NZ 10: Seals

Akaroa, NZ (May 28, 2008)

After having seen the penguin, we passed next to a shadowed cliff. We didn’t notice anything particular until we started to hear some weird sounds coming from the rocks. Sounds like somebody crying... kind of eery. It wasn’t until we covered our eyes from the bright sun and got accustomed watching the darker areas that we saw them. The rocks were full of large, noisy seals that were lazying out the hottest ours of the day (not very hot, it was winter after all) resting at the base of the cliffs.

The photo was actually a difficult take. The cliffs were quite dark, and I was limited in how much I could expose because the boat was moving quite a lot. Even after opening everything I had, two out of three photos still came out blurred. In the end I think this one works, even though I am quite surprised by the color of the rocks. In the shadow they weren’t looking so red. I am wondering if it is a question of color correction, or if that was their natural color...