Grizzly Family

Gallery: WildlifePosted July 13, 2011382 views12 comments

This is a Grizzly family from our Kananaskis trip. This sow let us photograph her and the cubs (from a safe distance of course!) for almost two hours one morning.

Shortly after spotting her she walked into the forest (we could still see her though), laid down, and took a nap. Once she even rolled over to nurse her cubs, but we couldn't get any pictures because of all the branches. After 20-30 minutes of waiting she got up with her cubs and walked out of the forest into a field and began grazing. She just worked back and forth across the field munching on the fresh, dew-covered grass for over an hour, giving us lots of photo opportunities! The cubs were playing all the time, I have never seen cubs play that much! After the cubs quit playing they ran over to mom. Something must have caught their attention because they all looked up at the same time, and I was able to get a few quick pictures! The mom was tagged and collared. In the end I decided to clone out the ear tag because it was distracting to me, but decided to leave the collar as it was. We wrote down the tag number of the sow in hopes we can learn a little more about her story from local biologists.

Thanks for any comments and suggestions!

Nikon D300
Nikkor 300mm ED f/4 with 1.4TC
ISO 500
1/200sec @ f/5.6
tripod mounted

Comments

12 comments

Comment posted by John Tobias on July 13, 2011 at 2:18 PM

This bear family photo is well done. I think I would have gone ahead and cloned out the collar, but as it is it is not that obvious. I would also wish both cubs would have had their heads up towards the camera. Other than that I would change nothing. Makes me envious!! Thanks for sharing.

Registered on September 12, 2009, 2120 Posts, 6455 Comments

Comment posted by Kristine Krynitzki on July 13, 2011 at 4:42 PM

Fantastic family portrait

Great detail in the mother's fur. While the background is a little bit "busy," I really like it as it displays the beautiful natural habitat that they're in. Great job all together Jenaya, beautiful shot.

Registered on July 10, 2011, 8 Posts, 15 Comments

Comment posted by Ken Archer on July 14, 2011 at 4:35 AM

A wonderful family portrait Jenaya

I really like the attentive look of the sow. And the little bit of back light seems to help separate the family from the background habitat, which personally I like. A great photo to go with your awesome experience with this family.

Ken Archer

Registered on October 28, 2004, 222 Posts, 6683 Comments

Comment posted by John Stuart-Clarke on July 14, 2011 at 4:55 AM

I would like to see a version with more of the trees and less of the grass. But that's just nitpicking because this is lovely :) Collars and tags never bother me, they're just part of the story to be told.

Registered on December 31, 2009, 6 Posts, 36 Comments

Comment posted by Jagdeep Rajput on July 14, 2011 at 8:31 AM

An impressive frame on the green slopes !
Very cute ...I may reduce the sharpness a touch and may crop some area on the lower side.
Jagdeep Rajput

Registered on April 29, 2008, 686 Posts, 2857 Comments

Comment posted by John Blumenkamp on July 14, 2011 at 12:20 PM

Hi Jenaya... what an awesome grouping of these three! Love your comp and how you captured them on the slope. Hope to see more!

Registered on February 26, 2011, 58 Posts, 313 Comments

Comment posted by Jim Hackley on July 14, 2011 at 12:40 PM

Sounds like a wonderful encounter and opportunity, good job getting all in focus and I like that you have eye contact on all three, way to go, well done.

Registered on September 17, 2009, 302 Posts, 5535 Comments

Comment posted by Brad Hill on July 14, 2011 at 12:54 PM

Hi Jenaya,

Wow - great opportunity here - and those cubs are so cute. Always tough to work with multiple subjects - heck, even getting them all in focus can be tough! I quite like the composition as posted - to my eye the position of the subjects is almost optimal and works with the diagonal slope they're on. I do find the grass on the bright side and if the image were mine I'd selectively pull back the exposure on it (as well as toning down a few of the trees immediately behind the bears.

Cheers...thanks for sharing the experience...

Brad

Registered on May 29, 2007, 431 Posts, 6061 Comments

Comment posted by John Launstein on July 14, 2011 at 9:18 PM

Hi Jenaya! Man, you sure captured a great image here...I haven't gone through all mine from that morning too closely but I'm not sure I ever managed to get all three bears posing acceptably in the same frame. You definitely caught a nanosecond opportunity here! I also really like the way you composed this full frame, and your cropping decisions. Depth of field is perfect, I think! I just love the look you captured on the mom, too.

As an aside, I will probably remember the morning you and I spent with this family for the rest of my life. What a cool experience we shared this these three...it was great having you there and seeing your excitement as we finally got some bears to cooperate in front of our lenses! :) GREAT job!

Registered on April 5, 2011, 223 Posts, 1193 Comments

Comment posted by Verdon on July 14, 2011 at 11:17 PM

Love bears, very cute shot, thank you for sharing........!!!

Registered on June 10, 2011, 147 Posts, 1444 Comments

Comment posted by Jenaya Launstein on July 16, 2011 at 12:38 PM

Thanks for the comments everyone! I may do a repost later with the trees and exposure toned down a bit.

Registered on February 8, 2011, 254 Posts, 1302 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Sharp on July 17, 2011 at 10:39 AM

I have no further suggestions for tweaks, and just want you to know the composition and posing works very very well. Congrats.

Registered on December 9, 2007, 258 Posts, 9892 Comments