Elephant Seals Fighting

[BillTyler]

Elephant seals fighting on the beach, Piedras Blancas, Central California coast.

Canon 5Dmk3
Canon 500mm f/4 + 1.4x extender
1/500 f/8.0
ISO 200

[Morkel Erasmus]

I quite like the amount of motion blur here with the hind seal being reasonable sharp still (lower jaw).
Contrast is a bit strong - presumably shot in late morning or early afternoon light. It's not helped the overall mood of the image I'm afraid. Certainly not bad enough to bin the image, though. Dig the flying dirt!

[Don Railton]

Hi Bill, This does convey an pretty aggressive situation nicely. I like the open mouths and flying dirt... DON

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Billy, the image isn't really working for me sadly for two reasons.

Firstly you needed more SS to nail the action, cracking up the ISO to say 800 (not a problem for the 5D) to get something like 1/2500 sec freezing the action. Secondly the BKG, you need a cleaner backdrop to isolate the subjects/action, if possible moving left or right to avoid objects is something to always consider. It may not always be possible, however checking the back of you camera for comp and things like this does pay off. Action like this is not one off's, so once you get the right position it's just a matter of timing.

TFS
Steve