Mammals Grey Seals at Horsey Gap

[Unframed Dave]

I took these mid afternoon on Sunday.

Several mistakes were made:

1. Don't go on a Sunday, if you can help it. It was rammed.
2. In previous years, we have been able to get much closer to the seals. These were all taken at around 100 metres from the seals. I only took a 300mm lens, really 400 to 600 would be more appropriate at this range. It's huge testament to the 300 f2.8 that these came out as well as they did, they are massively cropped.
3. We went too late in the afternoon, the sun is low in the sky this time of year and the shadows from the dunes and bystanders were well onto the beach, only the tideline was really shootable.

Other than that, it was fantastic to see the seals. There was a lot of playing from the juveniles and a lot of territory posturing going on. Plenty of pups around as well, but as these don't have waterproof coats, they were mostly further up the beach in the shade.

• ILCE-1
• ISO 800

• ILCE-1
• 300.0 mm
• ƒ/6.3
• 1/1600 sec
• ISO 800

• ILCE-1
• ISO 2000

• ILCE-1
• ISO 2000

• ILCE-1
• FE 300mm F2.8 GM OSS
• 300.0 mm
• ƒ/6.3
• 1/640 sec
• ISO 200

• ILCE-1
• ISO 200

• ILCE-1
• ISO 200

• ILCE-1
• ISO 200

• ILCE-1
• 300.0 mm
• ƒ/6.3
• 1/500 sec
• ISO 200

This year's stats to date: