Spirit of the Rainforest

Spirit of the Rainforest

First off - sorry to all for showing my head in here (and commenting) a little less than normal of late - just seem to be super busy and going from deadline-to-deadline.

Second off - OK - my last post of the Harboreal Seal WAS a spoof! Just having a little fun. But based on the email I received (both from here and driven from my own website) some seemed to seriously think I had discovered (or revealed) an entirely new species of seal. I even had a few folks want to sign up for photo tours (or, more accurately, snipe hunts!) in pursuit of the Harboreal Seal!

Back to the present - this is an image I captured in October while leading back-to-back photo tours into the Great Bear Rainforest. Because Spirit Bears inhabit very dense and undergrowth laden rain forests, it can be extremely hard to get a decent environmental shot of one. And, while I have lots of tightly framed Spirit Bear shots, up until this autumn I didn't have any decent "environmental" shots. So, in 2011 one of my goals was to come away with a decent shot showing a Spirit Bear in its habitat. And that's what this shot represents. And, given that this shot has already been requested as a cover shot for a few publications, I guess I accomplished my goal of getting a decent environmental shot!

Ready for some new jargon?? I sent this shot to a friend of mine (a photographer in Austria) and his response was "...very nice enviroscape". His classification of it as an "enviroscape" got me thinking - and I believe he's on to a useful term. There's a related term ("animalscape") that has become fairly commonplace and is - at least in my opinion - a valuable term. To me it means a shot with all the characteristics of a landscape shot (with the obvious dependencies on strong composition, good lighting, some depth and layering, a feeling of expansiveness, etc.) AND it contains a strategically-placed animal that works well within the overall scene.

So what's an "enviroscape"? Well, in my opinion it's similar to an animalscape, but the driving principle is creatively and tastefully showing the animal within its normal (or "preferred") environment or typical habitat. And, in an enviroscape I THINK the characteristics of a good animalscape (or landscape) are probably a little relaxed - after all, the preferred environment/habitat of some animal species simply don't lend themselves to good animalscape/landscape shots. I don't think there's need to try to define how large the subject should be in the frame of a good enviroscape shot (or how that relative proportion differs from an animalscape).

The obvious question: is there any need or value to adding a new term to a lexicon that is already confusing to many? I would argue the answer is "yes" - simply because adding the term "enviroscape" (and keeping it in your mind while shooting) can really help you THINK about what you're shooting and how you want to portray your chosen subject within the habitat you found it in. And, in my opinion, THINKING about your image captures - and making active decisions about how you're want to portray your subject within your frame, is a very good thing!

So here ya go - my first enviroscape of a Spirit Bear!

Subject: Spirit Bear (Urus americana kermodei) in search of salmon in a stream in the Great Bear Rainforest
Location: Great Bear Rainforest, BC, Canada
Camera: Nikon D3s
Lens: Nikkor 16-35mm f4 VRII lens @ 35mm. Hand-held with VR on.
Exposure: 1/200s @ f6.3; ISO 2200. -0.67 stop compensation from matrix-metered exposure setting.
Crop: Very minor - this is over 95% of original capture

All the gory details about this shot (processing details, conservation, etc.)

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

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

Cheers...thanks for looking...

Brad