Although my 70-200mm lens in a bit heavy, there are several reasons why I love it. One is the opportunity to get a close shot of nature with minimum disruption to my wild subjects, in this case, the seals near Blakeney Point. There are two types of seals in the area, this first photo is of a Grey Seal:
ISO 1250 195mm f/16 1/500 sec
Here is the original shot.
ISO 1250 195mm f/16 1/500 sec
This next photo is of the Common Seal:
ISO 1250 170mm f/16 1/640sec
Here is the original of that shot:
ISO 1250 170mm f/16 1/640sec
These photos were taken from a boat and my lens was set at 195mm and 170mm for the photos. In addition to having a long lens another trick to making the seals look closer than they were is to crop the images. In the case of the first photo, the crop is fairly small. I didn’t want to lose the shore or too much of the water as I thought they were important parts of the photo. I was more aggressive with the second photo in a couple of ways. The first is the crop, I’ve removed the blood-streaked seal completely. Secondly, I have changed the tone of the photo completely. While I warmed the first photo a bit, for this second one I wanted to change it completely, make it look like I had taken the shot in completely different light conditions. It’s a different look, but you still can tell how well these seals blend with their surroundings.
What do you think of my photos and their edits? Do you have a favorite? Feel free to leave a comment below.
A variation of that first image made it into my Instagram feed:
Picfair: Grey Seal and Common Seal
Added to Travel With Intent: Afar and Thursday Special: Marine.
Cheers!
Photography Journal Blog 
Nice seal images – they are a welcome sight afar. And of course I enjoyed seeing them up close too. You’re right – they blend incredibly well with the background.You’ve does well to get these clear images with a long lens on a bobbing boat.
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Thank you very much, as you can imagine I have plenty of blurry images that are in the desktop trash but ended up with enough shots to be happy 🙂
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#1 is my favourite. Those eyes!
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Thank you, that was a shot that I couldn’t be sure would work until I got it home. There was a lot of movement in the boat to contend with.
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worth the heavier lens – love Blakeney and the way grey seals look. The 2nd edit is closer to sand colour and probably better for the contrast of common seal skin patterns
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Yes, well worth bringing that lens along in my opinion. Blakeney is a lovely area.
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It amazes me how the tone can change the picture so much – and in the warmer tone one we lose the silver and grays but the water seems to come alive more – even the rocks take on a new life –
and I did not realize the seal to the right had blood on it?? wow
and I like the instagram one too
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Thank you very much. The blood is fine in terms of a natural image that reflects real life, but for this particular edit, I was going more for the awww…
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yes – and blood evokes ugh or tears and not the awww – so good call
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Thanks!
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wonderful photos. Their eyes are so expressive.
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Our boat captain said this a few times and I agree, it does seem to be a case of who is watching who? 🙂
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Love the little sweetheart peeking out of the water. 🙂 🙂
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Thanks, it was a moment that I was happy to capture.
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There’s something almost unbearably cute about a seal’s head poking out of the water.
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Yes, I agree. The boat was bobbing up and down a lot so I was happy to be able to get this photo.
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The cropping works so well. I did the same in a recent post on Alaska. I certainly don’t have the lens power you do but it did work quite well.
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Yes, I read that post, but here is the link for people who maybe haven’t run across it yet: https://traveltalesoflife.com/glacier-bay-lodge-alaska-best-kept-secret/
Did you do the cropping on the photos from the boat tour I’m wondering?
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Amy the photo of the seal on the iceberg is the one I cropped. It’s a bit fuzzy as I didn’t have a tripod but it seemed to work. Thanks for sharing the link here. Very kind of you.
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I do think it works here Sue, particularly since it is being used in a blog post. It wouldn’t work at all as a large print in my opinion, but in terms of the telling a story, it works very well.
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Thanks Amy. Much appreciated.
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🙂
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It’s been really interesting to see what you do with the filtering to create specific effects – moods, dare I say? – over these past couple of years, Amy. I liked these two seal photos and I know what you mean about getting the better photos with heavier equipment. Thanks!
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Yes, I think “moods” is a perfectly legitimate way to describe that.
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Yes!
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Lovely work 🙂
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Thank you very much!
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Love the photos. Not the easiest to do in a moving boat!
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Yup, plenty of files went straight to the trash! Thanks for your visit and comment 🙂
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