Up close and Personal

Here's another picture of the fluke of a humpback whale just before it disappears under the surface. I shot this on my canon 450D with a Tamron 18-270mm Tele at 46(!)mm. ISO 200, F7.1, 1/500 sec. I like how the reflection of the sky in the water forms unusual patterns and shades of blue.

What a Fluke!

A humpback whale fluking in Húsavík, Iceland

Spouting Rainbows

I happened to get lucky with this shot and caught the sun gleaming through the spout of this humpback whale, creating a rainbow in it. The picture was taken in Húsavik, Iceland.

 

floating next to whales

In Húsavík, Iceland, the whale watching is incredible. The boat we were on was rather small, a little smaller than the Humpback whales that inhabit the bay in the summer. They get you right next to the whales, so close you could just about touch them! The same company does tours with a zodiac, which is probably incredible, but also pretty expensive. On our tour, we saw 5 or 6 humpback whales really close up, and a lot more from further away. In total, we probably saw around 15 humpbacks over the course of a few hours. Here are a few pictures from our closest encounter.

of Whales and water

Here's a little preview of what's to come in my blog. This week I'll be posting a series of pictures from our whale watching tour in Húsavík, Iceland this summer. We got as close as one can in a boat to these beautiful and enormous creatures, and the resulting pictures are dramatic, to say the least. Here's a picture to hold you over until then. This is the blowhole of a humpback whale.

A Whale of a Time!

A humpback whale next to a ship of observers in Húsavík, Iceland. You can see that the whale is at least as big as the ship. Our boat was even smaller. One can get amazingly close to these massive creatures of the deep.