Fun with Grizzlies

[Brownbear]

These I'm just sharing for fun as I expect these Grizzlies are not seen very often by many. No C&C needed but of course it is always welcome.

This time around I tried to capture as much of the Grizzly in the frame as I could, and it was challenging with a fixed 300 mm lens as I kept having to find a new location on the fence that I stand on.

I struggled with composition and balancing the exposure so that the lighter areas around the bear were not clipped and the dark parts not in shadow. I could've used a higher SS but I didn't want to go above an iso of 1600 or use a larger aperture as I needed more DOF... in hindsight I likely should've used a higher iso.

And while editing in LR I also struggled with exposure and WB, and colour... as seen by the varying exposures and tones.

SS 1000-1600 F6-F7 Iso 1600 Matrix metering no exposure comp

#1



#2



#3




#4



#5 I clipped the top of his/her head but I still think its cute



#6 The bear was standing on its hind legs but I couldn't fit him all in (and I didn't have time to change lens)




#7



#8 LOL



Again, just for fun and to share a special animal that is not seen everywhere in the world.

[Digital]

Very nice bear photos, Christina.



Bruce

[Shadowman]

Very nice. Where were these taken?

[Brownbear]

Thank you Bruce and John.

I photographed these bears on Grouse Mountain. They have a five acre Grizzly Bear Sanctuary which is the home of two Grizzlies who were orphaned as cubs and could not be returned to the wild. The sanctuary is a section of forest on the mountain which includes a couple of ponds that they like to play in. Sometimes I feel as though I could pet these bears with no harm done... That's how sweet they look. They have to forage for their own food which the staff place in the forest at random times and places in an attempt to mimic their life in the wild. They hibernate every winter for several months.

The sanctuary is surrounded by a moat, a 2.5 meter electric fence, and a smaller outer wooden fence... When I visit I always hope the bears will show themselves and when they do, I stand on the outer fence and aim my camera through the openings in the fence (lots of photos with reflections get deleted) or I shoot over the top of a fence. The best place to photograph them is at the ponds because I can stand on the bridge and photograph them from above with no fence.

John, I'm told that Vancouver is just a 20 hour train ride from San Francisco...

[rpcrowe]

One of my University Of Southern California (USC) School of Cinematography instructors was a wildlife photographer for Disney Films. His most important advice was "Never get between a grizzly sow and her cub". He did and just made it back to his jeep which had a metal cab. As he was frantically trying to extract the Jeep key from the front pocket of his jeans, the bear was ripping the aluminum cab to shreds. One of the students asked him, "Did you get away?" He smiled as we all smile when someone asks a dumb question and said, "I'm here now aren't I?"...

BTW: Although I dearly love my 300mm f/4L IS prime lens, I do find it a bit restrictive when shooting wildlife, especially from a fixed position...

[Brownbear]

That's a fun story Richard. Thanks for sharing.

Yes, it is restrictive but right now my only other option is a 28-200 mm lens which is too short for these bears... But eventually I will invest in another lens in between.

One of my University Of Southern California (USC) School of Cinematography instructors was a wildlife photographer for Disney Films. His most important advice was "Never get between a grizzly sow and her cub". He did and just made it back to his jeep which had a metal cab. As he was frantically trying to extract the Jeep key from the front pocket of his jeans, the bear was ripping the aluminum cab to shreds. One of the students asked him, "Did you get away?" He smiled as we all smile when someone asks a dumb question and said, "I'm here now aren't I?"...

BTW: Although I dearly love my 300mm f/4L IS prime lens, I do find it a bit restrictive when shooting wildlife, especially from a fixed position...

[Mike Buckley]

It would be fun to see your first images of the grizzlies. These are so much better that it would be difficult to imagine that both sets were taken by the same photographer. You've made great progress.

I wonder why you wanted to shoot at a faster shutter speed. Maybe that need was evident in other photos you didn't post but I don't see any need for a faster speed in these photos.

[Stagecoach]

Hi Christina,

Thanks for sharing this series along with your explanation.

For some of the shots it may have been advantageous to have reduced DOF for the bear to be more isolated from the background, but then again it's good to see the natural environment they are living in. Perhaps an idea is to take a selection of both options if you have the chance and time.

I suspect there is an option to increase sharpness in PP with these shots and wonder if you have explored this.

The caption for No 5 should be " Hey photographer, want a side profile "

Great series,

Grahame

[John 2]

I don't think the technicalities are important here. These are great illustrations of your tale and show the bears in a slightly different light. I just love the two "Haughty" shots and the image of the bear contemplating his navel. Great stuff.

[ClaudioG]

Great images Christina,... thank you for putting these images up...we spoilt for wildlife here in south Africa but no grizzlys my have is number 3, i think because how he/she is looking right at you. Very cool.

[rudi]

Very nice pictures Christina.
I think they might benefit from a little more PP work. But that's off course all
to personal taste.
Kregards, Rudi

[Shadowman]

Thank you Bruce and John.

I photographed these bears on Grouse Mountain. They have a five acre Grizzly Bear Sanctuary which is the home of two Grizzlies who were orphaned as cubs and could not be returned to the wild. The sanctuary is a section of forest on the mountain which includes a couple of ponds that they like to play in. Sometimes I feel as though I could pet these bears with no harm done... That's how sweet they look. They have to forage for their own food which the staff place in the forest at random times and places in an attempt to mimic their life in the wild. They hibernate every winter for several months.

The sanctuary is surrounded by a moat, a 2.5 meter electric fence, and a smaller outer wooden fence... When I visit I always hope the bears will show themselves and when they do, I stand on the outer fence and aim my camera through the openings in the fence (lots of photos with reflections get deleted) or I shoot over the top of a fence. The best place to photograph them is at the ponds because I can stand on the bridge and photograph them from above with no fence.

John, I'm told that Vancouver is just a 20 hour train ride from San Francisco...

Christina,

That's where the photos of "Jack" were taken. I got a few shots of the bears but the mountain was covered in fog that day.

[jprzybyla]

Christina, good work. Wonderful images. That being said I want to comment on your comments. Shutter speed... that has to be fast enough for the lens being used. I am not sure what the crop factor of your D7100 is but the formula to determine the minimum shutter speed is the mm of the lens x the crop factor. My D7000 has a crop factor of 1.5, that times 300mm equals a shutter speed of 1/450 for a minimum, so I use 1/500. Also if you restrict yourself to an ISO of 1600 for fear of noise you will struggle with enough depth of field on large birds and animals. I could not look at your EXIF data because somewhere alone the line it is stripped out of the image.

[teokf]

Christina, thanks for sharing these pixs. When my family and I were at Yellowstone, I was hoping to see a grizzly up close. But the only one I saw was way up in the mountains and I could only see it's form.

[Digital]

Christina, thanks for sharing these pixs. When my family and I were at Yellowstone, I was hoping to see a grizzly up close. But the only one I saw was way up in the mountains and I could only see it's form.

Steven, you do not want to see a grizzly up close if there is no barrier between you.


Bruce

[Brownbear]

Thank you to everyone for your comments... It is nice to see that my pet Grizzlies are appreciated.

Mike
Thank you... And no doubt because I have learned so much from you After I finish this reply I will post my first ever bear photos that I took in May 2013.

I believe that I could've used a faster shutter speed to catch the expressions on the bears faces, sharper and clearer... In some of my shots, the nose and mouth of the bear looks soft, or distorted.. It could be motion blur or it could be that I'm shooting from a funny angle and need to read up on portraiture, but I suspect that a faster shutter speed would have arrested the expressions on the bears face...

Two Examples below...







Grahame
I am a bit timid about sharpening because I like my photos to look natural... That said I receive a lot of comments that I need to sharpen my photos more, so during these next few months I am going to make it my number one goal to improve my post processing skills in Lightroom, and after LR; Elements. Its time for me to tackle editing once and for all. Albeit it means I will not have as much time to take photos.. (:

On my last set I used a larger DOF, but this time around I wanted to capture as much of the bear in focus as I could, and they are rather large, but I prefer the blurry backgrounds of some of my last shots, so I will keep practicing using both.

Awesome caption!

John

Haughty bears... Thank you.

Claudio

Thank you. I imagine that these Grizzlies look very exotic to you... I would love to see some photos of elephants and hippos, and also an Anaconda ... It is a dream of mine to visit Africa one day. Yes, that is a strong hint.

Rudi

Thank you.. Yes, I need to improve my post processing skills and I am going to tackle this goal over the next few months..

John
It never occurred to me that your image of the lumberjack was taken at Grouse Mountain... I've never been to the show, but on the day I took these photos I could hear the show in the background, and I thought of taking a photo but the bears were out, so...

Sorry, to hear about the fog. You will just have to visit again!

Joe

Thank you. It's very helpful to have that formula on hand. I used a SS of 1000-1600, F6-F8, and an iso of 1600 on all of these images.

Yes, I can see that I need more DOF in some of my images of large birds and animals. I tried auto iso with the max set to 3200 for a couple of weeks and I was very pleasantly surprised at how well auto iso works... And to see that many of my images came out with very little noise, even at an iso of 3200 if I got the exposure right... However, on dark bears and birds I can see too much noise at an iso of 1600, (albeit now that I said that, the noise levels in these bear shots is not too, bad)

Anyway, right now I am experimenting to see how low an iso I can get away with, so I can see for myself what works or doesn't work... And it is likely that I will learn that there is no way around using higher isos, sometimes..


FYI One of my first posts on this forum in September 2011 I stated [/B]

I thought it was best to absolutely always use ISO of 100 in bright sunlight and no noise, so will try.
---End Quote---

The above was my response to Dave Humphries gentle suggestion that I try using an iso of 200, or heaven forbid, even 400 for my outside shots... At the time I was dead set at sticking to my guns about never using an iso above 100... And just last week I used an iso of 3200... So you see, I have come a long way...

And I am going to tackle learning post processing, including noise reduction over the next few months. If I say it often enough, I believe I will do it.

Joe, thank you as always for your help... My birds are coming along just great.

Steven
If you ever visit Vancouver during the late Spring, Summer, or early Fall, I can guarantee you a grizzly sighting, given some patience to hang about on the mountain for a few hours...


Thank you to all... Sharing these Grizzly shots has been fun.


PS I forgot to mention that I owe a very special "thank you" to Dan of Northern Focus whose advice on metering and lighting conditions helped me improve my bear images.. Still not perfect but getting there...

[Brownbear]

As promised..

Here are my worst grizzly shots, taken in harsh lighting conditions, blurry, poorly exposed... etc...

I can't figure out which bad shots Mike is referring to, (I have a lot of them) so I thought it was easiest to post some really poor shots that I have yet to delete from my hard drive...

















Anyway, as you can see improvement is possible if one just sticks with it and keeps trying and learning, photography is a continual process... ie; never give up

[Mike Buckley]

I seem to remember some grizzlies playing in the water in harsh lighting that were far worse than these.

[Brownbear]

Yes, indeed.. But they were not my first Grizzly images.. I will find them and post for all to view... Big Grin right back at you.

I seem to remember some grizzlies playing in the water in harsh lighting that were far worse than these.

[Brownbear]

And I suppose that means that you remember all of my worst images.. sigh...

Yes, indeed.. But they were not my first Grizzly images.. I will find them and post for all to view... Big Grin right back at you.