What happened to the month of April?  I was drowning in grad school work and fell behind on my website.  I had a few photography excursions in April, but ultimately decided to skip the blog post about it.  So, I’m jumping ahead a month and sharing a few moments of my wildlife photography from May 2022.

Año Nuevo elephant seals

I took a drive North to Año Nuevo State Park to photograph elephant seals in early May.  At this time of the year most of the large males had already left the beach for their seasonal journey towards Alaska.  Still, there were plenty of females and younger individuals within the park.  Many lounged around the beach, flicking piles of cool sand on their bodies to cool off.  Others practiced their fighting moves in the rocky surf zone, making lots of noise while doing so.  It was great to witness these individuals after seeing the Piedras Blancas elephant seal population a few months prior.

Photographing birds from my kayak and NOT sinking!

It had been awhile since I used my kayak.  It began developing a leak over the last year, which I was able to slow with some patchwork.  But on this outing, my kayak deflating much more quickly.  I had to stop an inflate it with every few minutes of paddling.  Even remaining still, it leaked air.

Conditions looked very promising for this outing.  There was about a 90 minute overlap of decent light with the perfect tide height for wading birds.  At low tides, shorebirds congregate at this shallow shelf to forage within the eelgrass and algae.  My strategy for the morning was to run my kayak aground and stay in the same place so that the birds would feel comfortable with my presence.  Egrets and herons seem to be more tolerant of humans when they’re in kayaks and not walking.  By accessing unique locations in the kayak, shooting at water level, and planning shoots for optimal conditions, kayaks can yield great results!

I hope you found this short recap of my photography enjoyable.  Stay up to date with me and the photos I’m creating by browsing my website and following me on Instagram.