Hear Ye, Hear Ye!

Here Ye, Here Ye!

Been waiting to use this Steller-Sea-Lion-imitating-a-town-crier image for awhile!

Those who've checked out Vincent's "Something to Say" post likely already know that change is afoot in the Wildlife Gallery. Vincent - after a number of years of steadfast (and, dare I say, "stellar") service is resigning from moderating in this gallery. I worked with Vincent for a number of years and can say that he did a great job from ALL perspectives - always professional, and always taking the high road! Thanks Vincent.

The other change is that after a year long "sabbatical" I'm returning to my "old" role of moderator of the Wildlife Gallery. I'll be joining Lon and Gary to complete the three musketeers trio (or is it the three stooges??). I resigned last January to free up time to sink my teeth into some conservation issues (one species-based, one region-based) that are close to my heart. I've now done enough of the "heavy lifting" on those initiatives where I can return to moderating in this gallery, which pleases me to no end! I think NPN is a fantastic resource and service...and I feel good about using my time contributing to it (and besides, Jim offered me a no-salary, no-trade, no-retirement deal I couldn't pass up!)

Many of the "regulars" in the wildlife gallery already know me and my style - both in moderating and in photography. To those who don't (and in short)...I'm a stickler in my own work for technically strong images with that "something extra" in them - be it awesome lighting, the portrayal of wildlife "personality", eye-catching contrast, etc. And, I'm anything BUT a "lister" who wants to amass as many species as possible in my image collection. This bias WILL come through in my critiques of your images...perhaps I should apologize for that now (I am, after all, Canadian)...but I hope you find that I'm fair and am offering feedback in the spirit of improving everyone's photography (including my OWN!). And enough of that!

The image: Although ignored as subjects by many, I find sea lions to be fascinating subjects. In this case, when I viewed this scene I was struck by the almost "wolf howling" pose of this male sea lion and loved the contrasting rock background (especially how the sea lion positioned himself against the rock that contrasted most with him!).

Subject: Steller Sea Lion (Eumetopias jubatus) playing town crier.
Location:Northern Vancouver Island region, BC, Canada
Camera: Nikon D4
Lens: Nikkor 400mm f2.8 VR lens - hand-held from floating (and "majorly bucking in the swells") Zodiac. VR on and in "Normal" mode.
Exposure: 1/1600s @ f6.3; ISO 800. No compensation compensation from matrix-metered exposure setting.
Crop: Minor - this is at least 95% of full frame

Feedback always appreciated!

Cheers...

Brad