Dinner is served... Seal Sushi

[Josh-H]

I haven't posted anything in a while - so its time for sharing  

This female Polar Bear was most co-operative with posing. I was fortunate to stumble upon her with a kill under the midnight sun. Shot at 81º North of Svalbard from M.S Origo through the open porthole in my cabin (luxury Polar shooting!)
Canon EOS1DX w/ Canon 200-400mm F4L IS w/ inbuilt 1.4TC

[francois]

Superb! It's becoming very rare to see blood in wildlife photography…

Congrats.

[Paulo Bizarro]

Fantastic shot.

[john beardsworth]

Sure it's a seal?

[Josh-H]

Sure it's a seal?

Positive - I watched it skin it, and eat it.

[Rajan Parrikar]

Superb image.  Looks like the new Canon 200-400 is a performer.

[KirbyKrieger]

Fantastic.

If I bought it I'd ask to have it include the complete blood trail off to the right.

[graeme]

Positive - I watched it skin it, and eat it.

Glad to know that - great image Josh.

[Christoph C. Feldhaim]

This is one of the greatest wildlife images I have ever seen.
Authentic, touching, deep.
Awesome.

Thanks for posting that!
~Chris

[Roman Racela]

Wonderful! The bear didn't invite guests for sushi dinner?

[mattpallante]

Incredible! Thanks for this!

Matt

[Robert-Peter Westphal]

Hello,

this is a great photograph and at least it is no less great to see a polar bear not starving and floating on a little icecake, which is not the normal situation nowadays !

Robert

[kaelaria]

Sweet!  Now he needs a Coke in one paw...lol

[Chris Calohan]

The original Mask of the Red Death

[wolfnowl]

Nicely done!  From the one image, it looks more like a male to me, but I could well be wrong.

Mike.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Great shot, Josh.
And I'm glad you got to come back to process and show it to us. I guess you didn't look much like a seal to the polar bear.

[Justan]

I like the work, and as other commenters stated, it is an excellent composition and capture.

I wonder how much commercial appeal a capture such as this has? That is not intended as a critique but rather open curiosity about what consumers like gory subjects. Would it be better presented in a gallery, museum or on the pages of a magazine?

[jjj]

Superb! It's becoming very rare to see blood in wildlife photography…

Oddly enough only yesterday I saw another shot of some polar bears, a lot of blood and the remains of their meal and thought it unusual to see such a photo.  This is a much better shot though.
Josh, you should enter it into next year's Natural History Museum competition.