Polar bear
This one I met north of Spitsbergen, position approx. 80.56 N, 20.09 E
This one I met north of Spitsbergen, position approx. 80.56 N, 20.09 E
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Jan, 2015Views
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Awards
Winner in Wilderness Animals close ups Photo Challenge
Superb Composition
Peer Award
Absolute Masterpiece
Top Choice
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Magnificent Capture
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Behind The Lens
Location
First of all: thanks a million that you voted my picture winner of the Wilderness Animals close ups Photo Challenge. I am super proud and happy as a… well, as a polar bear who just had her seal dinner. My polar bear close up photo was taken north of Spitsbergen, position: 80.56 N, 20.09 E (I checked the captains log). Our expedition leader asked our Russian captain to proceed as far into the pack ice as he dared. The desolate but beautiful landscape of eternal ice is the polar bears favourite hunting grounds.Time
It was in the middle of the day. Our chef was preparing our lunch and the smell of frying salmon spread across the pack ice. Polar bears have very well developed sense of smell and this female polar bear smelled us long before we could see her. As she was curious of what was cooking she closed in on us slowly but surely. Soon she circled our boat looking at us. It seemed she was pondering how to get some of our lunch. Or get some of us for lunch.Lighting
Anyone who has tried taking pictures in a snowy, icy surrounding knows that this is a challenge. The pictures tend to come out totally different from what one is experiencing. Both light and white balance is quite tricky. I had no clue on which white balance I should use. I had read that one way to trick the camera to get better exposure of the different shades of white is by asking it to over expose by a couple of steps to avoid the bluish grey it sometimes interpret the whites. So I tried that and used auto white balance. The bear moved around a lot and the light was really strong so I used super short exposure time.Equipment
This picture was taken with a Canon 1D MkIV and tele zoom 100-400.Inspiration
I went to Spitsbergen (and beyond), inspired by great photos of polar bears I’ve seen in magazines and on the web. I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to see eight different bears in seven days, three cubs and five adults. As you can imagine my cameras didn’t get much rest. I was thinking to myself that how hard can it be to get some decent shots of a polar bear. It was very hard, as it turned out, at least for me. Animals are an enormous challenge to take good pictures of.Editing
As I got home and had gone through all pictures I picked out a bunch that I thought was worth showing off. All pictures needed some post processing; some tuning of the white balance and a little more contrast and sharpening.In my camera bag
This picture was taken a few years ago, and was actually the first go I had on really wild animals (even though my cats at home could go quite wild sometimes ;)). When I am doing something similar now I always have at least two cameras with different lenses on. I still use the Canon 1d MkIV sometimes as it gives me crop factor 1.3x which can be useful. I more often use a Canon 1dx and a Canon 5d MkIII. I usually mount a 300mm 2.8 or a 70-200 2.8 and a 16-35 2.8 to be able to cover all needs, from close ups to wide angle. Sometimes I also use a 100mm macro. As you can imagine this weighs a lot and requires some space. Since I want to carry my gear with me and not check it when flying, I have developed a deceiving casual look on my face when standing at the check in desk, trying my best to look as if my backpack is not heavy (or big) at all. Since I am not the tallest or biggest person around, quite the opposite actually, this is a hell of an act.Feedback
One thing I have learned from my trips to both hot and cold places is, as I mentioned above, to use at least two cameras. Both due to redundancy if one fails and due to the fact that it isn’t advisable to change lenses in moist or dusty or windy places. And of course to cover a greater span of picture possibilities. Happy shooting to all of you!
