Humpback Whale Breach 101
Posted onTwo weeks ago, I photographed this humpback whale on Frederick Sound. I find this image particularly striking due to the unusual, head-on perspective. The humpback breached towards me which helped illustrate its streamlined body. Also, the pectoral fins in this shot are perfectly angled at the whale’s side as it thrusts itself out of the water. This young whale must have breached at least 50 times over a 2 hour period. Incredible! I was able to anticipate the breaches about 50% of the time and zeroed in on about 12 different sequences that will yield publishable humpback whale images. My dad was with me and managed to capture this breach on video using my iPhone, which you can view on YouTube.
Awesome!
This picture is amazing. We cannot stop staring. Very well captured, like suspended in time and space. We saw it on Flickr and we wanted to know more about it, so here we are.
Thank you for your kind words & I really appreciate you taking the time to visit my blog, rather than only viewing this image on Flickr.
Thank you Sir!….that is a spectacular image and perhaps my favorite one of all….Ken Kartes made sure I caught it somewhere…the only problem is I’m kind of jealous…keep em coming Honey…ya got a good eye!
All my Best
Nanc
Wow. That is a cool angle, Jon. I can’t believe the size of the whale!
I saw a humpback on the Seward boat tour but wasn’t able to really capture anything much less something like this.
That is impressive Jon!
Not that I know too much about photographing humpbacks but I’m so used to seeing side on views that the striking geometry of this perspective really makes an impression.
Kah Kit Yong-I am friends with most of the best marine photographers in the world, so I have looked at a lot of breaches. You are correct that this breach towards the camera is rather unusual. At 7fps, the entire sequence is publishable, but this image looks the most menacing & powerful.
Fantastic image! Watched the video too… simply AMAZING!
Holy crap.. that looks like a B-52 taking off!