Polar Bears

[NorthernFocus]

In a break from my normal MO, I'm just going to post a few randomly selected photos from my latest trip without narrative.

Nikon D7200/80-400mm G

1) 400mm, f5.6, 1/1000s, ISO640



2) 400mm, f5.6, 1/800s, ISO800



Nikon D810/500mm VR

3) f4, 1/1250s, ISO800, shot in DX crop mode



4) f5.6, 1/800s, ISO800, shot in DX crop mode



5) f5.6, 1/400s, ISO1600, shot in DX crop mode



6) f7.1, 1/1000, ISO1000, shot in DX crop mode



7) f7.1, 1/800s, ISO1000, shot in DX crop mode

[DigitalScape]

Excellent series!

[Shadowman]

Nice series.

[dje]

Great shots Dan, it must be very satisfying to get captures like this in the wild.

Dave

[rpcrowe]

Great shots!

[John 2]

Just excellent Dan.

[KimC]

Wow, wow! Your images truly capture the beauty of nature. Always a treat to view.

[chauncey]

Those are by far the best that I've ever seen from the wild.

[Rita]

Fantastic!

[NorthernFocus]

Thanks, guys. Glad you enjoyed the photos. It was a challenging shoot. And so much fun watching the bears. They are much more social and more playful than brown bears. The moms and cubs spent a lot of time playing. There were also obvious associations between various individuals and families that hung out together. It was really interesting.

[Manfred M]

Excellent series Dan - you have found a real gem of a location for this type of photography. I was under the impression that the place to go to see the bears was Churchill, Manitoba, Canada, but obviously there are other venues that are probably even better.

From a pure photographic standpoint, some of these shots look to have been very challenging. Photographing polar bears on the snow seems to be about as easy as photographing black bears at night.

[Ndukes]

These are truly wonderful images of the magnificent creatures and you have caught their tender moments very effectively. But I can't look at them without a strong sense of sadness given what's happening to their environment.

'Say goodbye to the great polar bear.
We're changing his world without care,
His frozen domain.
We'll ne'er see him again
Any time, any place, anywhere.'

(Perhaps I should just stick to photography.)

[Donald]

Just as everyone else has written - Superb. Excellent wildlife photography. Every one of them nailed to perfection. A privilege to view.

[Sam W]

Hi Dan - all are spectacular with #5 being my favorite. I'm new to CIC, photography and DSLRs. Why do you sometimes shoot in DX crop mode? Is it because you are using a DX lens on a FX camera?

[Kris V]

Thanks so much for sharing! The polar bears are just beautiful!

[NorthernFocus]

Thanks for all the comments, folks.

...I was under the impression that the place to go to see the bears was Churchill, Manitoba, Canada, but obviously there are other venues that are probably even better.

Churchill is definitely the most famous place for shooting polar bears. Svalbard, Norway is another. Kaktovik has just become known among togs in the past three to five years. The thing that is unique in Kaktovik is the ability to shoot them from an eye level perspective rather than from higher in a tundra buggy or from the deck of a ship.

From a pure photographic standpoint, some of these shots look to have been very challenging...

Indeed it was challenging, mainly due to widely varying lighting conditions, sometimes changing minute by minute. For the first time EVER on wildlife I did not shoot in manual mode. I used aperture priority with EC anywhere between zero and +1.3.

...But I can't look at them without a strong sense of sadness given what's happening to their environment....

Neville, perhaps reading this article will offer some comfort.

...Why do you sometimes shoot in DX crop mode?...

It's simply in-camera cropping. The file size is so large on the D810 that it is beneficial to save card space by shooting in crop mode when the image doesn't fill the full frame. There are also 1.2x and 4x5 crop modes. Another reason for in-camera cropping is due to the vagaries of some editors who buy imagery. Some of them require the original NEF files. While they will accept in-camera cropped NEF files, they will reject the exact same image in a DNG format cropped from a larger NEF. Go figure...

[Ndukes]

.................

Neville, perhaps reading this article will offer some comfort.

............

Indeed it does. Fascinating article that has made my day. Many thanks.

[Rebel]

These are amazing captures! Love the one in the water, great shots Dan.

[Donald]

Now that it's back on, have been able to go through them all again in the Lightbox. They're still wonderful.

[ST1]

Dan this is a great series of images thanks for sharing them The light in the second images is excellent. I would have loved to have been there but...had I been I would probably have been shaking too much to capture any images. Well captured Dan.