Juvenile Elephant Seal

I came upon this elephant seal first thing in the morning along the central California coast. It had been sleeping well back beyond the beach and the dunes. At night, they’ll often bed down quite a distance from the water. This one was a juvenile and no longer under the protection of its mother. It didn’t quite know what to think of me at first and just laid there staring at the camera. Then it decided to tell me that maybe I was just a little too close. Not wanting to disturb the seal anymore than I already had, I snapped off a final shot and headed down to the beach to check out the rest of the colony.