Bad News Bears :)

Last year Jenaya dragged me (not!) to Alaska and the Yukon after she won airfare to anywhere one of our Canadian carriers fly. We had an AMAZING trip with two particularly memorable highlights...photographing the adorable wild porcupine we found near Kluane National Park that resulted in Jenaya's picture that was awarded the Editor's Pick Award for Wildlife last year, and multiple encounters with three orphaned grizzly bear cubs along the coast near Haines, AK.

Because almost all of my photography happens alongside Jenaya or Josiah, I usually let them post the pictures from our outings unless I end up with something appreciably different than what one of them captured. This is one of those cases, as I happened to have the lens sticking out the right window of the rental car just as these two appeared from the dense brush and made their way down the beach (exposed by low tide) in search of an easy meal.

I was struck by the way they exuded a bold, trouble-making personna, and loved the added drama of the cold rain that was falling. In looking through the resulting images later, I was surprised to see how these two kept in perfect cadence the whole approach (i.e. step for step) despite having to navigate through all the rocks.

I would have loved a lower camera angle, but we knew we would disturb these young bears if we even so muched as opened the door to our vehicle, so we were stuck with beanbags on open windows and quietly rolling forward or backward to tweak shooting angles when necessary.

This was a tough image to decide what to do with the comp in camera and cropping in post. I zoomed out with the 200-400mm a bit to include more of their environment (really like the look of the beach and grasses in the right half) but in so doing I recognized I was nearly centering the bear in the foreground who I chose as my subject (NO chance of pulling off enough DOF in this light to includ both cubs). In the end, I decided I couldn't see an obvious improvement on my decisions in the field, and have left it 100% full-frame here.

Please take a look at the larger version if you have time...it shows the scene off much better and certainly helps the rain to become more visible.

Thanks for stopping by...I welcome your comments and suggestions for further improvement!

Nikon D7000
Nikkor AF-S 200-400mm f/4G VR IF-ED @ 380mm
ISO 640
1/100sec @ f/6.3
-0.3 EV to control highlights on wet rocks
on beanbag from car window

Processing Notes:
Converted from RAW using Phase One Capture One Pro 7
Minor adjustments to tone and contrast using Nik Color Efex Pro 4 and Nik Viveza as well as selective adjustments and sharpening in PS5
Full frame