Brown bear at dawn

The whole family is sick so have to stay at home all day. Well..the weather is terrible anyway so I don't mind really. Enough time to get some work done. I found this image taken in Finland from a hide with Danny in it. Until now, I have no idea who smelled so bad. Was it us or was it the bear?

Taken at dawn iso 200 1/200 sec. f/8

Edwin Kats

Hi Edwin.....

OK lot of work already done.... make the right hand side of the image black and it is great..... not a comp entry but more commercial.

Thanks Phil

I know what you mean and it crossed my mind. BUT!!!! When you loose half a liter of your own blood you start to halucinate and after a full liter you start to love the mozzy's. So I want to include them as some sort of thank you Could clone out the backlit bilberry.

It's very personal I guess and I like it as it is.

Edwin

Better?

Edwin

Oh yes... it will still be better if the whole right hand side of the image was black

Apologies I am not trying to antagonise....

Wow! WOW!

The second image is an improvement, Edwin, but both are stunning! Obvious comparisons can be drawn with Migual Lasa's polar bear shot from WPOY but that is only meant as a compliment. Top drawer shot and very different to the usual brown bear stuff. Love it.

Cheers,
Chris

Brilliant shot Edwin, the second has far more impact.

I must get my eyes sorted - at first I thought this was a shot of the stars!

Very nice Ed

Originality Edwin is, an all, to rare occurrence but this image comes about as close as one can hope to achieve. Well thought out. The dots to the right are pointless in that they neither add nor do they detract. This no more than the standard we have come to expect from you Edwin yet it remains one to which some of us aspire.

Thanks guys

@Phil. No need for apologies. It's critiques I'm after. So keep them coming.

Ed

Ed, a very strong image indeed. But it's left-heavy for me, especially the 2nd one. As a portrait crop (loosing all the RH space) it really shouts. Having said this, the space on the right will be good for double-page spreads.

Des

Edwin the comments you have got must be useful to you but to me at my level this is superb!!!!

Keith.

We had a recent discussion about "less is more" and in this case the amount of 'less' you've got here has given this image soooooooooo much more! I think this is a lovely lovely image, its a suggestion of bear and in my book thats way more impressive than....well, simply a bear. Some images burn themsleves into your brain. This is one such image.

Spookily good.

Tim

Looks like you should stay at home more often Edwin

Would love to see it with a headline and some body text, then it would certainly take off, in a 'different light'
Steve

Great shot Edwin. I really like the highlights.

Edwin,

If you play with the S&H controls you can get the breath.. Will post an example if you wish.

Cheers

T

Thanks everyone More then I expected really.

@Tom... I think you mean lighten up the shadows? Didn't think of that. Good idea. Thanks.

Edwin

Terrific.

Chris

Ok, here we go. Brown bear at dawn the final. Thank you all. Some great idea's.

Edwin

All been said Edwin, cracking shot!

Cheers,

Lewis.

Superb Edwin - No. 2 for me!

David

Cracking shot. I'd go for the second one for me

Brilliant image Ed, beautifully seen and executed. I don't wish to play devils advocate but I think the first image is the best for a couple of reasons. Firstly the leaves act as a counterbalance to the bear and give it a sense of place, they put it in context. Just like Danny's seal image from earlier the more you look at the image the more you see, the more is revealed to the viewer. The leaves/berries give a delightful hint at the dappled light forest surroundings which would be lost by a 'neat freak' approach of simply cloning them out.
Enough with the cloning already.
To get rid of the leaves is too much in my view, what you see in the image reflects what you saw, what you framed and what, I believe should remain in the final image. The later images are too stark, too sterile and seem artificial to me. Fantastic work Ed, and I think it's definitely a comp image, get it entered!!

With or without the tweaking, one of the best images I've seen on this forum...ever. Wild Wonders were looking for an image very much like this for the book cover. Had I seen this a month ago, it would most definitely have got used - a cracker.
Pete

Thank you very much Pete. I feel sorry for myself I'm not on the cover and I will cry for a bit later on BUT I'm really flattered and it's a very very big compliment anyway. Thank you for that.

And thank you Andrew And the rest of course, really appreciate it.

Ed

Hi Edwin it's the 3rd one for me.

Phil.

Hi Ed,

All three are good. As a preference I may go for number one too.

Ian

no 3 for me Edwin, but all are great. Very well taken.

Matt

Edwin,

This is a great shot. No. 2 & 3 do the job superbly. I would disagree with PhilH on it not being a competition image though.

Rob

I really love this Edwin, all images are great but version 3 is a stunner. Simply superb.

Fran

Fantastic shot Edwin but you allready new that. And that was just waiting in your archive?!

Wonderful shot.

First one for me.... absolutely cracking

Third version for me, but all of them fabulous.

David

Third for me too. Brilliant Edwin

3rd for me aswell.

Great looking image

Superb! Third one for me.

Can see all three now and the 3rd one is my fave

Breathtaking shot!!

Muchos gracias amigos

Edwin Kats

Brings back memories mate, beautiful shot one of the best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Danny

PS AP has joined so watch your back