Bear Personalities; Nature or Nurture?

Thanks for all the comments. Recall that I'm simply a well practiced technician handling the equipment. As pointed out in another thread, God put it out there. We just have to show up and make the captures :)

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Originally Posted by FootLoose

...How close are you to these guys?

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From time to time much closer than I preferred to be :o But regarding these particular images I tried to estimate range based on equipment used and FOV of the originals. Some were shot with the D810 in crop mode in which case I've indicated EFL(equivalent focal length) Results as follow:

1) 600mm EFL, 175ft(55m)
2&3) 600mm EFL, 150ft(45m)
4) 750mm EFL, 250ft(75m)
5) 400mm, 125ft(40m)
6) 200mm, 60ft(20m)
7) 400mm, 125ft(40m)

Then there's the following shot. Taken at 400mm, TBC(too bloody close). They walked right by us along the edge of the creek. Mom never looked up but the youngster kept an eye on us. One has to wonder what they make of a camera lens pointed at them. Reckon it looks like a huge eye watching them?

http://www.northernfocusphotography....15524238-5.jpg

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Originally Posted by Dave Humphries

I'm not at all surprised by the Auto WB differences, based on the (possibly cropped a bit in PP) compositions here, if you consider the differences between the ratio of browns (bears), greens (foliage backgrounds) and river (water and reflected sky) that the camera is seeing between these shots, it makes sense, doesn't it?...

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Actually it does make sense, Dave. After reading your post I looked back at the originals and the auto WB values the camera came up with. It's nearly identical in the first three and just slightly higher K value in no.4. So pretty much as one would expect. The value in no.4 was very close to the "cloudy" WB setting in LR. And of course the last two with mostly grass in the frame were totally different than the creek shots. The camera WAY over corrected for the green resulting in a very low K value. No.5 seemed to be an outlier in that it was substantially different from the other shots in the creek. But on closer examination there is a lot of rock showing in the FG and the bears take up more of the frame. So predictably the camera "corrected" to a lower K value. Thanks for giving me food for thought to go back and give it another look. When deep into editing images one by one it is easy to get bogged in the details and overlook the big picture(no pun intended).

Considering the discussion of the white balance, it's worth emphasizing that the corrections you made were highly effective. I know from personal experience that making those adjustments to achieve uniformity among all the images is not easy to do. Though it was clear that some of the scenes were in different light than the other scenes, the uniformity to the images makes for a very nice presentation.

Thrilling shots; seeing your images one can really feel their presence, so close!!!

These animals are scary to me! I appreciate your superb talent for capturing these moments for the rest of us! Beautiful work! Thank you for sharing!

Sorry for being late to the party but I wanted to add my congratulations on these beautiful photos. You not only give us great photography but I always enjoy your narratives which teach us something about your subjects' behavior. I'm in awe of these bears and the ones in your previous post. They put my side of the road Yellowstone shots to shame. Which inspires me to keep going! Thanks for sharing!

As with all of your bears, these are incredible. The light, the clarity, the expression, the behaviour, everything about them is wonderful.

Thanks for the comments, folks, and glad you enjoyed the photos. I'm currently sitting at the ferry dock in Juneau waiting for my ride to Haines. Hopefully there will be some bears hanging around there too :)

Fantastic series.

It is said that a picture tell a thousand words, however, Dan's words really do enhance the experience of viewing these stunning photos.

A perfect start to my day - looking at your always amazing Bear images. They are such a treat!