It's just not fair....

One of my daily routines is checking in on Moose Peters0n.  

His enthusiasm for, energy with, and expertise in photography is contagious!  Well at least I hope the expertise is contagious.  I have mentioned before that I had the great opportunity to spend a few days with Moose, Joe McNalley and others in Oregon.  They poured out the courtesies and knowledge so much so that some of us went into overload.  Four days on two to three hours sleep.  It seemed liked seconds not days.  I look forward to another DLWS adventure soon with these world renowned photographer/teachers.  

Moose lives in the mountains of California.  On his web site today is a photograph of a bear.  It just happened to be a mother bear with cub in his yard!  Life is not fair!!!!!  In reality I am sure he has worked very hard for many years to live in a location of his choice.  Most of us dream of living in such a place.  When mentioning a home in mountains to my wife, before I got to the "wouldn't it be nice...." part one word shot from her mouth, "NO!".   Well I guess I'll keep dreaming.

I have locations like Yellowstone and many others where I may travel and enjoy shots like the one above.   My time with this cub, his brother and mother was just after sunrise to after dusk.  Mom did not cover much area.  The cubs played a lot and spent a good portion of the day in trees napping.  The dark fur made for an interesting exposure with my D-200 and 600mm lens.  My camera is rarely on spot metering.  So when exposing this scene in full daylight I had to consider the dark features of junior.  This final photo is cropped about 30 percent.  If I relied on average metering in the camera the greater portion of the original photo (plants)  would have created an under exposed cub.   The exposure comp was set one stop over.  Importing the photo I pushed the recovery a bit and dropped the exposure slightly.  Then dodged back the cub.  All these actions though slight created what I originally experienced.   

If only it was in MY backyard, in my P.J.'s heading out to get the morning paper!