Move along, nothing to see here.
October 25, 2021Or, spot the seal.
I have just been processing some photos that I took a few weeks back in Scotland (here, at the shore of the Isle of Raasay) of a group of Common Seals. What really struck me was just how well these animals were camouflaged against the shoreline of tumbled, barnacle and seaweed encrusted basalt boulders. Indeed, I had to search quite hard among my collection here to find one image where they did show up reasonably well. Without a pair of binoculars or a long lens they are a challenge to spot from a boat; even if you are within a couple of hundred metres of the shore. Common seals are particularly attractive and considerably smaller that our other seal, the Grey Seal.
Gear: This was taken from a boat so I tend to go for a light lens with a little less magnification and a very fast shutter speed to minimise the inevitable motion of the sea. Consequently this was taken with a Nikon D500 with a 300mm PF f/4 lens. ISO 400, f/4.5 and 1/1250s shutter.