Family Time

Family Time

For the first six to eight months of their life young sea otters are fully dependent upon their mothers for all their needs. Most are born in the ocean and all are born with a thick fur coat that insulates them well. But in the first few weeks of life they are unable to swim and spend all of their time riding on their mothers chest and abdomen. When about one month old the pups start transitioning from a diet of milk over to solid seafood that mom dutifully delivers to them. By 5 months of age the young are diving and catching their own shellfish. And, by 6 to 8 months after the pup's birth mom is looking to ditch junior and find a new mate and begin the reproductive cycle all over again!

This shot shows a female sea otter swimming on the edge of a kelp forest with her almost-ready-to-wean pup. At this point the mother-offspring bond is still strong, and the otters remain in close contact, including a tremendous amount of touching (seconds before this shot junior was riding on mom's chest). Judging by the adoring look the pup is giving mom he (or she) probably has no idea that it won't be long before mom gives it the boot! Tough love coming real soon Junior - get ready for the real world!

When I looked at the raw version of this image what really grabbed my attention was the beautiful flowing reflections in the water. I captured this image using a Nikkor 400mm f2.8E VR lens combined with a TC-20EIII (2x) teleconverter. Used carefully (and with the right lenses) you can get very sharp shots out of this teleconverter with only minor degradation in image sharpness. But, I have noticed that with images captured with the 2x TC (and to a lesser degree with the 1.4x TC's) there is quite a bit of impact on the quality of the out-of-focus zones (i.e., on the bokeh). In most cases the out-of-focus (or OOF) zones captured when the 2x TC is used are "more jagged or jerky" and/or "nervous-looking" - and a whole lot less "smooth and buttery" - than if a good lens (like the 400mm f2.8E VR) is shot native. However, in this particular case, it appears that the teleconverter-induced bokeh "nervousness" has been softened somewhat by the uneven surface of the water, thus producing beautiful green streaked/banded reflections that look very painterly and actually ADD to the final image. Go figure, eh?

Subject: Female Sea Otter (Enhydra lutris) with pup
Location: Northern Vancouver Island region, BC, Canada
Camera: Nikon D4s
Lens: Nikkor 400mm f2.8E VR plus TC-20EIII (2x) teleconverter (800mm total focal length). Hand-held from floating Zodiac, VR on and in "Sport" mode.
Exposure: 1/1000s @ f9; ISO 4500. -0.67 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 it - 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)