In 1985, I got permission to be flown in a private plan out to the western most island in the Channel Islands National Park which is off the coast of Ventura, California. During the breeding season of northern elephant seals, the island is closed to protect these animals who were hunted almost to extinction in the 1800's for their oil. In fact, in the 1880's, they were declared extinct. With governmental protection from both the U.S. and Mexico, their numbers have, fortunately, grown significantly to about 150,000 from the last surviving group of about 200 animals. I was allowed to walk among the marine giants photographing newborn pups, males engaged in combat, and aggressive females. I constantly watched my back as I photographed with my medium format film camera, the Mamiya RZ 67. I took this with a 250mm telephoto, equivalent to approximately a 135mm lens in the full frame digital format, and this tells you how close I was to the action. Blood is often drawn in the battle, but seldom does a death occur. Usually one of the combatants eventually backs down, allowing the victor to mate with a harem of females. I took this picture with Kodak Ektachrome 64 6x7cm film, and although my settings were not recorded, they were probably 1/400 (the fastest shutter speed on this camera), f/5.6, and the film was 64 ISO. I always used a tripod when shooting with this camera. The transparency was scanned by an Imacon Scanner.
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