Motherly Love?

Gallery: WildlifePosted October 24, 2012343 views9 comments

Motherly Love?

This one from one of my recent photo tours into the Great Bear Rainforest. It was raining quite hard when this one was shot...

Once a grizzly cub is mid-way through its third year of life it can be almost as large as its mother. At a glance it may not be obvious that the cub IS a cub - but if you watch them interact with their mother, it soon becomes obvious that you're dealing with a mother-cub pair (rather than simply two sub-adult bears).

We encountered this female and its cub in a particularly beautiful and remote coastal inlet within the Great Bear Rainforest in late September 2012. Even though the cub is close to being weaned and on its own at this point, a strong mother-cub bond still exists. These two seemed to be particularly keen on playing with one another and it was great fun to watch (and photograph, of course) them sparring. While the blows and bites they exchanged would probably disable a human pretty quick (kind of like getting hit by a bulldozer), they were actually very gentle and careful with one another. Following one particularly long sparring bout the cub bolted off in a quick run with mom hot on its heels. After two "laps" of a roughly circular route around some bushes we joked around about the thought of them having their own race-track to play on. About ten minutes later we found ourselves in a position to see the ground where they had made their circuits and we realized they had formed a deep rutted path through repeated use of the same route. Turns out they DID have their own race-track to bomb around on!

Subject: Female Grizzly (Urus arctos) rough-housing it with her cub
Location: Great Bear Rainforest, BC, Canada
Camera: Nikon D4
Lens: Nikkor 400mm f2.8 VRII lens - hand-held. VR on and in "Normal" mode.
Exposure: 1/800s @ f5; ISO 5600. -0.33 stop compensation from matrix-metered exposure setting.
Crop: This is about 90% of full frame image.

Additional details about the image (including processing details and a few comments about using the Nikon D4 at high ISO's) available here:

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

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

Cheers...

Brad

PS: To Edwin: And you thought ISO 2500 was silly?

Comments

9 comments

Comment posted by William Bickle on October 24, 2012 at 12:56 PM

Hello Brad

Enjoyable Interaction here!! Even at 1/800 The Rain is Very Evident. I think the Rain being Vertical is much better than Horizontal. I like that you have retained the Natural Grasses & not Cloned them out, It adds to the Image. The open mouth jostling , showing their teeth & pink flews again Adds to the Image!. Mother with her curled and wrinkled Nose completes it nicely.

Thanks for Sharing....

Anxious to See More of the Great Bear's Images!!!:)

Bill

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

Comment posted by Jenaya Launstein on October 24, 2012 at 2:13 PM

Awesome action you captured, Brad. I really like the story, especially the race track part! I love all the rain falling, and how they are soaking wet... I think it adds to the image. The cub certainly looks like he's going to be a good looking bear

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

Comment posted by John Launstein on October 24, 2012 at 2:58 PM

Hi Brad: I've been admiring this one on your site ever since you posted it there, and had to take my phone around to everyone in the family to show them. Just a great moment captured with lots of drama and intrigue presented in a very natural way. There's so much to like here I'm not even going to attempt a list, but I will mention that I think you NAILED the composition for this action and scene.

I can never get over your "nearly full frame" bear images on FX at 400mm (here, or whatever was in use for the image in question). Obviously you have found a fantastic combination of modus operendi for that location (although you certainly seem to do that in whatever location you are in...I just notice you can safely get much closer to wildlife in a zodiak!).

Probably my favourite thing about your images is how thoughtfully they are composed (and executed). Just because you CAN fill the frame, you always seem to make fantastic decisions about how to best and artistically portray the animal in its environment.

I'll quit rambling now. This is (another) stunning grizzly image, and as you often say, "thanks for sharing" it!

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

Comment posted by Cam Held on October 25, 2012 at 1:49 AM

Hi Brad,
Great action shot! Love the open mouths, just an awesome interaction between mother and cub. The rain just tops it all off. As usual with your shots, everything- the bears, the weather/light, and the background come together beautifully. Just wondering, at what age do cubs typically leave their mothers? Isn't it around 3 years?
I will go read on your website about the D4 at high ISO after I write this, but I'm truly impressed by the quality! Did you have to do much noise reduction? My 7D (I know its not even close to the same level as the D4) would spit out an image that was half good pixels and half noise at that ISO!
Thanks for sharing another awesome shot!
-Cam

Registered on November 12, 2009, 59 Posts, 398 Comments

Comment posted by Ken Archer on October 25, 2012 at 3:25 AM

A wonderful photograph to go with your experience with this pair. Great inter-action and the beautiful habitat including the rain drops add to the power of this image.

Excellent Work Brad

Ken Archer

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

Comment posted by Jagdeep Rajput on October 25, 2012 at 8:33 AM

Great interaction n beautiful details !
Jagdeep Rajput

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

Comment posted by Brad Hill on October 26, 2012 at 8:47 AM

Hey all,

Thanks for the feedback. A few specific responses:

1. To the Launsteins: Nice to be "Team Launstein Approved"!

John...yep...shooting from a Zodiac certainly has its advantages, not only from a safety perspective, but it also gives one quite a unique perspective (looking back at a shoreline) and a good shooting angle. It also means shooting from a tripod is out of the question, which is a large part of the reason why I turn to my 400 so often (over my 600mm). Thanks for the feedback...

2. Cam: Grizzly cubs usually leave mom in their 2nd or 3 year of life. I have seen a number of cubs with mom in the fall of the 3rd autumn and have even seen them nursing at that age. I can't tell you if they still den with mom at that age. They don't leave mom voluntarily - they have a good deal going with her - and the weaning process can be painful to watch and involve a lot of what almost looks like brutality to a human (whacking, chasing, biting and general abuse of the cub). But I guess if she didn't do that they hang out in the spare bedroom until they were in their mid-twenties!

On the high ISO and image noise: the only noise reduction here is the "automatic" (and minor) amount done by my raw converter (Phase One Capture One Pro) - no additional reduction done during subsequent image processing. Having good high ISO performance is a huge asset when shooting in location that's normally characterized by low light, like in the Great Bear Rainforest.

3. Bill: Yep, vertical rain is WAY better than horizontal rain...as we both can attest to!

Cheers...

Brad

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

Comment posted by Gary Gulash on October 27, 2012 at 8:55 AM

Awesome image Brad, love the open mouths and the upturned snout on mom. The high iso capability of the camera really helped in making this photo possible I would say. Nice shadow detail and realistic colors, sharp where it matters of course.

Registered on January 28, 2005, 879 Posts, 12098 Comments

Comment posted by Zack Clothier on October 31, 2012 at 12:55 PM

Nice action shot, Brad, the addition of the falling raindrops is a nice touch.

Registered on January 28, 2010, 343 Posts, 2257 Comments