Harbor Seal at Sunrise

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Photographed at Barnegat Light this morning a few minutes after sunrise. I'm wondering if you like the tight composition. It is only cropped a bit off top and bottom.

http://www.pbase.com/axelhi/image/120690111/original.jpg

1D3, 500f4, 1.4x, 1/100s, f/8, ISO 800

[Ken Watkins]

This is definitely a pose requiring a tight crop.
The only thing that is slightly distracting is the left hand bottom corner, I presume this is a flipper?

What a cutey!

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Sweet light. I like the pose and the eye contact. I agree with Ken that my eye goes to the flipper at the lower left. May be a further lower angle would have helped in avoiding that. However, it is not a major issue for me. Overall, I like this image. A further tighter crop would be good as well.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Stu Bowie]

Axel, lovely soft blues, browns and greys. I like the angled pose, together with the eye contact. Crop wise, I would liked to have seen a bit of space on the LHS, between the end of the whiskers and the edge of the image.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Axel, this has certainly the 'cute' factor and conveys a sense of helplessness within the expression.

The subtle colours work very well, and the detail in both the eye and nose are spot on. Crop wise I am with Stuart, a tad more room on the lhs for the whiskers and less on the rhs, plus reducing some space from off the top, but cropping is always a very personal thing. ;)

A very 'soulful' image.

Steve

[Harshad Barve]

Amazing image Axel , very well said above and agreed
TFS

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Thanks for the suggestions, it's much appreciated! Yes, it is a flipper in the lower left. Backing up or a lower angle was not possible. The seal was between two large rocks and I was on a jetty as far back as possible and I didn't have enough time to remove the TC.

[David Fletcher]

Works very well Axel. Gotta take what's given and the tight crop certainly works although being tight, leaves conundrums. (too tight, bit more space?)... no easy answer. Is it appealing. Yup. 200%, therefore effective. Nicely done.

[Doug Rodda]

Sweet image, I have yet to see seals at the jetty, are they often around?

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Sweet image, I have yet to see seals at the jetty, are they often around?

Thanks, Doug! It was the only time I've seen seals there. I'm not sure if they are still around.