Shy Eyes

Shy Eyes!

Just scanned the gallery and noticed two things; some recent "personality portraits" and a definite paucity of bear shots (all those cats!). So - thought I'd remedy the situation. Actually...I'm posting this image for two reasons...I think my thinking will become clear as your read along...(and sorry for the extra long commentary...).

The bear in this shot is a sub-adult male, who's - quite literally - still growing into his skin. Despite having almost a "cub-like" look to his face, he's actually getting pretty big and probably wasn't far off 180 kg (400 lb) when I shot this image. But I don't think the bear has figured out how big or powerful he is - although pretty relaxed around humans who behave, he's terrified of other bears, even if they're considerably smaller than him. And, if I had to use one word to sum up his demeanor and personality (even around humans) I'd say he's just really "shy". And that's exactly what I was hoping to convey with this shot - his shy/timid personality. I shot a lot of portraits of this guy as he foraged on the as-fresh-as-you-can-get greenery, but this one - where his nose is partially obscured by a few grasses - is my favorite, and I think it best captures the "essence" of this bear. And I think - in this instance - the "offending" grasses across his nose help convey the personality of this bear (it's almost as though he's feeling some comfort through "hiding" - quite unsuccessfully - behind those grasses!). For those who perceive the grass simply as a distraction - yes (and sigh)...I have lots of "clean" shots of the bear.

On Image Captioning: I've long thought that picking appropriate image captions or image titles can play a significant role in how a viewer perceives an image. My thinking (without evidence) is that the right caption can shape or influence what a viewer sees when they look at an image - it might influence how their eye moves over an image or possibly where the eye ends up. Recently someone sent me a document entitled "The Story of a Judgement" that discussed how 4 judges of a major photo competition (the 4 Nations Competition of 2013 by the Photographic Society of New Zealand) went about making their decisions. One of the things that struck me - and is at least consistent with my thinking on captions - is how often in this document the judges made comments like "...all judges felt that the title was poor as it failed to tell the viewer..." and "...the title XXX YYY added NOTHING to the story of the horrors of what had just taken place..." (in the image of predator with a bit of carcass in its mouth). All these references to the success or failure of the titles implied to me that the judges were being influenced by them to at least some extent.

As I mentioned above, my goal in shooting this image was to convey the shy/timid personality of the bear. I'm real aware of the current trend of so many wanting to see "uber-clean" images and how easily some cry "distracting element" at almost anything. In this case I think the image title of "Shy Eyes" not only draws attention to the bear's eyes, but also has some effect on shaping how the grasses over the end of the nose are perceived (not so much as a distraction, but as "something" the bear is partially hiding behind, and thus key to the message of the image). If I had chosen another title (I dunno - maybe "The Nose Knows") I suspect at least some would perceive those grasses differently.

And there goes my next-to-last secret trick! ;-)

Subject: Big but shy male grizzly (Ursus arctos)
Location: Khutzeymateen Inlet, northern Great Bear Rainforest, BC, Canada
Camera: Nikon D4
Lens: Nikkor 80-400mm VR @ 340mm - hand-held from floating zodiac. VR on and in "Normal" mode.
Exposure: 1/320s @ f11; ISO 90. No compensation compensation from matrix-metered exposure setting.
Crop: Extremely minor - this virtually full frame

A lot more details about this image - including processing details and in this case a larger (2400 pixel) version of the shot - here on my website:

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

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

Cheers...

Brad

PS: Like all wildlife images on my website and that I post here, the subject is fully wild and completely unconstrained. Besides the potential impact of my presence, nothing has been done to intentionally alter or affect the ongoing behavior of the subject and, of course, there has been no use of any form of bait or other form of wildlife attractants (including vocalizations).