Back from Helgoland with a Seal ....

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi folks sorry for being very scares lately in here ......
lots of reasons that had nothing to do with photography .
I took a quick break from work for a week , to getting prepared for a little ........ plus i spend some days on Helgoland to visit " my " seals .
Well the weather was great as long as i stayed at the Gannet rookery ...... as soon as i entered the Seal area the weather changed ....... not as bad as last year ....... but close to. I wanted to be clever and booked a very basic wooden hut on the little dune island ,where the Seals usually hang around on the beach .As i can go out with sunrise and stay until sunset .
This time they did not show up that often and has been very skittish compared to all previous visits i made ...... for whatever reason !!!
But all in all i had 4 wonderful days on Helgoland with a big surprise i will post in Avian ..... maybe tonight or tomorrow .

So hopefully i can be more active again in the next weeks , cause i have to stay at home the whole time due to a health issue to be sorted out .

So here is one of my speedy Grey Seal youngsters flying over the beach to get away from another one chasing him/her .
Hope you like it .

Canon EOS 1 Dx
Ef 200-400 IS L with TC engaged .
handheld

F 8 ; Iso 2000 ; 1/2000 ; man exp ; Auto Iso

Processed with DPP 4 and PS CC 2014 ; cropped for comp and very little gardening of OOF stuff .

Thanks for looking and commenting to my previous stuff .

Will comment later to your images , have to go ...

Cheers Andreas

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Andreas!

We've missed you Boetie, as well as your images!

This is superb - love the colours, the movement from the seal, subject tack sharp. I particularly like the smoothness of the sand and the sea...Feels as if I could reach out and touch the seal, he stands out so beautifully - stunning work, my friend!

The composition is perfect Andreas, if I were to nit-pick - which I have been doing a lot in your absence, LOL - I would complete the gardening job by removing that tiny white OOF pebble at the bottom of the image.

This afternoon I dashed to the Game Reserve for an hour or so - you would have loved being there! Just as I was making my way home I stopped to look at some buffalo, eventually I was surrounded by about a hundred of them so I could not move. Meanwhile, a herd of ellies started screaming in the distance...as I turned to look where they were going I saw another of the big five species, three of them and they were play-fighting behind the vehicle. Awesome sighting and I could not turn around to get a good angle on them special ones, if I just stuck my elbow through the window I would have brushed the head of a buffalo:) Got some interesting shots nevertheless, will share soon and looking forward to your input, as always.

Thank you so much for sharing this superb capture, will look out for your images in other Forums too, love your work in Landscapes by the way:)

Warmest regards,

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Andreas - Welcome back! I really like the sense of movement and the color palette here. Does it need the slightest amount of ccw rotation or was the beach sloping slightly? I agree about the rock at the bottom center.

I hope you get the health issue sorted and wish you a full and speedy recovery.

TFS,
Rachel

[Dvir Barkay]

Very nice, very soft almost dreamy feel which I like.

[Andre Pretorius]

Hi Andreas

Looks like this seal is either flying or doing push ups at speed!
Love the POV, were you or your knees?
DOF well chosen, stunning detail on the subject.
Is this almost FF, would like to see slightly wider comp?
Only crit I have- I know you can extract more detail from that eye..:2eyes2:

Cheers Buthi, hope you get better soon!

[Morkel Erasmus]

Hi Andreas, welcome back! :cheers:
I love the soft pastel colours here, and a great pose/angle as well against the surf. Wouldn't mind having this in my files!
Good luck with your health, hope it gets sorted quickly my friend.

[haseeb badar]

Hi Andreas -- lovely soft colours and a great pose ! i certainly would have prefered more space in the front but this is also looking good !
wish u a speedy recovery !!

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Andreas, a very nice capture and I really like the soft colour palette here. I might be tempted to add either a black or dark shadow Curves/Levels adjustment to create a tad more 'depth'. Be careful on the 'gardening' you don't want to make it look to manicured & sterile.

TFS
Steve

[Andreas Liedmann]

Thanks to all of you who commented , much appreciated .
Oh yes i should have removed the pebble on the bottom :bg3:, just overlooked it .
rachel i already leveled the image to a degree i would normally not do , as the Seal is running up a slope .
Steve i just removed 3 OOF pebbles , and i am fin with the depth of the frame as i wanted to keep the soft overcast look with very flat light and almost no shadows .:wave:, but understand your view without having been there .

Thanks again , Andreas

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Love the gentle colours as well and the framing.
A very nice image, well executed Andreas!
TFS