Bear Personalities I

Gallery: WildlifePosted October 28, 2014336 views9 comments

Personalities I: Curious, Cautious, and Confident

For me one of the most fascinating thing about bears is how each one has a unique personality. Some bears are confident and bold, some are naturally curious, and others are plain shy. With adult bears it's easy to assume that the observed differences in personality can be attributed to experience. But when you run into a female bear with multiple young cubs you can usually assume that the little ones have had similar experiences - yet their personalities are still often extremely different.

This shot shows an adult female grizzly (or at least part of one!) that we encountered in the Great Bear Rainforest of BC, along with two of her three cubs-of-the-year. Mom was totally comfortable with our presence and exuded confidence as she sat upright in front of us. One cub was incredibly curious about us and sat in plain sight with its eyes locked on us. And another of the cubs was incredibly cautious and wary of us - he or she always hid behind mom and took fleeting peeks at us. In this shot I tried a few "devices" in an effort to convey the personalities of this trio...hopefully it works for you!

Subject: Adult female Grizzly (Ursus arctos) with two very different cubs
Location: Great Bear Rainforest, BC, Canada
Camera: Nikon D4s
Lens: Nikkor 400mm f2.8E VR plus TC-14EIII (1.4x) telconverter (550mm total focal length). Hand-held from floating zodiac. VR on and in "Sport" mode.
Exposure: 1/640s @ f8; ISO 2500. -1.0 stop compensation from matrix-metered exposure setting.
Crop: Moderate - this is about 75% of the full-framed image

More details about the image - including a discussion of how the image came about and a 2400-pixel version of the image - can be found here on my website:

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

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

Cheers...

Brad

Comments

9 comments

Comment posted by Jagdeep Rajput on October 28, 2014 at 9:45 AM

Hi Brad!
So many Bear things to like here, eyes, claws, light colored face, fur etc etc! Love the curious look of 3rd Bear, behind the legs, though not sure about the few green leaves near the eyes. The 2400 pixel version is a pleasure to view!In a smaller frame, light color fur of the main Bear looked slightly over sharpened, but both the large size images are fine.
Jagdeep Rajput

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

Comment posted by Jim Gavin on October 28, 2014 at 12:13 PM

Objective: convey personalities. Objective accomplished. Techs: excellent. Is there any indication that male cubs are bolder and more curious than female cubs? Or vice versa?

Registered on August 14, 2008, 293 Posts, 1250 Comments

Comment posted by Brad Hill on October 28, 2014 at 12:37 PM

Hi Jim,

In answer to your question: "Is there any indication that male cubs are bolder and more curious than female cubs? Or vice versa?"

I'm not sure if the research required to determine the answer to your question has been done in a field setting. However, anecdotally - and over a number of years and in dealing with dozens of grizzly families - we have noticed that more often than not that bolder cubs do turn out to be males. Note that I don't have stats on this...and we HAVE seen instances where the reverse is true (i.e., situations where the female is bolder).

Cheers...

Brad

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

Comment posted by Philip Hodgkins on October 28, 2014 at 4:31 PM

What a nice image of different personalities. Compositionally, leaving all of the mother out except her claws is a bold move, but I think entirely appropriate. Once again you have shown more about the bear than the photographer. Congratulations!

Registered on July 24, 2006, 2741 Posts, 12349 Comments

Comment posted by Ken Archer on October 28, 2014 at 5:42 PM

This is pure eye candy for those of us who love your bear photos Brad. A very strong and emotional composition. Love the curiously alert stare of the youngster over mom's claws.

Awesome Image

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

Comment posted by Kurt Bowman on October 28, 2014 at 11:46 PM

My comments pretty much ditto Ken's. I also feel like only seeing only the mother's claws leaves me wondering what she might be doing and makes me use my imagination. However, she is clearly a secondary afterthought and should be in this image. Nice work Brad

Registered on June 19, 2008, 1005 Posts, 8028 Comments

Comment posted by William Bickle on October 30, 2014 at 8:12 AM

Hello Brad

Beautifully captured, showing the excellent detail offered by the main character. Lighting was excellent to render the soft and subtle tones .

Bill

Registered on June 13, 2011, 183 Posts, 1702 Comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on October 30, 2014 at 10:17 PM

A very engaging photo of this youngster and an interesting, different comp with just mom's claws. I wondered if more depth of field would have improved this to get the other youngster's face in sharp focus but from your techs you didn't have much light to work with and I'm not sure it would have improved the image anyway. Nicely composed Brad.

Registered on February 1, 2006, 1158 Posts, 19528 Comments

Comment posted by John Launstein on October 31, 2014 at 2:25 AM

Dang, Brad! I'm more of a hockey fan(atic) than a baseball guy, but you knocked this one out of the park for me. LOVE this image. Your compositional choices are fantastic here...so cool to have mom's paws, and essentially only her paws, in the frame and of course the second cub shyly peeking out from behind her shoulder adds yet another level. If I have anything to suggest it's simply wondering what a TINY bit more space above the primary cub's shoulders and beside (left of) its back paw would look like. I'm about 100% positive you played with this until it looked and felt right to you, so I'm guessing this is indeed the right decision...but I thought I'd mention it. 'Tis a stunner.

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