Death is a Pale Bear

[NorthernFocus]

Trying a few new things.

[Dave A]

Wow Dan, what a great image. I don't recall ever seeing a better Polar Bear image. That would look great in large format on a wall.

Dave

[Shadowman]

Nicely captured.

[Mike Buckley]

I have no idea what the title of your thread is supposed to imply, but this is a wonderfully unique image and wonderful in all other aspects. My only qualm is that there is so little separation between the subject and background on the bear's right hip, though I would be willing to bet that the same image displayed at a large size has no such issue.

What drove your decision to use a monochrome image?

[rtbaum]

A great shot under, what I presume, difficult conditions

[purplehaze]

Fabulous image, Dan. Love the title.

[FootLoose]

Great image, Dan. How close were you?

[NorthernFocus]

Thanks for the comments, folks.

...My only qualm is that there is so little separation between the subject and background on the bear's right hip...What drove your decision to use a monochrome image?

In the OP when I indicated that I was trying something different, that's it. In the original color version there's a good bit of contrast between bear and BG. I wanted to create a ghostly effect of the bear coming out of the snow/mist. It wasn't working too well until I converted to B/W. His rear end blending with the BG is intentional (and wasn't easy).

Regarding the Pale Bear, I typically choose titles that just come to me without too much thought. We just watched Clint Eastwood in Pale Rider a couple of days ago so I suspect that had something to do with it. You know, Death rode a pale horse and all that. Polar bears are the one species that WILL attack you 90 percent of the time.

[JBW]

just a thought and certainly not a criticism: would it be possible to enhance the ghost effect by toning down the claws on the left fore paw? Powerful image.

[rpcrowe]

Wonderful shot and great conversion...

[ScoutR]

I wanted to create a ghostly effect of the bear coming out of the snow/mist. It wasn't working too well until I converted to B/W. His rear end blending with the BG is intentional (and wasn't easy).

This is just incredible. The shot itself is amazing, and what you did with the Post Processing...WOW sorry but I don't know what else to say

[Wavelength]

Stupendous !!!!

[Mike Buckley]

I wanted to create a ghostly effect of the bear coming out of the snow/mist. It wasn't working too well until I converted to B/W. His rear end blending with the BG is intentional (and wasn't easy).

Consider making the lack of separation more obvious such as to include the uppermost part of the back and all the way down the back of the right rear leg down to the horizon.

[Rob Ekins]

Stunning!
Well done Dan.

[Wavelength]

it looks like the PB is giving a stage show, like showing muscles....

[flashback]

Dan, strong work.

[ShaneS]

I'm speechless! It's an amazing image and all your effort and whatever you tried in PP worked very well.

Kudos to you Dan!

[pnodrog]

Fantastic.

[James G]

Dan, stunning capture, and to me a genuinely unsettling and edgy image of an iconic serious predator... It makes a change from all those 'high' key images of beautiful laughing infants that I've been seeing over here for the last few years!
The tonal separation around the hind quarters works perfectly for me. When I view in Lightbox, I just lose the final edge of the hindquarters into the snow and mist.

(I have all monitors calibrated and set to 100 cd/m2 which is, for me, the optimum brightness when I process for print output.)

[ionian]

Wow. Scary, powerful, beautiful, this image has it all and your processing is spot on. Just awesome.