Tag Archives: nap

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

A Seal’s Life, Part III

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A Seal's Life, Part III
A solitary elephant seal nappping on a Southern California beach.

A Seal’s Life, Part III. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A solitary elephant seal nappping on a Southern California beach.

Here is one more — and probably the last for now — in the little “Seal’s Life” series. (I resisted the temptation to call it “lounging seals” or “lazy seals” or similar.) The photographs in the set all came from a very brief visit to an easily accessible location along the shoreline below the Big Sur coast. We took that longer route on a drive to Southern California, and we decided to stop as we passed this spot, despite having stopped there many times before and despite the somewhat uninspiring lighting conditions. It is hard to resist visiting these critters!

In the other posts I mentioned the contrast between the appearance of these creatures on land, where they are somewhere in the lazy to lumbering zone, and their purported speed and grace in the water. I’m not a diver, so I’ve never seen the latter — I just get to see (and hear and smell…) them on the beach. On the day we visited, almost all of them were engaging in pretty much the same activity as this one, namely not much activity at all. The head lifted from time to time, a flipper of sand was sent onto the back, a seal rolled over… but the whole scene was mostly one of apparent sloth.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast, Photographs: Wildlife

A Seal’s Life, Part II

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A Seal's Life, Part II
A group of elephant seals lounging on a Southern California beach.

A Seal’s Life, Part II. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A group of elephant seals lounging on a Southern California beach.

If you thought that the earlier photograph on a young elephant seal was the only one in the series… you were wrong! I have several more to share before I’m done. To be honest, photographing this group was almost an after-thought. We were passing though the area on our way to another destination and, well, why not stop? Even though we’ve been there many times before. So we pulled out for a break and walked the fancy trail along the edge of the bluff to a point where I could overall a big group of these big critters on the beach.

Elephant seal are, of course, impressive — mostly, but not entirely, in good ways. (About that not entirely part, their manners, uh, don’t exactly conform to what we were likely taught as children. There are a lot of gross noises, some random fighting, and more. Oh, and have you heard about the smell?) For animals that are reportedly skillful hunters and quite graceful swimmers, on land they look awkward and, to be honest, like large, lazy lumps of seal flesh. But the view we get of them is hardly the whole story, since we generally only can watch them where they haul out onto beaches… where they nap, lie about, make noises, flip sand on their backs, occasionally claim their bit of beach territory, and generally don’t do much at all — saving up their energy, I imagine, for the important work of hunting once they get back in the water.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast, Photographs: Southern California

A Seal’s Life

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A Seal's Life
An elephant Seal naps on a Southern California beach.

A Seal’s Life. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An elephant Seal naps on a Southern California beach.

Before posting this photograph I considered a few other possible titles. Perhaps “Zzzzzzz.” Or, “Ah!” Anyone who has ever closed their eyes and fallen asleep on a warm beach can imagine the feeling. (Though, in truth, this beach was not particularly warm. But I digress.) This particular specimen lay among a group of at least hundreds of elephant seals at a well-known Southern California “elephant seal rookery.” The great majority of them were engaged in “activities” that were more or less the same as what you see here.

I think this is, however, a bit misleading. These creatures, who seem quite awkward and even a bit out of their element on land, are prodigious hunters. From what I hear they are also quite at home in the water and might even be described as graceful when they are swimming underwater. But like lions (or so it seems to me) their lives, at least at this stretch of beach, seem to consist of short intervals of activity separated by long periods of lounging around.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Germany, Photographs: Urban/Street

A Dog’s Life

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A Dog's Life
A dog naps beneath the Berlin Wall at the East Side Gallery

A Dog’s Life. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A dog naps beneath the Berlin Wall at the East Side Gallery.

There is a very good chance that this is the first photograph of a dog that I have shared. I’m positive that it is the first sleeping dog photo. Who knows? Maybe it will become a thing. Or not. As always, I’m impressed by the extent to which dogs can simply ignore the tumult going on around them. There was a constant stream of people walking past and the sidewalk fronts a busy street.

There isn’t a whole lot to say about this. I photographed the critter at the base of the Berlin wall, at the section called the East Side Gallery where the remnants have been painted. (Perhaps “Dogs Sleeping At The Berlin Wall” will be a genre?)

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.