The Forlorn Fisherman

The Forlorn Fisherman

Hey all,

There's some some food for thought in this one. An image that I like but I expect won't have a broad appeal...

A week or so ago I had the need to fish some images out of my collection that pertained to wildlife foraging and feeding. Being an anal keywording kind of guy, I keyed in few different keyword phrases and before long had a few hundred images - some processed and some in raw form - to choose from. This one looked pretty bland in raw form, but as soon as I saw it the memories came flooding back and I knew there was something in it worth the effort to process. The subject in this shot - an adult male grizzly - had been fishing all alone in a horrific downpour. He wasn't having the best of luck and when he walked out of the river and sat down and gave this look, I thought "man, that bear wants to be anywhere but here - poor bugger". Yes, I know that those trained in animal behaviour (like I am) are supposed to avoid being anthropomorphic...but this guy's look was pretty unmistakable.

I intentionally broke a few of the "traditional" rules/guidelines of wildlife photography when I captured and processed this image. The first pertains to the positioning of the bear and the fact that it's looking OUT of the frame rather than into it. The more generally accepted compositional approach is to always have the subject either moving into, or looking into, the frame (in this case that would mean looking to the right side of the image frame, not the left). My thinking in approaching the subject matter this way was that it was a subtle way of conveying the message that the bear wanted OUT - out of the frame, out of the rain, out of that whole mess. Was my approach successful? Can't say - that's an "eye of the beholder" issue. But I'm happy with the result...

The second popular paradigm I pushed a little with this image has to do with the distractions in the background - those 6 out-of-focus gulls (and, to a lesser extent, the large dead snag). I was completely aware of both the gulls and the snag. In fact, I waited and shot a few more images with no gulls in them a few moments later but, to be honest, I prefer them being in the image - for me it helps convey a "sense of place". Obviously, because I was there and know that gulls tend to be quite ubiquitous when bears are fishing, I'm a little biased. But my feeling is that they are out-of-focus enough (and not so bright to be "problematic") that the "distraction vs. sense of place" conflict tilts toward sense of place. But, another eye-of-the-beholder issue...with no right or wrong. And, as a BTW, I DO like the feeling the rain adds to the image...

The dead snag? I guess I wish it wasn't there, but I don't see it being too harmful to the image. I think it's the kind of thing that those critiquing the image would notice, but the general public (and many image buyers - including those who have already bought this image!) would either completely miss or couldn't care less about!

Rationalization? Perhaps. But despite having what some may consider many flaws, something about the image works for me. But, if it doesn't work for others...well...I'm OK with that.

Subject: Grizzly Bear (Urus arctosi) wanting to be ANYWHERE but here!
Location: Great Bear Rainforest, BC, Canada
Camera: Nikon D3
Lens: Nikkor Nikkor 600mm f4 VRII lens - supported on carbon fibre Gitzo 1348 tripod with Wimberley head. VR on and in "Normal" mode.
Exposure: 1/125s @ f4; ISO 1600. -0.33 stop compensation from matrix-metered exposure setting.
Crop: This is about 90% of full-frame shot

Additional details about the image (including processing details) available here

http://www.naturalart.ca/galleries/latest/.

Comments and critiques welcomed - probably best to view the larger version prior to doing so!

Cheers...thanks for looking...

Brad