Humpback Whale Breaching

A Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) breaching in blue water offshore from the coast of Port Stephens, NSW, Australia. The humpback is one of the larger rorqual species of baleen whale with adults rangeing in length from 12–16 metres (39–52 ft) and weighing approximately 36,000 kilograms (79,000 lb). The shot was taken from a 42" Catalina sloop. Using long range telephoto lenses out in open ocean is much harder than most people realize due the magnification of rocking from the swell in the viewfinder. To freeze the movement here and the water streaming of his fins I shot this photo at very high speed (1/3200 of a second). The other settings were f/5.6 and ISO 640 using a zoom of 260mm on a Canon 6D with a Canon EF 100-400 f/4.5-5.6L IS .

Rob Downie
Love Life, Love Photography

_{All images in this post were taken by and remain the Copyright of Robert Downie - http://www.robertdowniephotography.com}