Momma Bear & Her Three

Just great Bill. Like everything about this.

Your persistence to catch all eyes open really adds a lot to the scene IMO. I'm sure a very difficult task with four sets of eyes going also. The moment captured gives more credence to their being alive too. Excellent work overall.

That's an absolutely lovely shot. Having all the bears in focus and all the foreground in focus as well adds to the appeal. It's really enjoyable to look at this familial behavior of the bears and as you said, all with eyes open. Congrats. Richard

Mighty close at 260mm, Bill. A lovely family shot with good focus and detail. The cubs are busy being cubs, but mama has her eyes directly on you!

Hey Bill,

OK - I'm going to work you over hard on this critique because you've personally told me you like to get honest, tough feedback...and because you've told me that you like to give presentations with conservation angles and want them to be as effective as possible.

But first - some of your fellow Pastafarians from the trip have asked me to thank you for your heroic efforts in getting this shot - and for alerting the rest of us slackards that the bears were there. I still think that after calming the bears down and quickly getting your shots and then silently slipping out of the Zodiac and into the freezing waters to swim back the 2 km to the mothership (uphill and against the tide) - while dodging icebergs of course - was a little above and beyond the call of duty. Stuff of legends...or should that be myths? I suspect Ray Mears will be contacting you soon looking for a new partner...(www.raymears.com).

Back to reality: Dealing with multiple subjects is always a challenge - and this scenario was particularly tough in that those 3 cubs never wanted to give us much (they teased us a lot, but were real skinflints in terms of providing epic shots or anything "cohesive"). That being said, I find this shot a bit chaotic from a compositional perspective (mostly due to the arrangement of the cubs) and the fact that 3 sets of eyes are visible doesn't really carry the day for me. In my mind, this is one of those classic cases where one is so enthralled by the scene (and rightly so!) that being selective in capturing key moments in the interaction kinda goes by the wayside (and, of course, you have a strong memory of the entire encounter that might be making you see more to this image than an outsider would see).

From a technical perspective I think you did fine on the exposure and to my eye the DoF looks just about right. I've checked the image on 3 displays and I am noticing a bit too much magenta in the image on all of them. The image does feel a bit tonally flat to me (in comparison with other shots of this scene that some of the other Pastafarians have sent to me). Oh...and I don't know how you did it - but great job on cloning out all the raindrops (constant rain - right? ).

Last point - and this is being offered up only because of what you've told me about wanting to make strong presentations...The ability to weave a complementary and "supportive" narrative around strong visuals is an incredibly important skill for photographers to possess, especially in this day and age. It's useful in slideshows, some online presentations of one's work (like here for instance) and elsewhere - it can shape what folks think about your image and have a huge impact on whether the shot is viewed as successful or not. In this particular case it seems to me like there's a pretty big disconnect. In this image I see a zonked out adult bear (presumably a female) and 3 cubs that look like they might be in the process of settling down themselves. To me it looks like their biggest concern is who to snuggle up with (which is kinda cool in itself). But I don't see any suggestion of inquisitiveness on the part of the cubs at all...

Anyway...I know you know I support your conservation efforts and I think your passion about the wildlife of Canada - just trying to challenge you a bit and push you to higher levels...(we're all here to learn, right?).

Cheers...

Brad

Hello and thanks to the feedback supplied. Quite interesting to see such varied comments from most!
I enjoyed the moment when all of the little guys came together beside mom and expressed themselves uniquely as their personalities were shown here! Eye visibility was important to me even though all were not looking in similar looks.
The eye contact of mom was also important to me and feel her looking into the lens conveyed excellent contact !

Brad has quite a sense of humour ( although quite distorted at times ). The swim was cold but not as long as mentioned !
Some things that happen during an adventure are best kept within that group. :)


Salud

Bill
www.BillBickle.com

What makes this shot for me is the absolute worn out look of mom, you can see why she would be tired with the 3 kids working her over. I think the pano crop works well. I wish the middle cub had turned toward you or towards mom's head but nothing you can do about that, nicely done Bill.