In the Field

The Humpback Ballet - Part I. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada. September 26, 2023.

It can be a little hard to think of a 40-ton animal as being "graceful", but if you spend some quality time around Humpback Whales you'll soon be convinced that they're much, much more than a lumbering marine giant! Underwater their grace is amazing, and their ability to manipulate and use their massive pectoral fins with fine dexterity is nothing short of stunning. And, when they take to the air in a dramatic breach, it can seem like you're watching an aerial ballet (especially if you get the chance to capture a high-speed burst of shots of the entire breach).

Between accelerating climate change and the continual global reduction in biodiversity it can be a depressing time for anyone who cares deeply about the natural world. But on the positive side, over the past few decades we've seen a massive rebound in the population sizes of many species of whale on the west coast of British Columbia. Twenty years ago we'd be jumping for joy if we saw a single Humpback over a week-long excursion into the Great Bear Rainforest. Today we may see as many as 50-75 over the same time-frame...and sometimes in large groups of up to 30 or more! Salve for the soul...

This image is another one that was captured with my "last and only" F-mount lens I still regularly use for wildlife photography - my 120-300mm f2.8E lens. While many think of this lens as primarily for sports photographers, some of my favourite wildlife images have been captured with it. Yes, it's heavy and yes it's big - but when photographing wildlife that are reasonably close to you (or in this case a massive subject that's only moderately close to you!) it's super hard to beat this lens.

Here's a larger version (4800 pixel) of this aerial ballet:

• The Humpback Ballet - Part I: Download 4800 pixel image (JPEG: 3.9 MB)

ADDITIONAL NOTES:

1. These images - in all resolutions - are protected by copyright. I'm fine with personal uses of them (including use as desktop backgrounds or screensavers on your own computer), but unauthorized commercial use of the image is prohibited by law. Thanks in advance for respecting my copyright!

2. Like all photographs on this website, these images were captured following the strict ethical guidelines described in The Wildlife FIRST! Principles of Photographer Conduct. I encourage all wildlife photographers to always put the welfare of their subjects above the value of their photographs.

3. This image was captured during my Into the Great Bear Rainforest Exploratory Photo Adventure in the early autumn of 2023. Each year I offer trips into two different parts of the Great Bear Rainforest as well as two tours into the Khutzeymateen Grizzly Sanctuary (to photograph grizzlies, of course!). Details about these trips can be found on the Photo Tours page of this website.

Behind the Camera

The Humpback Ballet - Part I. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada. September 26, 2023.

High Efficiency* Compressed RAW (NEF) format; ISO 640.

Nikon Z 9 paired with Nikkor 120-300mm f2.8E @ 300mm. Hand-held. VR on in Sport mode. Wide-area Custom (13x3) AF area mode with subject detection on "Animal".

1/2500s @ f3.2; -0.3 stop compensation from matrix-metered exposure setting.

At the Computer

The Humpback Ballet - Part I. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada. September 26, 2023.

Initial noise reduction and capture sharpening on the .nef (raw) file using the DeepPRIME XD algorithm of DXO PhotoLab 7.3 Elite.

Subsequent adjustments to the adjusted linear DNG file (exported from PhotoLab 7) and conversion to 16-bit TIFF file (and JPEG files for web use) - including all global and selective adjustments - made using Phase One's Capture One Pro 23. In the case of this image the only global adjustment was a tweak to the overall contrast (a Levels adjustment). Selective local adjustments performed using Capture One Pro's layers and masking tools. In this case small adjustments were made on 3 separate layers, with one or more highly targeted and selective tweaks to brightness (mid-tone exposure), clarity (mid-tone contrast), highlights, shadows, and the blacks. Additionally, a very minor colour balance tweak was made to the ocean water (adding just tinge of blue). There were no enhancements to the colour saturation of this image during post-processing.

Photoshop modifications were limited to the insertion of the watermark and/or text.

Conservation

The Humpback Ballet - Part I. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada. September 26, 2023.

Species Status in Canada*: Special Concern - North Pacific population (December 2022).

Humpback Whales (Megaptera novaeagnliae) are active, acrobatic whales that can throw themselves completely clear of the water (a behaviour known as breaching) and will swim on their backs with both flippers in the air. Humpbacks are large (up to 14m - or 46 feet - in length and 40 tonnes in weight) and with huge flippers.

Humpbacks are found in tropical, temperate, and sub-polar waters around the world. They are found on both the east and west coasts of North America. The North Pacific population has been estimated at between 6,000 and 8,000 individuals, but only a few hundred of these are found in the waters off the coast of British Columbia.

While Humpbacks are recovering from the damage done to their populations by commercial fishing, the are still subject to a variety of threats from human activities, including becoming entangled in fishing nets, noise and chemical pollution and habitat destruction.

*as determined by COSEWIC: The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada