This is one of my favorite images of the summer so far. Sometimes having the subject between you and the sun can be great, as long as you allow the subject to expose as a sillouhette.
Here are some images from this past month from the Alaska Peninsula. In the past few years, I have learned to get more excited about photographing bears in backlight, than the traditional frontlight. In other words, having the subject between you and a sunrise or sunset can create a moody shot that I often prefer. The bear is in shadow, but in these light condiitons, if you exposed for the bear to show detail, the background would be terribly overexposed. I shot these images on Aperture Priority or AV mode, evaluative metering, and exposure compensation was -1. My shutter speed was 1/2500, f-sop (aperture) 11, and ISO 400.
Cold July sunrise in the Alaskan wilderness.
Frosty morning in late July, Alaska Peninsula
Photographing horned puffins in flight is one of the most challenging subjects we encounter. You must shoot very fast speed, and have a camera that autofocus quickly. Only about less than 1% of your shots will be OK if you are lucky.
Horned puffin, Katmai Coast
Brown bear in frontlight, with sun at my back.
A beautiful female grizzly, Melissa, in the sedge meadow with snowy mountains in the background. What fills the rest of the frame make the image- and patches of snow on a mountain is my favorite.
3 Comments
Again, I must say that this pics are great.
Great images, Brad. Where in Katmai did you get the Puffin photos? They are fantastic! You must have the fastest shutter finger in Alaska to get those images especially the ones in flight. I’m jealous.
Fantastic Shots! Love the female grizzly Melissa.