Quality time with sea lions
Instantly the highlight of my trip to San Diego, California became a quick drive up the coast to La Jolla to spend time with all the sea lions there. I have only seen seals from distance in Monterey before. I heard in La Jolla you can get much closer, and that certainly was true! Most of these photos were made with just a Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 G2 lens on a Nikon D7200. That’s only 300mm of effective focal length and I was able to get shots as up close as these.
Lots of action to observe
I really enjoy just being still and observing nature and wildlife, and La Jolla provides a very good marine life observation space. Yes, there are some people getting too close to the sea lions, but I got a good rock outcropping seat away from most people and close to a lot of seal action, from the cuddling couple you see above, to pups seemingly getting seal swimming lessons from a grown up seal instructor, to just watching them try and hop and slide around over the rocks.
La Jolla is a place I could live.