Monday, 16 May 2011

Bear Diaries 2011 Part 10: The Bear Cub and Mum

It was very wet this evening so I took the car out to go see if I could spot a bear or two. After only a few meters of driving down the logging road I spotted a bear I hadn't seen before. I always get excited when I see a bear for the first time and it was only after I turned the car around that I discovered this bear was not alone. This bear was a mum and her cub was high up in a tree. The cub must have climbed the tree for safety when I drove past and a few moments after I turned the engine off it climbed down making little noises calling to his mum. An awesome experience. This cub was small so it must have been born this winter in the den.

Did you know: Black Bear cubs are usually born sometime in January in the den during the hibernation period. The cubs are totally dependent on their mum and weigh less than a pound at birth. Black Bear litters usally range from 2-4 cubs.

I am thrilled to have the opportunity to capture photos and stories of the different Bears that live close by. Although I have seen some old faces and new faces it has been quite recently as I haven't seen the sow and cub (the bear who likes to stand up) from previous blogs for over a week now. Hopefully they are ok and I guess they will be back shortly once the berries start coming out.

Until next time, thank you for following.

Before I leave you I want to share these valuable lessons learnt:

1) ALWAYS go out with the camera and lens attached, never wait until you come across wildlife before you set up. It's the times you least expect seeing something that catch you out. Like I said it was bucketing down with rain so I thought the bears would seek shelter. I thought wrong.

2) NEVER forget to adjust your aperture. We spend so much money on a F2.8 lens and then to forget to knock it down from F5.6 is just plain STUPID! I was so used to using my 400 F5.6 that when I went out with my 70-200 F2.8 I overlooked the aperture. Talk about being a dummy.

Sometime you have to act quicker than you can think with photography so make sure you check and set up your equipment first to avoid panic. I missed out on some potentially awesome shots when this sow and cub were only 5 meters from my car door walking along the log.

Anyways sometimes it's worth just watching events such as this without staring through a view finder. That's difficult logic for a photographer to grasp sometimes :)


Techs: 200MM @ F5.6 // 1/50 // ISO2500
Canon 7D with 70-200mm F2.8 L IS
Image © J M Douglas|Photography 2011


Techs: 70MM @ F5.6 // 1/20 // ISO2500
Canon 7D with 70-200mm F2.8 L IS
Image © J M Douglas|Photography 2011


Techs: 200MM @ F5.6 // 1/50 // ISO2500
Canon 7D with 70-200mm F2.8 L IS
Image © J M Douglas|Photography 2011



Techs: 200MM @ F5.6 // 1/50 // ISO2500
Canon 7D with 70-200mm F2.8 L IS
Image © J M Douglas|Photography 2011

See you all next time!

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 For more information on Black Bears visit: http://www.bear.org/

4 comments:

  1. It looks as if you can shoot at pretty high ISO settings with the 7D without much noise. It must be nice. I am using the 50D and it is not the greatest even at ISO 400.

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  2. The 7D performs very well if you ask me. Its no 5D Mark II but it performs better than most give it credit IMHO. The 5D Mark III would be sweet for bears in low light and rain though so I will add that to my wish list.

    I've had the 7D since Jan 2010 and have rarely used it at anything less than ISO400. IS0400 is my default ISO in custom funtion.

    We must get together in the Kamloops area one day this summer or fall.

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  3. nice shots and blog Jamie!
    will link to it on mine too...

    I have found that 2.8 on my 70-200 is quite shallow ito DOF for wildlife, and I end up mostly using it on f4 or f5.6

    I am also happy with my 7D performance, I often push the ISO to 1600 if I need to.

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  4. Thanks Morkel. I usually use the 70-200 at F5.6 but would have liked to have had the chance to judge the results when the mum and cub was about 5 meters from my car window. If only for a couple of novely shots. But I agree, F2.8 is usually too shallow for wildlife.

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