DSLR Photography Forum

Hi everyone,

Was out for a drive this morning and came across a crowd looking at the ocean about 25 mins north of Perth. It turns out that there was a Humpback Whale and her calf around 15 metres out from shore (and around 1000 people on shore watching them)

Well I got the camera and ran off around 200 shots...easily done (everytime I saw one of them) Here are a couple of shots from this morning. They aren't great, the whales weren't doing acrobatics or anything, but I just got a great big buzz out of seeing them.

Sorry if these are too many photos...

WOW! :o

Very impressive Mez! Yet another good reason why its always good to carry your camera around with you. I'm jealous!

I saw a couple of dolphins in the river here yesterday afternoon and was happy that I managed to snap off a couple of dodgy pics of a fin poking out of the water, but I can only imagine what a buzz it must've been taking these shots. They really are spectacular!

How common is it for whales to hang around the beaches near Perth? This is the first I've heard of them... but I might have to start paying more attention September/October is their breeding season is't it?

Cheers
Adrian

Hi Adrian,

This pair is a mother and calf. The mother looks for calm waters in order to feed her calf who is reliant on her for around 600 litres of milk every day. She will go after calm water every time she needs to suckle him.

This pair has been hanging around from Swanbourne (Thurs) Hillaries (Fri) and today was at Sorrento Beach. If you listen to 94.5fm, then they usually give updates on where they are.

After they had finished feeding they headed out further and a pod of dolphins joined them. Knowing what I am looking at makes this photo easier...you can see (sort of) the baby and some of the dolphin fins as well! They were a long way out and I was using my 300 lense as far as it would go, but they headed straight for each other...was SO cool to see...the biggest buzz

I'm putting another 3 on here (just because I can) And you can see it play out the way I did. They move together, pass each other and then...







Hope this isn't too much...

Hey Mez congratulations of being at the right spot at the right time, its not often that you can photograph whales from the shore, great pics.

I'm glad someone got some photos of them, I was close to where they were on Friday but didn't have my camera.

Very interesting. Great shots and being at the right place at the right time, cool! I've been pondering the Whale watching idea. The wife and I will likely go in the near future to see the Orca's or "Killer Wales" as they're called.

Great shots mez - you're very fortunate indeed to get such close shots! Looks like a gorgeous day too - must have been fun! Thanks for sharing...

These are fantastic. What a great moment you captured.
Geez 600 Litres of milk a day!

Great series, I went whale watching for the first time 2 years ago and got some okay shots, nothing like these though, and I paid to go out on a boat!