In the Field

Up Periscope! Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwaii), BC. July 25, 2009.

Who says Steller Sea Lions aren't curious? I grabbed this fun shot from a small Zodiac off an isolated haul-out rock that was being used by dozens of Steller Sea Lions. We approached the rock slowly and long before we got close many of the sea lions on the rocks slipped into the ocean. Initially we assumed that we had seen the last of all the sea lions that went a-swimmin' - but within seconds they all started popping up around our boat! Many of them (maybe all of them) would occasionally raise its head a foot or more above the water for an instant (as pictured here) to give us a good look. It reminded me of how submarines raised their periscopes to have a look around...

It actually was quite a tricky matter getting this shot. I initially took the strategy of watching for a head to pop up, pointing and focusing on the lion, and then shooting. After capturing 100 or so out-of-focus images of water where a sea lion head USED to be (a fraction of a second before) I knew I had to change gears. It was kind of reminiscent of that "Whack-a-Mole" game (aka "Bang-a-Beaver") that was so popular at midways on fairgrounds in the '90's) where those darned plastic moles (or beavers) dived back into their hole just before you clubbed them with your soft mallet. Anyway...I decided to adopt a sit-and-wait approach - I prefocused on a "patch" of water where I thought a sea lion was likely to surface and waited for a head to pop up. Fortunately, there were enough sea lions around that I didn't have to wait long, and I ended up with many in-focus shots of the "periscoping" sea lions. This is one of my favourites of the group - I have several others where the head is extended this high up, but this is the only one where there are so many sea lions just below the main subject (and waiting their turn to pop up). To have the "extra" sea lions posed in a nearly symmetrical pattern was an unexpected but welcome bonus!

This image was captured during a trip to the Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands) with Ocean Light II Adventures in the summer of 2009. Ocean Light II Adventures offer a number of amazing adventure tours on the central and northern coast of BC (including top-notch bear-viewing and whale-watching tours) and they cater to photographers - I highly recommend them!

Behind the Camera

Up Periscope! Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwaii), BC. July 25, 2009.

Digital Capture; Compressed RAW (NEF) 14-bit format; ISO 400.

Nikon D3 with Nikkor 200-400 mm f/4G ED-IF AF-S VR lens @ 380 mm - handheld from floating Zodiac. VR on and in "Active" mode (Zodiac was bobbing in the swells).

1/800s @ f8; -0.67 stop compensation from matrix-metered exposure setting of camera.

At the Computer

Up Periscope! Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwaii), BC. July 25, 2009.

RAW Conversion to 16-bit TIFF, including first-pass/capture sharpening using Phase One's Capture One Pro 4.8. Three RAW conversions at different exposure settings. Exposures settings of -0.26 stops (for water) through to +1.0 stops (to retrieve shadow detail on the sea lion, especially in the neck region.

Further digital corrections on 16-bit TIFF file using Adobe's Photoshop CS4 and Light Craft's Light Zone. Photoshop adjustments included compositing and masking of 3 exposure versions, selective colour saturation and desaturation and selective sharpening for web output. Final tone balancing performed using Light Zone (primarily the Tonemapping/Re-light tool).

Conservation

Up Periscope! Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwaii), BC. July 25, 2009.

Ten percent of the revenue generated by this image will be donated to Pacific Wild

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

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 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).

Pacific Wild is a non-profit conservation organization that is committed to:

1. Defending wildlife and their habitat on CanadaÕs Pacific coast by developing and implementing solution-based conservation strategies. Pacific Wild supports innovative research, public education, community outreach and awareness to achieve the goal of lasting environmental protection in the lands and waters of the Great Bear Rainforest.

2. Working with a diverse array of communities, First Nations, groups and individuals to ensure that biodiversity protection is at the forefront of land and marine use decisions.

3. Mobilizing a concerned global citizenry to achieve large-scale wildlife protection.

Natural Art Images supports the efforts of Pacific Wild and encourages you to do the same.

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