Sea Lion Society, photo by Harold Davis.

Today I’m trying out my new lens, an AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED.

This is a preposterously expensive, heavy, big, and magnificent lens. If I saw a photographer strutting down the street sporting it on their Nikon dSLR, I’d think they were compensating for something.

The VR in the lens model name means “Vibration Reduction.” VR gives you 3 stops (or 8X) additional exposure in which you can reasonably expect to hand-hold a lens–making this shot of sea lions near Pier 39 in San Francisco’s harbor feasible. It would have been impossible with a conventional telephoto or zoom telephoto of comparable focal length, and (of course) a tripod doesn’t help with moving subjects like these sea lions!

Another photo from the set: