This photo of a black bear mama and her cubs was taken in Smoky Mountains, Tennessee, USA last month. The cubs are about 10 months old, and all are trying to eat as many black walnuts as possible before heading into hibernation. Apparently, all the acorns have been eaten in the area and since the cubs are not strong enough to open the black walnuts, they eat the crumbs left by mama or the black walnuts that are smashed by cars on the road. I was told the mama bear was ear tagged as she tends to bluff charge when irritated. However, she was mellow the day this photo was taken. This image was cropped and adjustments were made to highlights, shadows, whites, blacks and vibrance.
100-500mm lens @ 200mm
1/1600 sec
f/5.0
ISO 640
Handheld
This round’s discussion is now closed! 6 comments posted
Adrian Binney
Hi Barbara: gosh this must have been an experience with you being so close! Your pp work look great to me, with good detail in them all and I very much like how we can see all their heads well. Posted: 11/18/2023 06:23:12
Barbara Gore
Thanks Adrian. Being close but not too close (ranger present) was magical. I have several individual photos looking at the camera but none with the whole family.
Posted: 11/19/2023 08:38:18
Maria Mazo
Hi Barbara, the interesting behaviour of those group of bears is captivating. I agree with Adrian, being so close to this family must be quite an experience. Your image is clear and full of detail. I appreciate the lower point of view that immerses us in the scene and the fact that the bears has enough separation between them, allowing us to see all their heads.I also like the distribution in the frame, with two of then facing each other and the other two facing in the opposite direction. Your editing complements the image very well. Posted: 11/19/2023 04:19:34
Barbara Gore
Thank you Maria. It was a beautiful experience. Posted: 11/19/2023 08:39:02
Dr Isaac Vaisman
Barbara, great portrait of the black bears family. Sharp. Nice colors. As you mentioned in your description, you have no image of the four of them facing more towards the camera, but this one is nature at its best. The tagging does not exclude the image for Nature or Wildlife sections of competition salons. Posted: 11/19/2023 09:16:45
Bruce Benson
Barbara, What a great opportunity to get a whole family of four bears all lined up. To my eye the background was a bit bright making it difficult to see the details of the bears. I reduced the exposure of the background and lightened the heads of the bears using photoshop raw filter. Bruce Posted: 11/30/2023 09:56:15
