Photo of the Week: June 11, 2012

Hi Gang!

This week’s POTW is from a recent trip to Hawaii. It is a shot of a snorkeler looking at a short-finned pilot whale, Giobicephala macrorhynchus, that is coming her way.

There is always a little extra bit of excitement and adrenaline flowing through my system whenever I am diving around a big animal, and that feeling often gets magnified in the clear, blue waters of Hawaii. As is so often the case in Hawaii I could see the animal coming my way from a relatively long way away from me. I simply held my ground and let the whale’s curiosity take it from there.

The pod included six animals, and the one that is featured in this week’s POTW was the largest and most curious of the bunch. While several of the whales swam very close, the whale in the picture paused and rolled onto its side when it got near us.

Short-finned pilot whales are among the larger members of the dolphin family. They reach an average length of roughly 12 feet, but big males are known to attain proportions of 24 feet and 6600 pounds. They certainly are not the biggest whales one might see in Hawaii, but they are plenty big enough to get my heart pumping!

Short-finned pilot whales tend to prefer warmer tropical and temperate areas. They tend to be found in areas where the bottom is fairly deep, but they are sometimes found rather close to shore, especially in water that is close to oceanic islands where the drop-off into deep water is fairly steep. A variety of squids make up a significant portion of their diet.

In short, it sounds like the water off the Hawaiian Islands is the perfect place for short-finned pilot whales to live, and sightings in Hawaiian waters are fairly common. Of course, that doesn’t guarantee an encounter with a curious showboat of a whale, and I am well aware of the fact that luck was on our side.

While the experience of being so close to such a magnificent animal was a huge thrill, I have to admit that there was a sad part of my dive. I think this dive has a good chance to be the last time I will ever get to use my Nikon D300 camera system. I have just bought a new Canon 7D system so that I can take advantage of the video feature, something my D300 did not offer. (The Nikon D300s does offer video). I enjoyed a lot of great dives with my D300, and in many respects I am sad to see it go. At the same time, I look forward to getting to know my new Canon 7D and sharing some new images.

I used a Nikon 17-55 mm zoom to create the shot. Because of the low contrast on the skin of the whale, I set the lens to focus on the closest element that was placed inside of the inner focusing rectangle in the viewfinder. I used a shutter speed of 1/250^th of a second to help freeze the action.

I hope you enjoy this week’s POTW!

See you next week,

Marty