Common Seal in rising tide, Scotland

Photographed from a nearby islet using a Nikon F4s camera with Nikkor 400mm lens and a Nikon 2x teleconverter on a beanbag on rock; taken at 1/60th second at f8 on Fujichrome Provia 100 film rated at ISO 100 and processed normally; no filters used. Hazy mid-morning sunlight, September. Isle of Mull, western Scotland.

The story behind the picture....

"There are many seals around the coast of Scotland, both Common Seals and the Atlantic Grey Seal. They are often seen hauled-out onto islets of seaweed exposed at low tide, where they bask in the sunshine. "Some of the most favoured hauling-out sites become the object of arguments and sometimes even fights between two individuals, and the sounds of their snorting and splashing can be heard at some distance. These hauling-out sites are usually the places that take the longest to be covered by the tide when it rises again. "As the tide rises, the basking seals are gradually swamped by the water, but frequently seem determined to keep their position as long as possible, and so one sees seals such as this one stretching to keep their head and hind-flippers out of the water until, eventually, a wave lifts them from their underwater perch and they are forced to swim. "Sometimes, all that can be seen are seal heads and 'feet' dotted around the surface of a calm sea, as if there is a competition to see who can keep their hind-flippers out of the water the longest!" Geoff Doré

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