Saturday, 30th January 2010
Elephant Seal
by Matt Burrard-Lucas
This elephant seal was relaxing on a beach in The Falkland Islands. During the summer months, elephant seals come ashore to moult. Scratching and rubbing helps them to discard their dead skin. It was amazing to see the dexterity in this one's flipper, looking almost like a human hand!
Equipment: Canon 1Ds MK III, 85mm f/1.2 lens
Matt Burrard-Lucas
Website: Burrard-Lucas Blog
Elephant Seal by Matt Burrard-Lucas was photo of the day on Saturday, 30th January 2010. It is tagged Seals, Wildlife. You can leave a comment below.
20 Comments
Davey
Wow !
Anurag
Really Amazing. Am I looking at a mankind’s cousin or at an extra terrestreal. This is an Iconic Photograph.
Fantastic Work Matt.
BevF
It took me a while to figure out what I was looking at here. It does look like a human (weirdly so) hand. Amazing shot.
Pauline Jones
Absolutely Lovely
ziggy
Wow! On so many levels – the detail of the hand is an amazing revelation to those of us that haven’t seen it before, and your framing is spot on, Matt, what’s in the background? other seals or rocks that this seal will rub against to remove other skin his flippers won’t reach? The detail of texture and colour in this shot make it really outstanding and quizzical. Thank you and congratulations.
Chris Boynton
Well done Matt
A great shot and made me laugh straight away, there is a fantastic comedy element to this – this is a ‘cert’ for greetings cards and posters!
paul whitton
I have heard somewhere that seal are the distant relatives of bears! not sure how true to fact but this shot sure shows the posibilities, really great grey tones in this shot to! nice technically also!
Wanda Krack
Wow, I learn something new to me every day. What a revealing shot. Well-taken!
mike
Amazing close picture of them.
renee
very cute shot, congrats!
Marie Dunphy Harding
You got a great capture there. His flipper is so much like a human hand, it’s scary !
Herman Bresser
What a capture. Great timing
Tad Bowman
Wonderful image Matt. The hand looks so human here.
Grete
Fantastic and amazing shot! What a great find and excellently captured. Your photos always surprise us. Congratulations and Greetings
Kirk Jordan
Before I made the picture big, the whole thing looked like something carved from wood. In fact, I think someone should carve this scene into wood, it would make a wonderful sculpture.
João Ganhão
Nice picture!
reza
nice shot
Yasmin
Absolutely amazing! Thanks for the lesson.
Katherine Lee Strassburg
This is the best photo I’ve ever seen of an elephant seal–it made laugh out loud. You’ve captured the true personality of this lumbering giant in a very intimate moment. Well done!
su
Fabulous shot and yes you can imagine the image on a greeting card with a witty remark under it. congrats.