Coming & Going...

My last post was quite tightly framed, so time for one with a little wider view! 

Those who have spent a decade or more in BC's famous Great Bear Rainforest have witnessed an amazing conservation success story - the return (in huge numbers) of the Humpback Whale. Ten to fifteen years ago seeing a single humpback in the sheltered inlets and channels of the Great Bear gave one cause to cheer and exchange high-fives. In late September and early October of 2016 we saw HUNDREDS of humpbacks, and when I captured this image we had between 15 and 20 around our boat. What a spectacular experience! I don't know if anyone could definitively state if the humpback's total numbers are up that much or if they have just moved into this region after almost a hundred year near absence, but the whales of the Great Bear are becoming a huge draw (along with those "kinda interesting" Spirit Bears! ;-)

Photographing any whale from above the surface of the water is challenging. With humpbacks you generally have the opportunity to capture 4 different types of behaviors: blows (as they surface), tails (as they initiate a deep dive), breaches (when they spectacularly jump out of the water), and a bubble-netting and/or lunge-feeding. In 2016 we were privileged to see and photograph ALL of these behaviors over the course of two weeks.

This shot came together as we were watching a whole whack (they were dispersed enough that it wouldn't be accurate to call it a pod) of whales at varying distance from our boat. We had brilliant sunshine at the time and a group of about 8 whales swam away from us into the distance and into a strongly backlit scene. I saw this whale blow in the near perfect position for someone like me who likes to use leading lines when positioning their subject in a frame. When the blow slowly drifted away and the whale decided to dive deep and show its tail I was nearly ecstatic - it was the first time I've ever been able to capture evidence of a whale "Coming and Going" in a single frame. To have the whale do it with dramatic backlighting and in the perfect position relative to the sloping headlands...well...for me that was wildlife photography nirvana!

Subject: Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeagnliae) surfacing and blowing (coming) and then diving (going)
Location: Great Bear Rainforest, northern BC coast, Canada
Camera: Nikon D5
Lens: Sigma Sport 150-600 zoom @ 600mm. Hand-held. OS on and in "Mode 1".
Exposure: 1/1000s @ f8; ISO 250. -0.67 stop compensation from matrix-metered exposure setting.
Crop: Full frame

A whole lot more info about this shot - including a 2400 pixel version it - can be found on my website using the link immediately below.

http://www.naturalart.ca/galleries/latest/detail_8.html

Comments and critiques welcomed - probably best to view the larger version prior to doing so!

Cheers...

Brad

PS: Like all wildlife images on my website and that I post on NPN, the subject is fully wild and completely unconstrained. Besides the potential impact of my presence, nothing has been done to intentionally alter or affect the ongoing behavior of the subject and, of course, there has been no use of any form of bait or other form of wildlife attractants (including vocalizations).