P#8: A Tight Crop of the Nose and Claws of a Brown Bear Creates a Unique Photograph

A Brown Bear's Nose and Claws...

Roy Toft: Moving to another photo: the third photo is a really tight crop of a brown bear's nose and its claws.

We talked earlier about if you have the opportunity, if you're close enough and you have a big enough lens where you can focus in and crop a situation to be just where the interesting part is, you can take a photograph that is a little bit more artsy.

Obviously I could have photographed the whole bear's head. That picture would have been fine too, but I think to go in and just get the claws and the nose is much more interesting.

This was from my bear workshop in Alaska and we're on a platform, so I can be 15 feet away from this bear and not be in any danger or breaking any rules. (click the image for a larger version)

I could just go in with my telephoto and just crop out everything except for those wonderful claws and that nose.

I made a conscious decision not to put the eye of the bear in because we always tend to look at the eye. I thought, "Just to be a little different, let me not put the eyeball in, just the nose and the claws."

It's thought-provoking -- it's kind of obvious that it's a bear to most people, but it still makes you look around and be impressed by those claws. I just think it's an artistic shot of a brown bear -- a little different than what we normally see.

In summary

Experiment by focusing in and only shooting the most interesting parts of the animal you're photographing, as Roy did with this brown bear. It can lead to some artistic and unique shots.