The Encounter

[Jay Gould]

Of course, this could be entitled Fur Seal meets Giant Southern Petral, Hercules Bay, St. Georgia. To show the location I have also posted in the Landscape Forum Hercules Bay, South Georgia http://birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?p=441049#post441049 :)

We went ashore at 6:30am - ugh! - it was bloody cold and snowing. HOWEVER, it was magnificant!

A beautiful waterfall at the top of the beach (still to be posted), lots of fur seals, and several varieties of penguins.

I was following the petral as it made it was from the beach into the water with wings outstretched when all of a sudden up popped the fur seal, the petral lets out a loud squawk, and the seal swims around the petral as though it wasn't there!

I hope you enjoy the image as much as I enjoyed watching the encounter. :D

Camera: 7D
Capture date/time: 8 Jan 10; 7:13AM
Light condition: overcast and snowing
Lens: 70-200 f/4
Focal length: 100
Extender: none
Distance: 8.8m
Tube: none
Flash/Comp: no
ISO: 400
Exp Prog: Tv
Speed: 1/500 sec
Aperture: f/4
Exp Comp: +1
Metering: Evaluative
WB: Auto
AF Drive: AI Servo
Tripod: no
Filter: None
Crop: minimal
Processed in LR 3 (beta) and then CS4 - plus Topaz Suite and Pixel Genius Sharpening.

We have had discussions about sizing; I still opt for manual sizing most of the time, however, here as with the feeding Gentoo Chicks image, there is so much information in this imager that manual sizing resulted in an image which required a very small quality for the jpeg, and PS Save For Web allowed for a jpeg 50 level quality.

All C&Cs gratefully appreciated!

[Nate Chappell]

Hi Jay,
I love the action you captured here and it's really well composed. To me the petrel looks quite crisp whereas the seal is not quite as sharp, some more depth of field would have been nice but it looks like you didn't have a lot of light to work with. Great work!:cool:

[Jay Gould]

Hi Jay,
I love the action you captured here and it's really well composed. To me the petrel looks quite crisp whereas the seal is not quite as sharp, some more depth of field would have been nice but it looks like you didn't have a lot of light to work with. Great work!:cool:

Hi Mate, as you can see from the f/stop - f/4 - I was wide open on the bird only! No DOF as the seal is located where I expected it to be soft.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Jay,
A nice natural history moment. Did the seal move away after some time? I would have been tempted to push the ISO to 800. However, not easy when these sudden interactions happen. I have never seen these fellows. It is good that I could see it through your eyes and lens. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Austin Thomas]

Hi Jay,

You have done very well to capture the action. I like the fact that there is detail under the wings of the Petral.

tfs

Austin

[Jay Gould]

Jay,
A nice natural history moment. Did the seal move away after some time? I would have been tempted to push the ISO to 800. However, not easy when these sudden interactions happen. I have never seen these fellows. It is good that I could see it through your eyes and lens. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

Hi Sabyasachi, I do not recall what the seal did other than surprise me and the petral! :eek:

There was no thought of changing settings; it was over before it started as the seal to my recollection instantly continued around the petral and climbed up on the beach. The seal was cool!