In the Field

I Spy With My Not-So-Little Eye. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia. September 27, 2026.

For some reason I find the "furry" marine mammals found on BC's coast absolutely fascinating - and I love them as photographic subjects. The species I'm referring to are Harbour Seals, Sea Otters, and Steller Sea Lions. They have fascinating adaptations allowing them to spend the bulk of their lives in cold ocean water and all three species tend to be very curious about humans in small boats! Oh...and they all have GREAT eyes and whiskers!

This image is of a juvenile Steller Sea Lion of indeterminate gender. It and a few of its "buddies" were actively fishing in shallow water in a small, remote cove on one of the outer islands of the Great Bear Rainforest. We were "sitting" nearby in an inflatable Zodiac boat while waiting for Coastal Gray Wolves to show themselves. The sea lions were very curious about what the heck we were up to, and came closer and closer to us to get a good look.

In this shot the sea lion was very close to our boat and just surfacing with a quick "slice" of the surface to get a quick look at us. Each surfacing lasted less than a second, and if you didn't get a "stop action" shot of it you'd never know the sea lions were actually looking at us (it simply looks like their slicing the surface to grab a quick breath of air). You need quick reflexes, a very fast AF system, and definitely a good amount of luck to get a shot of them eyeing you!

Here's a larger version (4800 pixel) of this sneaky sea lion:

• I Spy With My Not-So-Little Eye: Download 4800 pixel image (JPEG: 3.8 MB)

ADDITIONAL NOTES:

1. These images - in all resolutions - are protected by copyright. I'm fine with personal uses of them (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 photographs on this website, these images were captured following the strict ethical guidelines described in The Wildlife FIRST! Principles of Photographer Conduct. As such, no baiting or any form of attractant was used and, as always, we attempted to minimize our impact on the ongoing behaviour of the subjects. I strongly 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 Autumn in the Great Bear Exploratory Photo Adventure in early Autumn of 2026. Each year I offer photo tours into various locations on the amazing BC coast, including the Great Bear Rainforest and, every other year, into the Khutzeymateen Grizzly Sanctuary (to photograph grizzlies, of course!). Details about these trips can be found on the Photo Tours page of this website.

Behind the Camera

I Spy With My Not-So-Little Eye. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia. September 27, 2026.

Lossless Compressed RAW (ARW) format; ISO 5000.

Sony A1 II paired with Sony EF 600mm f4 GM OSS lens. Hand-held from floating Zodiac inflatable boat. OSS on and set to Mode 1. Expand Spot (tracking) AF area mode with subject recognition mode set to Animal/Bird.

1/1600s @ f4; -0.7 stop compensation from multi-metered exposure setting.

At the Computer

I Spy With My Not-So-Little Eye. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia. September 27, 2026.

Initial noise reduction and capture sharpening on the .arw (raw) file using the DeepPRIME XD3 algorithm of DXO PhotoLab 10.1 Elite (using the appropriate camera/lens module).

Subsequent adjustments to the adjusted linear DNG file (exported from PhotoLab) and conversion to 16-bit TIFF file (and JPEG files for web use) - including all global and selective adjustments - made using Capture One Pro (build 16.8). In the case of this image I made just one global adjustment - an overall contrast adjustment using the Levels tool. Selective local adjustments performed using Capture One Pro's layers and masking tools. In this case numerous small adjustments and minor tweaks were made on 4 separate layers, with the tweaks being associated with "exposure balancing" and contrast adjustments (such as adjustments to brightness, clarity, highlights, shadows, blacks, etc.).

Photoshop modifications included insertion of the watermark and/or text.

Conservation

I Spy With My Not-So-Little Eye. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia. September 27, 2026.

General Conservation Status in Canada*: Vulnerable

The Steller 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).

*as listed by Wild Species Canada (wildspecies.ca)