This is my entry for the #POBphotocontest this week!🐋
The theme this week is "Animals and water" I immediately thought back to May of this year when we were staying in Durban and had the pure joy of seeing these majestic creatures tumble around in the ocean.
Unfortunately we were incredibly far away from the sea, so we didn't get the greatest view. We stood on the balcony of our chalet at Illovo Beach Club simply admiring the view of the vast blue sea when someone saw some splashes in the distance, we were that far away that we could not make out what was happening with our naked eye so while someone was scrambling through he room for the binoculars, I popped on the longest zoom lens I have, 75 - 300mm
To my delight, it was in fact a whale doing backflips in the ocean. I was so excited, never before have I had the privilege to witness this spectacular event with my own eyes. I was so sad that we were not closer as, even with my longer lens, I could not get a really nice picture, being so far away as well as the quick movements he was making all combined with me desperately trying to hold my camera still, I could only manage a few blurry photos.
A few years ago, I visited Heramnus in Cape Town with my brother during the whale season specifically to go whale watching and we did not see a single whale, which made me so incredibly sad, so spotting this guy by pure chance was an absolute dream come true... even thought I had to see him through the lens of my camera and binoclurs!
I took a couple of the same photos, one with the 75mm and the same with the full 300mm and put them side by side for you to see just how far away he really was from us. A tiny splash in the ocean.
The very first photo of my post, was probably the best photo I snapped, managing to capture the whale just before he went under the water again but with the picture I shared, I zoomed and cropped it a ton while editing just to see him.
I dream that one day I will be able to go whale watching, maybe in a boat and see these absolutely stunning creatures up close and be able to shoot some gorgeous, clear photos of them. I am truly fascinated by any sea creature but especially whales. When we learn about how massive they really are, I tend to appreciate the vastness of the ocean that much more. If they are so big and there are so many of them living in the sea... Just think about how big and deep and unknown the sea really is.
So I know these are not the nicest or clearest photos of a whale however I still wanted to share my experience with you all and maybe you can appreciate the couple where you can kind of see our giant sea friend. One day I will have the chance to see them closer and will post some cooler photos.
Until then, while photographing my whale, I saw this boat in the distance and couldn't help myself but to snap some pictures of it as well.
All photographs are copyrighted to the author
~ AJ Champz
Photography instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/ajchampz.photography/