Serene (2)

Comments, ratings appreciated on more sea lions--this was taken

after much singing (actually barking, jostling, etc.). Thanks.

a great portrait indeed! :-)

What a great photo. Snuggling, beautiful contrst, the lines of the whiskers and curves of the animals creates a sensuous flow. Very, very nice.

Beautiful !!!

This is Great They so smoothly interact! Great B&W choice. Love this shot.

The left one bothers me, Robert. Too bad in a way, because the right one is gorgeous. Cheers.

beautiful. 6/ 6.

The thumbnail got my attention. I thought it was an abstract. Viewed just for line, shape, tone it's beautiful. Throw in the whiskers etc.-and it's terrific. The slightly out of focus one on the left works just fine. If it was sharp, the eye would stop there for a while. As it is, The lines of the one on the left lead the eye smoothly to the crescendo at the tip of the nose of the one on the right. This one transcends "cute"!

Thanks, everyone, for your nice comments.

 

Marc, I shot this at both f4 and f11, but in the end preferred the out-of-focus sea lion in the foreground to having the stuff in the background in focus. I was actually pretty lucky here. These are wild sea lions and they held the pose for at least 10 or 15 seconds. Like you Marc, I wish both of these were in focus, though I can see Laurie's point, too.

 

Laurie and Margaret, thanks for your comments about line and shape. This is the first one in my modest sea lion collection that I feel is perhaps more than just "cute."

Robert, the expression on the sea lion on the right is sublime, as is the lighting and detail. I also like your choice of toning. But I feel the one on the left, being a bit oof, is detracting from the other. I wonder if a crop to shift the balance to the right would be an alternative. This is just a suggestion and by no means an improvement necessarily.

Hannah, The crop you posted does direct focus to the sharp Sea Lion on the right. However, to my eye, the crop loses the beautiful, smooth visual progression present in the original.

They're beautiful. I like the feeling of harmony and love.

 

You seem to have captured quite a few different emotions in this series of photos.

The oof one doesn't bother me that much, probably because the lines are so strong, as are the expressions, especially on the right side.

 

One minor nit . . . . . consider burning down the ear.

it is lovely :)