Big Bull, a photo from South Georgia Island, Other

Photographer's Note

This is an alpha bull elephant seal, they are so much bigger than the other elephant seals it's amazing. You don't want to irritate him - he seems to be displeased about something here but the King penguins (and the human as well) take it in stride and keep a safe distance.
We spent hours observing the wildlife behaviors, and could have spent hours more, it's endlessly fascinating and entertaining.

trasher, quantabeh, serenadanesi, mattmichel, wanderlust has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

Kolyamour (1760) 2005-02-18 13:03

Amazing animal! I've never seen so large elephant seals...
Thanks for share.
Nikolay

trasher (195) 2005-02-18 13:55

Amazing animal... i have never seen anything like that. Thanks for sharing this picture, David!

guacamole (26) 2005-02-18 16:05

Great wildlife shot David R!! Nice Capture, i like the interaction between the elephant seal, the penguin and the man! A thighter framing could have been interesting! See ws.

[workshop] [compare] +

Jeppe (18654) 2005-02-19 3:43

Oh - what a monster - hard to be believe to size - and the man even appears bigger. Thanks David for this fine documentary and shot. I can spot one more in the background.

caspita (395) 2005-05-24 20:54

Great capture. I have seen elephant seals, but nothing like this one! The man in the shot give it perspective. Well done!

rickl69 (124) 2006-12-29 1:03

Holly Cow! Or should I say Holly Bull? That is an amazing shot. I like your DOF that pulls the eye right into the Bull. Having the other photographer in there also gives quite the perspective as to how big this thing really is. I would have loved to see his hole body in the shot. Thanks for sharing.

anaines (827) 2007-02-05 8:58

It is incredible huge!! Amazing that the man was so happy with such a big boy near him, hahaha. Very nice picture of nature, nice dof, I like the penguins becoming blurred at the background of the photo.

Piotr_Angiel (2564) 2008-05-29 4:14

I must say that I don't like your photo. The reason of that is because I think this "red" guy is far to close to this elephant seal. There is a lot of regulations about distances in which you can go to observe wild life. This guy is 5-10 meters from the seal which make it upset and also it is dangerous for penguins (to be killed by such a big animal). In my opinion this kind of behavior is no observing wildlife - it is changing behavior of wildlife and it is a huge disturbance to this ecosystem: non-smiling face for that.

With best regards,
Piotr Angiel

roadends (888) 2010-03-04 1:10

I have to agree with the last commentor. A person should only get as close to a wild animal as to not alter it's behaviour. I think the angle of the shot makes the man here appear closer than he actually is, but it's still much much too close. It's obvious the seal is distressed by him being there.
Nice photo but this kind of stuff causes problems for everyone later on.