Sea Otter

[Rachel Hollander]

I thought I would take a break from bears and post one of the other species I saw this trip. This sea otter was playing near the small boat docks in Seward, Alaska.

Canon 7D2
100-400 II @ 400mm
1/1250
f5.6
ISO 1600
HH from dock, cropped for comp (about 70% of ff), levels, curves, sharpened in PSCC.

C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,

Rachel

[John Mack]

Cool looking otter i like the water ripples behind its head. The water drops coming off its whiskers are nice as well.

[Steve Kaluski]

Love Otters, they are great fun and being in the Docks, they are very used to folk. Nice framing & detail, but there is more you can get from the image to add depth & tone and which also emphasises more of the cool bubbles from the bow wave of the head.

TFS
Steve

[Jonathan Ashton]

Rachel I like the image, I have just downloaded and applied curves with luminosity, firstly on Auto and then lifting the darkest point slightly, I think it helps.

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks John, Steve and Jon. I'll take a look but I guess I should have said in the intro that I liked the sort of high key bg of the water with little color except the bow wave.

[keith mitchell]

Hi Rachel,love the way you have caught this laid back Otter,it all looks lovely to me especially the water.

Keith.

[Stuart Philpott]

Thanks John, Steve and Jon. I'll take a look but I guess I should have said in the intro that I liked the sort of high key bg of the water with little color except the bow wave.

Rachel I've read the posts preceeding mine.is it possible to enhance the bow wave colours,add a bit more depth (he he oopmh,does that mean anything to you?:S3:) there but still keep that hi key kinda feel to the rest of the water. I really like this Rachel,inland otters here are not oft seen,tis getting better as we clean our waterways up,but to have some relatively used to folks must be a dream to make images of. such a characteristic pose of your sea otters.

Rachel a bit more in front for me(LHS),driven by the incomplete dark markings in said bow wave,detail wonderful.

cheers mate there is something about otters that always ...simply always brings a smile to me face,many thanks for sharing this

stu

[Gabriela Plesea]

Dearest Rachel,

Love this frame, what beautiful relaxed pose from this otter. Very nice detail and those long whiskers dripping with water are really cool!

POV is great, I also like the composition and reflection. Should you decide to follow Steve's suggestion above I would like to see, kindly share with us?
This might be suitable for a B/W as well, have you thought about it? Wonderful work in the field and nice PP work, love the clarity and IQ:cheers:

Warmest regards,

[Mike Hitchen]

A cool, pastel image of an adorable animal.

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks everyone for the comments and suggestions. I am surprised no one mentioned my biggest concern about the image - that the head is angled slightly away.

Thanks again,
Rachel

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Rachel these Sea Otters are so cool ...that we overlook the HA :bg3:
I do not think the head is angled too far away so i will say it works .Nice framing and the good amount of detail and color makes this for me , i would agree with Steve about a bit more tone in parts to get a bit more depth and definition .
Great that you posted this ....thank you.
TFS Andreas