Capturing the Moment

  A weekly treat aboard the Safari Explorer's Hawaii itinerary is a chance to spend an afternoon cruising the deep offshore waters of the Big Island to search for different kinds of marine mammals. The underwater topography drops off to thousands of feet just a couple of miles off the Kona coast, and this is where very interesting odontocetes like pilot whales, spotted dolphins, sperm whales, false killer whales, beaked whales, and other rare encounters are most likely.   We were lucky this week on our search as our chief mate Amy spotted some splashing over where a few fishing boats were maneuvering. As we crept in to investigate it became apparent that we had a huge pod of active pan-tropical spotted dolphins most likely going after the same fish the fishermen were. The dolphins wasted no time in zipping over to our vessel to ride the bow wave and our wake just behind the boat. I had a great time trying to time the shutter just right to catch the dolphins right as they ...

 I have been tackling the challenge of having humpback whales as a subject for my wildlife photography for the past three winters and it is finally paying off. Spending so much time with the whales has given me a greater understanding into how they spend their time here in Hawaiian waters. However some behaviors, like this breach, are still as unpredictable as the first time I saw it.   If you are a wildlife photographer looking for a chance to try to capture whales in action there is no better place than Maui during the winter. The waters are dense with whales and they are very close to shore. In fact if you go out farther than 600' deep you stop seeing humpbacks. Those two characteristics plus the fact that these humpbacks are some of the most acrobatic and playful whales in the world make Maui a one of a kind whale experience.  Scroll down quickly for the full effect of this 75,000lbs animal breaching out of the water.