Harp Seal
This began as a normal walk the dog around Back Cove (Portland, Maine). I decided to take a camera with a long lens to see if I could get some shots of the Canada Geese, Buffle Heads, and Red Breasted Mergansers that hang out there this time of year. I am not much of a bird photographer and I wanted to get some practice. A short time after we started our walk one of the people we were talking with asked if we were there to take pictures of the seal. Since our local Harbor seals go south for the winter I thought it would be interesting to get some shots of someone who was wintering over. When we got to where the seal was we found out it was an adult Harp seal, not a late to leave Harbor seal. It is unusual for us to see an adult Harp seal in this area.
The Maine Department of Marine Resource people who were there watching the seal (this means keeping people and dogs from bothering the seal) said the seal was healthy and did not appear to be in trouble. They think he was following some fish and just kept traveling south out of the Arctic. They thought the seal was resting and taking advantage of the sunny day to warm up out of the water.
Soon after I started getting some shots, the Maine Department of Marine Resources people asked me to take some pictures for them. They wanted shots of the markings on the back of the seal for identification. With their permission I was able to get closer to the seal to get some shots. I moved out into the marsh grass until I began to sink into the mud. I did not get as close as I would have liked to but I was concerned about upsetting the seal and causing it to go back into the water before it was ready to. My motto is to photograph anything as long as it does not breathe, so this was stepping out of the box for me.
More shots here.
The shots were made using a Sigma 150-500 hand held on a Nikon D300 body.
The Maine Department of Marine Resource people who were there watching the seal (this means keeping people and dogs from bothering the seal) said the seal was healthy and did not appear to be in trouble. They think he was following some fish and just kept traveling south out of the Arctic. They thought the seal was resting and taking advantage of the sunny day to warm up out of the water.
Soon after I started getting some shots, the Maine Department of Marine Resources people asked me to take some pictures for them. They wanted shots of the markings on the back of the seal for identification. With their permission I was able to get closer to the seal to get some shots. I moved out into the marsh grass until I began to sink into the mud. I did not get as close as I would have liked to but I was concerned about upsetting the seal and causing it to go back into the water before it was ready to. My motto is to photograph anything as long as it does not breathe, so this was stepping out of the box for me.
More shots here.
The shots were made using a Sigma 150-500 hand held on a Nikon D300 body.
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Comments
Thank you for sharing and telling the story...Very interesting
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