Coastal Brown Bear Cub CURIOUS CUTIE (Ursus arctos) Katmai National Park, AK ©Christopher Dodds www.chrisdoddsphoto.com Canon EOS 5DMKII, 70-200mm F2.8 @125mm ISO 400, F8 1/320s Manual mode.
Coastal Brown Bear Cub WALKING(Ursus arctos) Katmai National Park, AK ©Christopher Dodds www.chrisdoddsphoto.com Canon EOS 1D MKIII, 500mm F4 IS ISO 500, F5.6 1/640s Manual mode.
Work wide, work tight, work vertical, work horizontal. Notice the different perspective that different lens choice offer. I love working wide and close; the dimension added to the first image is what I am looking for. Funny, when I'm photographing birds I love to have a sterile background like in the second image, with the longer focal length.
Coastal Brown Bears of Katmai July 12-18, 2010 A Christopher Dodds Workshop
No, I'm not a purist, and I don't condemn those who choose to create their images post capture (forgeries) with the help of Photoshop. I just prefer to be out there in the wild making images in my camera; it's what drives me, what makes me go out into the field. Besides, I could have an office job if I wanted to spend all of that time in front of my computer. Many would be tempted to clone away the white, heart-shaped glacier out of the first image - not me. No, I love how that heart helps create the mood of the image. My heart was racing as I created this one, not out of fear, but because I wanted to make sure that I had time to get a horizontal image too.
Coastal Brown Bear Cub WALKING IN THE RAIN (Ursus arctos) Katmai National Park, AK ©Christopher Dodds www.chrisdoddsphoto.com Canon EOS 1D MKIII, 500mm F4 IS ISO 500, F5.6 1/640s Manual mode.
Although I did miss the first time that I saw a cub stand, I knew it would repeat it's behavior - I just had to have enough patience and not be distracted by the many other bears around. They are just so darn cute when they stand-up to have a look around. Pouring rain often keeps photographers inside; that's when you are more likely to find me out & about with my cameras. Todays digital camera bodies offer incredible detail and color saturation, all with little or no noise in the image.
Coastal Brown Bear Cub Kung Foo Fighting (Ursus arctos) Katmai National Park, AK ©Christopher Dodds www.chrisdoddsphoto.com Canon EOS 1D MKIII, 500mm F4 with 1.4II tele-converter ISO 500, F5.6 1/640s Manual mode.
After my almost epic trip to get there (see prior post), I finally made it to the Coastal Explorer (anchored in Hallo Bay) and met bear legend Chuck Keim, who would be our host, guide and protector. After the first morning photographing around Hallo Bay, and hearing the weather forecaster predict a big storm, we decided to haul out the anchor and make the four hour trip to Geographic Harbor. It was a wise choice, as the forecast storm stayed with us until the very end. Seems that it’s been a very wet & rainy summer everywhere (everywhere that I have been, that is).
The scenery and history that surrounded us for the duration of the trip was amazing. There are an estimated 2,000 Coastal Brown Bears in Katmai National Park, and many of them were along the waters edge in Geographic Harbor. What an amazing experience.