In the Field

The Haul Out. Northern Vancouver Island, BC, Canada. August 20, 2012.

Steller Sea Lions are social animals that are often found in tightly-spaced groups on wave-battered rocks that are commonly known as haul out rocks. Photographing them presents a number of challenges to any photographer - everything from finding them, accessing them, and - from a creative perspective - finding a way to capture an image of them that doesn't look like complete chaos (just try to get 10 or more animals of ANY species to "pose" for you!). I've shot many, many shots of groups of Stellers on rocks and most have rapidly gone directly to my trash bin. But in August of 2012 we came across this group of lions acting almost cohesively and, fortunately for me, they were doing it right when very light cloud reduced the harshness of the scene just enough to let the colours in the scene absolutely pop! To date this is one of my favourite sea lion animalscapes. Or...is it an enviroscape? How do animalscapes differ from enviroscapes? For a discussion of the image types I call animalscapes and enviroscapes (and the subtle distinctions between them), just go here...

Anyway...call this shot whatever you want - here's a higher resolution version of this animalscapes/enviroscape for your perusal!

• The Haul Out: Download 2400 pixel image (JPEG: 1.0 MB)

ADDITIONAL NOTES:

1. This image - in all resolutions - is protected by copyright. I'm fine with personal uses of it (including use as desktop backgrounds or screensavers on your own computer), but unauthorized commercial use of the image is prohibited by law. Thanks in advance for respecting my copyright!

2. Like all wildlife photographs on this website, this image was captured following the strict ethical guidelines described in The Wildlife FIRST! Principles of Photographer Conduct. I encourage all wildlife photographers to always put the welfare of their subjects above the value of their photographs.

3. This image was captured during my "Humpback, Orcas, Sea Lions & More" photo tour in August of 2012. Each year I offer trips into two different parts of the Great Bear Rainforest as well as one to photograph aquatic mammals and oceanscapes near the northern tip of Vancouver Island. And, in selected years, I also offer photo tours to locations to capture other highly sought-after subjects, such as various owl species of the boreal forest and wildlife of Canada's Arctic. Details about these trips can be found on the Photo Tours page of this website.

Behind the Camera

The Haul Out. Northern Vancouver Island, BC, Canada. August 20, 2012.

Digital Capture; RAW 14-bit format; ISO 1400.

Nikon D4 with Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 VRII lens @ 90mm - hand-held from Zodiac. VR on and in "Active" mode.

1/1250s @ f8; no compensation from matrix-metered exposure setting.

At the Computer

The Haul Out. Northern Vancouver Island, BC, Canada. August 20, 2012.

RAW Conversion to 16-bit TIFF, including first-pass/capture sharpening using Phase One's Capture One Pro 6. Four exposure variants covering a 1.5 stop total range.

Further digital corrections on resulting 16-bit TIFF files using Adobe's Photoshop CS6 and Light Craft's Lightzone. Photoshop adjustments including compositing (layering and masking) the exposure variants using both luminosity and manual masking techniques, selective colour saturation and desaturation, and selective sharpening for web output. Final tone tweaking performed using tonemapper/re-light in Lightzone.

Conservation

The Haul Out. Northern Vancouver Island, BC, Canada. August 20, 2012.

Ten percent of the revenue generated by this image will be donated to Raincoast*.

Species Status in Canada**: Special Concern (November 2003) - protected in Canada since 1970.

The Steller's Sea-Lion (Eumetopias jubatus) is the largest of the sea-lions, and males can weigh up to a ton (females are considerably smaller and rarely weigh over 600 lb). Males compete among themselves for females, and successful males end up breeding with several females within their harem.

From the early 1900's through to the 1970's huge numbers of Steller's Sea-Lions were culled for their fur and to remove a competitor (for humans) for salmon. During that time approximately 55,000 sea lions were killed and the breeding population of BC was lowered to about 4,000 animals. Since the Steller Sea Lion first received protection in 1970 the population in the coastal waters of BC has grown to between 18,000 to 19,700 animals (7,600 or so of these are of breeding age).

*The Raincoast Conservation Society (and Foundation) is an effective and efficient organization that has been fighting for protection of this unique habitat. If you are looking for a meaningful way to contribute to the conservation of this amazing ecosystem, Raincoast will provide maximal "bang" for your conservation dollars.

**as determined by COSEWIC: The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada