My Harem was created at Katmai National Park and Preserve, a United States national park in southwest Alaska, notable for the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes and for its brown bears. The park and preserve encompass 4,093,077 acres (6,395.43 sq mi; 16,564.09 km2). Most of the national park is a designated wilderness area. The park is named after Mount Katmai, its centerpiece stratovolcano. The park is located on the Alaska Peninsula, across from Kodiak Island (Original 2). On the boat and going towards Prince William Sound, looking for additional brown bears hangout, we encounter this large haulouts of Steller Sea Lions when they come out of the water to bread. The image depicts a large bull with several of his ladies.
Nikon D5 with the Nikkor 500 mm f/5.6 PF and with these settings: ISO 1400, f/8 and 1/2000 sec. The image was PP in LightRoom and cropped. The additional image labeled original1 is a Pano reconstruction of several images of the whole rock with the sea lions (we were too close and I had the 500 mm lens on).
6 comments posted
Bruce Benson
I have been to Katmai many times and it is indeed an amazing place, especially for the brown bears. I actually like the pano imager as well. Your image shows the difference in size of the male vs the females. Bruce Posted: 11/13/2024 03:00:49
Chris Walsh
Isaac, I love this shot, and the pano is nice as well. It looks like you had really lovely light.
All of the eyes are in focus, their postures complement the focus, and the bit of color in his teeth adds a little bit extra.
Well done. Posted: 11/15/2024 22:19:37
Barbara Gore
Hi Isaac. The cropped version creates a nice triangular portrait pose. The image is sharp, with soft lighting, and the colors of the sea lions and water complement each other. While I appreciated the close up version, I find the original gives me a stronger sense of place, which I like a lot. Very nice images. Posted: 11/18/2024 12:53:12
Maria Small
There is a place in the central coast of California, Morro Bay, that I love to visit and where a lot of fishing takes place and thus attract large numbers of sea lions. When I was there in last August, I saw a whole bunch of sea lions whose behaviors I observed with so much delight and joy. I like this portrait of the male and the females, particularly their different postures and facial expressions which seem to indicate their level of interest in the male when that moment was captured. The one directly below him seems to be begging for his attention. It's interesting how the story of a successful image can create other stories in the viewer's mind. Posted: 11/19/2024 00:16:08
Adrian Binney
Love this Isaac! Pyramid shape, the action and 'look' of those on the pyramid, plus the relative size male > female. Your whole island shot is also good & interesting - I had never thought of taking a series of images with a long lens & merging! Will remember that! Posted: 11/19/2024 16:41:46
Dr Isaac Vaisman
Adrian, I do it all the time when too close with a long lens
Posted: 11/19/2024 17:05:53
