In the Field

Sunset on Aristazabal Island. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia. August 21, 2026.

I captured this shot of a coastal sunset during my "Summer in the Great Bear: Focused on Wolves" exploratory photo adventure in August of 2026. At the time I was field-testing out a new recently released zoom lens from Sony - their FE 100-400mm f4.5 GM OSS. For my own work having a quality lens to cover the focal range from 100-400mm (whether the entire range or key focal lengths within that range) is quite critical. If I'm being honest, I hadn't found a single variable aperture zoom lens in that focal range from ANY maker (including Nikon, Sony, Tamron, or Sigma) that really pleased me. Not only were the variable aperture options in the zooms in this range quite slow in the short end of the focal range, but the image quality just wasn't quite there. So I was quite excited when Sony decided to fill this gap in a quality lens in this focal range with their new fixed aperture option.

I'll say a lot more about this new lens during the winter of 2026/2027, but during this trip I can say now the lens pleased me very much. It produced very sharp shots at all focal lengths I shot it at (and I shot it a lot), its AF was very, very good, and even when shooting directly into the sun (see the image above) it resisted flare and its contrast held nicely.

The only other comment I'll make about the FE 100-400mm f4.5 GM OSS at this time is this: Overall it performed much more like a prime lens - and less like one of the "other" variable aperture super zooms covering the 100mm+ to 400mm+ range - than almost all other "super-zoom" offerings currently available. Bonus!

Here's a larger version (4800 pixel) of this sunset shot:

• Sunset on Aristazabal Island: Download 4800 pixel image (JPEG: 3.5 MB)

ADDITIONAL NOTES:

1. These images - in all resolutions - are protected by copyright. I'm fine with personal uses of them (including use as desktop backgrounds or screensavers on your own computer), but unauthorized commercial use of the image is prohibited by law. Thanks in advance for respecting my copyright!

2. Like all photographs on this website, these images were captured following the strict ethical guidelines described in The Wildlife FIRST! Principles of Photographer Conduct. As such, no baiting or any form of attractant was used and, as always, we attempted to minimize our impact on the ongoing behaviour of the subjects. I strongly encourage all wildlife photographers to always put the welfare of their subjects above the value of their photographs.

3. This image was captured during my Summer in the Great Bear: Focused on Wolves Exploratory Photo Adventure in late summer of 2026. Each year I offer photo tours into various locations on the amazing BC coast, including the Great Bear Rainforest and, every other year, into the Khutzeymateen Grizzly Sanctuary (to photograph grizzlies, of course!). Details about these trips can be found on the Photo Tours page of this website.

Behind the Camera

Sunset on Aristazabal Island. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia. August 21, 2026.

Compressed RAW (ARW) format; ISO 100.

Sony A7R VI paired with Sony FE 100-400mm f4.5 GM OSS lens @ 100mm. Hand-held from floating Zodiac inflatable boat. OSS on and set to Mode 1. Spot: XS (non-tracking) AF area mode with subject recognition mode turned off.

1/5000s @ f4.5; -1.3 stop compensation from multi-metered exposure setting.

At the Computer

Sunset on Aristazabal Island. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia. August 21, 2026.

Initial noise reduction and capture sharpening on the .arw (raw) file using the DeepPRIME XD3 algorithm of DXO PhotoLab 10.0 Elite (using the appropriate camera/lens module).

Subsequent adjustments to the adjusted linear DNG file (exported from PhotoLab) and conversion to 16-bit TIFF file (and JPEG files for web use) - including all global and selective adjustments - made using Capture One Pro (build 16.8). In the case of this image I made three global adjustments - a reduction of highlights and a bumping up of both the blacks and shadows. Selective local adjustments performed using Capture One Pro's layers and masking tools. In this case numerous small adjustments and minor tweaks were made on 6 separate layers, with the tweaks being associated with "exposure balancing" and contrast adjustments (such as adjustments to brightness, clarity, highlights, shadows, blacks, etc.).

Photoshop modifications included insertion of the watermark and/or text.

Conservation

Sunset on Aristazabal Island. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia. August 21, 2026.

Species Status in Canada: N/A.