The Antiterrestrial

The Antiterrestrial

Another one from my recent Marine Mammals photo tour...

I've long felt that Harbor Seals are under-appreciated, both as photographic subjects and as fascinating animals that just look really cool. Of course a large part of their fascinating look comes from their amazingly large and dark eyes which, in many situations, appear to be very dark magenta in colour. Behaviourally Harbor Seals often exhibit a kind of yin-yang "curiosity with wariness" - so they commonly swim up moderately closely to you, but instantly disappear between the surface (usually with a big splash) if you move too quickly or point a camera at them!

I like shooting low-level shots of wildlife, especially those in water. In this case I was shooting from a Zodiac inflatable boat and got as low as I could to minimize the impression I was looking down at the seal. Additionally, I shot the image with quite a long lens (600mm), again for the reason of creating the illusion I was in the water with the seal (using a longer lens allows you to pick up and capture up the subject at a greater distance, thus reducing the downward angle of the camera).

The image title? Oh...that's a reference to how much more home seals are in the water than on land (so graceful in the water, so awkward on land!). Ironically, the comfort of seals in water (and their instinctive behaviour of fleeing into it when danger approaches) can be counterproductive at times. On one occasion a group of us watched as a pod of transient Killer Whales (which selectively eat marine mammals) approached a group of Harbor Seals that were safely sitting up on haul-out rocks. As the Killer Whales approached the seals got increasingly agitated, and began jumping into the water to escape the danger. Hmmmm...

Subject: Curious Harbor Seal (Phoca vitulina)
Location: Northern Vancouver Island region, BC, Canada
Camera: Nikon D4s
Lens: Sigma Sport 150-600mm zoom @ 600mm - hand-held from floating Zodiac.
Exposure: 1/1250s @ f8; ISO 1000. -0.33 stop compensation from matrix-metered exposure setting.
Crop: Moderate - this is about 75% of full frame...

A lot more info about this shot - including a 2400 pixel version of the shot - can be found here on my website.:

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

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

Cheers...

Brad

PS: Like all wildlife images on my website and that I post on NPN, the subject is fully wild and completely unconstrained. Besides the potential impact of my presence, nothing has been done to intentionally alter or affect the ongoing behavior of the subject and, of course, there has been no use of any form of bait or other form of wildlife attractants (including vocalizations)