Every year from may to november,approximately 6500 humpback whales pass by Port Stephens as part of their annual migration.Its a round trip of 12000km from the Antarctic summer feeding grounds to warm breeding grounds at Hervey Bay,Qld. Australia.
I'm lucky enough to work on a whale watching boat where we see everything from sea eagles,turtles,seals,dolphins,and a variety of whales.The humpback is the most curious of all the whales,often swimming over to the boat to check us out and show off.They are also the most active;performing "tricks" like tail slapping,body rolls and spyhopping(where they stick their head out of the water to look at us).The most spectacular trick of all is the breach where they launch themselves out of the water.
40 tonnes of airborne whale is an awesome sight,especially when its less than 10 metres away!
Of course there is a lot of patience involved.The whales dont always perform.Ive gone for weeks on end without even seeing a breach.Other days i've seen over 50 breaches on one trip.Theres plenty of missed opportunities because you never know exactly when or where its going to happen.A breach lasts less than 2 seconds,so if you arent pointing your lens in the right direction its to late.The other thing that causes me to miss plenty of shots is cleaning up after the seasick people.Ewww.Its a sacrifice im willing to make if it means i get to photograph humpbacks every day.Then theres the shots that dont work because the light was wrong,there was spray on the lens,the boat rocked(it never stops) etc.I've got plenty of excuses.
Anyway after 3 years of trying i finally nailed a good breach sequence with Fingal lighthouse as the backdrop.ive got others where the light was no good,there was to much spray,the angle was wrong etc,so i was stoked to get this one on my new 40d.There are actually eight shots in this sequence but i couldnt fit them all.
This is my first attempt at this kind of editing,so its a bit rough around the edges.Any advice or criticism would be appreciated.thanks.
Disqualification Details
Moving frames relative to each other is outside the Advance Rules
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not sure if this is in the new rules, but I will give you the benefit of the doubt...actually, looking closer, I reckon you'll be dqed...anyhow...a nice experience to see something like this...
I love your time sequence here. The motion depicted in the 'jump' is awesome! I'm hoping that you don't get DQ'd for changing the frame positioning of the whale here. That would be a bummer.
The lighthouse gives my eye somewhere to end up at after it follows the path of the whale. Very nice overall -BB
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