Polar bear symmetry

While her cubs were off playing, this female polar bear curled up on the snow and dozed off occasionally. The posture makes a beautiful, symmetrical pose. It is a cropped version of an image taken with a Canon 1D Mark IV, 500mm + 1.4x extender, which translates into a focal length of 910mm. That is a long reach, but it is still very sharp.

As Fairbanks awaits a chilly minus 50 degree temperature this weekend, it is amazing that these bears survive in the chilly arctic waters. They are incredibly well insulated with up to 4 inches of fat under some of that white fur. Ian Sterling reports in his book on Polar Bears, that aerial infrared heat sensing equipment can’t detect the actual bear, just the warm air exiting their mouth when trekking across the ice pack.

I’ll be processing more images from this folder over the next week and will share a few keepers on subsequent posts. You can see more polar bear photos on my website.

Brown bear (ursus arctos) and red salmon (oncorhynchus nerka)

I watched this female brown bear capture many red salmon in the Brooks river of Katmai national park, in southwest Alaska. She had one cub of the year to feed, who watched from the river bank keeping alert for other bears. This picture was taken at a focal length of 700mm, which makes it seem closer than it actually was, but even still, I happened to be in a position that did not allow for me to back up easily, which sometimes happens photographing bears. The bear had approached me while chasing fish in the river, so I grabbed a few shots before she walked back to the bank to feed her cub. Photographing a moving subject, in low light, with a long lens resulted in many out of focus shots. The depth of field is very narrow at f/4 at this distance, and the eye needs to be sharp. This was a successful one, and I liked how it reveals the dexterous manner in which the bears can handle fish, she is holding it with her teeth by the dorsal fin.

I have shot extensively at Katmai, and you can see more images on my website: Katmai National Park and Brown bears

I’ve been digging through some files from that latter part of 2011, doing some clean up work and getting folders in a completed state. Occasionally I will shoot a series of images which are to be stitched into a larger file in post production. I do this for panoramas, and sometimes to increase the overall resolution due to focal length and/or scene restrictions. This is one of those made from four images. I was set up along the beach in Katmai National Park and knew that the bears make this morning journey. I missed a few chances for simply not being ready, but this time, I had set my focal length to 35mm, anticipating the basic composition of the bear. After I shot the series of the bear walking along, I kept the camera on the tripod and shot three images in a vertical direction, which includes the tree and sky. This affords a nice, high resolution file very suitable large publication.

I’m on vacation in the Virgin Islands. Yup, a rough life. Fairbanks was minus -30 degrees when I left, and even though I really like winter, the white sand and aqua water will be a fantastic break. A few photos in the making but nothing too serious. While I’m gone, I scheduled this post of a recent publication, and since it is a calendar, I thought it was a fitting picture to wish everyone a new year worthy of their expectations. May your 2012 be a rewarding year.

Panorama stitch I made from photos taken in Denali in August of 2011

Brown bear shakes off water, Katmai National Park, Alaska. Canon 1D Mark IV, 50mm f/4L IS, 1/800 sec @ f/5.6, ISO 200

With high water in the rivers in Katmai this year, brown bears did a lot of swimming and snorkeling for fish. This resulted in a lot of shaking off the water once emerging from dives. Backlighting offers some interesting contrast in these situations. This shows what a shutter speed of 1/800 does for that kind of motion. It does not completely freeze the water, but enough to reveal a slight tail on the water drops, which capture a little more backlight. Not like I thought this completely through at the time, but it is a pretty good setting. 1/1600 sec would have frozen the drops pretty good.

Bush plane on approach. Katmai National Park, Alaska. Canon 1D Mark IV, 500mm f/4L IS, 1/800 sec @ f/8, ISO 200.

If you have traveled at all in Alaska, it is likely you have been in a bush plane to access many of the remote regions throughout the state. Whether it is a plane on floats or tundra tires, they are critical for getting to many great photo destinations. I have photographed extensively from the air (see my Alaska Aerial’s gallery) but the planes themselves are fun to photograph, as they fly through dramatic landscapes. The cloudy skies add some interest to the background space in this shot, as the plane banks on approach to land on a lake hidden behind the trees in Katmai National Park.

Kejulik mountains, Katmai National Park, Alaska. Canon 1D Mark IV, 500mm f/4L IS, 1/400 sec @ f/5, ISO 200

On a morning walk in Katmai last fall the clouds were rolling, growing and dissipating quickly over the Kejulik mountains in Katmai National Park. While I don’ t normally use the 1D Mark IV for landscapes, I wanted the focal magnification factor that the 1.3x offered, turning my 500 into a 700 mm. It was happening fast so I grabbed a few frames of the clouds behind the jagged ridge of Mt Katonlinat. The photo was taken about 10:00 am. In a few minutes, the clouds were gone and without that white background to outline the ridge, the rock definition became difficult to see from such a distance. Clouds–when you see them making an interesting scene–shoot quickly.

Polar bear reflection along Alaska's arctic coast. Canon 1Ds Mark III, 500mm f/4L IS, 1/800 sec @ f/4.5, ISO 800

A calm day this time of year along Alaska’s typically windy arctic coast is a treat. Such was the case yesterday, at least for a short while. During a photo session with the polar bears, one walked over to the edge of the water and lowered its face to reveal a beautiful reflection. I happened to to have a long lens on my camera, with my focus point set on a specific area. And that is the answer to perhaps your question, and certainly mine: why did I not lower the lens just a little more to capture the full face reflection? Things happen fast and often for a short period of time in wildlife photography. While long lenses have great advantages, I often find that I end up too tight on many subjects. (This is often the case with the 1.3x sensor on the 1D Mark IV and 500mm lens combo. I can’t wait for Canon’s new 1Dx which will finally offer a fast frame rate and buffer at a full sensor size!)

My shooting style is generally in manual mode (when the light is not changing much) with an expose to the right model. I prefer this for the precise exposure control it offers, and it’s consistency presented in post production work. However, there are some drawbacks to manual mode. The main one is that it makes changing exposure values in unexpected situations much slower. For example: in this situation, I was photographing two polar bears fighting and had the shutter speed set to 1/800 second to stop action, resulting in an f/4.5 opening. When I swung over to this scene, I barely had time to quickly focus and shoot, let alone compose much and change exposure. On aperture priority however, it would have been a quick spin of the dial on the back of Canon’s camera to lower the shutter speed and increase the f/stop for greater depth of field. This shot is pretty sharp on the face, but just barely. How many times do we wish we could have an opportunity to reshoot a particular scene!

I just returned from a trip to photograph the brown bears in Katmai National Park and a rapid change of gears has me headed for Arctic Alaska, in pursuit of polar bears, aurora borealis and Arctic wildlife. I’m co-guiding a group of photographers, who are very excited for what lies ahead in the next 10 days. I’ll try to share a few pics along the way depending on connectivity and time.

While this brown bear appears to be staring me down, he was far more concerned with the action that had happened behind me between a couple other bears. I just happened to be in a good spot to capture his deliberate look.

Brown bear, Katmai National Park, Alaska. Canon 1D Mark IV, 500mm f/4L IS w/1.4x, 1/500 sec @ f/5.6, ISO 200

Triplet brown bear cubs of the year, Katmai National Park. Canon 1Ds Mark III, 500mm f/4L IS, 1/200 sec @ f/9, ISO 800. I used an aperture of f/9 to get enough depth of field so all three cubs would be in focus.

I took this image a few years ago in Katmai National Park, and it gets some attention for the cute factor I’m sure. These little brown bear cubs of the year were playful and fun to watch, as is often the case with very young bears. I also find the image interesting technically because it was taken with Canon’s 500mm f/4L IS lens, which is extremely sharp allowing for cropping tighter on a large 21MP file, when necessary. In this case, the photo is slight cropped, but still has plenty of  pixels to be printed at 20 x 30 inches without a problem.

I’ll be off the grid for a week or so on a remote trip photographing the bears again and I’ll share some images upon my return.