I had a planned day off today, with the intention to start to unwind from work before jumping on a plane tomorrow. It didnt quite all go to plan, but I did manage a walk along a beach called Waiake in the northern region of the North Shore.

As I passed a bunch of seagulls, not thinking much of it, three of the four suddenly stood up, squarked at me and came marching at me. I took a few steps towards them, neither of us backing down. Most of the time, unless you carry food, they try to keep out of the way, but not these three! Anyway, I got a few photos in and backed down.

At one end of the beach is a small island. At low tide, as it was today, one can walk around it. We had a beautiful sunny day and I sat down to relax on a rock. Every now and then I kept catching something in the corner of my eye, but when I looked there was nothing there. Then, as I was about to get up and leave I looked around, and just to the left of me, not more then 2 metres away was a seal basking in the sun, blending in perfectly with the surrounding sandstone. Once it realised that I realised it was there it stood up on its front flippers (I think that’s the term?) and let out a growl. I decided it was time to retreat, but did get a few shots of it as I left.

Photo wise, I used Gimp to desaturate all but red and cropped the aspect again. Shot was taken on the Sony Nex 5N and Jupiter-8 legacy lens.