Fluke

Gallery: WildlifePosted June 15, 201185 views6 comments

After watching a group of whales bubble feed, the whales all resurfaced right next to the 26ft boot I was in. The captain of the boat basically yelled out oh @#$% and cut the engines so as to not hurt the whales. You definitely aren't supposed to get this close to the whales, but you also can't tell them where to surface. The group of 15ish whales swam right past / below us as a some people on the boat went for the life preservers.

This image was taken at 100mm on my 100-400. f/10, 1/400 of a second. Not as dramatic as the previous bubble feeding images, but it is not everyday you feel like these animals are close enough to touch.

Comments

6 comments

Comment posted by Jim Hackley on June 15, 2011 at 12:32 PM

That must have been a sight to see, good job reacting to the opportunity and I like that you can see land, snow caps mts and clouds in the background along with the water splashing behind the tail, way to go.

Registered on September 17, 2009, 302 Posts, 5535 Comments

Comment posted by Gary Gulash on June 15, 2011 at 11:47 PM

Great job having the presence of mind to zoom, focus and shoot when this opportunity presented itself. Iconic photo. What species of whale is this Scott?

Registered on January 28, 2005, 879 Posts, 12098 Comments

Comment posted by Ashley Vincent on June 15, 2011 at 11:49 PM

Wow! That must have been an amazing encounter, nice to see you were so well on your toes Scott :^)

I love the purple and blue tones throughout this image, thanks for sharing.

Registered on March 1, 2011, 154 Posts, 2083 Comments

Comment posted by Scott Miller on June 16, 2011 at 5:48 AM

Gary: It is a humpback.

Thanks for the comments everyone, it was indeed quite a special day.

Registered on May 9, 2011, 23 Posts, 322 Comments

Comment posted by Brad Hill on June 16, 2011 at 8:44 AM

Hi Scott,

This is a shot where the thumbnail does NOT do it justice. I like the dark, foreboding nature of this shot and you nailed the exposure (in the field, during post-processing, or both) well. Nicely constructed image...well done.

Although shaded, I have to say this is one of the darkest "undertails" I have ever seen on a humpback. Tons of variation there and easy to see why the tails are used to identify individuals.

Cheers...thanks for sharing this...

Brad

Registered on May 29, 2007, 431 Posts, 6061 Comments

Comment posted by Scott Miller on June 16, 2011 at 1:54 PM

Brad, I thought the same thing when I saw this tail, "where's the white?". It really is a very featureless tail for a humpback. I really wished this guy had more white markings on the tail, with the dark scene the white feature rich tail would have really popped, oh well, guess everything can't go perfectly.

-Scott

Registered on May 9, 2011, 23 Posts, 322 Comments