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Polar bear after feeding
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Polar bear after feeding



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Polar bear (Ursus maritimus)

Svalbard

A mother of one cub after a feed on a seal carcass. The seal was brought down by a huge male, wh...
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Polar bear (Ursus maritimus)

Svalbard

A mother of one cub after a feed on a seal carcass. The seal was brought down by a huge male, which fed, and fed until it could swallow no more and withdrew to rest between the feasting. During these intervals this mother sneaked up to the seal with her cub and ate all they could until the male came back for another round.

Eventually the seal was fully consumed and this mother and her cub went on their way to check out new possibilities, of which the ship I'm on was extremely interesting.

Here she's sniffing the ocean coming up between cracks in the sea ice.
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cameraNIKON D4S

settings Aperture f/9 ISO 100 Shutter 1/500 Focal Length 7000/10 

locationSvalbard and Jan Mayen

upload_dateFeb, 2019

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1648

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Awards

Contest Finalist in Travel Photo Contest 2019
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Contest Finalist in Image Of The Month Photo Contest Vol 42
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4 Comments |
MadhavSharma_0407
 
MadhavSharma_0407 February 22, 2019
woaaah this is awesomely ferocious ....he seems to have just torn another big fish apart ..!!! keep shooting
kbsimages PRO
 
kbsimages September 03, 2020
Outstanding Shot!!!!!
Hopeiwin512
 
Hopeiwin512 December 11, 2020
Beautiful
MarkAgardPhoto
 
MarkAgardPhoto April 28, 2022
Amazing photo

Submitted to Photo Contests

Tags

#animal #mammal #bear #wildlife #polar bear
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Behind The Lens

Location

We had been looking for the sea ice north of Svalbard for a long time, and we finally found it and his mother with one cub at 81.31 degrees north. Much, much farther north than ever before.

Time

Shot 27 July 2016 13:09

Lighting

Lighting was tough as it was either fog, bright sunlight or something in between, basically a whiteout condition, which also made it challenging seeing these white mammals.

Equipment

Nikon D4s, Nikkor 500mm with 1.4 converter with 700 mm total on a Gitzo GT5542LS tripod and a WH-200 Wimberley Head

Inspiration

This was like so often in life pure luck and coincidence. In the distance we noticed a huge male feasting on the very last of bits on a seal carcass, but to our surprise and joy we also noticed a female and her cub laying very low nearby. When the male was full, he withdrew to rest, and then the mother and cub feasted on the carcass. After some time, the male wanted more and came back, and thus the female and her cub retreated. As this went on for some time, we decided to go down below and eat, as this did not seem to change anytime soon. Suddenly the female and her cub decided to walk towards the ship, which was amazing as this was a break from a long observation of them feeding off the seal carcass, running for it when the male wanted seconds, then back again when the male took a rest nearby. If I had been with the rest of the people down below, I would have missed the approach sequence and this lovely scene.

Editing

Midtones darker, brightened shadows and slight dehaze - that's it!

In my camera bag

Two houses (currently D4s and D5) Nikkor lenses: 500mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 24-70mm, 105mm, Formatt Hitech filters for landscape, fiber cloth, lots of spare batteries, head lamp, lots of memory cards, external hard disk, LensCoat raingear for all lenses and houses.

Feedback

Always be ready - as nature will provide opportunities when you least expect it! Auto ISO and exposure compensation are good friends as you can focus on the subject whenever it decides to come along no matter how shifting the light conditions are. Shoot as your subject approaches or you are getting closer, as you might not get another opportunity. If the subject does come amazingly close, that is an added bonus.

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