Gladiators Photo | TrekEarth

Photographer’s Note

On a wildlife boat excursion out of Juneau, I had opportunity to see these Stellar Sea Lions do battle on the shore. This was a standard testosterone affair, full of posturing and lots of noise. I remember thinking it was oddly reminiscent of the fights in an Arctic dogyard. The biggest difference was the response of the rest of the pack. Dogs get right into it, while the sea lions seemed much more interested in napping.

With some adults weighing in at over a ton, Stellar Sea Lions are the largest and Northernmost of all sea lions.

NB: For those who are curious, the one on the left won, with the other skulking away moments after this shot was taken.

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A friend was kind enough to lend me her Sigma telephoto for the trip. Although I'm eternally grateful for the loan, I was generally unhappy with the unclear results. Since I was shooting freehand, I imagine most of the blame goes on me.

I spent a lot of time playing with this one in PSP trying to regain some clarity. There were several rounds of sharpening and unsharp mask applied, as well as a light gaussian blur to the background. I also adjusted contrast and saturation a little.

It's still not a perfect shot, but it's better than it was and I like the character. You?

rabdelnoor has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

poulinp (4464) 2005-10-30 20:19

It's a good animal shot. I like your framing. I would have prefer a better DOF, to get at least the first line of Sea Lions sharp, and the background blured. But in a boat, I can understand you don't have the time to do some tests, so the picture is very nice like this!

fkk (1806) 2005-10-31 2:39

merhaba kai;
very good shot, i like the view
weel done

catman-fatih

bgladman (1153) 2005-11-05 16:36

Hi Kai,

I like this shot, the timing is good and the interaction between the seals interesting. framing. It's a shame that you were not happy with the Sigma shots. Telephotos are great for getting close but it can be difficult to get good results if the lighting is low. Still I think your PP was`quite sucessful. thx brendan

rabdelnoor (2973) 2005-11-08 15:21

Hi Kai,
Nice capture of these beautiful animals and also an informative note. I liked how you got a very sharp foreground with the background fading away. Great colors too.
Regards,
Ricardo