What's up with this? California Sea Otters on the beach? Well, yes its true. Sea Otters rarely ever come onto land and January 31st must of been my extremely lucky day for that wasthe day I went to Moss Landing to catch the sunset (as I have been doing almost daily for about 2 months now).
So I travel to Moss, not too far from me, and take a look to the left and I see the beach estuary area empty except for a couple of photographers. There also appears to be some small dark bodies that are plopped on the sandy beach. What's that I think, cause the photographers appear to be focused on that? So I wander on down to check it out because I have some time before the magic sunset hour. Well shiver me timbers cause there are sea otters lazily lounging on the sandy shore.
Now I have visited moss so many times before to see the otters, which are always there, floating out in the water. They have always been difficult to photograph due to the only observation point being a 20' cliff side overhanging the area they frequent. If I could just climb down I might be able to get a shot, but it is strictly forbidden to climb over the cliff.
I walk down to the beach where the public is allowed and start taking photos. Cool as cucumbers they were, didn't seem to mind me one bit. I almost expected them to pull out the sunscreen and start applying it. Now is what we have a moment I call "PhotoKarma". Here is an unusual and rare behavior by an animal and I'm ready to shoot. Empty 8 gig card, full battery, and a animal that is cooperating. Pure Magic. They almost seemed to enjoy it, for they are usually quite skittish. The light is low so I have very limited time.
1 hour later and 1000 new images (only a small % of these are usable) is what I end up with.
I feel very lucky and honored to have had this experience with the Sea Otters. I even went back twice since then hoping I might get another chance, but the tide had come back in and they were back floating in the water a distance away.
So obviously, I didn't shoot the sunset that evening! I have not added them to my website yet but
You can see more of them them now on my flickr site
This site is much easier to update and you call also see my latest work. So check em out!
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