I snapped this photo while riding the lift up the mountaintop during my 2023 trip to Tennessee. The view below was already stunning, but spotting a bear wandering through the trees made the moment unforgettable.
After cropping the image to the golden ratio, the bear appears slightly larger. I chose not to adjust the colors because every edit made the picture darker, and the bear practically disappeared into the shadows. Keeping the original preserved the clarity and the atmosphere of the scene. The warm fall foliage—deep oranges, golds, and fading greens—creates a beautiful backdrop that captures the crisp, quiet feeling of autumn in the mountains.
Hi Oi Kwan, what an incredible image! That must have been quite a moment. You absolutely followed the rule of thirds here and it’s a much improved image. He’s still a little bit far away, I wonder if the file wasn’t large enough to make him bigger? I love the background foliage–it really adds to the ambiance and overall beauty of the image. This is such a hard call because I’d love to see more of where those tree branches end (to the left of the bear in the cropped version) yet I understand why you made that decision, given the desire to put the subject on that 1/3 line. I wonder if you cropped it horizontally if you could keep the branches more intact as well as the bear in a good spot and still have enough of the foliage to give the idea of fall? It’s a great problem to have–the picture is so cool and you were smart to grab your phone/camera in time!
Hey Oi Kwan, I agree with Karen: this is an amazing photo! This photo funnily reminds me of a guided trail I walked in Tennessee in 2017, where I spent the entire time worried I’d see a bear and barely took in the scenery (lol). Cropping the bottom portion of the photo was a great choice because the darkness in that area pulls the viewer’s gaze downward. Since there isn’t much happening in the bottom of the frame, removing it creates a better balance in the hues and colors. It also brings more attention to the story of the photo: the bear in the tree and the beautiful foliage. Cropping part of the left side allows the main tree holding the bear to converge with the line of trees in the background near the one-third line, too. Nicely done!
Hello, Oi Kwan. That is a great catch. For me, cropping out the bottom portion of the photo was a good call. It creates the illusion that the bear is higher up in the tree than it actually is (he’s pretty far up there anyway). With the background taking up the majority of the image, it really feels like he’s really far out there. I haven’t tried myself, but I wonder if it’s possible to color correct the scatter effect causing the blue haze. If possible, that would really make the foliage pop.
Hi Oi Kwan! This is such a breathtaking image, with the beauty of nature surrounding the bear (as someone who has lived all of their life where there are VERY limited seasons, I’m always in awe of beautiful fall foliage!), both in the original and the cropped image. I agree with everyone that the choice to crop out the bottom of the image enhances the focus on the bear in the tree. I also noticed that removing the darkness at the bottom of the original makes the golden hues of the trees on the right, in particular, pop more. While the original image showcases the tree in the foreground, your choice to trim the left to place the bear and the main trunk in the left-hand third of the image really enhances what the true focus should be: the bear! I wonder if trimming just a bit more from the top (just to the main swathe of trees) and from the bottom (just past the divide in the limbs) would have given more of an impression of height to the bear’s climb? Either way, such a great catch, and I am envious of those fall colors!