Theme - Harbor Seal

During my zoo trip back in August, we, that is, me and my older brother who came with me, signed up for their seal feeding. So we got to go behind the scenes and feed their two harbor seals! This is a portrait of Action, and the other seal's name was Bubba. A very cool experience being able to get up close and personal with the seals, and it made for some great photos. :S3:

I used three textures on this photo, one from Flypaper Textures and two of Kim Klassen's textures. I also used an Orton effect and a slight blur overlay.

The soft color palette is wonderful. So are the ripple lines and the colors from the seal in the water. The only thing I wish were different is that dark spot to the right of the eye. It was a few seconds before I could recognize what was in the water because I thought that was its eye.

Lovely, soft, gentle treatment Christopher. The textures are perfect for the image. Dennis, I think the dark spot you're talking about is his ear?

Thanks Dennis and Cheryl! That dark spot is indeed his ear. I can try to lighten it a bit though.

Nicely processed Christopher. I think if you had a shot with more eye contact, it would have been more effective. Still nice as presented though.

Thanks Jackie. I was shooting with just one hand because my other hand was touching the fish we were feeding, so it wasn't exactly easy to get good photos. I do have a couple photos with better eye contact than this one, though.

What a fun experience! Beautiful texture work around the seal. The seal itself is a bit too fuzzy/out of focus for me. I would not know what it was except for the title.