The leopard seal is the second largest seal in Antarctic waters and a fearsome predator, targeting everything from krill and squid to many species of penguins. Any encounter with one is a real privilege as they are generally quite shy out of the water, a few years ago I was exceptionally lucky with a very chilled one. We set out in the morning to cruise icebergs looking for anything interesting to photograph, I love this kind of photography as you never know what you are gonna find. Clients like it too as we always ensure that they are well briefed and able to maximise their photographic opportunities. Next year Andrew James and I have an extensive photographic training program already written to help prepare our photographers for just such an encounter.
Anyway as we gently glided across the still waters we spied a seal sitting on a small ice flow and sure enough as it came closer it was clearly a leopard seal. A very rare encounter indeed. As an experienced professional I always know that it’s best to get some shots when you can so I stopped the Zodiac from getting closer so that we could shoot some wide angles...
Comments
Brett
8/11/2016 9:44 AM
Why did you choose such a small apperture as f11? F5.6 wouldnt have given you enough depth of field, since I assume you were pretty close, because you were using the 70-200?
Lorna NWS
7/11/2016 5:40 PM
Fantastic shots Andy! Love those portrait shots, he looks like he's smiling!