Manatees pictures have a dedicated following on social networks.

Who’s more popular online, President Obama or a manatee? As it turns out, the world’s oldest captive manatee, named Snooty, wins the contest. The below image received over 1.7 million views on Imgur. That’s almost 40% more views than President Obama’s most watched video on Youtube! A resident described the manatee as “our own real-life Lil’ Sebastian”.

Images of Manatees are used to evoke a variety of responses in people online, ranging from comedy to horror. People are able to relate to these creatures with ease. Most of the time the manatee’s image speaks to a happy, simple freedom and ease of life desired by so many. Numerous websites have manatee poster-makers which pair such images with motivational quotes. Who wants you to succeed? This smiling manatee! However, a simple change in lighting and the picture of a swimming seacow morphs into the very embodiment of our Lovecraftian horror of all things which lurk beneath the waves.

The above picture shows a manatee urging a young child to commit arson. This bizarre image is accented by an inclusion of a starry night backdrop. It brings to mind strange aliens controlling our minds and the motif of outsiders corrupting our children is used effectively to generate a sense of dread. This manatee is clearly a comedic stand in for something much darker and more disturbing.

That said, seeing a manatee picture being shared for its cuteness and approachability is much more common. Similar to sharing pictures of pets, manatee photos have a high “aww”-factor and garner lots of comments on the creature itself and often inspires conversation about the poster feels about conservation and wellbeing of the species. This image of a baby manatee has the comment, “I’ve swam with manatees before. They are so gentle but the scars they have from boats are so sad.”

Another use of manatee photos is for culture. The seacow has played a strong part in our stories and legends of the ocean. One artist played on the relatability of the manatee by drawing them as a few of our favorite western superheros.

Manatees represent us at our worst and our best. An image of a manatee can be a horror-laced journey to the heart of human emotion, or just a nice diversion from everyday life. These gentle creatures can fill us with a sense of awe and make us relate to what it means to be a sea creature. We care about manatees and their wellbeing because we can relate to them and see a tremendous amount of ourselves in the gentle ocean creature.

#Tips on how to catch a photo of that Seacow

Manatees can be really fast and tough to take a picture of it you’re not an experienced swimmer. Here’s a list of tips to help take picture of these ocean-dwelling beasts adapted from a piece by National Geographic.

1. Learn to swim well This is important for obvious reasons. You’ll never outswim a manatee, but you should be comfortable maneuvering underwater in order to get the best shots and for your own safety.

2. Understand the manatee Read up on your subject. Check out the manatee wikipedia page. Get a manatee book. Keep searching for information online. The more you know about what you’re seeing the easier it will be to capture that great shot when the time’s right.

3. Choose your weapon carefully and learn to use it You don’t need to go out and get a super expensive camera to take great photos, but it doesn’t hurt to understand what you’re using. Even if you’re just trying to take pictures of the manatee from above-ground using an iPhone you should probably understand what filters are appropriate for the lighting you’re in (at a minimum).

4. Use flash in the dark If you’re underwater or in a dark situation don’t be afraid of those additional light sources. You can use simple post production to improve the image afterwards, but you can never capture details that weren’t in the original photo. Just don’t scare the manatee!

5. Learn what makes a good picture Just because you have a seacow in front of your lens doesn’t mean that it’ll be an appealing picture. If you want to get to the point where your images have the emotional impact as the ones featured above, you’ll have to work with the rules of composition in photography.

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