I was parked on the shoulder of the road and shooting photos of this gorgeous Brown Bear sow fishing for salmon on the rocky beach at low tide when she suddenly jumped up to a rock and stared down the beach, obviously smelling something. After I shot this picture I drove down the road in the direction she was looking and saw a black bear moving in her direction. It was over a quarter mile away and around a bend but she had clearly detected it.
Note: If you look closely you can see that her nostrils are flared as she senses the smell of the intruder.
Specific Feedback Requested
Any feedback is appreciated.
Technical Details
Sony a6500, FE200600G @ 426mm (639mm w/crop factor), ISO-320, f/6.3, 1/3200, hand held through my truck window.
5 Likes
Well that wins the challenge for being epic. Great shot!
That is one alert bear, Gary. Neat how it’s body angle mimics the slant in the foreground rocks. Interesting that it was this perturbed by a (presumably smaller) black bear.
Mark; All of the bears, both black and brown are very cautious and avoid contact with other bears unless they recognize it as family or a previous acquaintance they are already comfortable with. In this case, she could obviously smell it but I doubt she could determine it’s size or color as it was completely out of sight.
Hey Gary,
It was nice of her to pose so perfectly for you. I like how you composed the shot. You have a perfect balance between the bear and the open space to the left.
What an exciting on the road sighting! Even though she is probably not feeling relaxed it is a lovely pose. That’s interesting what you said about the bears not being comfortable with each other if they don’t know each other. I guess at that distance she probably could have been able to tell by smell who it was if she knew them. Animals amaze me that way! They are so much more aware of their surroundings than most of us humans
You captured her beautifully!
