A Sea Otter, peacefully dining on mussels. The Otter was in the entrance channel to the boat harbor and the reflection colors are from brightly lit buildings on the other side of the harbor. Another favorite that I posted on the old NPN site. This version is taking advantage of the new site size allowances and is much larger for more detail.
Sony a6500, SEL100400GM @ 400mm, ISO-400, f/8.0, 1/500, hand held.
The otter stands out very well here, Gary. As a reflections nut, I love the strong reflections that create a bit of abstraction, that helps the otter stand out.
I couldn’t have guessed the reflections were anything but natural if you hadn’t fessed up. None are beyond the scope of nature, and in fact we get similar reflections around sea otters from the bluffs, forest, sky and clouds around our house. Compare your reflections with those in this photo here on the site!
More interesting to me is the way that low, close chop serves to break them up, creating the perfect setting to help the otter stand out- right down to its toes. Getting detail and emphasis on otter heads is easy, but drawing the body out of the background is tough. Very well done!
I love the look of the water and the typical otter pose, Gary. Great job bringing out the eye, which tends to get lost in this species. Lovely image.
Gary, maybe its the size of the image here, but this otter seems very large. Especially compared to river sized otters. And maybe that is ignorance on my part that the sea otters are normally just larger.
Regardless, I can see that the larger version here really does give us a very impressive look at this guy up close and personal. What size did you scale to here? I can see why this is another favorite on your list from this past year. …
Paul, the Northern Sea Otter adult males are typically between 4 & 5 ft. in length and weigh between 70 & 80 lbs. but can go as high as 100 lbs. They are about the size of a Labrador Retriever.
Yeah. We had one close to 6’ long wash up on the shore in front of our house this summer. I’m used to big otters, but I had to look twice to make sure it really was an otter and not some new alien species!
