Ok - as promised, more marine mammals. Unfortunately, these aren't nearly as cute as the sea otters from the other day. Again, to get through all of these photos, I'm just going to post another assortment (plus I'm having a difficult time choosing just one or two to share) - so just mouse-over the thumbnails to see the larger version.

These elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris) are mostly males and pups. Apparently the females had already left the area. They return to this one cove in California (just up the road from Hearst Castle every year. The males - which get the long noses which give rise to the name - can grow to be 16 feet in length, and weigh over 6000 lbs. They can also dive to depths ranging in the thousands of feet (usually averaging around 1000 - 2500 feet) and can hold their breath for up to 100 minutes at a time. During breeding season, you would never see males together on a beach like this because they become fiercely territorial and fight (note all the scars on their heads and necks).

... but like I said, they're not very cute... oh, and they are moulting at this time of the year too which certainly doesn't make them any prettier...

As with the outdoor shots at Hearst Castle, the lighting wasn't exactly ideal. In this case, the sun was on the other side of the seals from where we were, which caused a lot of poorly places shadows. It was also ridiculously windy, and there was sand whipping around everywhere - which not only is bad for the camera, but also caused a kind of dusty haze in most of the shots.

However, I was glad that I had lugged my Sigma 150-500mm f/5-6.3 APO DG OS HSM long telephoto lens with me on the trip as after I took a few shots with the Tamron 70-300 and wasn't getting as close as I would have liked, I went back to the car and pulled out the big gun so to speak, as well as the tripod.

It definitely helped make better photos of these ugly beasties....

Then again, the pups are kind of cute...

I really love that third shot there with the pup almost completely buried in the sand. Between them throwing sand on their backs (to protect their skin from sunburn as well as flies) and the wind, this little fella was almost completely hidden in the sand.

Anyway, after this, we continued driving up the coast on Highway 1 which is a beautiful road (and fun as all heck to drive!). We tried finding the classic view of Big Sur, but unfortunately, the coast was socked in with fog and I didn't get many good shots (I guess we'll have to go back and try again sometime). So we'll be jumping right along into the Monetery Bay Aquarium next!!!

Stay tuned.

- Bill

We saw sea otters while we were in California... they really are fun to watch!

Note how this one has his dinner sitting on his belly...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Tamron 70-300mm f/4-5.6 Di LD Macro1:2 at 300mm, 1/2000 sec at f/5.6. ISO 400. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

- Bill

A nice assortment of vertical oriented shots from The Wilds...

Enjoy.

- Bill

Ok - while we're on the B&W conversions, here's another from The Wilds. (mouseover for the original color version).

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Sigma 150-500mm f/5-6.3 APO DG OS HSM at 500mm, 1/100 sec at f/7.1. OS Mode 1. ISO 400. RAW conversion in Adobe Camera Raw, B&W conversion in Photoshop CS5.

I'm not as happy with this image as the one of the zebra. The large featureless sky takes up far too much of the background and simply is boring and distracting in my opinion.... but what are you going to do when the majority of your subject is up there?

- Bill

Ok - I guess I couldn't wait any longer to get to these photos from The Wilds, and we're going to jump straight to my favorite one of the set.

The Wilds is a wild-life conservation center associated with the Columbus Zoo. It is about 1.5 - 2 hours away from Pittsburgh in an old strip mine location. The layout provides for some different opportunities for photography - with the usual way to tour the facility being in safari type vehicles through the large, wide-open areas where the animals roam free. So fences aren't a problem, and you can get some more natural behavior out of the animals.

I spent the day with my longest lens - my Sigma 150-500mm - mounted on my camera. Many times it was a hindrance with the 150mm end being a bit too long when the animals were close, but when they were further off, it gave me some great images...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Sigma 150-500mm f/5-6.3 APO DG OS HSM at 500mm, 1/120 sec at f/6.3. OS Mode 1. ISO 100. RAW conversion in Adobe Camera Raw, B&W conversion in Photoshop CS5.

I don't know what all to say about this image. I love the composition, the simplicity of it, the nicely blurred background and main subject isolation. The only complaints I have with it would be the fence post that is just below the zebra's mouth, and the focus is ever so slightly off (actually it may have been vibrations from the vehicle motor).

But I can't decide which version I like better... color or B&W. So place your vote below and let me know!

- Bill

Ok - I guess we can take a short break from all the spider photos... We'll hop back a couple months to the trip we took to the Toronto Zoo. In their Canadian Domain area, they have a natural wetland area, and it is home to native birds who seem to just use it on their normal migrations. While we were there, there was a pair of swans with a nest and some eggs, and also plenty of tree swallows making use of nest boxes mounted on the trees. I managed to catch this shot of an adult tree swallow heading off to find more food for its waiting offspring...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Sigma 150-500mm f/5-6.3 APO DG OS HSM at 500mm, 1/400 sec at f/6.3. OS Mode 1. ISO 400. RAW conversion in Adobe Camera Raw.

- Bill

Kind of got sucked into other stuff tonight, so just another quick photo to share today. This one has a bit of blur to it from subject movement and semi-long shutter speed (1/50 sec). However, I liked the expression so much, I decided to keep it just the same...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Sigma 150-500mm f/5-6.3 APO DG OS HSM at 500mm, 1/50 sec at f/6.3. OS Mode 1. ISO 400. RAW conversion in Adobe Camera Raw.

If this were sharper, I probably would have spent the time to clone out the stick behind his head, but as it is, it just isn't worth that effort.

- Bill

Ok - Anya and I took a trip up to Toronto and Niagara Falls. I am only about half-way through processing my photos, but I figured I would start sharing some photos.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Sigma 150-500mm f/5-6.3 APO DG OS HSM at 500mm, 1/640 sec at f/6.3. OS Mode 1. ISO 400. RAW conversion in Adobe Camera Raw.

I have tons more coming, so stay tuned.

- Bill

Another shot from the trip to Powdermill...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Sigma 150-500mm f/5-6.3 APO DG OS HSM at 500mm, 1/80 sec at f/8. OS Mode 1. ISO 100. RAW conversion and cropped in Adobe Camera Raw

- Bill

Ok - I probably owe some folks for the heart attacks produced by yesterday's square crops of that jumping spider, so here's a square crop of a shot of the moon I took the other night....

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Sigma 150-500mm f/5-6.3 APO DG OS HSM with Kenko Teleplus PRO 300 "DG" AF 2x Teleconverter at 1000mm, 1/50th sec at f/13. ISO 100. RAW processing and cropped in Adobe Camera Raw.

Thanks for coming back after yesterday's spiders!

- Bill