Mike Spinak
pro member
I often like to photograph sea lions, and I have been slowly working on a sea lion project that will perhaps someday be made into a an exhibit and/or book.
Besides their accessiblity, I am intrigued by the enigma of their behavior: When they are awake, they could hardly be more surly and belligerant toward each other. From the instant they wake up, they are quick to shout or snap at seemingly any other sea lion to enter their space. And yet, when they go to sleep, they huddle by the dozens, even hundreds, in such close proximity that you can hardly see a patch of ground between any of them. They pile over each other sometimes two or three deep, with any and every part of them pressed up against any and every part of each other... face to face, tail to face, and all other combinations. While they sleep, they seem to press into each other and cuddle in the most intimate ways with, as far as I can tell, any other, regardless of age, sex, status, or relation.
It's a bizarre and strangely beautiful sight which leaves me feeling touched.
They are very expressive, which also makes them a pleasure to photograph.
A lens full of them also makes for a very constrained color palette, which can be shown to beautiful effect. Add to this the way that the eye areas and snout are somewhat lighter in color than the dark bodies, and add the wonderful texture of the fur, and you could hardly ask for more, in terms of photogenicity.
For my project, I am shooting them in a somewhat "tenebrist" style. Tenebrism, from the Italian word tenebroso, meaning "murky", is an offshoot of chiaroscuro. Instead or rendering light and dark in gradual tonal transitions to create a sense of space and form, as in chiaroscuro, tenebrism renders light and dark in sharp contrast with each other, without much transition, often in order to express relative value. In the tenebrist style, darkness is often negative, metaphorically as well as literally the absence of light; and brightness is likewise where the light shines.
It can have an effect of luminous subjects emerging from shadowy void, and often suggests exalted status.
In this case, I use it to try to create (loosely speaking) a reverential sense about the intimacy the sea lions share when they sleep.
To find/create tenebrist effects, I look for situations where the background is much darker than the subject (or, at least, parts of the subject). It also helps if the subject is very close to the background, so that the subject's shadow is immediately adjacent to the subject. Lastly the effect can be somewhat heightened with a boost in contrast, during processing.
I took ths picture in fairly dim, but beautiful light. My exposure, if I'm remembering correctly, was 1/60th of a second at f/8, at ISO 1600. It was shot handheld with a 300 mm lens, with a 2x teleconverter. The entire frame, uncropped, is shown.
I hope you enjoy it.
© Mike Spinak
www.mikespinak.com
Besides their accessiblity, I am intrigued by the enigma of their behavior: When they are awake, they could hardly be more surly and belligerant toward each other. From the instant they wake up, they are quick to shout or snap at seemingly any other sea lion to enter their space. And yet, when they go to sleep, they huddle by the dozens, even hundreds, in such close proximity that you can hardly see a patch of ground between any of them. They pile over each other sometimes two or three deep, with any and every part of them pressed up against any and every part of each other... face to face, tail to face, and all other combinations. While they sleep, they seem to press into each other and cuddle in the most intimate ways with, as far as I can tell, any other, regardless of age, sex, status, or relation.
It's a bizarre and strangely beautiful sight which leaves me feeling touched.
They are very expressive, which also makes them a pleasure to photograph.
A lens full of them also makes for a very constrained color palette, which can be shown to beautiful effect. Add to this the way that the eye areas and snout are somewhat lighter in color than the dark bodies, and add the wonderful texture of the fur, and you could hardly ask for more, in terms of photogenicity.
For my project, I am shooting them in a somewhat "tenebrist" style. Tenebrism, from the Italian word tenebroso, meaning "murky", is an offshoot of chiaroscuro. Instead or rendering light and dark in gradual tonal transitions to create a sense of space and form, as in chiaroscuro, tenebrism renders light and dark in sharp contrast with each other, without much transition, often in order to express relative value. In the tenebrist style, darkness is often negative, metaphorically as well as literally the absence of light; and brightness is likewise where the light shines.
It can have an effect of luminous subjects emerging from shadowy void, and often suggests exalted status.
In this case, I use it to try to create (loosely speaking) a reverential sense about the intimacy the sea lions share when they sleep.
To find/create tenebrist effects, I look for situations where the background is much darker than the subject (or, at least, parts of the subject). It also helps if the subject is very close to the background, so that the subject's shadow is immediately adjacent to the subject. Lastly the effect can be somewhat heightened with a boost in contrast, during processing.
I took ths picture in fairly dim, but beautiful light. My exposure, if I'm remembering correctly, was 1/60th of a second at f/8, at ISO 1600. It was shot handheld with a 300 mm lens, with a 2x teleconverter. The entire frame, uncropped, is shown.
I hope you enjoy it.
© Mike Spinak
www.mikespinak.com
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