Apart from shooting more in black and white, I also forced myself to use my big lenses less and use less mm’s as I would usually do. This was very easy to do, as I could just leave my big lenses on the ship when I went ashore (also means I have to carry a lot less weight). In this case, I did doubt whether to bring my 70-200mm with 2x converter, as the zodiac cruise near Monacobreen often has Bearded Seals on small icebergs, but I decided against it. Now the only lens I had with me was the 24-105mm. And yes, we did find Bearded Seals. We managed to get nice and close with the zodiacs, as usual with these animals and were slowly drifting at a short distance.

This would be the moment where I usually would get out my telelens and start taking portrait pictures of these animals. Now I only had max. 105mm to play with, so suddenly I had to pay attention to backgrounds and composition. I wished I could have gotten closer, which probably would have been possible if I would have been the only zodiac nearby, but several of my colleagues were also nearby. If I had been closer, I could have zoomed out even further, but that might be for another time. I’m already pleased with this image, hope to think about this option more often now.