by Henk Fliek
“Salmon Drama” – Nikon D4S, VR 600mm f/4E @ 850mm, f/5.6, 1/1000s, +0.7EV Exposure, ISO 640
After writing about my first impressions with the new Nikon AF-S 600MM F/4E FL ED VR super telephoto lens, I went on to visit Katmai National Park for the second time, hoping to find a variety of wildlife opportunities and to put this new toy to the test. In a small group of 4 wildlife photographers I was the only one on this trip without a long range zoom lens, and this was an additional learning point for me: if your photography is involving (very) mobile creatures a zoom does come in handy. However, funny things can happen as well if you don’t…
It must have been the first or second day of the trip when we were at Geographic Harbor and the bears were happily fishing for salmon. I was expecting the bears to keep their distance, which they did every now and then, but they also did come quite close every now and then...! I had already added a 1.4 (III) teleconverter on my 600mm FL earlier when this bad boy came jumping at me, spotting a juicy salmon less than 5 meters and an effective 850mm focal length-lens between us (NIKON RAW data lists 850mm instead of 840mm, so I’ll just stick to that). If I would have had a zoomlens I probably would have zoomed out, but then I would not have captured this remarkable close-up with some serious amount of detail – check out those claws! (poor salmon...)
Comments welcome as always! (but please do not make pink/red/any copies of my bears like before and add them to my posts... :)
More images on www.fliek.com
Comments
4 commentsHi Henk,
Looks like you had a wonderful time being in close proximity to many bears in the Katmai. I look forward to another encounter there myself. It is truly a magical experience.
Dramatic as this is, for my taste, it is a bit to tight. Cutting off the tip of the salmon's snout is very distracting and, along with the angle of the bears nose, takes my eye out of frame without any pathway back in without starting over. I would prefer losing a little of the right side of the bears head to include all of the salmon head since both are angled to the left.
You don't mention any post processing details, so I can only surmise from the artifacts in the wet fur, that you have over sharpened this some. Wet hair/fur can be tricky to get right and tend to show sharpening issues more readily than most any other area.
Looks like you will enjoy being upclose with the 600.
I especially like the "under eyebrow" stare, lending a great deal of mood. The claws are impressive and perfect. I agree with Neil that some wet fur sharpening feels crispy, so I think some selective toning that down would be a positive. I hadn't thought about the fish being clipped until reading his commentary, so that must mean it is no big deal to me but in theory I agree it would have been nice if the fish face was included. To me you maximized the framing with the full 600. Nice post.
That is a really cool shot and I love the detail you get by being so close and the angle of the bear's head. I do have to say I'm with Neil that the partially decapitated salmon is a bit distracting but at least we all know why....you were very close with a big lens. Love the full sized version! You really captured why Katmai is so, so special. The opportunity to get so close to these amazing Brown Bears that you wish for a smaller lens is just so special as there are so few places like Katmai that can give you that.
Lon, Joe, Neil - thank you for your comments and the time you spent on your feedback; much appreciated.
A few additional facts I had not mentioned yet:
In terms of technique I would say this image probably ... sucks. Not enough space left & right, top & bottom, half a salmon, and probably at least half a dozen photographic rules I violated next to the blown specs (however, you'll find the bear's eye nicely fits the 'golden ratio'... :)) That's what you get when you have a 500kg brow bear jumping up to 5 meters towards you and all you have is an effective 850mm fixed focal length lens, with the action all over in less than a couple of seconds!
But... the longer I looked at the original image, the more I was intrigued by it, and the less I became bothered about its imperfections. The impression it made on me was the reason I decided to post it, although it's hard to describe that impression in the right words. Thanks for sharing yours.
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