Lost in a Warming World

Mother and 6 month old cubs on a small ice flow around 60 miles off the

coast of Svalbard in the high arctic summer. I hope this image highlights

the vulnerability of these most beautiful of creatures trying to adapt to a

world that is fast changing around them. Lost?

PLEASE CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO VIEW IT FULL SIZE AS IT IMPROVES THE QUALITY ENORMOUSLY

Great subject. Good technique and composition.

A stunningly beautiful image... excellent... Mike

 

 

While this is a wonderfully beautiful image it gives me a sad feeling ... You have really captured that moment perfectly, and you show here that even the sad things in the world can be very beautiful.. But how beautiful it is so can we not forget how frightening it is. Excellent work on this both shoot and feeling...

 

Best Regards Jill

This is a wonderful capture and unfortunately probably one of the last for those cubs. I can't imagine the ice lasting long, or the cubs making such a long swim. Assuming there isn't a large iceberg nearby.

 

Thanks for sharing -- Jeff

 

 

Beautiful Dennis.

I agree, viewing the image in larger version is much better. This is a very nice shot, I would clone out the little pieces of ice and the huge junk on the left. Again this is a great image, the exposure is spot on.

WOW...great capture....how did you do that??? Fantastic...

Rgds Dimitre 7/7

Thanks for the comments everybody they are very much appreciated.

 

Jeff, I think these cubs would have been fine actually. The piece of ice they're on was part of an ice field that stretched for many miles. It didn't go all the way to the coast but they would want to stay at sea for as long as possible anyway as this where mum can hunt seals and once they're forced ashore they will have to starve until the ice returns in winter. They can also swim many miles even at this age. We watched this and several other groups of bears swimming between ice flows and followed one large male for over an hour and they make swimming look almost effortless. This was July 2007 and at least in the Svelbard region there was a lot of ice remaining compared to previous years and the north of the archipelago was still ice locked so it was a good year for the bears. Sadly by all accounts 2008 had a record melt so the bears would have had a much harder time. All is not lost or not yet at least...

 

Thanks for looking

Den

 

Fantastic light and colors, great "family" moment too! Excellent image Dennis, well done.

Dennis, another fine shot in this series and your further details of the shot and locale add further to the image.

Great work, lovely reflection also. 7/7a Take care

Nothing to critique here. This is a superb image. Congratulation !

I have two comments. First, by giving this a title of "Lost in a Warming World", I get the feeling that you are trying to politicize this excellent nature photo. This is not a choice I would have made personally. I think it is somewhat dishonest since by your own admission the ice they're standing on was actually part of a miles-long ice field, and the ice was in fact especially abundant that year. Second, even though I don't really agree with the way you've tried to manipulate the viewer, I think you could have done it more effectively by cutting out the ice on the left side of the photo and moving the camera more to the right so that the ice they're standing on appears to be a tiny island in the middle of the sea with no other ice around. Also, from a compositional standpoint, it is somewhat bothersome that the right tip of the ice they're standing on is cut off.

Richard's points are valid, but I still rate this image at 7/7 as a very fine and unique piece of documentary. I agree that the title is politicized but personally do not find it completely incompatible with a documentary shot.

These animals are soo amazing..... Bravo'

sincerly, Shenandoah

Beautiful image! I love the curiosity of the little one peering into the water and perhaps studying his/her own reflection. Great capture. Thank you for sharing. :)

What a capture!

Hi Dennis,  I really like the title of this photo, I do think it is very apt, and love the look on the cubs, very, very good indeed. I have seen Polar Bears in the north of Prudhoe Bay, such wonderful, majestic animals.