Wildlife Photo Competition 3 2014
Results
Winning Photo

This is a beautiful composition, with a still-life landscape quality. The seals look so content, the lighter one begging for his tummy to be stroked. Your black and white tones are beautiful as is the space within your composition. Nice.

Thank you for this Mark of Excellence. This shot is one of my favorite from a trip to Big Sur, CA this past June. We were high on a bluff in Point Lobos State Reserve, looking down on a small group of harbor seals. The darker one in the photo was in the water playing and after a bit waddled his way up onto the shore and looked right up at us. He was as curious about us as we were about him. The lighter seal seemed to recognize that the darker one was looking at something and came over to see what was going on. They both stayed captivated by us for quite a while and struck these adorable poses for us! Shot with my Nikon D700 and Nikkor 70-200/F2.8 lens at 200 mm, F4.5, 1/2000 sec. Conversion to B&W in Silver Efex Pro. Kimberly Herold, Navarre, FL