Posted by Anne (White Rock, Canada) on 29 October 2007 in Animal & Insect.
I know this is probably the worst photo of a bear in the photo world!!! But to me it was one of the first triumphs of shooting wildlife! We were driving down the Jasper-Banff Highway on our trip home from a visit to Jasper National Park when the traffic all stopped. I soon saw why! This bear was being observed by a mile of traffic in front of us. I got out, I had to get a photograph of this bear! Trouble was he was quite a bit down the road from us and I was armed with a camera borrowed from my boss and friend. A beautiful camera with Zeiss lenses, but this was the early 70's - it had a viewfinder and not much else, except for manual controls on the lens mount. No Exposure Meter! Also only a fixed 49 mm lens. (Who had heard of owning a camera with a zoom then!) Once I got a bit closer I kept my eye to the viewfinder and just kept moving forward until I had a good view of him (turned out to be a her!) I glanced up at that point and to my horror I had walked to within3 feet of the bear on the grass. Anyway, I had adjusted the exposure to the best of my ability for the light conditions so I fired. Well! She started coming closer to me and I was walking backwards all the way back to the highway. Then I turned around and saw two baby bear cubs who had appeared from behind a rise in the ground. I was terrified!! I made it back to our car with the female grizzly walking steadily behind me. I dare not run! When I got back into the car safely the bear proceeded to stand on hind legs and her paws on the roof. My husband started screaming about the paintwork - and what an idiot I was to bring her back to the car! It was a brand new Station Waggon (Ford, Country Sedan). One of the rear windows was down, next to my eldest son,who was sitting eating some fruit pie out of our cooler! I ended up grabbing the pie and throwing it out of the window, which got the bear off our car. She enjoyed the pie immensely! My excuse for the poor quality of the picture is that it was originally on a Kodachrome transparency film, and a great picture. Unfortunately, I scanned this soon after I first bought a cheapy scanner (without a slide adapter in 2000). Then, I knew nothing about saving photos in a large file format and it has stayed email size in my computers since I first had one in 2000, and got backed up and put into two subsequent computers. I have searched for the original slide to no avail. It just did not get filed back in sequence in my slide collection after scanning! So I post this photo with apologies for its shortcomings - because it is one of my favourites of all time.
It would be even more a favourite if I could find the darned slide and scan it again properly!
Thank you everyone for your visits and comments on my last photo - I love aminus3 - but like I said before, I just cannot get around everybody here at the present time!
Please go ahead and give me constructive criticism where needed! If there is anything that I can change that really needs changing and I can do it in editing - then I will change it and re-post the photo! I promise I won't scream and shout or cry for very long!
My other photoblog has been started too! Anne's Galleries
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In spite of the shortcomings of this low-res photo it still is impressive, especially with you narrative.
29 Oct 2007 6:46am
@Wolfgang Prigge: Thank you Wolfgang! Yes taken on Kodachrome transparency film, with virtually no grain, it should have made a fine enlargment with some proper adjustments to the contrast. It was underexposed in the shadow areas! I don't know how I had the courage to post this bad quality photo yesterday - but I do think the bear is Awesome! She was so big. I must have actually been 6-10 feet back to get all of her in with that lens! But with her size it felt a lot closer at the time!
Anne, I'm just howling here in hilarity!! You absolutely kill me!! So you're one of those tourists we mock relentlessly, eh?!! This does look like it would be a FABulous slide of a black bear (keep looking my friend). And your narrative says so much about how we zone out when trying so hard to get "that shot". I can't stop chuckling... your narrative has elements of my life in it too (like the husband having a fit over a paint job when in actual fact maybe he should be more concerned about the very dangerous animal leaning on said paint job!!) Way too funny... Big thanks for sharing this one!!!!
29 Oct 2007 9:22am
@amy: Glad you had a laugh Amy! You know how it is though in Alberta. We heard every year about some rogue grizzly killing someone out hiking in the wilds. She was actually quite docile - but so BIG close up! She was a grizzly, not a black bear. They are mostly a bit smaller and don't have that hump of fat on the back of their necks and shoulders. This one, was originally quite brown where the sun was shining on her. But, due to underexposure of her shaded parts - and my lack of knowledge messing around with it in Photo Impact which was my first image editor, she ended up black!!! I didn't have any knowledge then of being able to duplicate a photo or Save As with a different file name - so I managed to screw up quite a lot of scanned photos, overwriting the originals! My daughter had emailed and told me I couldn't send large files to her with long descriptive file names because her Mac at that time just wouldn't accept them. So everything got resized down to this size at most! It is a typical man isn't it, to worry more about the paint job on the car?!!
Yikes! That's probably the funniest story I've read in a while. I know it probably wasn't funny for you at the time, but as I visualized the scene playing out in my head as I read your story I just had to laugh.
29 Oct 2007 12:24pm
@Laurie: Well! it was funny afterwards - but I was sure glad to get back inside that car - my head was just filled with horror stories about people getting killed and mauled by bears. But, that never occurred to me when I was doing the stalking - only when I had to get back! :-)
Wow...great story and not such a bad shot considering your situation
29 Oct 2007 2:33pm
@Jen: Thanks Jen! Kodachrome slow speed transparency film at that time had virtually no grain - but was awfully contrasty! Should have been exposing for the shadows in this instance. If I hadn't messed up in the processing department - then it would have been so much better! But it was an awesome bear!
I agree with Wolfgang from Quebec. This photo is impressive. And I agree with Amy. As I read your story I too said so this is one of those tourists you see getting too close. But I am a daring soul too. So happy you lived to tell your story and post this wonderful story. I just hope it satisfied your urge to dare. I know by your response to when you saw the cubs that Momma bears are not too happy with tourists when her babies are around. It is a memorable shot.
29 Oct 2007 2:43pm
@Barbara: Thank you Barbara for you visit and comments - really appreciate it! Really was too daring on reflection! I began to be really afraid the moment I saw the cubs! Momma didn't behave aggressively at all - but I had had it drilled into me that Momma bears are so protective - they will attack to protect their babies. Feeding the bears is also illegal! I am wondering now if she could smell that fruit pie drifting through the open car window, more than she wanted to follow me. They have a great sense of smell! There were usually TV news reports every year about some unlucky hiker in the wilds being killed or mauled by a rogue grizzly. They used to catch the offender and tag them and then take them a few hundred miles further into the wilderness. If they made their way back (some did) and they killed again - then they were shot. Man is not an enemy of the bears normally - but the number of people who used to feed them made them so they are not afraid of us any more! She was an awesome sight though so close to her! (Maybe 10 feet not 3) :-)
Well, I guess, Marlon Perkins ain't got nothing on you! Funny story and the pic is good. So do you stalk other big game, too? Personally, I stick with scenery because it usually doesn't chase me.
29 Oct 2007 3:47pm
@Laurie: No the only big game I want to stalk again, has to be behind bars in a zoo! I didn't realize at first that we had another Laurie - I thought the first Laurie had posted twice!! Thanks for visiting - really appreciate your comments! :-)
Hang about here Anne--this is such a great shot,so reminiscent of the type of camera work taken at this time in history,on the fly,as they say today.. The complimentary narrative was such a good read,it's always a pleasure to hear the "bear facts" behind a memorable shot as this.... congratulations---billybearskin
29 Oct 2007 7:52pm
you have an amazing dedication to photography!
29 Oct 2007 10:57pm
@M.E.: Thank you ME! Yes!! I always was very keen on my photography. However, as I get older and not driving a car any more, I find it more and more difficult to get around with a lot of gear like I used to carry up hill and down dale! :-)
PS Have Scooter - Will Travel!
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