Sea Otter Mother with Pup on Chest Sharing Pismo Clam Dinner Morro Bay CA 14 Dec 2009
Sea Otter Mother with Pup on Chest Sharing Pismo Clam Dinner Morro Bay CA 14 Dec 2009. Sea Otter (Enhydra lutris) (marine mammal) Mothers with Pups are seen near Target Rock in the Morro Bay, CA harbor entrance near Morro Rock, 14 Dec 2009. Photo by Michael "Mike" L. Baird, mike [at} mikebaird d o t com, flickr.bairdphotos.com; Canon 1D Mark III, Canon EF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS USM Telephoto Zoom Lens (no circular polarizer), handheld, braced on breakwater rocks, taken from just 2-3 feet above water level.
Tech note: +1/3rd overexposed to bring out detail in dark fur w/o blowing out the white shell.
It is hard to beat auto exposure mode (vs. aperture- or shutter-priority) to get a good compromise balance between a fast enough shutter speed to avoid motion blur, and enough depth-of-field (DOF) for a good documentation image (as I'm not going for the artistic shallow DOF w/ strong bokah, portrait-style model shot here). This shot was taken as late in the day as possible, and just minutes before Morro Rock shadowed the scene, at which point in time natural-light photography became hopeless. I need to learn to bring off-camera flash to this location to fully exploit the opportunity.
16 Dec 2009 Creative Commons intended use - The Central Coast Natural History Association (CCNHA), related to the Morro Bay Museum of Natural History, sells postcards as fund-raisers, and regularly uses my nature photos... here is a typical request. From: Dorian Farrow [mailto:dfccnha [at} gmail d ot com]; Sent: Wednesday, December 16, 2009 1:05 PM; To: Baird, Michael; Subject: Otter and "child" new photo. Hi Mike, This is a wonderful new photo. Can we ask for your kind permission to reproduce this as a postcard? Thanks! Dorian Farrow, General Manager, Central Coast Natural History Association; 1320 Van Beurden Drive, Suite 202 Los Osos, CA 93402 Phone: 805-528-1397 Fax: 805-528-1459