lurking

[John Chardine]

This is from 2007 when I was still shooting Nikon. Anyway, as I am returning for my 9th year to Antarctica in just a few weeks I thought I would reminisce with some older images.

This is of a female Leopard Seal at Port Lockroy. She was very interested in what we were doing ashore and stayed with us up close for a long while. She was a great girl! This is almost B&W but trust me this was how I remember the scene.

Comments welcome!

PS I have more and will do a short series over the next while.

NIKON D70, 70-200 f2.8 @ 200mm
capture date: Tuesday, 30 October 2007, 8:13 AM
exposure program: Shutter Priority
ISO speed: 200
shutter speed: 1/200
aperture: f5.6
exposure bias: +0.0
metering: Pattern
flash: OFF

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Awesome timing and those eyes put this image over the top for me John. Will look forward to see what images you will capture this year. Thanks for sharing this wonderful image.

[Charles Glatzer]

John,

Wonderful image, and I love the monochromatic look.

Best,

Chas

[Steve Maxson]

Hi John. This is an outstanding shot - sharp, good DOF, well composed, and I like the gray on gray. This brings back a lot of memories - this is what we did not want to see when we were out in out Zodiacs!

[Steve Canuel]

Very nice shot. I really like the color, texture and detail of this. I especially like the eye contact and the water beads on the whiskers.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

John,
A fine image. I love those eyes and the almost monocromatic scene. Look forward to more.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Robert Amoruso]

John,

The almost B&W look is appealing and lends itself well to this image. Love the slight purple in the eye as the most noticeable color.

Composition just right -a superb image.

[David Fletcher]

Wonderful shot John. Very deceptive too, for this killer. Beautiful image. WD!

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like this image a lot! Great use of the almost B/W effect, mood and composition.

[Tony Whitehead]

Love it, John. Texture is lovely. D70 was a great camera.

[Ken Watkins]

Just going through what I missed whilst away, and this blew me away.
Everything has been said I would just like to add I wish it were mine!

[John Chardine]

Many thanks for all the great comments. I hope to get more images of this amazing mammal when I'm next south in November-December.

I agree Tony the D70 was great- it got me into the digital side of photography. I remember it being really slow though, and I didn't have the computer horsepower to process RAW images back then so I shot jpegs, usually with some in-camera sharpnening set (yuk). It's amazing how the technology has moved ahead so far over the past 2-3 years.