 Featured Photo #7 -- Elephant Seal At Sunset |
Nikon
F5 Camera Nikkor AF 80-200mm f/2.8 Lens SB-26 Flash Aperture Priority; Matrix Fill-Flash
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| Some of my most memorable photographs are featured in this section, along with photo tips and the story behind the making of each photograph. I hope these images inspire you to go out and experience your own memorable moments. |
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Featured Photo #7 -- Elephant Seal At Sunset |
Nikon
F5 Camera Nikkor AF 80-200mm f/2.8 Lens SB-26 Flash Aperture Priority; Matrix Fill-Flash
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| Mid December is a good time to visit if
you like to make portraits of individual seals, like the sub-adult male shown above -- the
seals are more spread out along the beach, and are easier to isolate for a clean
composition. This is the time of year when young bulls are often seen
"play-fighting", while mature bulls, weighing up to 7000 pounds, occasionally
get into savage and bloody fights to establish territory. As the sun nears the horizon in late afternoon, wet sand on the beach glows like liquid gold and the ocean is a mosaic of gold and purple. These elements, combined with silhouetted offshore rocks, make for beautiful seascapes. Add elephant seal for foreground, and you have the potential for an exceptional image. While birds and most land mammals have recognizable outlines that can be effectively silhouetted, backlit seals look like rounded rocks unless they are properly illuminated. From previous experience I have found the F5's RGB Matrix meter, SB-26 flash, and "D" lenses combine to consistently produce pleasing automated fill-flash. With the above image I added one third of a stop of exposure to the camera's matrix reading to compensate for the brightness of the sky. As the sun sinks below the horizon and shutter speed drops below 1/60 second, switch to "rear-curtain sync" on the Nikon flash to allow synchronization with ambient exposure for a more natural look. Also, with low light you may have to manually focus if the camera's AF does not work effectively, especially if distance to the subject is beyond the reach of the flash's autofocus-assist beam. In such situations, lenses with large apertures pay for themselves -- a larger aperture provides for a brighter image in the viewfinder to facilitate manual focusing, faster shutter speed, and longer flash distance. Faster film also helps with the latter two variables. The above photograph was published in the National Geographic book, Wild Ocean -- America's Parks Under The Sea, authored by Sylvia Earle and Wolcott Henry. The book, published in 1999, covers all of North America's Marine Sanctuaries, including Monterey Bay Marine Sanctuary, within which the San Simeon elephant seal colony is located.
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