I've almost never missed viewing otters when I visit Morro Bay and Montana de Oro. This trip was no exception. However, I'm rarely close enough to make a good portrait of an otter. This time, our photography group was close enough, but the otter seemed far more interested in a boat race in the bay, so we rarely saw its face. Patience - and a reasonably long lens - paid off.

I did make one mistake, with my choice of aperture. I should have closed down the lens one or two stops, for both better depth of field and because my 400mm lens creates the sharpest images around f/8 to f/11.

We spotted this otter near the base of Morro Rock.