Olympic Trials - Khutzeymateen Style!
Hey all,
I just got back from leading two very successful grizzly bear photo tours in the Khutzeymateen Inlet. As almost always, a combination of spectacular scenery, misty, moody weather patterns, and plentiful and cooperative bears resulted in a magical and almost spiritual experience. And the bear photography wasn't half-bad either. Over the coming weeks you'll be inundated with a mix of bear portraits, bear enviroscapes, and animalscapes. And, a few images of "not bears" too (we had a very nice wolf encounter and more...)...
I was smiling when I captured this image. The pose and expressions of these grizzly bear cubs reminded me of swimmers lined up on the starting blocks, anticpating the starter's gun. And, despite rumours to the contrary, Canada is NOT considering entering ursids as "ringers" on the 2012 Olympic swimming team!
So what WAS going on here? These year-old cubs are poised on the edge of a reasonably wide channel at high tide in the Khutzeymateenb estuary. About 5 minutes before this was shot mom casually swam across. For some reason - perhaps the imposing width of the channel or perhaps the thought of exposing themselves in an open area when large male grizzlies were lurking nearby - the cubs were very reluctant to cross. It was fascinating watching these little bruins examine EVERY non-swimming option ("hmmm...maybe up this rock...nope...maybe along this branch...nope...") before they decided to swim the channel. The entire scene - from before mom swam across to when the cubs eventually joined her on the opposite sides - was one of the best half hour's worth of bear viewing (and bear photography) I have ever experienced. Just magical...
Subject: Grizzly Bear cubs (
Urus arctosi) debating their options...
Location: Khutzeymateen Inlet, Great Bear Rainforest, BC, Canada
Camera: Nikon D4
Lens: Nikkor 400mm f2.8 VRII lens - hand-held from floating zodiac. VR on and in "Normal" mode.
Exposure: 1/400s @ f4.5; ISO 6400. -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/detail_3.html.
The "Field Notes" for this image (on my website) include some thoughts of subtle improvements in ISO performance of the D4 (compared to the D3s).
Comments and critiques welcomed - probably best to view the larger version prior to doing so!
Cheers...thanks for looking...
Brad
PS: By later today I'll have a D4 vs. D800 field shoot-out discussion on my blog (link below) that some might find interesting...
Comments
11 commentsI love the pose you have (though that's probably redundant considering what I wrote above
When I look at the larger image it seems that there is a slight colour shift from the one shown here. The larger version seems to be a little cooler than the smaller (which is warmer). Anyway, another spectacular image! Needless to say, I'm extremely jealous and can't wait to see more!
Good eye - just did a double check and it seems that the larger version snuck through as a Prophoto RGB (which is what all my master files stay in) rather than sRGB (the colour mode that's usually best for online viewing). Unfortunately, even with my magical moderator super-powers I can't swap out the larger version now for one in the correct colour space.
The 1200 pixel on my website is in the correct colour space (if you want to check it out).
Cheers - and thanks...
Brad
Max