Feels so good

[Bob_Faucher]

Critique Style Requested: Initial Reaction

Please share your immediate response to the image before reading the photographer’s intent (obscured text below) or other comments. The photographer seeks a genuinely unbiased first impression.

Questions to guide your feedback

Can you feel the love?

Other Information

Please leave your feedback before viewing the blurred information below, once you have replied, click to reveal the text and see if your assessment aligns with the photographer. Remember, this if for their benefit to learn what your unbiased reaction is.

Image Description

Two young cow Elephant Seals (Mirounga angustirostris) in the Piedras Blancas Rookery near San Simeon, California, greet one another, appearing to relish the warm acknowledgement of the other.

Technical Details

Canon EOS 5D II; Canon EF 200-400mm +1.4x @ 560mm; f/16 @ 1/100 sec, ISO 320; subject distance 47.7m; Gitzo tripod, RRS BH 55, remote trigger; blurred all but the main subjects in post processing

Specific Feedback

Whatever you think, positive or not

[linda_mellor]

A sweet moment nicely captured, Bob.

[Bob_Faucher]

Thank you @linda_mellor for your remark. Elephant seals are huge, especially the males. They congregate at their rookeries twice each year, once in the winter for calving and breeding and a second time in summer to molt. The molting process is so abrupt in the elephant seal that it is called a catastrophic molt. Thousands of these seals line the beaches. It is a great opportunity to study their behavior. I noted these two young females performing their welcoming ritual and was provided an opportunity to document it

[linda_mellor]

What a wonderful experience to be able to witness. Enjoy!