The teddy bear look
Polar Bear north of Svalbard, Norway
Polar Bear north of Svalbard, Norway
Read less
Read less
Aug, 2017Views
279
Likes
Awards
People's Choice in Bears Photo Challenge
Peer Award
Magnificent Capture
Top Choice
Superb Composition
Absolute Masterpiece
All Star
Top Ranks
Top 20 rank
Top 20 rankTop 20 rank week 1Categories
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Discover more photos See all
Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was captured in the Svalbard Archipelago area at latitude about 81 degrees north.Time
I was on a trip setting out to circumnavigate Svalbard. A number of days had gone by on the trip and we were still to see our first polar bear so the expedition crew decided to head north towards the Arctic pack ice. Mid afternoon one of the crew thought he saw the characteristic butter colour many miles in the distance. This was captured at about 5pm.Lighting
While the photo was captured at around 5pm it was taken at the time of year when the sun did not go down so while the sun wasn't directly overhead it also couldn't be described as low of soft.Equipment
This was shot (handheld) on a sony alpha 99 camera using a tamron 150-600mm lens (at 600mm). It was captured from on board the Ocean Nova from a slightly elevated position.Inspiration
This was the first polar bear I saw in the wild and it was certainly a subject I was interested in when signing up to the trip. The polar bear kept us entertained for a while going through various "poses" - lying on its back, walking into the distance on the pack ice and jumping over gaps between the ice. However, it was the pose in this capture that I liked the most.Editing
All processing was done in Lightroom. Post processing included some toning, cropping, and lens correction changes.In my camera bag
The kit I have with me depends on the purpose of the photoshoot. I often have zeiss 24-70mm, zeiss 70-300mm and zeiss 16-35mm with me. Depending on circumstances I also sometimes have the tamron 90mm macro lens and the tamron 150-600mm lens with me as well. I almost always have a tripod handy and various filters.Feedback
When it comes to wildlife photography, I think it is important to know as much about the animal as possible and then apply that knowledge to shoot interesting behaviours. I like to have the camera set ready to shoot - have your ISO set appropriately for the light conditions. My settings for this specific photo were ISO 400, f 9.5, shutter speed 1/2000. Shooting from the boat provided some limitations of course but there was a need to make the most of it. In this case, I lied the "leading line" from the left taking the viewer's eye straight to the bear. The final point is to think about where you are going to travel to if you want to capture polar bears in the wild. There are a few alternatives which are worth researching. In general, I would suggest you can normally get closer to polar bears in Churchill, Manitoba but Svalbard is also known to have a relatively high density of polar bears.
