June 20, 2018, Doubtful Sound and June 28, 2018, Otago Peninsula, New Zealand. New Zealand fur seals were hunted to near-extinction in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and were injured and killed by the thousands by commercial fisheries well into the twentieth century. In New Zealand, they have been protected by law since 1978.
The show-off above was guarding the mouth of Doubtful Sound in Fiordland National Park.
This mother and child were on the southeastern end of the Otago Peninsula.
(Nikon D500, Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR. RAW processing in DxO Pro; Editing in Adobe Photoshop.)
AMAGA Photography Blog 
The “show off” reminded me of a coyote’s howling pose. It’s amazing we haven’t destroyed everything we have been given by nature.
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Me too. It’s as if we’ve been incompetent at destruction, but we seem to be getting better at it recently.
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Not the kind of progress we were hoping for. We’ve come so far, but the slide backwards is accelerating at a scary pace.
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I have taken to registering brief, very polite, but extremely pointed retorts to the “powers that be.”
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That’s always helpful. Unfortunately the current national “powers that be” don’t give a rats behind about our opinions.
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Unfortunately, I agree with you. However I also think that if the mailbox fills with individual registrations of disagreement, on some level it becomes difficult for the “power that is“ to claim a mandate. At the very least I can look at myself in the mirror and say that I wasn’t silent.
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“He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.” Martin Luther King
We all do what we can. That’s how we made all the improvements that are now being torn down. They will rise again…hopefully in our lifetimes.
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He who gives up, loses automatically.
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Good pictures, Michael – I particularly like the top one – its a great pose, and the simplicity of the scene almost gives it a surreal look. A 🙂
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Thanks Adrian. It was indeed a magic moment when he went into that pose.
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Ohhhhhh how wonderful
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Thank you!
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Beautiful color and texture here, Michael.
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Thank you. The fur catches the light and reflects and refracts into all kinds of subtle color. They really are beautiful.
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Biologists talk about convergent evolution, in which two unrelated entities develop a similar characteristic. Your seal raising its snout into the air immediately reminded me of the way the grackles we have in Austin point their bills up in the same way.
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Well, that tells me I have to see a grackle!
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Behold: https://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2015/08/13/grackle-with-head-up/
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Well I’ll be!
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I was thinking the same, Michael! 🙂
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And he so obligingly showed us one!
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Excellent shot, Michael. Good use of the 200-500 lens, too!
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Thank you very much. I call it “the beast” because body and lens together are about 8 pounds. But it gets great results.
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bellissime e tenerissime!
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Great shot, Michael! Love the first one. 🙂
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Thanks Amy!
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Lovely photos, Michael! I got the Nikon 200-500 mm last year for the seal season at Blakeny Point, must take it out in summer as well … 🙂
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As I mentioned the weight of that beast is compensated by the quality of the images it provides. Are usually put it on the D500 body which gives an effective focal length of 750 mm. Very early in the blog you’ll find more images made with it. Especially November 22, 2018. I see that you are exploring, as I am doing with your blog.
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‘Snooty’ as a word denoting pride or arrogance came along in the early 1900s, and the Online Etymology site suggests that it may have been derived from ‘snouty.’ At the time, it suggested looking down one’s nose at others, but in that wonderful first photo, the seal’s raised snout seems the very embodiment of pride without arrogance. I especially enjoyed the position of that one flipper. It adds a little humor to the image, and increases the sense that the creature just might be posing for someone.
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Definitely not snooty. Pride without arrogance. Or just the pure joy of being alive. However, I did get the impression of an intentional pose. “Oh look. A tour boat! Time to go to work.” But it can be done joyfully. And it was.
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That fur is/was just irresistible, wasn’t it? I’m glad they’re protected but it took long enough! I think it wasn’t much better up here. I like seeing the texture of the fur….it’s nice compared to the surrounding rocks….same color, different texture. They have beautiful shapes, too. Very nice to see, Michael!
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It is irresistible. And I agree with you about the comparison of textures. They are beautiful creatures. I’m very glad they are protected.
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