Travelogues
2014 Bay Area

Wednesday, May 7

 

Sea Otters

Gray skies and fog welcomed us when we woke up this morning. There was no point driving up the coast today, so we had a leisurely breakfast and spent some time looking at images.

The skies started clearing in the early afternoon, so we drove over to Morro Rock to check on the sea otters.GoogleEarth View We found 20 otters in the kelp bed right off the parking area. They were only about 20 feet away, and the sun was lighting their faces as they looked toward us. It was almost the perfect shooting setup. And the otters performed on cue. A mother otter was grooming her young pup as they floated around the outside edges of the group. You can see the mother and pup in the first image below. "Spin" was showing off his moves.

The otters stayed close to the shore for about 45 minutes and then slowly dispersed. Half of the otters left the area while the rest moved farther off-shore. It was easier to photograph individual otters, but they were significantly farther away. I tried the doubler on my long zoom lens, but that meant manual focusing. That cut my successful, sharp images by about 50%. My vision certainly isn't what it used to be. After about 90 minutes, the fog started rolling in and the warm light was lost.

Siri provided directions to the closest grocery store, so we could re-stock the perishables. It was a huge, modern Albertson's we wouldn't have found on our own. It's amazing how much our trips involve GPS and smart-phone technology. There are times like yesterday when the GPS leads us slightly astray, but most of the time, it leads us to the exact overlook, trail, or feature we are looking for. We're just learning to take advantage of the iPhone, but we're seeing the potential.

Tonight, I spent most of the night cleaning up today's images while we watched television. By the end of the night, I had deleted nearly half of my images.


Today's Otters