No Ice

Gallery: WildlifePosted September 20, 2014151 views6 comments

Canon 1D-X, 300mm x 1.4TC, handheld from boat
f5.6, 1/500, ISO400

This is the mother of the twin cubs I posted last week. She needs to get to seals, her primary food, to continue to nurse and feed her cubs. To get to the seals, she needs pack ice and shore fast ice. At the date of this photo, the pack ice was still 250 miles off shore. She's in a race against time. Without food, her milk will dry up, and the cubs will starve. She can swim as much as 150 miles; her cubs cannot.

Kaktovik, Alaska, September 17.

Full frame, slight adjustments to Levels, slight sharpening.

C & C, please. Thanks for looking.

Comments

6 comments

Comment posted by Ken Archer on September 21, 2014 at 8:25 AM

A beautiful portrait Jim, those paws are awesome

I like seeing them in this type of habitat, I am hopeful the pack ice shows up soon. I have been researching Kaktovik a bit, and by the looks of your images, I think I'm going to make plans for a visit in the near future.

Very Nice Work!!!

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

Comment posted by Brad Hill on September 21, 2014 at 9:38 AM

Hi Jim,

Nice "feel" to this image and definitely like the transition from in-focus foreground to OOF background. It does feel a bit tight to me (I'd particularly like to see a bit more room on the right), but I get that you were using a big prime and had very little control over this.

Techs look real solid here to me - sharpness and exposure look just fine, and as I already said, quite like your aperture and DoF choice.

Compositionally (and I know this is a real personal preference issue) - I think I'd prefer to see quite a bit more foreground (possibly including some reflection) and quite a bit less background (functionally shifting the bear's head quite a bit higher in the frame). To me, this bear almost feels like she is about to fall out of the frame.

Finally - wishing the ear tag wasn't visible...but not anything you could do about that.

Cheers...

Brad

PS: Like you commentary pointing out the plight that polar bears are facing.

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

Comment posted by Ken Watkins on September 21, 2014 at 10:59 AM

Jim,
Very nice image of this bear, although I too would have preferred more room at the bottom.
At least the ear tag is not as visible as the collars they drape round seemingly every animal in Africa nowadays

Registered on December 15, 2010, 1537 Posts, 4877 Comments

Comment posted by Jim DeWitt on September 21, 2014 at 2:08 PM

Thanks for your kind words. I was trying to convey the immense size of the bear and the vastness of the landscape in the same shot. The water in the lagoon had some trash – there was a storm surge in Kaktovik two weeks ago that flooded the runway and the landfill. So couldn't include the water in the foreground. So this was the result.

I mostly photograph birds; there are a lot of differences when shooting critters, and I appreciate your help in getting them sorted out.

Registered on August 28, 2006, 1240 Posts, 8506 Comments

Comment posted by Bill Leggett on September 21, 2014 at 3:35 PM

Very nice pose and image, Jim. If mine, I might be inclined to crop down to 4x5 aspect from top.

Registered on July 21, 2004, 706 Posts, 3233 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Sharp on September 22, 2014 at 11:09 PM

I like this bear quite a bit and think the horizontal bands of color and water behind him are a nice touch. I do think, however, making them truly horizontal would make this stronger if you have enough pixels to avoid cutting more on the sides..

Registered on December 9, 2007, 258 Posts, 9892 Comments