Humpback Whale Breaching Sequence

These were taken on 6/9/12. This is a whale named Barb who decided to give us a nice chin breach near the end of our trip. He was traveling with another whale who breached just seconds before which thankfully got me and my camera in the right place to capture this one!

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Stunning sequence! Beautiful colors! Awesome camera work. Thanks for sharing them!

awesome! i can't get a feel for how big it is, how big is it? looks huge, great shots.

Wow! Great sequence of images, and they are well exposed too.

Great shots and series !

Always a large dose of luck involved with catching breaches - been on three whale boat tours, never seen one breach - but the skill in nailing the shots when they do occur should not be underestimated. Framing, exposure, it takes great skill and you certainly nailed these. Respect.

nice series.

These are great, Mandy! Well timed on your part, nice to be in the right position and pointing the right way That gal got pretty far out of the water.

Very nice series, well done. Looks like you had perfect weather and flat seas, two things that I never experience on fishing trips and whale watches...

Wonderful shots! You nailed the exposure perfectly, and the shots are very sharp, too.

It took me nine whale watching trips before I was fortunate enough to capture a breach on camera. Consider yourself very lucky for being in the right place at the right time, but take all the credit for nailing the shot.

So awesome, Mandy!!

Trique Daddi wrote in post #14631610
Stunning sequence! Beautiful colors! Awesome camera work. Thanks for sharing them!

Thank you!

rick_reno wrote in post #14631878
awesome! i can't get a feel for how big it is, how big is it? looks huge, great shots.

Pictures can be very decieving. Barb is a fairly large adult male who's probably between 40-45' long.

pbelarge wrote in post #14631995
Wow! Great sequence of images, and they are well exposed too.

Thank you!

Celestron wrote in post #14631997
Great shots and series !

Thanks!

Andrew Tingle wrote in post #14632353
Always a large dose of luck involved with catching breaches - been on three whale boat tours, never seen one breach - but the skill in nailing the shots when they do occur should not be underestimated. Framing, exposure, it takes great skill and you certainly nailed these. Respect.

Thanks! Trust me when I say I know it's very challenging and very difficult to get breaches. Unless they do it more than once (the first is usually the attention getter) you're probably not going to catch it because it happens so quick. I've been going whale watching since 2001 and I still struggle to get those high action shots! Thankfully, Barb's companion breached shortly before him which caught our attention.

Talaska wrote in post #14632400
nice series.

Thank you!

Wallace River wrote in post #14633021
These are great, Mandy! Well timed on your part, nice to be in the right position and pointing the right way That gal got pretty far out of the water.

Thanks! I owe it all to Barb's companion who breached before him. If she hadn't breached I would've missed this because I was watching other whales on the other side of the boat.

coopert wrote in post #14633112
Very nice series, well done. Looks like you had perfect weather and flat seas, two things that I never experience on fishing trips and whale watches...

Thanks! Yes, this was a perfect day to be on the water. Every now and then we get lucky and get the perfect conditions.

Scott M wrote in post #14634882
Wonderful shots! You nailed the exposure perfectly, and the shots are very sharp, too.

It took me nine whale watching trips before I was fortunate enough to capture a breach on camera. Consider yourself very lucky for being in the right place at the right time, but take all the credit for nailing the shot.

Thanks! Only nine trips to get a breach? Sheesh.. you were pretty lucky! I started whale watching in 2001, but didn't even get to see my first breach until the 2004 season and it was in the fog to top it all off! Oh well, I've been pretty lucky since then.

Maureen Souza wrote in post #14636313
So awesome, Mandy!!

Thank you!

Wow great sequence and the images are so clear and sharp. You did very well with those and I bet you were pretty happy when you saw the results!

L.J.G. wrote in post #14636822
Wow great sequence and the images are so clear and sharp. You did very well with those and I bet you were pretty happy when you saw the results!

Thank you! Yes, I was VERY pleased with them. This is my first summer with my T3i. I got it about 2 months before the season started and so far I'm absolutely in love with this camera!

We saw 50+ breeches in 4 days off Lahaina, Maui. Sometimes we saw huge humpbacks breech 6-10 times in a row. There is nothing like it. Locals call Whale Season "Whale Soup" because you can easily watch them from the shore as well as out in the boats.