Bear on the rocks, BC Photo

Photographer’s Note

On our first day out cruising the Inside Passage towards Alaska, someone shouted "There's a black bear on the rocks on the port side". Immediately, the 76,000 ton Statendam listed 5 degrees as everyone rushed to the port side - but they'd forgotten to say the bear was probably 3/4 mile away!
Luckily, my D70 was already armed with the Nikkor telephoto lens, and hurriedly I found something firm to lean against, and reeled off several shots at the lens' maximum focal length of 300mm - not really thinking I'd get a result worth keeping. Admittedly, I've spent some time on 'post-processing' this shot, but I hope you think the image was worth uploading.

The 'Large Version' shows the real quality of the lens.

phwall, Silversnow, ku-fotak-chtik, robertosalguero has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

phwall (5815) 2008-07-31 0:42

Hi Jeff.
Some days you get the bear, some days he gets you, guess it was your turn. Wonderful capture, the large version is superb. Ticks all the boxes for me.
Cheers
Peter

Silversnow (2121) 2008-07-31 13:07

Hehehe, funny note ;)
Nice enough picture, the simple fact of showing those boats harassing the bear to take pictures of it says it all.
Nice colors and exposition, too bad for the distance, but I guess the 300mm helped.
What's the focal length multiplier on the D70?

robertosalguero (110) 2008-08-04 1:13

Hi Jeff,

Nice and steady shot. The bear look very tiny in such a large image but still can see is a bear. Interesting how bears draw such crowds everytime. I think you managed very well here and ended up with a nice shot showing not just the bear but also the natural surroundings. Good work Jeff :-)

Roberto