blk bear rubbing on tree

Great capture Chas. he looks like a good sized boar.

Ooh, aah that feels so good.

Looks good, too, as usual.

jn

Oh, man, makes me want to scratch there, too. I love the brown grass by the feet showing the use this tree gets.

Paul

Cool shot! This guy looks oblivious to everything except scratching that itch.

Cool shot. I noticed the lens you were using here. How close were you?

Doug: Probably about 30-40 feet or less... Great shot Chas.. Really enjoy pictures that have behavior, action etc..

Nice, bet he is saying this feels good

This one put a smile on my face! The action and expression are great.

Hey Chas,

Great moment to catch .. not too many places anywhere where you can shoot a shot like this with so little distractions in the frame. And one very nice bear to boot!

The bear looks a little underexposed for me though .. like most of his fur is blocked up, there's only a few spots on his coat that seem to have detail .. I mention it only because I've NEVER seen an image of yours where the exposure looked funky to me .. and you say incident minus 1/3 ... I usually spot meter a black and open up 1 stop to 1 and 1/3 .. why so little compensation? (I'm guessing either the white patch ot the large amount of environment).

Thanks.

Cheers

Carl

This is excellent! I see some good detail in the black, but not all of it. That is to be expected in a lot of cases. Incident plus 1/3 seems right to me for a black subject in this light. Incident and spot metering black are totally different calculations since the incident's starting point is a middle tone and the spot meter is black (in Carl's example). The exposure looks pretty natural to me.

Hey Greg,

Thanks .. not being a user of incident meter's I was definitely confused there, and I can see exactly what you're saying. The bear still looks a hair under, but I appreciate the clarification. Thanks again.

Cheers

Carl

Hey guys, only the area under the neck appears close to blocking up on my monitor.

On flat-lit days not much comp need be applied from the incident recommendation regardless of the subjects tonality. Incident precisely sets the midtone, subjects that are brighter or darker fall naturally into place. There are many black areas on this bear, all varying in the amount of reflectivity. When spot metering black or white for that matter, you must be able to pick a tone, and compensate accordingly. An egret has many white areas, yet each area spot metered shows a different exposure. Incident eliminates the variables, and that is the key to consistency.

Best,

Chas

Hey Chas,

Thanks .. I know exactly what you mean about the varying tonalities of a subject and how different the exposure can be for each .. I may just order myself a shiny new incident meter for that very reason!

Cheers

Carl

Great shot Charlie!!! The exposure is DEAD ON! This is one of the classic behaviors that they do that I haven't been fortunate enough to capture. You did a nice job getting it here. Way to do big guy

Great behavior shot of this Boar, To me it looks perfectly exposed.
I do believe this Boar is "Patch" called because of the white patch on his chest. Just a little sad note, he was legally shot during the 3rd day of bear hunting in MN. During this time of year the bears will scent mark trees, which is what Patch is probably doing and not just scratching a itch. Boars will repeatedly use the same trees to have their scent cover-up anothers.