mom walked out of the forest in Waterton Lakes National Park (Alberta, Canada) with three adorable YOTY cubs. It didn't take long to notice she didn't pay a great deal of attention to her offspring, pretty much leaving them to fend for themselves and keep up with her as she foraged and gorged on berries. We found this family several times, and became quite attached, while slightly concerned about the lackadaisical parenting. Then in October we came around a corner and spotted this guy high in a spruce tree, swinging wildly in the 40mph winds. We pulled over and immediately heard both his siblings bawling from other trees, and as a crowd gathered we eventually located the family. Our best guess is the mom may have signalled them to take to the trees because of a boar or grizzly, but in any event it made for some compelling and wildly difficult photography. Shooting through an aspen stand at a subject that is swinging 4-6ft in the high winds while contorting himself every which way for balance and different views while looking for mom was...well, challenging. Eventually I decided to use the trees that were frustrating me as a compositional element, and finally found just the right angle that also allowed a relatively clear view (well, every few seconds when the cub swung back through that opening!) while providing some attractive foreground elements.
I don't mind admitting there's more than a few frames that went into the recycling bin from this shoot, but I was so pleased to have captured this moment and memory, even if there is not outstanding acuity or detail in the cub itself.
I chose to crop to a vertical pano to emphasize the sense of height and the cub being precariously high in a tree, and trimmed a bit off the top to eliminate some sky peeking through above where this frame ends. There is a fair bit of selective dogding, burning and sharpening in an attempt to bring back everything I could in terms of detail on the cub.
I'm anxious to hear your thoughts on the image and comp, and whether the emotional and overall impact offsets the lower-than-ideal IQ. Your comments and critiques are appreciated.
Nikon D2X
AF Nikkor ED 80-400 f/4-5.6 VR @ 400mm
ISO 400
1/200sec @ f/5.6
monopod
slight crop from ff vertical to eliminate distractions
EXTRA NOTE: for those who wonder how this story ends, we did spot mom with a strong limp and just one cub several hours later, but the next week my wife phoned me while I was on a business trip to tell me she and the kids were watching all four bears reunited and happily finishing off the remains of a stellar berry season.
Comments
9 commentsI love the catchlight in the subject's eye, which brings it's expression all the move alive. I also love the way this is shot between the blurred FG.
I like the creative spin on the pano, although I have to admit I think I'd be more drawn in if there had been more space along the right-hand edge of the frame; if the subject had been looking directly at you, cropping this as narrow as it is would have worked perfectly though, that is, IMHO ;^)
I can explain two important consideration in my composition.
First, I really wanted to use the "Y" of the foreground tree branches to frame my subject and create foundation and contrast. That's also why I chose to not crop out the juncture of these two branches as it "closes" the opening naturally, and again, really wanted to emphasize height.
Next, I completely agree, Ashley...I would have loved for him to be looking somewhere other than into the "side" of the picture, but on the other hand, it's this pose and posture that helps make this more compelling IMO, and he was whipping back and forth in the high winds to the extent that he was, literally, disappearing off the left and right sides of my viewfinder! It was a bizarre scene to witness and ridiculously difficult to photograph. I couldn't believe I had him mostly in the open here, and had the tip of the spruce tree to boot.
Thank you again, everyone!
This is an exceptional image - well-seen and captured.
Great story, too.
I think I'd experiment with dampening the bright areas around the cub, as they draw my eye a bit.
Sandy