conkerwood

Those who have seen a few of my past posts will know that I am obsessed with photographing humpback whales. On the Queensland coast where I live their annual migration means that I get about 6 months of opportunities to photograph them up close. But because they rarely feed during their migration the one behaviour I had never seen is bubble net feeding. This is where a pod of whales swim around in circles blowing bubbles under a school of fish to form a bubble net. On a signal from the lead humpback they all launch themselves to the surface with their mouths open ready to grab whatever fish have been trapped in the bubble net. So my wife and I decided the only way to see this was to go to Alaska. And we got lucky, and I mean very very lucky. Only around 20% of Northern Humpback whales actually 'know' how to bubble net feed but we came across a pod which kept it up for about an hour. This is my favourite among many pics. If you download the lage version and look closely at the bottom left you can see a herring that managed to get away but if you also look closely in the whales mouth you can see the not so lucky one that didn't. I presume this counts as a close up though I haven't measured it to see if it fits the 75% rule. I hope you like it. Any feedback is most welcome.

Peter

bigmac115100 Loc: Florida

That's a behavior most people never see let alone photograph. Nice one

lovemypups Loc: Kentucky

What a wonderful photo. Truly stunning!!! Thank you so much for sharing this with us :)

Debbie

steve1oshea Loc: Reading, England

Peter that sure is a great photograph. If it were my image I would crop the top part, (green area) because I found my eye kept wondering there instead of being focused on the main subject. This in turn would enlarge main subject.

Bozsik Loc: Orangevale, California

The baleen in the whale's mouth was captured perfectly. Thanks for sharing this image.

macro2009 Loc: Cheshire United Kingdom

Hello Peter,
It meets the criteria perfectly in the downloaded format.
Although many will disagree with me.
You are now at liberty, now to submit whatever your own judgement of a close up is. This excellent visual experience will be a stupefaction to all who take the time to view.

conkerwood

Thanks macro. I count myself as very very lucky to have got this. Alaska is one stunning place.

Peter

oldmalky Loc: West Midlands,England.

After downloading i enlarged the pic now i am stuck for the right words to describe how it felt to me, the best i can come up with is dynamic but even that sounds flat thanks for the pic.