Puppy Dog Eyes!

"AWWWWW..." Actually, it is better to keep one's anthropomorphisms in the imagination than to attempt to verify them in the field. Cute bear though. I imagine.

My first thought was that this looks like a coquettish studio pose! Great shot and helpful discussion.

Wow! I’m just going to flat out take some credit for this image, even if it was just by virtue of a comment on one of your previous posts. Perhaps one day I will be able to convey through my images what you seem to do so effortlessly in all of your postings. Your images are more than just photographs of bears and sea lions. They provide a unique insight into the animals that I seldom see in other images. I always look forward to your postings, as I know I will be seeing something special. This image is no exception. Those eyes!  There’s a reason someone coined the term “windows of the soul”. This image captures so much more than a bear eating a salmon. Simply love it. Booking  one of your trips to the Great Bear Rainforest is on my bucket list.  Keep them coming and I, and the rest of the viewers, will continue to be awed.

Brad, you always do a great job of capturing the eyes in your bear photos (one of the most difficult challenges with them, as far as I'm concerned). I'm a big fan of all the deep brown and green tones in this one.

I'd welcome your thoughts on why you chose to crop this way. I don't have a problem with it, but there were obviously some options for you. Some folks may have cropped tighter from the bottom, others may have left more of the water and reflection. Yours is kinda in between. Since you're always thoughtful in your explanations I'd love to hear your reasoning for going this route. It's a subtle choice, but not one I think everyone would opt for (I'm not even sure how I'd go about it, honestly).

Max

Brad,
Another great shot, as we have all come to expect from you! Between the two of them Jerry and Max just about summed up my feelings- every single shot you share has something that makes it exceptional, I never see just good shots or ok shots coming from you! And, as Max hinted at, from my (limited) experience photographing bears, they are pretty tough animals to get great shots of the eyes, yet you seem to do it repeatedly.
I would also be interested in hearing your thoughts on the composition question Max brought up. I think were it my shot I might have cropped much of the bottom off, yet I still really like it as is.
-Cam

Another masterful shot, Brad! And, yes, those eyes do look like my black labrador's eyes when he has been caught raiding the dustbin!

Great moment of capture and this is a personality shot that gets two thumbs up

Eyes represent, two great points................life....n....connection!
Couldn't agree more with you.
Jagdeep Rajput

Another great image from the bear master, Brad. You have probably "humanized" bears as much as anyone else. Great points on conservation and relating to the audience.

Awesome eye's for sure. Perhaps he was offering to share his salmon with you

Beautiful photo Brad!!!

Ken Archer

Hey all,

Thanks for the feedback - much appreciated. This shot has always worked for me on an emotional reaction - my first reaction to it whenever I bump into it is still "AWWWW". ;-)

A few specific responses:

1. Jerry: Glad you approve! I was tempted to post a shot I have of a Spirit Bear asleep with one eye open (in response to your "like seeing eyes" comment) but figured this one had even more compelling eyes…

2. Lon: "Coquettish" eh? I guess I can kinda see that. But I want to make it totally clear that she's far too hirsute for my personal taste…

3. Max (and Cam): On the crop choice…lots of variables there - and, like any compositional issue, always a mix of "tried and trued" guidelines mixed with gut feel and some things that are important to me. Here's some of my thinking that went into the crop:

A. I wanted it tight enough that good detail was retained, especially in the eye and snout region. In a perfect world I would have liked to have shot this with my 600, but it wasn't in my hands when this happened and light was kinda low for a 600 f4 (this was shot wide open at f2.8 on my 400 - between having to bump shutter speed a little to hand-hold with a 600 and the smaller max aperture I likely would have been up to ISO 6400).

B. I wanted an aspect ratio where a diagonal from top left corner to bottom right corner was very close to parallel to the implied line connected the two eyes (and connecting the two ears). Weird thing? Perhaps. But I think things like that are subliminal and make a difference to how an image is received (even if the viewer doesn't know it).

C. Amount of foreground: Given the diffuse nature of the reflection (and there's darned little of it left that is discernible below the bottom of the frame), I didn't feel it was important to include more of the reflection. Yet, I wanted to position the bear a little further back in the frame (to give it depth) and including that much foreground also helped accentuate the low angle it was shot from. I personally think "depth positioning" (kinda the 3D equivalent of positioning relative to the sides of the frame) - and the impact it can have on a photo - is ignored by far too many wildlife photographers.

D. Horizontal space on either side of the bear. The direction the bear was looking drove me to put it on the left side of the frame (to give it a little room to look into to the right). Ideally I would have liked it slightly MORE to the left, but doing that would have meant cutting off the claws that are JUST breaking the surface of the water OR including more space on the right. Including more space on the right would have meant backing off a little (when you're constrained to a fixed pixel width), and I didn't want the bear smaller in the frame.

E. And it just felt right to me this way.

F. And by now you're probably wishing you didn't ask the question (but welcome to the world inside my head!).

Cheers…

Brad

The explanation works for me. Though I'm sure for most of us it seems like "E" is the typical response, you've done a nice job explaining a lot of the underlying factors that go into our true thinking on decisions like this. "B" was something I probably wouldn't have even considered, though it makes sense the way you explain it.

Max

Brad,
First off, thanks for responding (and even letting me know that you had responded!). I know with all of my photos I just crop using "E", but was really interested in how you (and other more experienced photographers) go about it. Thanks for sharing- I definitely would not have thought about "B", but now that you've said it, I agree. All of those little things can come together to make a big difference. Thanks!
-Cam

Lovely portrait Brad, the eyes really do seem to speak! I do think animals have some sort of personal character, no idea how deep it goes but there are too many behavouiral differences with different animals to discount some sort of personality in my opinion. I do however feel that humans often put emotional 'stickers'on animals when its not approraite, for instance, this bear looks cute, be he is probably elling you to get the hell away from his fish Anyway, the portrait is superb, really conveys emotion.

Excellent bear shot - I'm with Jerry 100%, you really do make conveying emotion through imagery seem so easy.

One fine image !!! Love the low angle