Bunker Ledge just off Seal Harbor on Mount Desert Island hosts a summer population of harbor seals and gray seals. When the tide and sun align, there is beautiful light for taking pictures of the seals (I hesitate to say 'shooting the seals'). Living in Seal Harbor affords us the convenience of taking our 28 foot Ellis lobster yacht out to the ledge every week of the summer. This was a lucky shot! I never noticed the seal pup, let alone the that it was nursing, until I reviewed my pictures for sharpness and interesting compositions. My attention was drawn to larger and brighter seals in a different area of the frame. As I zoomed in on the image to check detail sharpness, I scanned to the left and noticed the nursing pup. Yup, a very fortunate moment to capture! To learn how to create images like this, consider taking my sunset cruise photography workshop off Mount Desert Island.
EXIF data: Nikon D800, 300mm, f/8 (&B there ;-), 1/640 sec, ISO 200, 5/28/14, 6:27 PM
Nursing Seal Pup, Mount Desert Island, Maine
Here's the original shot, where my attention was drawn to the larger and brighter seals in the center of the frame. I was trying to include the red buoy and waiting for waves to wash up on the right side of the ledge. All the time shooting that evening, I was never aware of that cute pup nursing.