The Great Bear Gauntlet
Another shot of the rare Spirit Bear from my recent trip into the Great Bear Rainforest. This image (and the scene depicted therein) is mostly courtesy of the generosity of the Gitga'at First Nations who generously permitted me and my group into a portion of restricted Gitga'at traditional territory that few are ever privileged to visit. My sincere thanks are extended to them.
Seeing
any Spirit Bear is a special and amazing experience; watching one intently and single-mindedly fishing in a scene like this - one where only a handful of humans have ever been allowed to enter - is...well...at least for me...pretty indescribable!
The title? Written from the perspective of a spawning pink salmon: After traveling the open ocean for two years you have to travel up and over countless obstacles to get to your natal stream before you can complete your lifecycle. You turn a corner in the stream and you see rapids with only one easily navigable route through. And, sure enough, there's a white bear there intently watching for any salmon daring enough to pass by him (or, in this case, her). Curses!
NOTE: For those who aren't familiar with Spirit Bears, they are a rare, genetically-based colour variant of the good ol' Black Bear. They can be encountered wherever black bears are found, but for some reason are found in high occurrence (10-25% of all black bears) in only one small part of British Columbia, Canada.
Subject: Spirit Bear (
Ursus americana) in a "fishing trance" watching for speedy and daring salmon
Location: Great Bear Rainforest, BC, Canada
Camera: Nikon D800e
Lens: Nikkor 70-200mm f4 VR lens at 100mm with circular polarizer
Exposure: 0.4s at f10. ISO 100. -1.33 stop compensation from matrix metered exposure.
Other: Tripod-mounted, Live View, cable release
Crop: This is about 97% of full frame horizontally, with only slightly more cropped off the bottom
This is a shot where the 7,000+ pixel original image has delectable detail in it - most of which is lost in a low-res web presentation. Would love to show the full res version, but that's not practical. Best I can do is offer up a 2400 pixel wide version on my website, which you can find here (under the "In The Field" tab). Oh...beware...you'll also be exposed to a conservation rant on that page!
http://www.naturalart.ca/galleries/mammals/bears/detail_6.html.
Comments and feedback greatly appreciated...probably better to view larger version prior to doing so...
Cheers...
Brad
Comments
17 commentsI would like to know how you coached him into standing still for that .4sec exposure??
Thanks - have to say I don't particularly mind this shot myself!
Re: your question: "I would like to know how you coached him into standing still for that .4sec exposure??"
Well...the bear was super-focused and almost motionless. All except its head, which was constantly swaying slightly. Which is why I'm showing you ONE shot of it, not the 99 others where the head was blurred! Shooting this was simultaneously fun and frustrating - I actually shot about 250 shots of this scene and kept saying to myself "OK...ONE of these times she's going to keep her head still!" And finally she did. Thankfully I didn't attempt this in the film era!
Cheers...
Brad
Thanks to your photography Brad, I can identify Spirit Bears now.
Jagdeep Rajput
Btw congrats on the cover of BC magazine, I think this one could become a very strong image to be used as an argument against the Northern Gateway Pipeline, but now I'm just getting political.
Excellent work as always Brad!
Awesome Piece of Artwork!!!
Well done & persistent too! The scene is beautiful and the soft water leads you into the Bear .
Looked at the Bear several times , a Fat Bear....I am drawn to his face area and the light colouring Eyes & Snout. The Kermode has pink pigment in that area where his fur is Very Fine & thin .
Nice Capture.
Bill
Thanks for the feedback on this image. Many of you said some pretty complimentary things (about both the image and my photography) - it's definitely appreciated!
For me the BEST thing is that this image is already in high demand by some key conservation groups for use in campaigns to fight against bringing massive oil supertankers through the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest. If this image can help (in any small way) keep the Great Bear Rainforest intact then THAT will be the greatest reward.
Cheers...
Brad
Impeccable composition and exposure with the slow shutter.
- Luke