Elephants and Zebras on Highway Nr. 1

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IMG_7296Canon EOS 6D (98mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec, ISO100)

I did expect to see elephant seals but I wasn’t prepared to see Zebras. But first the elephant seals.

There is a place in-between Moro Bay and Big Sur where you can watch elephant seals. And as most of the time there is no need for a long hike. The big seals are lying right beside the highway. There is a big parking lot and lots of people. You can’t miss it.

You don’t need a very long lens to capture these animals because they are close and they are massive. The 70-200 Zoom with the 1.4x converter on my 6D was long enough so a travel zoom or a 55-200 on APS-C will get you good shots.

IMG_7275Canon EOS 6D (280mm, f/8, 1/400 sec, ISO100)
 IMG_7265Canon EOS 6D (280mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec, ISO100)
 IMG_7321Canon EOS 6D (280mm, f/4, 1/1000 sec, ISO100)

And there is no need for fast AF. Elephant seals hardly move. At least the females and youngsters that are on the each in spring and summer. The picture might be different during winter when the bulls fight for their territory. I must see that one day. The males are also much bigger than the females. So I was watching the smaller females of the smaller species but I was still impressed. Females can reach 3 meters and 800kg. Southern elephant seal bulls can reach 6 meter and 4 tons! That’s a massive seal!

But instead of fighting bulls I was watching sleeping cows and youngsters. The only action was when they pulled some sand on their bodies like the one in the picture above. That’s nice to watch but only for couple of minutes. So we moved on.

IMG_7303Canon EOS 6D (180mm, f/10, 1/200 sec, ISO100)
 IMG_7334Canon EOS 6D (280mm, f/5.6, 1/640 sec, ISO100)
 IMG_7247Canon EOS 6D (47mm, f/9, 1/200 sec, ISO100)

A couple of miles further down the road there where cars parking on both sides and people taking pictures. The reason was a dozen of zebras standing in the field. Compared to the zebras the elephant seals were hyper active. They did not move for minutes. My wife first thought that they were not real. But then one moved its head slightly before it froze again. Enough wildlife action for one day. We have to move on to get to Monterey.

IMG_7239Canon EOS 6D (300mm, f/9, 1/320 sec, ISO100)
 IMG_7369Canon EOS 6D (70mm, f/11, 1/125 sec, ISO100)