Another personal lesson learned with this story - never assume that you won't find something worthwhile to photograph.

My wife Sheryl was attending a conference in San Diego. I had been photographing in the area and spent some time photographing the scenic areas around Torrey Pines State Reserve.

I packed up my equipment into my rental car and planned to hike the beach trail down to the water. "Who needs 60 lbs on your back?", I thought. So I set out and walked the steep, deep-sand trail down to the rocky beach. Sure enough, I got down there, only to find this harbour seal perched on the rocks. I stood there for 5 minutes debating about what it would mean to go back to grab my equipment. 45 minutes + to get back up, 45 minutes back down with a heavy pack, then 45 minutes+ to get back up again...ugh. And what was the chance this thing would still be here in an hour and a half?

But, what the heck, I've got nothing else to do...so I did exactly that. To my utter surprise, I returned, and there it was! Shooting quickly, I had the presence of mind amidst my excitement to shoot some wide angled environmental photos and some telephoto "portraits". A mere five minutes later, a crew from Sea World San Diego came to capture this little guy who was apparently stranded following high tide. They said there was only a slight chance that it's mother would return to look for it and that its long term prognosis of survival after re-release was only 50-50.

I was glad that I made the extra trips to photograph and become aware of how this seal came to be where he was at.

Exposure data not captured, Ektachrome EPP ISO 100