Portrait of a Grizzly Bear

[Manfred M]

The Khutzeymateen Grizzly Bear Sanctuary in the far north-western part of British Columbia, Canada is the only place in the world that been set aside with the sole purpose of preserving these magnificent animals. An estimated 60 bears live in the 44,300 hectares / 110,000 acre preserve. Access is by boat or float plane only, and in spite of it being a provincial park, access is only permitted by authorized guides, and then only during a very short period every summer. The area is one of the cloudiest and wettest places in Canada; so it is not great for working on your tan, but the diffuse light is ideal for wildlife photography.

This young female had recently come out of hibernation and was eating some of the sweet sedge grass growing along the banks of the estuary. No, I'm not totally insane; this picture was taken from a small inflatable boat in the estuary. It is a cropped image and was taken with a 400mm lens on a crop frame camera and I was resting on the gunwhale of the boat to steady the camera. We say about a dozen grizzlys during our three day stay, including a female with two young cubs. It was another once-in-a-lifetime experience!



There is a bit of PP on this RAW image; a crop, tonality adjustment and a bit of work to bring out the shadow details in the fur.

[Kdfrank]

I like your choice of DoF. The soft green vegetation behind this amazing animal takes my eye to the bear and the food...I'm glad your not the latter!

[Dave Humphries]

Very nice Manfred,

Not many get these kind of chances and you made the most of it here.

[terrib]

Oh my! I would LOVE to be able to see these animals in the wild. That is a gorgeous picture. You did a great job.

[jeeperman]

Well done Manfred, sounds like a good time had.

[RockNGoalStar]

That's a super bear portrait!

I'm glad to hear you were sufficiently far away not to put yourself in danger!!

[Letrow]

Great shot Manfred. So, what did you have, if I tried to translate it in terms of mm on a full frame DSLR? 400mm on a crop frame...about 600mm?
The detail looks quite good.

[Manfred M]

Correct Peter. The D90 has a 1.5 crop factor, so 400mm lens = 600mm equivalence.

Shot was at 400mm using a Nikkor f/4.5-5.6 80-400mm lens. I was shooting at ISO2000 at f/5.6 (i.e. wide open) and 1/640 sec exposure. The shot was hand held and I was resting on the gunwhale of an inflatable boat to steady the shot. The shooting conditions were overcast with occasional rain showers.

[RockNGoalStar]

What I would be inclined to do is blur the background to remove the noise from it. It is slightly noticable at this small resolution so i am sure it is more so on the larger version.

[Manfred M]

What I would be inclined to do is blur the background to remove the noise from it. It is slightly noticable at this small resolution so i am sure it is more so on the larger version.

Actually I have applied some noise reduction; I suppose I could do a bit more, but I am trying to trade off sharpness versus noise. I've dome a 17" x 22" print and it looks fine at normal viewing distance, but if you get up close, you can definitely see the noise.

[Mike Buckley]

Gorgeous image, Manfred. I'm sure it was an incredible experience!