How I Got The Shot- Southern Right whale
Down in the cold waters of southern Argentina, during winter, the souther right whales make their way into Gulfo Nuevo, Chubult province. Here in the protected waters approximately 1500 - 2000 southern right whales come to give birth, mate, and seek refuge from the stormy and colder southern waters of the Atlantic and southern oceans.
One aspect of this experience is certainly the government oversight. They take the conservation, and the success of their conservation initiatives seriously. Bring these animals back from less than 600 individuals to its current status is no easy feat. And success begets success. Given this, they don't play around with regulations. The privilege to get in the water is taken seriously, with rigorous applications, controlled encounters, and even a government observer on-board to monitor the activities. While it may sound like a lot, once there, you see why. The experience of being the only boat on the water, with the permit to do this activity is un-replicated anywhere in the world. This lends itself to a feeling of intimacy and calm that you didn’t know you needed until you did it.
Conditions…
I'm not going to pull the wool over your eyes, it’s a place where you have to practice patience. Not for the chance of seeing whales, that's the easy bit. The hard bit is getting out on the water. Patagonia is famous for its winds, and well, here is no exception. Nonetheless, we have only had days delayed, and are yet to have a full day cancelled. Nonetheless, there have been days of sitting in my wetsuit in my room waiting for the call until lunch time.
The wind and shallow waters of the bay are also a combination that leads to poor visibility. Now, it’s not that much of an issue for your encounter, you will see whales, they will swim up to you, you will have to swim backwards!!! But, for photography it can be tricky to get more than just their head. But you work with what you’ve got, you’re a photographer after all!
Preparing for the shots
I always like to give my camera a floor setting. This is the base settings of what will make an image I can be happy with. Usually I'm pretty high on shutter speed, 1/400 or 1/500, but given the water and often cloudy skies, we have to drop it back a little 1/200 is the minimum I go, and I have to mentally focus on trying to be a touch more steady in the water to prevent motion blur. If we get some sun, I can dial up to 1/400 pretty quickly. ISO is your friend so leverage that! As always F8, but if it does go grey overhead, I’ll have to bring that back too.
Ok, thats the base settings. But on occasion, with the sun shining, no wind and a high tide, things can be incredibly different.
Anticipation
Given the set-up with permits and regulations, we only allow one person in the water at a time with the safety diver. And we rotate through each person, and make sure to make it as equitable as we can. Obviously, I go last, or forgo my turn if I need to, or cycle the safety diver out to give him break and warm up.
On this morning, it was so good. Dead flat seas. No wind for a day, high tide, and the whales were up in the very shallow water. I was so excited for the group as I knew they were going to make some incredible photos. And more importantly, the moments they were about to have were truly one of a kind, and going to be mind blowing. We could see the bottom, and as soon as the first diver got in the water, they lifted their head and said “the vis is crazy”!
The team found us an incredibly curious whale. And we got ready. Cycling the clients through it was an hour or so before my turn. Soon it would be my turn, and knew that I wanted a photograph that I hadn’t had a chance to get yet, and this was a chance to get it. I wanted the sand. I wanted texture. I wanted the water's surface, I wanted to capture the full experience. But we’re all wearing 6-7 mm two piece wetsuits. The amount of weight to wear to get below the surface is a lot. Even more is needed to get to the bottom efficiently.
I asked the captain, I need more weight. He handed me some weight. I said “a little more?” He knew what I needed. So we loaded up around 28 lbs.
I took off my gloves. Despite the cold I needed all the control on the camera I could get, and it was my turn to jump in…
CURIOSITY UNMATCHED
I’ve been lucky to be in the water with curious animals across many species of whale. But the souther right whales, as a default nature, are the most curious. It is also why we need the safety diver. These whales have no shame in swimming through you! This is why we have a diver in the water with you.
I drop in, and the whale we have picked might be the most curious whale I have encountered. Maybe it’s the combination of all the stars aligning - calm seas, shallow water, no wind, 20+ meters visibility. I wonder if the whale is as excited about these conditions as we are.
This whale is excited, it’s swimming at and around me, I keep swimming away to get some insight into its curiosity. It keeps following me. But I want to get to the sea floor, but I can’t if it’s constantly in my face.
I swim away harder, find some distance, calm my mind, heart, and body in a few deep breaths, and a drop to the bottom of the ocean. With 28 lbs of weight, I was able to get there fast and compose myself (remembering that getting back to the surface is the hard part) I checked the meter on the camera, my focus point, adjusted my aperture ( I wanted depth on this shot and without gloves it was a swift swipe with my fingers on the dial) and watched for the whale as it made a big sweeping turn towards me.
Much to my amazement, it didn’t swim past, it didn’t swim over me, rather, it just settled on the sand in front of me. Its giant head encroaching over me with my 15mm fisheye capturing the entire animal from head to tail. We stayed there for a moment, my consciousness forgetting for a moment that I too am an air breather, and eventually we both surfaced.
