Bears and mosquitoes

Gallery: WildlifePosted May 17, 2011262 views8 comments

This polar bear was trying to rest, not too far from our lodge, along the Hudson Bay shoreline and the mosquitoes just wouldn't let him alone. He would rest for 30-45 seconds and have to swat across his face to keep them at bay. We had fog practically all week.

Canon 30D
EF500mm f/4L IS USM
1/7500s f/5.6
ISO 320

Comments

8 comments

Comment posted by Barbara Graham on May 17, 2011 at 2:19 PM

Mark, this is great. The subject and foreground are so clear and so separated from the background, and that is such a representative bear behavior (poor bears).

Registered on July 27, 2010, 1310 Posts, 5035 Comments

Comment posted by Dan Roberts on May 17, 2011 at 2:47 PM

Great behavioral image taken under some challenging lighting conditions. You may want to consider cloning out the diamond shape and line in the BG above the bear. I suspect it's a rock reflected in water but in the OOF portion of the image it looks like something man made and is very distracting IMO.

Registered on March 9, 2011, 69 Posts, 501 Comments

Comment posted by Morkel Erasmus on May 17, 2011 at 3:38 PM

just love the story here Mark!! I think the fog has adversely affected sharpness, or maybe it was the "downsizing" for web...
for this presentation I might just add a touch more sharpening on the bear...

Registered on March 22, 2011, 385 Posts, 2068 Comments

Comment posted by Anand Narayanan on May 17, 2011 at 7:42 PM

Fantastic ! Love the soft dreamy feel to the image !

Registered on October 25, 2009, 110 Posts, 835 Comments

Comment posted by Mark Turner on May 18, 2011 at 9:40 AM

Thanks for the comments and suggestions. Here is the photo with the OOF rocks that looked man made cloned out and some sharpening of the bear.

Registered on December 3, 2005, 39 Posts, 109 Comments

Comment posted by Dan Roberts on May 18, 2011 at 9:44 AM

Repost is an improvement. I agree the sharpening helped a lot too.

Registered on March 9, 2011, 69 Posts, 501 Comments

Comment posted by Brad Hill on May 18, 2011 at 10:09 AM

HI Mark,

Poor bear - as an ex-Manitoban I can totally relate to the misery these mosquitoes are imparting on this bear!!

I also prefer the re-post to the original - I also found the background (on the original) quite distracting and almost confusing (I spent more time trying to figure out what the heck was going on there than on the bear!). If I'm being honest, I have to say that even on the re-post I still find the background distracting. While I'm not much of a fan of cloning, I think this image would be significantly stronger if you could find a way to remove the very light portion of the background that extends down toward the bear (i.e., more or less level out the dark portions) and then crop the top of the image off (including only the dark background). Hope this makes sense...

Cheers...thanks for sharing this...

Brad

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

Comment posted by Jim Hackley on May 18, 2011 at 4:01 PM

Wonderful behavior shot and you can not help but feel kind of sorry for the bear due to those mosquitoes, I happen to like the repost better also, nice job in getting this challenging shot, way to go.

Registered on September 17, 2009, 302 Posts, 5535 Comments