Three Bears

Posted by Mark on Dec 15, 2011 in nature photography | 10 comments

Three Bears departing, Kinak Bay, Katmai National Park, Alaska

Somehow this evening I ended up in my unprocessed folder from my 2009 trip to Alaska.   As I poked around a bit reflecting back on how great it was spending so much time around bears, I decided to bring a few out for processing and putting up in my gallery.

These three bears were a mother and her two yearling cubs.   We hung around them quite a bit while we were anchored in Kinak Bay in Katmai National Park.   I remember how one was still quite dependent on mom to catch fish, while the other seemed to be a natural fisherman.

I also remembered how much I liked this particular area of shoreline.  The zig-zag of the shore created a lot of triangles in the frame.   With the three bears, there is quite a bit of repeating threes in the frame.  Even the bears make a triangle.    It isn’t often when so much comes together in one frame.   All I was missing was a little girl named Goldilocks.   Maybe next time.

I added a few more images in my gallery here: Brown bear pictures

Brown Bear black and white

Posted by Mark on Jan 16, 2011 in nature photography | 18 comments

Alaskan Brown Bear

This image is a survivor from a recent culling of my brown bear photos from my Alaska trip so long ago ago now.   I have developed sufficient detachment from many of these images that I can edit rather ruthlessly.   Yeah, I still have a lot to delete.   Many still remain in picture purgatory.

I particularly liked the rim lighting on this bear that accentuated the characteristic grizzly hump.   In fact, the lighting on the bear is what I liked the most, not necessarily the surroundings.   So I began to play with this image in Lightroom a bit to see if I could maintain what I liked the most, while reducing the impact of the rest.   I ended up going with a monochrome image.   But a pure black and white image just seemed too cold to me given the warm color of the bear’s fur.   So I added a little warm toning that resulted in this final verison.

Rock wall

Posted by Mark on Mar 10, 2010 in nature photography | 21 comments

Rock face in Katmai National Park, Alaska

You folks probably already know I am a sucker for cool looking rocks, and if you don’t – well – I have revealed my kryptonite.   They are pretty cooperative subjects, they don’t ask for much, work for free, and not demanding at all actually.   They can look good in a variety of light conditions, do their own makeup,  and are fairly reliable.   If I go back tomorrow, chances are that darn rock wall will still be there just where I left it.   You typically don’t have to worry about them moving much.   Can’t say that about many subjects now can ya?

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Meet Scarface

Posted by Mark on Mar 3, 2010 in nature photography | 18 comments

Scarface of Katmai

Hard to believe I didn’t introduce this big guy to you folks sooner.   Obviously from my bear trip last fall, but this particular bear made quite an impression for obvious reasons.  Not only was this male boar huge, but the scar across his nose gave him, well to put it bluntly – the total badass look.   I still get a little freaked out when I look at this image and think about being so close to an animal like this.

The male bears were probably the most shy of all of them.  It took quite awhile for Scarface to make close approaches to us through the river.   I particularly wanted to catch a moment when those claws were clearly visible.

If you ever saw the movie Scarface, and if this bear could talk, I think it is likely he would say a lot of what Tony Montana said in the movie.

“…The last time you gonna see a bad guy like this again, let me tell you. Come on. Make way for the bad guy. There’s a bad guy comin’ through! Better get outta his way!” – Tony Montana, from the movie Scarface, 1983.

Only this bear’s little friends are his claws instead of a machine gun.  :-)

Bear and salmon stream

Posted by Mark on Jan 26, 2010 in nature photography | 20 comments

Bear and river

Hard to believe months have already gone by and I am still digging out favorites from my trip to Katmai National Park in Alaska.   Bears are such amazing animals, I still feel quite privileged to have had the experiences with them.   Each time I move through my editing process, I encounter a gem or two, and this is one I particularly liked.

I liked the graphical interplay between the bear and river in this image.   The curvature of the river in combination with the bear’s stride give a bit of a dynamic feel I think.   You can see some remnants of salmon heads in the rocks, and I always dig a little rim light.   These bears would quite frequently hunt along the sides of the river watching for salmon activity.   Did I mention Bears rock?!

I learned about a new film in the works by PBS’s NATURE program while searching for some info about a show that was just on.

The film is intended to be a portrait of three bear species; brown bears, black bears, and polar bears – all filmed in Alaska, featuring bear biologist Chris Morgan.   He will be exploring Alaska mostly by motorcycle supposedly, with the film due out in 2011.   There is a pretty cool blog with videos following his journey that you can check out here:  The Bear Blog with Chris Morgan .   It looks like it could be pretty good from what I have read and watched so far.   I don’t know much more than that, but will start following it more closely.  Check it out if interested.

This bear photo was captured near a river feeding Kinak Bay in Katmai National Park, Alaska, using a Nikon D700 and 200-400 f4 VR lens at ISO 1250.   It was post-processed in Adobe Lightroom 2 and Photoshop CS3 on a Mac.  More bear pictures from my trip can be found in my gallery here.