Bear wobbles
by Mark ~ October 21st, 2009. Filed under: nature photography, technique, wildlife.Carl Donohue mentioned in his comments on my previous bear blur post;
“.. bears are just hard to do motion blurs with .. their gait is much of a wobble that they end up looking weird, most of the time ..”
I tend to agree with him, but sometimes you get lucky. By the way, Carl was also in Katmai the weeks after I was there in some of the interior areas and came back with some fantastic stuff, so be sure to check out the link to his journal.
I came across a few images that illustrate this challenge… first off, you need the bear moving faster than their normal wobbly gait. This time of year, it seems to be asking for a lot. They are focused on eating, eating, and more eating for their winter dormancy. They don’t have to run too far to pound on a fish. But, stick one bear too close to another bear’s fish… and a chase ensues…
The Case Starts...
Since you have to wait awhile for this moment to start or happen at all, I wasn’t really setup to do blurs – I had my lens at f5.6 and ISO 1250 doing more typical shots. This only gave me 1/400 sec when this chase started, which really wasn’t fast enough to stop the action in the image above. The picture is a bit soft, and yet not really having the look of an intentional blur. I didn’t have much time to change ISOs and apertures for blurs, but quickly dialed in f22 for the next shots. This at least got me down to 1/20 second, just about right actually.
Stay away from my fish!!
So I got some decent blur here – I was only panning, no zooming. Here is where the “looking wierd” begins to start though. In the image below, check out this bear’s hind quarters! Don’t stare too long, you don’t want to be freakish. It looks like her butt is going into hyperspace ahead of her body and hind legs have vaporized! Perhaps I have documented inter-dimensional, partial body, bear travel? (I know, I watch too much SciFi). What the heck happened to her legs?
Bear butt swirly
Pixels are free, so you lay down on that shutter button like the bears chomp down on those salmon. Once you start breathing again, you can take a look back through the images to see if you just filled your card with crap. Some of them look better than others for sure. If all the body parts are there, you are off to a decent start.
Chasing or braking?
Despite the look of the Flintstones style braking action in this last one, I kind of like it. Even bear swirly butt begins to grow on me after staring at it for awhile. Leg positions definitely play a big role in making the bear look awkward or not – assuming the bear has legs that haven’t left this dimension. I find it interesting the subtle variations that make one shot a bit more appealing than the next.
So there you have it, a look into this brief moment that only lasted a few seconds, yet the wait for it was so much longer. Bear wobbles or not, I found it to be quite fun in trying.
October 21st, 2009 at
[...] Read the original: Graf Nature Photography | Notes from the woods » Bear wobbles [...]
October 22nd, 2009 at
LOL! I LOVE the swirly butt!! You are right about these growing on you – kudos on trying something different with these guys.
[Reply]
October 22nd, 2009 at
“Even bear swirly butt begins to grow on me after staring at it for awhile.”
Ummm…how long were you out there in the Alaskian Wilderness? LOL It’s best to keep this sentence in context with the rest of the article.
You definitely got wonderful photos, bear wobbles and all. What did happen to that bears hind legs in the third photo?
[Reply]
Mark Reply:
October 22nd, 2009 at
I don’t know Earl. It’s one of those wired things.
[Reply]
October 22nd, 2009 at
Mark,
I really like the last one though the disappearing legs are fun too. I was having fun doing blurs like this with people dancing a couple weekends back and boy did I get some strange stuff with some funny looking people.
Great post
[Reply]
October 22nd, 2009 at
Hey Mark,
Thanks for the link, bro.
Great series of shots together like that .. the hind leg on that last one is WAY out there.
I’m going to write a post about the bear’s gait for my blog soon enough .. they’re so wild to watch. There’s a few things about the gait that are pretty interesting.
I got one or 2 pan blur shots that I like, but mostly they’re in the ‘to be deleted’ file. I think next year I’ll definitely aim for slower shutter speeds.
You cloned out those hind legs in the 3rd shot, dintcha?
Cheers
Carl
[Reply]
Mark Reply:
October 22nd, 2009 at
Now seriously Carl – do you think I would do that lousy of a clone job?
[Reply]
October 23rd, 2009 at
Between “swirly butt” and “inter-dimensional, partial body, bear travel”, this post is a classic. I had fun alternating between laughing and being impressed. I like the last one a great deal, but thank you for posting all these. Instructive, wildly funny, as well as delightful to view and the text is outstanding. What more can you ask for? Except for you to confess what you did with those missing legs.
[Reply]
Mark Reply:
October 24th, 2009 at
No confessions from me Anita. I want to know myself what happened to them! Thanks for the comments.
[Reply]
October 23rd, 2009 at
This is an image type that I really enjoy visually and so try quite a bit of it myself. It is such a personal thing as to what works and what doesn’t and there are no real rules that i apply. My experience has always been that many people just don’t understand or appreciate the visual image you’re trying to achieve and why. I keep trying. Maybe in time. I do especially like the last image, for me that one definitely works.
[Reply]
October 24th, 2009 at
It does look fun. Gotta say, I love that bear butt swirly! LOL
[Reply]
October 24th, 2009 at
@ Paul – so true – some people may hate these entirely, others may care less – and that’s ok. Thanks!
@ Amber – Thanks!
[Reply]
November 1st, 2009 at
Very cool Mark, love the braking look to it, the motion you captured in these beautiful animals is amazing !!
[Reply]
November 8th, 2009 at
[...] View original post here: Bear wobbles [...]