James Nelson  

Sea Lion with Smelt by James Nelson

September 2024 - Sea Lion with Smelt

About the Image(s)

In recent years, Oregon coast sea lions have been venturing up the Columbia River and even up into the tributaries to feed on the fish runs returning to spawn. They are not popular with the local fishermen. This was taken during a spring smelt run on the Lewis River in Southwest Washington state.

Distance was one challenge since the Sea Lions stayed well out in the river. Lighting was the second problem. The Sea Lions were moving west to east upriver. Evening sunlight was hitting their back and far side leaving the face in shadow. Further complicated by the tendency of wet fur to be highly reflective.

My compromise settings were:
Nikon Z9 with 400 TC 2.8 lens and TC2.0 at f/5.6, 1/1600 sec., ISO 3600, matrix metered, exposure comp -0.3, 800 mm focal length, subject distance about 200 feet and significantly cropped.

Raw conversion and denoise using DxO PureRaw 4, global and local adjustments including sharpening, exposure, whites, highlights, shadows, saturation, texture and clarity in LR Classic, final crop, some local exposure adjustments and export as JPEG from PS.

James Nelson

6 comments posted

Darcy Quimby   Darcy Quimby
James
I see the challenges and you look like you overcame. Thanks for explaining the steps you took. Just for me there is something wrong with the fish and I can't put my finger on it. Great job.   Posted: 09/08/2024 20:57:26
James Nelson
This is a close crop from the original RAW file. No edits except crop and convert to jpeg. I lost a lot of detail in the fish where the light, wet side was to bright. This is the middle of a three shot burst and the one on either side is essentially the same. I'll spend some more time looking at it and see if I can figure out what you are seeing. Thanks, I always appreciate your comments.   Posted: 09/08/2024 23:00:00
Comment Image
Debbie Porter
Nice image. I think the fish makes him look like he is smoking a cigar. It adds character to the image. I find the row of light dots at the top distracting. I probably would have cropped them out.   Posted: 09/15/2024 11:51:58
Lillian Roberts   Lillian Roberts
(Groups 2 & 3)
James, I like the image and especially the soft green water without a lot of bright spots to detract. You might be able to further burn the row of spots above the anima, or as Debbie suggested you might be able to crop them out if you also take some off the left and below the sea lion.

This is a very difficult image to catch, these guys are moving constantly, popping up and diving under at seemingly random intervals. So kudos for getting it so sharp!

I agree with Darcy about the fish looking odd. In my case the image is reminiscent of images we see of otters eating much larger fish, and we don't often see pictures of sea lions with food in their mouth like this. I don't know if you or your guide were feeding them to get them close for photos (allowed if the fish are already dead and you didn't kill them) and TBH I don't know what size fish they would normally catch. But my knee-jerk is to feel the fish is a little too small and really fishy-looking if that makes sense. Unfortunately there is a tendency for judges to be highly suspicious of images, so if you enter it and receive a really low score that's likely the reason why.

Lillian   Posted: 09/16/2024 20:41:20
James Nelson
Columbia River Smelt are small fish ranging from 4 to 8 inches in size, but there are a lot them when they return to spawn. The large number make it worth the Sea Lions' time. You hope for well informed judges but it is what it is. They certainly prefer salmon. I have watched them take 25 pound plus fish but they hit the smelt runs regularly also. No feeding or guide, this is a small river about 20 minute drive from my house just sitting on the bank enjoying the show.   Posted: 09/16/2024 21:26:33
Howard Frank
Nice and sharp with good color and detail. Good capture under trying conditions.   Posted: 09/16/2024 21:49:32

 

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