It has been a solid whale season here in Maui. This is where the North Pacific Humpback whales come to breed and to have their calves. It is a wonderful place for whale watching as these whales are quite surface active. One day on the water and you can see breaches, tail slaps, pectoral fin slaps, chin slaps, competition pods, and brand new baby whales, all nearby the boat.
Photographing the whales is still a big challenge. Even though they are not hard to find, knowing where they will pop up next is the hard part. There is no warning as to when they will launch their entire body out of the water in a breach. But when that happens, everyone stands in awe. Imagine an 80,000lbs backflop!
Here are a few of the photos I got over this past week. Enjoy and if you ever make it out here in the winter time, make sure you head out on the water to catch the whale action for yourself.
My Canon 5d just stopped working all of a sudden, so I slapped my Canon L series 100-400 lens onto a Rebel XTi body that was onboard to get these shots.