A lone Steller Sea Lion from my recent trip to the Southern Great Bear Rainforest is contemplating jumping into the water.  This was one of many Sea Lions that were using these haul-outs to relax in the afternoon sun, however as soon as our boat even came anywhere near, many of them abandoned the rocks and jumped into the water.

Eventually this guy settled down and laid down, and if you can believe it, others actually clambered up from the water to join him.

This image is copyright © Terri Shaddick, if you are interested in using or purchasing this image, or any other images on my site, contact Terri Shaddick at contact@wildelements.ca.

Taken: May 6, 2018
Location: Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia

Camera: Canon EOS 1D X Mark II
Lens: Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4x III Extender
Focal Length: 700mm
Aperture: f/8
ISO: 800
Exposure: 1/2500

This image was taken hand-held from the sailboat in some very rough waters (rough waters are common with Sea Lions), and therefore I chose to use a higher shutter speed than I would have if I was on land or using a tripod.  This image was taken in the afternoon sun, and with the waters creating some white splashing, I decided to under-expose by 1/3 of a stop in the field.

For post-processing I kept this one pretty simple, with three separate exposure blends created in Capture 1 Pro, and blended in Photoshop.  The first just had a small amount if highlight recovery (2), for the rocks and the water, and the other two ranged in exposure of +.16 to +.3 which were used for the Sea Lion.