The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
These images were taken last year on a bear trip to Alaska. This was a workshop run by Jimmy Breitenstein who also has a you tube channel. This was the last week of July into the first week of August. The location was way out in the tundra away from just about everyone. We spent the week in back packing tents and eating backpacking food (which isn’t as bad as it used to be). Jimmy had everything already set up when our float plane landed in a small lake where we were staying.
I have to say right up front that this was the best wildlife trip I’ve ever been on. I shot 52000 images over the week and have yet to look at all of them.
We awoke each morning well before sunrise in hopes of either getting fog or some high thin clouds that would light up the sky for sunrise and we were treated to some terrific color over the week. This was high summer so the day started very early and lasted until about 10:30 at night. We got little to no sleep during the week but we wouldn’t exchange it for anything.
We saw countless moms with cubs (everything from cubs of the year that were just born that Spring to three year old cubs that mom was trying to ditch), and some were blonde bears and some were nearly black but all were beautiful.
I was amazed at how much the moms and the cubs play together. They spend the better part of each day wrestling, playing, and rolling around on the ground in funny positions and also napping and feeding. Most of the momma bears didn’t mind photographers photographing the very intimate scenes where the cubs were feeding with her. In fact, more often than not the moms were far more comfortable with humans than they were hanging around the enormous male bears. We had a mom and three cubs actually follow us back to camp one evening and bed down about 75 yards from our camp. We had another mom drop her cubs off right in front of us along a river bank while she went out to fish in the river. They very much trusted us. Because the bears are feeding heavily on fish and there are fish everywhere, there is little danger of a bear acting out and we were frequently approached along the riverbanks by bear who routinely get within 10 feet of us. We had several small cubs that actually got so close that Jimmy had to scare them off. As is always the case, we didn’t chase the bears but we picked spots where the bears could approach us or go around and most didn’t give a care that we were there.
With so many pictures on the hard drive I find it almost impossible to pick a few images to share with you but since it was a trip to see bears catching and feeding on salmon I thought I’d start with some very simple images of a bear catching a fish that had got itself stuck in shallow water. The river we were on was relatively shallow. The deepest parts of the river were about waste deep but most of the river was around a foot or so deep and the fish frequently get themselves stuck in very shallow water where they can’t escape the bears. This is one of those instances.
I’ll add more images over the course of the next few weeks, each having a theme like this one.
Check out Jimmy’s you tube channel and/or website and book yourself a trip. I promise you it’ll be one of if not the greatest experience of your life. My wife went along and she is not a photographer but it changed her and it changed me. You can reach him here:https://www.jimmybreitenstein.com/photo-workshops
Specific Feedback
I’m mostly interested in your emotional feedback when looking through these images.
I also am interested in the crops that I chose.
Technical Details
Z9, 180-600mm lens @ 410mm, ISO 5000, 1/3200, f/6.3, hand held late evening
Holy Cow! I wish I had better words to describe these images. They are David Attenbro… quality.
Each image has been nailed. Crops are wonderful. There is just so much action happening with claws, eyes (both bear and fish) and splashes. The colour of the salmon reminds me of your images with the pelicans and cormorant. That splash of red and green is the icing on the cake.
I love the emotion in the salmon shot. He’s stranded and if it’s not the bears that get him, the seagulls? in the background will .
Your accompanying story is very good. And I am very envious. I’m sort of pleased we don’t have bears in Australia…only crocodiles, snakes and spiders with the occassional dingo.
Gorgeous series, David, with fabulously crisp images. The only nit I have in all of them is that the bright gulls in the wide shot tend to draw my eye toward the top of the frame and away from the stranded salmon. I’m not sure if a tighter crop would keep the feel you want of the stranding , but I’d consider it.
Wow! Incredible pictures and I love the description of your experience. I definitely want to go on a trip with this guy! There are so many incredible details in your images like the bear’s claws, the teeth of the salmon, the drops of water, the bright red of the salmon and more. Thank you for sharing and I look forward to seeing more images of your trip.
@Willemd ,
Jimmy has spots left for this year and next year. I HIGHLY recommend it. You will absolutely get the best wild bear images of your life. This is not Brooks Falls which is like a zoo. This is way out in the tundra, on a river, just you and the bears eating salmon in the wild. You need to hike quite a bit to find the bears each day but you are rewarded handsomely.
The bears get close so you don’t need a long lens. A 100-400 or a 100-500 is all you need. The day time temperatures hover between 55 and 70 degrees but there is wind and sometimes lots of it.
Let me know if you want any more information. Happy to help and also, thanks for the comment. I appreciate it.
Thanks for your input, Dennis. I see what you mean with the sea gulls. I have added another image to show the same stranded fish without the gulls in the scene. The image with gulls shows a bit more environment and also that it’s not just bears they need to avoid during the spawn however, to your point, it does pull you up and out of the frame. Your thoughts? Did the crop work? Thanks for your feedback.
With the caveat that I’m viewing this on a relatively small and modestly priced tablet, I like this version just to show off the gorgeous fish. If you were an editor setlecting them for an article, the broader view might tell the story better. Did you take time away from the bears to photograph the other critters that feed on the salmon? A shot of gulls on a carcass, while not pretty, would also tell that story.
After viewing the crop for a while today I think I prefer the crop you suggested, @Dennis. I actually didn’t tjink to take any images of the gulls eating fish parts but I can tell you they are in many frames. There were some bald eagles too far off to grab some pics of so it mostly bears. I do have a couple of funny images regarding the gulls so I might post one of those. Anyway, thanks for your suggestion on the crop. I like it
Beautiful series with some insane details, Salmon adds great color to the frames. Instead of cropping out the Seagulls, I may prefer to tone them down. TFS.
You must have a 400 prime lens. These pictures are brilliant, capturing the action and colour of Fall Salmon Season in Alaska. I had the pleasure of being in Lake Clarke National Park in July and was gob-smacked at the scenery and how comfortable the bears were in proximity to photographers:) Bravo.
