Cuddling...cautiously!

Gallery: WildlifePosted June 26, 2012359 views6 comments

Cuddling...cautiously

Another shot from my recent Khutzeymateen photo tour...

It's funny how fast you get can used to advances in technology and start taking them for granted. I captured this image from a floating Zodiac inflatable boat - the subjects (a female grizzly with two cubs snuggled up against her back) were behind a log and sitting in near darkness. I was hand-holding a darned big lens (Nikon's 400mm f2.8 VR) and knew to get enough depth of field to render the critical portions of both cubs (and mom) sharp I could not shoot with the aperture wide open. Well, no problem - just stop down to f5 and let the ISO climb up - in this case up to ISO 12,800! So where is the golf-ball sized "grain" (noise) and why haven't the shaded regions blocked up and the highlights (on the right-most cub's chin) blown out? Oh...that's what happened 3 years ago...not today (when using the latest technology). What one can capture today - and how you can capture it - is becoming absolutely mind-boggling! Makes me want to re-shoot almost everything in my collection that's more than a couple of years old!

What I personally like about this image is that the behaviour of the two cubs - one happily snoring away and the other warily watching me - totally reflects how they acted all the time and their personalities. We had the bold guy (a young male) and we had the cautious one (a young female). Even when resting their personalities couldn't help but shine through!

A little while ago I posted a portrait of a female grizzly resting on a log (image entitled "The Thinker" - this image shows what was BEHIND the log (taken only a few minutes later).

Subject: Grizzly (Urus arctos) family all cuddled up
Location: Khutzeymateen Inlet, Great Bear Rainforest, BC, Canada
Camera: Nikon D4
Lens: Nikkor 400mm f2.8 VRII lens - hand-held from floating zodiac. VR on and in "Normal" mode.
Exposure: 1/320s @ f5; ISO 12,800. -1.0 stop compensation from matrix-metered exposure setting.
Crop: This is about 90% of the full-framed image

Additional details about the image (including processing details) available here

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

Comments

6 comments

Comment posted by Philip Hodgkins on June 26, 2012 at 3:42 PM

Amazing! Camera envy aside, a great character portrait.

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

Comment posted by Jenaya Launstein on June 27, 2012 at 3:03 PM

Awesomely awesome, Brad! I have been getting more and more jealous of your trips every time I see a bear image of yours! This is great, it shows the characters of the cubs. Another awesome bear image!

I don't know why this doesn't have more comments!

Registered on February 8, 2011, 254 Posts, 1302 Comments

Comment posted by Nancy Wolfe on June 27, 2012 at 7:05 PM

I love that the one cub is cautious and has his one eye open. What a great photo:)

Registered on April 7, 2012, 42 Posts, 103 Comments

Comment posted by Brad Hill on June 28, 2012 at 8:27 AM

Hey folks,

Thanks for the feedback.

Jenaya - while I agree with your point about the comments, I learned long ago not to guess which images would (or wouldn't!) draw comments!

Cheers...

Brad

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

Comment posted by Jerry Austin on June 28, 2012 at 11:58 AM

Love the personality that this image conveys. As always, a terrific image. We all expect amazing with each of your posts.

Registered on January 6, 2012, 651 Posts, 3448 Comments

Comment posted by Eirini Pajak on June 30, 2012 at 5:27 PM

I love the mood here! The eye of the one & the snout of the other! Two very different expressions! Super neat image!

Registered on December 13, 2011, 216 Posts, 1671 Comments