Playing Chicken with a Bear

[NorthernFocus]

Great shots Dan! Your bear images are always awesome!

Thanks, Roy. I'm just the equipment operator. The bears are the stars of the show

Outstanding and then some...
This is worth some major league WOW'S.

Glad you enjoyed the photos. I appreciate the kind comments.

Congrats on accomplishing your goal. Excellent photos of a great bear.

Thanks. He is a good looking bear.

Nice series and definitely strong emotions while "playing" with him

Thanks, Dionigi. It's a thrill being around them.

 

[RockvilleBob]

Breathtaking Dan. Were you out alone? If you were that's phenomenal confidence and courage from my viewpoint. Knowing when to give way shows a lot knowledge and wisdom.

 

[Irap]

Great shots Dan, the DOF is perfect

 

[KP Birder]

One of my goals/desired shots this past summer was to capture a nicely isolated bear walking towards the camera. I posted one example in this other thread a few days ago. But that was a random opportunity. In this set I saw a beautiful male bear quite a way off walking up the creek bank heading my way. He was coming upstream with the bay behind him and the BG faded out to grey due to the misty rain. So I moved down close to the edge of the creek with my handheld kit and took some shots as he approached. There's an unwritten rule to leave the bears room to walk the creek bank to I relocated before he got too close. Some might say I lost my nerve and retreated

1)
View attachment 74400

2)
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3) Another bear photobombed this shot.
View attachment 74414

Beautiful shots! Number 2 is also my favourite of the group. I’m curious as to what focus options you were using? And if using Subject Detection, was it in Animal mode? Did it have any trouble with those small, beady little eyes?

 

[NorthernFocus]

Breathtaking Dan. Were you out alone? If you were that's phenomenal confidence and courage from my viewpoint. Knowing when to give way shows a lot knowledge and wisdom.

Glad you enjoyed the post. I was not alone at the location. For this set I stepped away from the group to the edge of the creek for a couple of minutes to capture this POV. The unwritten protocol on these shoots is to stay back from the edge of the creek to allow the bears free movement. Which is somewhat moot because they'll push you away from the creek anyway if you don't give them space.

Great shots Dan, the DOF is perfect

Thanks, Ira.

Beautiful shots! Number 2 is also my favourite of the group. I’m curious as to what focus options you were using? And if using Subject Detection, was it in Animal mode? Did it have any trouble with those small, beady little eyes?

Thanks for commenting. I used mostly wide area with animal subject detection. The camera did a good job of focusing somewhere on the head and surprisingly well much of the time at finding their eyes. I typically have Fn1 set to a 1x1 area and the DISP button set to turn off subject detection. When the camera is struggling I try the single point to help it zero in and if that doesn't work just hit DISP to drop out of subject detection and do it the old fashioned way.

 

[KP Birder]

Glad you enjoyed the post. I was not alone at the location. For this set I stepped away from the group to the edge of the creek for a couple of minutes to capture this POV. The unwritten protocol on these shoots is to stay back from the edge of the creek to allow the bears free movement. Which is somewhat moot because they'll push you away from the creek anyway if you don't give them space.


Thanks, Ira.


Thanks for commenting. I used mostly wide area with animal subject detection. The camera did a good job of focusing somewhere on the head and surprisingly well much of the time at finding their eyes. I typically have Fn1 set to a 1x1 area and the DISP button set to turn off subject detection. When the camera is struggling I try the single point to help it zero in and if that doesn't work just hit DISP to drop out of subject detection and do it the old fashioned way.

Interesting! Thanks for the reply.

 

[gdecamp]

Wow what an experience! Great job Dan!

 

[JanH]

Better loose your nerve than something else Great shots!

 

[Louis champan]

Incredible shots Dan, what an experience.