P#24: Galapagos Sea Lions Lounging in the Sun

Location Location Location

Scott Stulberg: This photograph of the Galapagos sea lions was taken on my first trip to the Galapagos. We were shooting on Espanola Island. It was just beautiful light. It's important to know the name of the exact island because when you get to the Galapagos, you need to know exactly where you want to be for shooting.

Espanola is probably my favorite island to shoot on in the Galapagos. This was called Gardner Bay.

This was sunrise. It's great to get to the places you're shooting in the morning before anyone else gets there. If anyone ever goes to the Galapagos, tell them, "I have to be at Espanola and I have to be there right when the sun is rising." Hopefully the sun will be there that day. (click image to see larger version)

When you're at this island you can't help but get great shots because it's filled with Galapagos sea lions all over the place. I have my long lens on. When you get a shot of the sea lions yawning, it looks like they're laughing. This particular sea lion wasn't laughing apparently, but was really yawning. His other little mate right there was just covered in sand.

This is the kind of stuff you get when you go to these exotic locations. You can't help but get great shots. This is one of my favorite images from that trip, and this is one that sells and makes me money, which is really fun also.

Shots like that are not common. You can't do shots like that if you're in other parts of the world. The Galapagos is where Darwin wrote his Origin of the Species, his documentation on the evolution of these animals. He started off with the finches, realizing that since there are no predators on the Galapagos, none of these animals are really scared of anything.

You can walk right up to these sea lions, which you can't do in many other places of the world. You can walk right up to the frigate, the blue-footed boobies, and all these different kinds of birds and animals. It's really amazing.

When you go to places like this that are very spectacular for photography, you're going to get shots that you can't get in other places of the world.

In Closing

Whenever you travel to exotic locations, knowing where to shoot and when to shoot are critical. If you want to get Galapagos sea lions, the place to go is Espanola Island and you want to do it early in the morning, before anyone else gets there.