This is what being a photographer is all about.
Last summer, after coming back from my ferry photoshoot with my cousin, I went down to the beach. I swam out to the raft and sat there, talking with my dad and Simon, when we saw a seal come up to the shore. He waddled up a few feet, then went back in the water. Knowing a good opportunity when I saw one, I hopped off the raft and booked it back to the beach, where I quickly dried my hands and grabbed my camera.
The seal surfaced a few times, and soon someone spotted him on the point a few hundred feet away. I decided I'd go in for a closer look. Having never had an opportunity to get pictures of a wild seal before, I decided to make it count. I walked slowly towards the point, keeping close to the embankment to conceal my movement. Once I got to the point, I moved forward behind boulders, and moved to the side only when the seal wasn't looking in my direction. Once I was probably 50 feet away, the slabs of sandstone were low, so I slid forward on my belly, making the smallest movements I could get away with, while still advancing. Dragging your exposed belly and knees across sandstone is less than comfortable, but I couldn't believe how close I was getting. I took some pictures and by that point, the seal had spotted me...but he didn't leave. He just lay there, sunning himself, moving his flippers and acting as if no one was watching.
Eventually I decided to move closer, and by this point, there was very little cover left to block me from the seal's view...it was just a bunch of flat rock slabs that had been carved away by thousands of years of waves. Finally, I got to within about 20 feet of the seal. I also remember paying attention to the wind direction as I moved. Fortunately it was blowing toward me, and I saw him flare his nostrils a few times, probably to smell me, but either he wasn't able to smell me, or he didn't care. I lay there on my belly, took about 30 shots...and thought to myself "This marks the end of one chapter, and the beginning of the next. I sneaked, I took cover, I paid attention to the wind, I dragged my body over sandstone, I kept quiet, I minimized my movements, and I kept enough distance to avoid scaring my target away. If there has been any moment in my life where I became a real photographer...this is it."
Stay tuned for more seal pics in the next few days.
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