Unfair !

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi folks this fairly big male (no beach master but big) played games with this female , after some time she tried to escape ,but he had somethings against her plan . Only after another male in his size came across he let her go.
I had so many nice sightings with these guys , and some in nice light.

Canon EOS 1 Dx
EF 200 - 400 IS L at 560 mm
Tripod

F 8 ; Iso 3200 ; 1/1000 sec ; manual exposure , + 1,67 EV

Processed in PhotoNinja and PS CC , cropped for comp , sadly i had to crop it , i just cut off the tip of the flippers of the left seal.

C&C welcome

Cheers Andreas

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Andreas - another nice one, almost looks like a ballet. Colors and detail look good. There's a spot just above the body of the one on the right almost all the way on the rhs that even I would clone out. Not sure about the leaf on the bottom right either.

TFS,
Rachel

[Nancy Bell]

Very nice flowing lines of the seals against each other. With the contrasting colors it looks like a ying/yang sort of shape. I like the detail of her foot pressing against him. I would consider cropping out all the OOF strip of foreground.

Since you have the same camera set-up that I just bought, what is your preferred focus point arrangement? I am experimenting. Any other suggestions for me that you discovered?

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Andreas, light and colour looks good on this, even perhaps 'vibrant'?

I like the way you have captured the 'lunge' forward by the male as he pushes the female back, I wonder if there is another crop that is an alternative to emphasis this more, 5x4/10x8? Techs look good, interesting how far you have to go on the ISO to get the SS, but obviously increasing the EV drops the SS, hope I can go the other way and shoot 800 & below soon, for a change.

TFS
Steve

[Andreas Liedmann]

Thanks Rachel,Nancy and Steve for your thoughts and RP.

Nancy it is just the first time i used the 1Dx intensively over 1 week for hours in all kind of situations , bright light ,low light, heavy rain and storm . And always worked like charm . If there was something wrong with the focus , it was me i think. Wrong settings or other stupid stuff happened.
I cannot give you suggestions because i just still experiment myself a lot, have not found the ideal setting i feel . Mostly i used Case 2 with all sort of AF point selections . I tried Case 5 + 6 in high speed action shots when the seals where going mad and running all over the place, difficult with the splashing water .

Steve - crop looks good could be an option. Regarding the exposure , i shot manual exposure most of the time with Auto Iso , specially in changing light conditions . I shot extreme ETTR , the price i have to pay is a High ISO result . By increasing the EV to get the desired overexposing you push the ISO .
The good thing is have very low amount of noise even with 20.000 ISO shot in low light on a really dark (storm clouds ) afternoon .But still wanted to have 1/1000 sec for action shots with the seals .

Cheers Andreas

[Morkel Erasmus]

Lovely light, action and clarity here - good vibrant colours too Andreas...
Good to see you pushing things on the ISO front

[Andreas Liedmann]

Thanks for watching and comment , Morkel
Andreas

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hmmm, I would call this " Dancing With Seals", just my two cents, like you always say....
I like Steve's crop although I would take a little sliver off the bottom...One tiny centimetre, that is. Beautifully exposed and stunning light.
You are having fun, Andreas! Like the detail just about everywhere, the colours, everything...Brilliant work, keep them coming!

Kind regards,

[Andreas Liedmann]

Thanks Gabriela and yes good choice of title for this one.
Andreas
Ps : why do you think i am having fun ?

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hmmm...good question, Andreas! And sorry to take so long to reply, been having some fun myself this week-end! I think you are having fun because you got some exciting images you must be proud of, because the titles are "spot on" - therefore you must be inspired by what you saw and captured, because - as you say - you are experimenting, which is generally considered a fun thing to do...

Hope your week-end was a pleasant one, wishing you a great week ahead!

Kind regards,

[edwardselfe]

Super image - like the OP crop and everything about it!
Ed