I created this image while co-leading my Japan Wildlife Photography Tour last March. The Japanese macaques are unafraid of people, as you can see from this close-up, wide-angle perspective. This particular macaque came right up to where I was standing at the edge of the hot pool and posed for me. I had never photographed a macaque before, but I am sure that it had seen more than its share of humans based on how busy the Jigokudani Monkey Park was with tourists.I don’t think that it was as impressed with me as I was with it.
I have visited this iconic beach located south of Makena on Maui several times over the years. Last January, I got lucky with this dramatic light during one of the mornings that I photographed it. There was a lot of rain the night before, which meant that there were still a lot of clouds in the sky at sunrise. As the sun rose in the east, this spectacular lightshow briefly lasted for only a few minutes as it stretched across the horizon over Kahoolawe. Anyone who has ever visited this picturesque spot knows that at sunset it is usually overrun by wedding photographers, but thankfully, I had the beach all to myself so I did not have to digitally remove a wedding party from the scene.
A few weeks ago, I spent an amazing 3 days photographing our resident orcas with my good friends Ken, Stuart, and Robin. I’ve never put much effort into photographing them here in the Northwest, mostly because there are too many whale watching boats and legal restrictions on observing them. So, we were surprised and delighted when we had the orcas all to ourselves from late afternoon through sunset every day. Not only were the seas calm and the light amazing, but the orcas were very active as demonstrated by this breaching orca!
I photographed this dramatic rainbow over Tunnels Beach during my family vacation to Kauai in July. This amazing light only lasted for a minute, during which it was pouring rain. Of course, I forgot to bring an umbrella, but was fortunate that a nice local that I had befriended the previous day just happened to be out for her morning beach walk and had an one with her. I asked her if she would assist me in keeping my camera dry and she happily obliged. While she held her umbrella over me, I quickly set up my tripod, pulled my camera out of my Fstop backpack, and carefully placed my filter on the lens. I only managed a few images before this ephemeral rainbow disappeared. Also, it’s worth noting the overall amount of time required to create this image. I was staying with my family in Poipu which is located on the south shore of Kauai, but Tunnels is located on the north shore. So, in order to be at the beach at sunrise, I had to wake up at 4 am and drive 1.5 hours in the dark. I did this 5 mornings in a row before finally being rewarded with this image. By the time I returned to my family, it was late morning and they were just rolling out of bed. I invested over 30 hours of my time to create this image, but only experienced this magical light for less than 60 seconds. I hope that you will agree with me that it was worth my effort.
I want to share another recent cover that features one of my humpback whale images. I photographed this dramatic breach while in Tonga last year. My friends and clients often joke with me that I should publish a book just on humpback whales breaching since I have been fortunate to be able to frequently photograph this extraordinary behavior.
I recently made some progress on editing my backlog of humpback whale images from Tonga last year and thought that this one was worth sharing. I was very lucky to be able to spend 90 minutes photographing this very relaxed mother-calf pair. They spent most of the time calmly resting on the surface during which the calf moved around a lot and curiously check me out. This was an amazing experience, which is why I can’t wait to return to Tonga in 2014 to lead a few week-long tours in search of more encounters like this.
What can be better than photographing sunset? How about photographing sunset while underwater? A number of variables had to perfectly come together in order to shoot this scene, including the soft corals, colorful anthias, and dramatic low-angle sunlight. I especially like the dramatic sunbeams penetrating beneath the waves.
This is my favorite image from my recent bull shark diving adventure in Fiji. I like the vertical composition of the shark coming directly at me with several other sharks silhouetted in the background. I wonder if this will someday make a nice cover? Man, that was a great trip.
I’ve been meaning to share this news for the last few weeks, but have been so busy that I am only now getting around to it. One of my underwater humpback whale images from Tonga was published on the cover of China’s Digital Camera May 2013 issue! This was the first time that I have worked with this magazine, but I hope to continue building upon this new relationship in the year ahead.
