Sea Lions and San Francisco

The sea lions at Pier 39 are a San Franciscan institution, though they arrived to the docks only a few months before the Loma Prieta Earthquake in 1989.  They bark constantly and playfully jostle for space on the wooden docks, pleasing tourists, marine biologists, and the occasional photog.

Some of these shots were difficult purely because I couldn't get any closer to the animals beyond using the 55-200mm zoom lens, which made composition a challenge.  Some of that was resolved with post-editing and liberal use of cropping, but it makes me yearn for a telephoto lens.  I don't need one, but any stretch of the imagination, but I would love to be able to zoom in to capture expression in detail when moving closer isn't an option.

Still, I managed to get several interesting images out of 40 or so tries.

The sea lions' view of the city

Unsurprisingly, they all were gathered on the docks furthest away from the viewing area.

Making a ruckus

Plenty of dock space to go around

Active Shooting Hours: 1
Review Hours: 0.5
Hours to Date: 126