Houts Bay Sea Lion Island, South Africa

Posted by Yonatan (New York, United States) on 4 June 2012 in Animal & Insect.

After having a few minutes to walk around Hout's Bay, we boarded a small boat and cruised out of the bay towards the Atlantic Ocean. After a few minutes of cruising we came across this conglomeration of rocks and were delighted by the many sea lions that were lounging around and playing with each other.

This was very challenging environment to capture a good photo. For one, we were fairly far away from the rock and I had to push my telephotos zoom to the max. Making matters worse, the boat never stopped for photo opportunities, so I had to push my ISO up to try and get a fast enough shutter speed to freeze the action. Finally, metering for this shot was tough as well, as the sea lions are quite dark and many shots were coming out underexposed. After some adjustments, I managed to get some worthy shots. I used a monopod while on the boat to stabilize my lens as it is impossible to hand hold the camera with my big telephoto lens and produce a sharp image.

One tool that I purchased for this trip and found invaluable was a Hoodman Loupe. It's a simple device that you can wear around neck. When you want to check an exposure on your LCD you just hold it up and look through the eye piece, cutting out ambient light and allowing you to see your shot. It often allowed me to make critical adjustments to my exposure that I may not have picked up on without it. If you are going on a trip where you will be out photographing during bright daylight, I highly recommend picking up a device like this.

If you enjoy my work you may visit my permanent website where you can view my photos.

www.yonatangreenstein.com

Thank you for taking some time to take a look at my photographs. I hope you enjoy your stop at my blog.

I invite you all to visit frequently and leave comments and feedback. I would really appreciate constructive criticism that will help me improve. You don't need to be a photographer to help me, tell me what you like and don't like. If you have any suggestions of interesting things to shoot or fun techniques to try I'd also love to know.

Best wishes,

Yonatan