Yesterday morning, my photo club went to La Jolla Cove with the primary idea to photograph birds*, but after a while I found that I had the most fun watching and photographing the California Sea Lions (Zalophus californianus) which were, for a change, not lounging lazily on the rocks making funny sounds, but actually in the water!
It was overcast and there was a constant light rain, but we had some nice waves coming in. It certainly looked like the sea lions, floating in the water in groups that are called rafts, had a lot of fun with the waves: upon a wave breaking they would dive under it, then be seen swimming inside of the wave, and finally “eject” themselves out of the water behind the wave. Others would dive or jump into a breaking wave from its crest, a little bit like a body surfer.
Photographing this required a lot of “spray and pray” since it was hard to predict how the sea lions would react to a wave and where that would occur. I got lucky with one photo at 500mm focal length, but except for the feature photo, the ones below were made in the range of 200-300mm, simply because it was easier to observe and react to the situation that way. All of the photos are more or less heavily cropped afterwards. :)
California Sea Lion jumping off a rock into the surf at La Jolla Cove, San Diego, California; January 2022.
Raft of California Sea Lions (Zalophus californianus) floating in the water at La Jolla Cove, California; January 2022.
California Sea Lion (Zalophus californianus) diving under a breaking wave, La Jolla Cove, California; January 2022.
California Sea Lions (Zalophus californianus) seen swimming inside a wave, La Jolla Cove, California; January 2022.
California Sea Lions (Zalophus californianus) jumping out of a breaking wave, La Jolla Cove, California; January 2022.
California Sea Lion (Zalophus californianus) shooting out of the water behind a wave, La Jolla Cove, California; January 2022.
California Sea Lion (Zalophus californianus) jumping into a breaking wave, La Jolla Cove, California; January 2022.
California Sea Lions (Zalophus californianus) swimming in a wave's foamy whitewater, La Jolla Cove, California; January 2022.
*) blog post: Birds of La Jolla from three years ago; at this time of the year, we see Brown Pelicans in their breeding plumage there and the beautiful Brandt’s Cormorants, the latter showing their various courtship displays, landing at the cliffs with nesting materials, or already sitting on their nests and guarding the eggs against herons and seagulls. All this is easily visible and very accessible to photographers from coastal trails and sidewalks.
Great shots! You really captured the playfulness of the sea lions there. We were just there in December but didn’t see action like this! :)
Thank you, Jane! I have not seen them this playful before myself either. It was great fun. :)
Oh, that does look like fun! I’ve only seen them lying on rafts…(in OR) but I love it when one lies there seemingly fast asleep then its snout falls into the water and it blows bubbles. Not as exciting as this though. It’s cool to see them under the water and I love the 6th one.
Joe says, “Cool shots!”
Thank you, Lynn and Joe. :) I think my favorite is the 5th one, that snout and the entire animal going skyward, it looks like someone’s having lots of fun!
Looks like it ws a wonderful experience! Very cool images! Love the one of them inside the wave.
Thank you, Shelly! :)
What a fun day. My favorite is the third one, with the Sea Lions swimming in the wave.
Thank you, Earl — very happy to hear that… I made many many attempts to capture this and that’s the best of the whole bunch. :)
love it!
Wunderschöne Aufnahmen .Bravo!