From our fall trip in Glacier and Yellowstone National parks

he was definitely one of the highlights of the trip

beautiful animal and capture the lighting on the head is strange the predominant light is from behind and to the animals left
t but the head is all lit up did you adjust with a luminosity mask?

dashotgun wrote in post #17826988
beautiful animal and capture the lighting on the head is strange the predominant light is from behind and to the animals left
t but the head is all lit up did you adjust with a luminosity mask?

No Nothing done with lighting. Straight off camera light. Had a pro contrast added with Nic and that was it

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Really nice image, Mike!!!

It's awesome that you had a good opportunity at a Grizz; friends of mine spent 11 days in the Many Glacier area this summer. Every day for 11 days straight in exactly the same place hoping that the distant Griz would come down near the road. .All they wanted was one nice picture of a Grizzly........they never got it.

dashotgun wrote in post #17826988
beautiful animal and capture the lighting on the head is strange the predominant light is from behind and to the animals left but the head is all lit up

umphotography wrote in post #17827387
No Nothing done with lighting. Straight off camera light. Had a pro contrast added with Nic and that was it

When I saw this posted yesterday I thought the same thing; I was a little confused about the rather even light on the bear's face, given the areas of shadow on the other parts of the bear and the angle of the light source. .I, too, wondered if it was 100% ambient light, and also wondered wether any shadows had been lifted in post processing.

All of the rocks in the scene are illuminated on the right side and shadowed on the left side. .Ditto for the bear's legs.. So, I would have expected the light on the bear's head to look the same as it does on the surrounding objects.

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We had 5 days in both parks. Started at daybreak and finished well after sunset. Saw several grizzlys but very far away. After talking to rangers and residents I came away very disappointed with how the grizzly populations are managed in the parks. That first Griz was at a bear sanctuary near yellowstone. There are only very small grizzlys inside the parks and every time we saw one ( we were ofter one of the firsts to spot one ) there was also park rangers very close by. Im convinced these bears are tagged and followed closely with global tracking. Black bears are everywhere and even then, rangers were close by.

The national parks in the lower 48 closely manage the bear populations per the park rangers we spoke with. As soon as they become a problem, they are removed and sent to bear sanctuaries. They are not going to let 900-1500 Lb Grizzlys run around in these parks and for good reason. Too many dummies in the parks that will jump out of the cars and run right up to them for a pic with a fricken I phone. I was amazed at the stupidity i saw.

My next grizzly trip will be Canada and then to Alaska. There are the only places left to get a chance to capture a big grizzly in the wild. And as previously mentioned in another thread, chances are your going to have to get a guide to get you out to where they are at, especially in Alaska. Black bears are everywhere, including here in the lower 48.

So I would not rush out to Glacier nor YS in hopes of getting great looks at Grizzlys. Few opportunities for obvious reasons.

First shot is another griz at about 100 yards with a heavy crop- Sun had already set and almost no light. Plenty of opportunity for most other species. Be prepared to do a lot of driving to find them.

we saw tons of Elk. Its was breeding season. lots of bugle boys everywhere

That last Griz shot was at 6400 ISO with the 7D2 and a Tamron 150-600 and I had a 1.4 TC on it. Its was really far out there. These guys wont come close enough inside the parks and the rangers are right there. Talked to a guy that hiked early in the AM and ran into a griz at glacier at first light. He was all alone and about 6 miles into the hike. He estimated the bear at 400 lbs about the same size and the big blacks which are all over the place.

These bears are closely managed inside the national parks......Head to Canada or Alaska if you want to catch a mature one in the wild. Have plenty of reach. They are not going to get close to you. If your hiking a 150-600 is your best bet or a 300with a TC is what Im using. If you can find a spot where they feed and can set up.....500F4 with TC's are a must, especially for mature big bear shot opportunities.

Thats been my experience and I try to get out on a bear trip when ever i can. Minnesota has a bear sanctuary and they actually feed the bears pancakes everyday at 4PM. Attracts tons on wild black bears. We saw up to 40-45 blacks a few yrs ago and was able to frame them with 70-200's from the viewing platforms they build at the locations.

To paraphrase...

umphotography wrote in post #17829648
After talking to the grizzlies I came away very disappointed with how the people populations are managed in the parks.

As far as the images, all look overdone and not sure why. Some almost look like a poor effort at some HDR. Sorry, just my thoughts, and I have been to both places on many occasions.

John from PA wrote in post #17829684
To paraphrase...

As far as the images, all look overdone and not sure why. Some almost look like a poor effort at some HDR.

after talking to the rangers....sorry

John from PA..2 of these shots are straight off camera files. Zero post processing. That would be the far away griz and the 2 goats. Images are only cropped so not sure what you are seeing

The last Elk had a Nic pro contrast curve and some extra sharpening on. That was it. and it was in direct sunset light.

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umphotography wrote in post #17829648
There are only very small grizzlys inside the parks .........
They are not going to let 900-1500 Lb Grizzlys run around in these parks and for good reason.

Just to clarify things for others, it should be pointed out that interior Grizzlies are, by nature, completely different than coastal Brown Bears. .They are the same species, yes........but then again, Saint Bernards and Beagles are also the same species.

The Grizzly bears living in the interior that don't have a access to salmon runs are nothing like the Brown Bears of coastal Alaska. .A full grown male Grizzly in Yellowstone or Glacier will average around 600 pounds. .That is the size they grow to, regardless of management practices. .That has always been the size they grow to. .There has never been a chance of a Grizzly in Yellowstone or Glacier weighing 1000 pounds or more.

The coastal bears are a completely different story. .The average size of a fully grown male Brown Bear (coastal Grizzly) is 900 pounds, and there have been a couple times in history when exceptional males have actually been weighed at 1500 pounds.

umphotography wrote in post #17829661
Head to Canada or Alaska if you want to catch a mature one in the wild.

There are many mature, fully grown Grizzly Bears "running around" in Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks. I have photographed many of them, with varying measures of success. Really excellent, world class photos of wild, fully grown, mature Grizzly bears are certainly possible in Yellowstone, the Tetons, and Glacier. People take photos of this caliber every year in these parks.

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Tom Reichner wrote in post #17829834
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Just to clarify things for others, it should be pointed out that interior Grizzlies are, by nature, completely different than coastal Brown Bears. .They are the same species, yes........but then again, Saint Bernards and Beagles are also the same species.

The Grizzly bears living in the interior that don't have a access to salmon runs are nothing like the Brown Bears of coastal Alaska. .A full grown male Grizzly in Yellowstone or Glacier will average around 600 pounds. .That is the size they grow to, regardless of management practices. .That has always been the size they grow to. .There has never been a chance of a Grizzly in Yellowstone or Glacier weighing 1000 pounds or more.

The coastal bears are a completely different story. .The average size of a fully grown male Brown Bear (coastal Grizzly) is 900 pounds, and there have been a couple times in history when exceptional males have actually been weighed at 1500 pounds.

There are many mature, fully grown Grizzly Bears "running around" in Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks. I have photographed many of them, with varying measures of success. Really excellent, world class photos of wild, fully grown, mature Grizzly bears are certainly possible in Yellowstone, the Tetons, and Glacier. People take photos of this caliber every year in these parks.

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Tom Thanks for that. That adds some clarification to what I was told and saw at the park. My guess is the one we saw in the parks was about 400 lbs. Bigger than the blacks but not massive like the ones we saw at the sanctuary. Makes sense. Appreciate the comments. I still think these these bears are tracked, possibly tagged. Every time we saw bears we saw rangers who were out of the trucks and watching the spectators very closely. My buddy saw one at hidden lake 2 yrs ago. Picture i saw estimated at 300-400 lbs. It was probably 100 yards from him before it headed down a ridge.

In my Alaskan experience it is the large, mature, bears that add an element of consistent behavior to any bear human interaction. Honestly, you don't get to be a mature bear by messing around or crossing people. If you run into a bear that is 15+ years old, not food conditioned, and has been in a peopled area chances are good that seen an incredible amount of stupidity performed by people and chances are even better that it knows how to handle the situation better than the people involved. they know their tolerances etc.

I would rather deal with a bunch of big old bruisers than a bunch of sub adults any day of the week.

umphotography wrote in post #17826944
he was definitely one of the highlights of the trip

Hosted photo: posted by umphotography in
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forum: Wildlife

Wonderful photo.

After seeing some of the stupid things people did years ago in GSMNP while around Black bears I can see why the Rangers watched the people. It's usually not the animals that cause problems, but the people. Years ago I watched a guy run two Black bear cubs up a tree, and then get chased off by the mother bear after other people in the area warned him about staying away from the cubs. If she really wanted to get him she could have.