If not a game cam HOW?

The same lens that I use for rattlesnakes.

But I was safe in a 30-foot fire lookout tower. There I go, giving away trade secrets!

Hmmm, they are good climbers. Might make me take care before throwing open the door to the lookout tower at night or in the morning.

what a fantastic capture! Stunning and scary.

The bow hunter was after elk, and a big black bear came out of a thicket in full charge mode. The hunter fired a .44 side arm that he had for protection, turning the bear around. He was coy as to whether he shot at the bear or over the bear, probably thinking that I had some fish & wildlife enforcement authority (I do not). All that played out less than a mile from my lookout tower.

disgusting

I'm glad you were far away!

Looks a little close for comfort, though.

... I have the Pentax equivalent of that Sony 70-200 mm lens which is one of the best lenses which Pentax has ever produced (and that alone says a lot). That bear is getting ready for Winter hibernation. When you enlarge the photo 800x (which is all I can do from the picture) you can readily see just how "thick" the bear's winter coat has become. What a magnificent animal. Thanks for posting this wonderful photograph, Bo. It is very much appreciated.

Nice colors; and, blue eyes! Western Diamondbacks don't look at all like this guy but I'd wager a lot of money that the "rattles" are quite similar. I do not like to have "close encounters" with these guys. Not one bit.

was he thinking lunch?

Just an amazing portrait.

Or sense you at 75 feet? You didn't stay there long did you? Really nice picture though. I can't tell the emotion on that bears face though.

I had just turned the bear around with several blasts from a police whistle, as it got too close to the steps of the lookout for my comfort. The bear was not real happy, to wax anthropomorphically. When the bear turned towards the lookout, and after I quickly took some photos, I gave a few blasts on my air horn. The bear then departed very quickly.

I know all too well that a bear can and will climb a fire tower for food. A rental lookout in the Idaho panhandle was significantly damaged when renters left food in the tower and a bear went up the stairs after what it smelled. And a fire lookout friend of mine awoke one night to the sounds of a bear on the catwalk outside his door.

But I guess it's also to t he fullest.

Again, the bear was 75 feet away from me, slant range. I was on a 30-foot high fire lookout tower, with the heavy trap door locked, using a 70-200mm (at 200mm) telephoto lens on a Sony A7-R4 camera body. The Sony's 61MP full-frame CMOS sensor allows for some heavy-handed cropping in post processing, which is what I did with this image. Additionally, the Topaz plug-in for Photoshop gets incredible results enlarging images.

I have a new version of this bear portrait that I am working up to print for a gallery that takes a tightly cropped 10"x10" image to 30"x30". Posted below is the raw image directly out of the camera .. and this is with a 200mm telephoto! The bear is looking at me because I had just chased him from directly below the lookout tower with blasts from a police whistle. As soon as I snapped a couple of photos in this pose, I gave him a few blasts of a marine air horn that I always have handy.

Also, on a technical note, notice the extremely distracting background .. lots of dead and down subalpine fir .. and exposures slightly on the right side of the histogram. That's why I corrected the exposure and lighting, and blackened the background.

That said, if the gallery patron with a platinum American Expre$$ card thinks that I braved a face-to-face, breath-to-breath, extremely dangerous close encounter with Brother Bear of the Bitterroot Range, then so be it.


The "bear portrait" image of my original post is cropped from this RAW file, directly from the camera.
©2024 Bo Zarts Studio

Or, if not that, it's the head shot they use on their CV.

Each time was around dusk. They are incredibly difficult to see at dusk, they almost seem to have that camouflage ability of the Alien in the movie "Predator".

Great shot!