All Wrapped Up...
One from my annual August
"Humpbacks, Orcas, Sea Lions and More" aquatic mammals photo tour.
I captured this shot partly because I've always found sea otters really cute (and very challenging subjects) and partly because I liked how it showed the otter in close association with bull kelp - and they have a tight and complex relationship with kelp (and that relationship is tied to conservation and re-introduction issues involving sea otters).
I often like to place my subjects "low" in the frame - effectively "grounding" them. That's partly because I prefer my images to have only one out-of-focus zone in them (the foreground and subject), and partly because on any landscape the subjects do tend to be low in the scene (there is a pretty massive sky above in most cases!). In this case though, the background got increasingly bright above the subject and - in my opinion - increasingly distracting. So, I compromised by placing the body of the sea otter close to the vertical mid-line of the image, with the main subject (the otter's head) in the good ol' "power point" specified by the rule of thirds. Not perfection, but a workable compromise (I hope!). I'm aware I could crop more from the bottom but I have to admit I'm getting a little tired of excessive use of panos cropped to fit the subject matter...
Subject: Sea Otter (
Enhydra lutris) hanging in the kelp...
Location:Northern Vancouver Island, BC, Canada
Camera: Nikon D4
Lens: Nikkor 400mm f2.8 VR VR lens - hand-held from floating and bobbing Zodiac. VR on and in "Normal" mode.
Exposure: 1/1600s @ f8; ISO 1100. No compensation compensation from matrix-metered exposure setting.
Crop: This is about 85% of full image horizontally, slightly more cropped from bottom
As always, for more about this image (including processing details). In this case I discuss the relationship between otters and kelp (and how humans are intertwined into it all). Just go here:
http://www.naturalart.ca/galleries/latest/detail_2.html.
Comments and critiques welcomed - probably best to view the larger version prior to doing so!
Cheers...
Brad
PS: While many of those residing on the underside of the Canadian-US border were doing turkey things over the weekend, I was slaving behind the computer (poor me, eh?). The result was a new "Animalscapes and Enviroscapes" Gallery on my website. Some of you might enjoy it...view it here:
Gallery of Animalscapes and Enviroscapes 
Comments
6 commentsLove these Characters a lot. They seem to really enjoy themselves, whether eating or playing and are a Treat to observe & with their fast movements being challenging to capture an image.
Well Done !!:) the water reflections are handled very well, love the rim lighting on the Kelp. Paws, whiskers , ears & nose are Sharp in Focus. The eye seems a little soft while viewing from my monitor, it seems to be at the furthest limit of the focused area?
Thanks for sharing
Bill
Thanks - you're right - these guys are always fun (albeit normally tough to shoot - kind of the photographic equivalent of "Whack-A-Mole").
The eye is sharp - best to check it on the 2400 pixel version (on my website). There's a boundary layer of water covering both the eye and fur around it (it had just done a a roll and dunked itself immediately before I shot this), which always makes images look just a tad soft - perpetual issue to deal with when photographing anything furry in the water (dolphins, killer whales, and humpbacks are exempt from this problem, largely owing to the scarcity of hair on most of their bodies).
Cheers...
Brad
Marvelous capture of typical behaviour of this animal, thank goodness none of the kelp got in the way
Really appreciate reading your thought process behind the photo construction. Definitely not an easy animal or situation to come away with a great photo but you managed it!