Whoa Mom! Chill...

Whoa Mom! Chill...

I hope no one looks at this image and says "Yeah, that reminds me of my mom."

I've recently found a species I like photographing as much as bears - Steller Sea Lions. And, in a way, I like them for the same reason - they're just so darned animated and show SO much personality! This past summer I was lucky enough to spend a little over 3 minutes with this female sea lion and her pup. In those 3 minutes they gave me an incredible array of emotion-generating behaviours and expressions. Over the next week or so I'll post each of the images to show you what I mean. Great fun with great subjects!

In this shot I loved how the young pup was leaning so far over to avoid mom's gaping mouth (and sharp fangs!). I have to admit I was tempted to title this shot "Halitosis" - maybe I should have...it might have enticed some mouthwash companies to buy the image!

Subject: Mom and pup Steller Sea Lions (Eumetopias jubatus)
Location: Northern Vancouver Island, BC, Canada
Camera: Nikon D4
Lens: Nikkor 400mm f2.8 VRII lens - hand-held from Zodiac. VR on and in "Normal" mode.
Exposure: 1/1600s @ f6.3; ISO 2200. -1.0 stop compensation from matrix-metered exposure setting.
Crop: Minor - this is about 85% of full frame

Additional details about the image (including processing details) available here:

http://www.naturalart.ca/galleries/latest/.

Comments and critiques welcomed - probably best to view the larger version prior to doing so!

Cheers...thanks for looking...

Brad