Little Tree Climber

Gallery: WildlifePosted June 25, 2012240 views5 comments

This little guy was up in the tree for a good 40 minutes just snackin' on everything! He was actually in the tree before we got there, so he could have been up longer than 40 minutes. His sibling is black and so is his mom (she has some brown on her face though), they were both in the tree, too. This guy had been behind leaves and twisted branches for a long time before finally coming into an open space. I knew I had to get the image, as he was facing away from us or behind branches for most of the time! Anyway, I managed to get this image before he started eating away again.

Thank y'all for lookin'!

Nikon D300
Nikkor 200-400mm f/4 ED VR @ 400mm
ISO 640
1/80sec @ f/6.3
tripod mounted

Comments

5 comments

Comment posted by Max Waugh on June 25, 2012 at 6:50 PM

Nice, Jenaya, especially at 1/80th. I like the divergent lines created by the branches. I understand the placement of the bear in the top part of the frame (which helps evoke a sense of how high up it is), but the frame feels just a tick tight to me around the bear itself (top, left and right).

Max

Registered on September 26, 2008, 428 Posts, 2329 Comments

Comment posted by Brad Hill on June 26, 2012 at 8:36 AM

Hey Jenaya,

You sure this bear isn't a bear-monkey cross??

I find this both kinda cute and interesting. I like the inclusion of the claws on the 3 visible paws - that adds some nice visual interest for me. And the pose is great! Your persistence paid off.

Lighting on this one was challenging - those shots when you have a light background and dark subject (partially shaded) are tough. Most cameras don't render shots like this too well and they quickly become real "processor's" shot - meaning that squeezing the most out of this shot requires a high degree of processing skill and time. If this were mine I'd do a fair amount of selective work on this shot - I'd pull down the brightness of both the background and leaves (the leaves in particular are reflecting a lot of light) quite significantly. And, I'd do almost the opposite on the subject - meaning I'd carefully work at bringing out some shadow detail on the cub. I think you'd be surprised how much of a difference these kind of changes could make to this image.

Cheers...thanks for sharing this...

Brad

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

Comment posted by Lon Sharp on June 26, 2012 at 1:41 PM

Very nice work, Jenaya. I like it a lot. Given what Max has noted, I would add the suggestion to crop a bit more from the bottom to about a 4x5 ratio image and see if you like that effect a bit better.

Registered on December 9, 2007, 258 Posts, 9892 Comments

Comment posted by Joe James on July 3, 2012 at 9:41 PM

Nicely done Jenaya, especially with such tough lighting conditions. I really love the pose of this little guy and the look on his face.

Registered on November 20, 2009, 89 Posts, 808 Comments

Comment posted by Verdon on July 3, 2012 at 11:21 PM

amazing Jenaya, three thumbs up, wish image like this is in my gallery!!!

Registered on June 10, 2011, 147 Posts, 1444 Comments