DAshley
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Zenith Award
Top Shot Award 22
Creative Winter Award
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Contest Finalist in Into The Wild Photo Contest
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
I shot this image 2 km off the coast of Busselton in the South West of WA.Time
It was around 11amLighting
October 2011 and here we are, sitting on a charter boat 2km's off the coast of Busselton, W.A. on our first ever whale watching tour. Its hot, the water is dead calm, the whales are small on the distant horizon. I'm bored...After several uneventful hours, the skipper heads back to shore. It was then we saw the 'debris"' 500 metres starboard and the skipper turned and moved in for a closer look. As we drew near the skipper declared it was a dead whale, news of which was not received too well by the 4 children on board! There was nine of us on the boat and we all stood staring at the poor creature, no one saying a word. To say it was a surprise would be an understatement. The shrill sound of the water being expelled from the blowhole broke the silence and a wave of relief swept over all of us as we watched the creature lunge then dive to the depths below. It wasn't debris and it wasn't a dead whale. Once again we all stared out to the spot where the whale had been and it was at that moment not more than 50 metres from our boat, that this magnificent creature breached the water in spectacular fashion. It was all over in seconds leaving us completely stunned by what we had just witnessed and in a state of complete awe. I'm so glad I swapped my large telephoto lens 15 mins earlier for something smaller as these shots would not have been possible.Equipment
Nikon D5000 with Tamron 18-270Inspiration
The whale!Editing
This particular image was edited in Picassa but I have since started the long learning curve of photoshop!In my camera bag
Lately I carry a Nikon D810 with 20 mm 1.8 for landscape and a Nikon 7100 now with the Sigma 150-500 for wildlife.Feedback
You can't get the shot unless you get out there!