This photo was taken on the top of Grouse Mountain (above the city of Vancouver). The conservation authority found oprhaned cubs last year. The bears now live in a huge habitat and are free to hide from humans and explore the woods whenever they want. They sometimes come out for a bath and a bit of a bear fight (shown here) and it was quite fun to watch at a safe distance, behind an electric fence. They were able to release two others to the wild last year, but these two were too used to humans.
It was a really bright sunny day so the image suffered a bit. I had to use the burn tool quite a bit b/c the teeth and gums were really over-exposed. I increased saturation, decreased brightness, increased contrast, unsharp mask and then sharpen. I also blurred a bit of the background.
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Place: 11 out of 160 Avg (all users): 6.8220 Avg (commenters): 8.4000 Avg (participants): 6.5306 Avg (non-participants): 7.1290 Views since voting: 1785 Views during voting: 350 Votes: 191 Comments: 26 Favorites: 3 (view)
This has a really "wild" feel to it. Nice focus and lighting. I would have cropped the left side since there is nothing there that helps the composition. I don't always like the square format but it would have worked nicely here.
Wonderful shot--good sharpness and DOF. Or was the background darkened in PS? It seems there's some light halos by the top of his head, and by his lower right fang.
This is a scary image. The bear is obviously not happy about getting his picture taken. Great capture. The expression is priceless. Good luck in the challenge.
If this was in the wild, I sure hope you were in a bus! This is exactly how most people probably imagine what a bear encounter would look like. Good sharp shot, with overall pleasing composition. Good work. -danny
I don't understand this crop for this shot ... that dead background space image left. It's only effect seems to have been to place the real dynamic elements of the shot dead centre, which simply pull attention away from them toward that dead space - the eye is constantly drawn there, and there is nothing there to add impact. Cropped almost square to the edge of those water drops and you'd have a fabulous image. Your white point seems a touch bright, also - a touch more graduation through the tonal range would have brought out the depth that you have captured I think. Great moment, but let down by your editing I fear.
Oooooooh. . . I sure hope you were in a zoo for this one. That would NOT be a face I would like to see close enough to get THIS shot -- even with a mega zoom lense, huh??? Zoo or not, this is a great capture of a very ferrocious wild animal!
Wow. I found the 10 for this challenge.. Can't make this look any wilder, maybe with his maouth clamped on a camera. Can't wait to see the details of this shot. Great work...
Wow! If you got this in the wild, and it looks as if you did, hope you stayed away from his salmon! (Of course you did, or you wouldn't be entering this Challenge.)
Seriously, this is a super photo - extremely well done. Should ribbon easily. 10
What an excellent capture. The only thing that holds this shot back for me is the lack of contrast between the bear and the background. Otherwise excellent. 9.
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