True North

This high key image was captured in the late afternoon sun. A mother polar bear and her cub were nestled into a rocky cliff side just off the coast of Hudson Bay. The sun was directly overhead and slightly behind them, not ideal lighting conditions for a normal exposure, which would be flat and lifeless. Their surroundings here were very dark rocks, a perfect backdrop to fade nicely into black. By exposing for just the highlights around the illuminated edge of the bear’s outline. Exposing for the highlights enables the rest of the scene to fall to black and gives an otherwise dull scene an interesting look!