As I popped into a local bird sanctuary I had no idea that birds would be the last thing to steal the show on this particular morning. In one of the hides I noticed a family of spotted-necked otters swimming about very close to the hide. They were very inquisitive and curious about my presence there. I was the only person around, and pretty soon they let go of their timidness and climbed out onto the rocks below my position to inspect my lens protruding from the hide opening.
The next moment, one of them dove down into the water and came back up with the head of a freshly caught catfish. It then proceeded to eat a large part of it right in front of me on the rocks. I had too much glass and only one camera/lens combo with me, so I took off my 1.4x TC and moved to the best possible vantage point. Unfortunately the little guy was sitting in the shade of the hide most of the time so the light was left wanting. The shots I got make up for that in terms of detail, behaviour and things like this stare I got. This was my first sighting of this rare otter and I will remember it for a long time.
All critique most welcome. This is full frame with a wee bit cropped off the RHS.
Techs:
Canon 7D with 300mm f2.8 L IS USM
f7.1 @ 1/250 SS @ ISO-1600
Exp +1
Took out a lot of the 'cold blue shaded' look here...didn't want to desaturate the blue/cyan channels in totality...what do you think?








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