Focus

Focus

I shot this tight, intimate portrait of a foraging grizzly a few years ago while visiting the Khutzeymateen Grizzly Sanctuary. My primary motivation in shooting it was to juxtapose the almost fearsome reputation of grizzlies with their much more gentle true nature. The keen observer will notice that the material hanging out of the bear's mouth is grass - not tripod parts and not the fingers of an overzealous photographer! The bears in the Khutzeymateen - including this bear - are completely wild, but because its been years since these bears have been harassed or mis-managed by humans, they tend to be quite tolerant of small groups of humans that know to stay in places that don't threaten the bears. And, at times, while the bears are going about their normal activities, their chosen route brings them quite close to the Zodiacs that contain guests to the sanctuary. Which is exactly what happened here. And when this does happen, the key to minimizing disturbance on the bears is for everyone in the Zodiac to move as slowly and gently as possible - which usually translates into NOT fiddling with cameras - so you don't change lenses or cameras and you just shoot with WHATEVER you have in your hands. In this case I had my favorite wildlife lens in my hands - my 400mm f2.8 VR. Ergo - tight portrait!

This shot sat in raw form until February 2015. Then, when looking through my collection for some shots for a specific project, I decided to process this one. As soon as I finished the colour master file, I knew I HAD to try a B&W conversion on this one. My taste in B&W photos is quite straight-forward - I like them tonally simple, yet with some true blacks, some true whites, and with a nice but discrete range of grays in between. In other words - simple but with contrast. Interestingly, this tends to mean that images I like in colour are the same ones I like in B&W. I can't recall a time when I decided to try a B&W conversion because the image "didn't work" in colour...

What about the full colour eye? Tacky? Cliche? Perhaps. THAT aspect of the shot is little more than an experiment on my part and I kind of like it. It clearly draws attention to the eye region almost instantly, and I THINK after that most viewers will explore the rich detail of the head region (possibly more slowly than if the eye was in B&W). For those who are on the fence - full B&W versions (with no retention of colour in the eye) and full colour versions are available for comparison below...

Subject: Male grizzly (Ursus arctos) NOT eating a tripod!
Location: Khutzeymateen Grizzly Sanctuary, northern BC Coast, Canada
Camera: Nikon D4
Lens: Nikkor 400mm f2.8G VR - hand-held from floating zodiac. VR on and in "Normal" mode.
Exposure: 1/400s @ f11; ISO 2000. -0.33 stop compensation compensation from matrix-metered exposure setting.
Crop: Very minor - cropped slightly from right side

A lot more info about this image - including including much higher resolution versions (2400 pixel) - of it as above (with colour eye), in full B&W, and in full colour can be found 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! Real curious as to which (if any) version of it you prefer (and why)?

Cheers...

Brad

PS: Like all wildlife images on my website and that I post on NPN, 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)