When in Cape Cross, Namibia, my family and I visited the local colony of Cape fur seals. Earlier that month I had spent some time on the blog of Canadian photographer Roël Dixon-Mahatoo, enjoying both his travelogues of Namibia and Antarctica. In the latter he recounted his experiences with fur seals which appear to be curious and friendly in water, but aggressive and dangerous on land, charging anyone who gets even remotely close to them with their teeth bared.

The same happened to me on the way to the boardwalk – I completely ignored everything I had read about standing your ground, made a ten metre dash for the fence and jumped it, much to the amusement of my family. However, once I had reached the safety of the boardwalk, I was rewarded with splendid photographic opportunities. Taking pictures was almost too easy – the seals were all around us, on the right side of the boardwalk, on the left side, underneath. You could just walk along, snapping left and right, wide, close, up, down … The specimens in the image above were forming such a neat, peaceful little pile that I just had to take an image of them.

Taken with the Pentax K3 and HD DA 55-300 WR lens at f/8, 1/200th sec. and ISO 1600 at 87.5 mm.