Enough of birds until tomorrow, time for some southern humpback whales instead

[conkerwood]

Whale watching season ended here a couple of months ago but I have only just finished processing pics from the twenty or so whale watching trips that we did this year. probably posting several hundred whale shots wouldn't endear me to anyone so i have selected a few of my favs from this year and the last couple of years. Hope you enjoy them

Peter

[deetheturk]

Slightly larger than birds lol,great images Peter!

Cheers David

[NorthernFocus]

Those are some awesome shots, Peter. Do you go on commercial vessels or do you have your own boat?

We have plenty of whales in the summer but they rarely do anything interesting. Down your way they are flirting and frolicking. Up here they just feed 24/7. Granted in southeast AK they do bubble feed but that's several hundred miles from where we do our boating.

[FrankMi]

An outstanding series, Peter. I would have been tickled to have shot any one of these but my favorite is the 10th one with the bubbles breaking through the surface. I don't believe I've ever seen one like that before.

[Donald]

I crave the opportunity to see that, never mind try and take photographs. I was watching a programme on TV just a couple of days ago about whale migrations and how the interactions they have with humans. Awesome, awesome stuff.

Peter - you have my great admiration for being able to to that. And, in your case at least, make beautiful pictures from it.

[chauncey]

Thanks for posting...we don't see enough of whales. really nice series.

[Bobobird]

Great series. Glad you shared these as I have never seen a whale (except TV) but great pics make up for that.

[Wavelength]

That's a rocking series indeed

[jprzybyla]

Great series Peter, your images reminded me of whale trips I went on off the New England coast of USA.

[Kaye Leggett]

Great shots - you should be proud of them all. And we won't mind a few more....honest !

[kdoc856]

Fantastic series, Peter. That last one is so good that I would recommend taking a look at it in a portrait crop to really bring out the detail of the streaming water and head details- I see sailboats regularly but never get to see a humpback in all its glory as you have captured.

[Sergio M.]

"... Hope you enjoy them"

Peter

Absolutely!

Sergio

[pnodrog]

Wow!

[conkerwood]

Those are some awesome shots, Peter. Do you go on commercial vessels or do you have your own boat?

We have plenty of whales in the summer but they rarely do anything interesting. Down your way they are flirting and frolicking. Up here they just feed 24/7. Granted in southeast AK they do bubble feed but that's several hundred miles from where we do our boating.

All my whale watching is done from a specialised commercial whale watching boat. I do have my own boat but I prefer not to use it whale watching for the simple reason that the larger whale watching boat provides a much more stable platform for pics. Its a very difficult task to get decent action shots so you need as much stability as possible. I mentioned in another post that I have just returned from Canada and Alaska and one of the bucket list dreams for me was to photograph northern humpbacks bubble net feeding. The odds were pretty much against seeing feeding whales let alone getting a shot and then this happened. I have posted this in my favourite shot for the year thread but I figure if people are interested they might like to see what bubble net feeding actually looks like. And if you look very carefully you will see a herring that got away and another one in the whales mouth which was no so lucky. Thanks to all for the feedback, it is much appreciated.

Peter

[conkerwood]

And just a few more to finish off with.

Peter

[Downrigger]

You certainly were present for a great show. Some of your captures are spectacular. Thanks for putting these up.