Maui time (Pictures) - 3

[McGizmo]

Well thanks again guys! I personally find the ocean quite refreshing and beyond just the physical. A couple days ago when I was coming in after a reef visit, I just floated in the shore surge and enjoyed the visual show of the waves lifting up the sand and the fish moving in and out with the waves. There were some small needle fish close by and just under the surface.



The reflections looking up were quite refreshing and calming.

[saabgoblin]

Brilliant shot!

[McGizmo]

Hi guys,
Well the years is about over and the whales are showing up now. There has been a lot of surf with winter swells rolling in and I have been riding waves lately and not out there with my camera. The allure of getting out there in hopes of a close encounter with the humpbacks is getting strong though!

After one really large swell that made the news, the seahorses must have really had a tough time of it and after the swell dropped, I went out to discover that the landscape of their area had radically changed. Tons of sand had been blasted up onto the beach leaving their terrain covered in rock and exposed dead coral. On the first day, I did find both males but after that, I could only find a single male and not with any regularity. Additional swells have come and gone and now I find no seahorses. I hope they have just moved on to better and calmer places. As it was, they hung around a lot longer than I expected and I was fortunate to get to share them with many friends.



It's been a great year to visit the underwater world and record some images of beauty and grace.





In the final days of the seahorses, there were some calm seas and light wind leaving a glassy surface above. The occasional ripple on the surface acts like a prism and diffracts the sunlight giving you "rainbows" on the seabed. I caught one moving across a seahorse:



You can see the spectral band in the sand going from the top to the bottom and broken by the seahorse's head.

Hopefully I will be boring you with some whale shots and stories soon.

[HSG]

I absolutely LOVED reading through this thread! Now I'm off to Maui 1 & 2..thanks for sharing all those great pics oh and the marine life is nice too

[Kiessling]

Those rays are awesome creatures. Thanx for the pics!

[PEU]

Excellent photos, as usual, Don!

Regarding barracudas, I don't know why, but when I see one, and I saw a fair share of them diving at Cozumel, I think of an old fish, or if I use the most common analogy: Cars, the barracuda would be a 60's ford and, lets say a nurse shark would be a subaru impressa 09

Have a good 2010!


Pablo

[smokelaw1]

Don,

As I have said a half dozen times since I first saw the Maui Time thread....THANK YOU. My year has been very busy, and I have not been under water outside of a pool or a quick dip in the surf since my trip to Maui last year. While it's no replacement for the real thing, (though with what you capture, it is really close!!!) it brings me a sense of that calm wonder that the ocean holds for me that is most welcome!!

Hope all is very well with you, and we'll have to actually meet up next time I'm out there (sometime in 2010).

SL1

[bshanahan14rulz]

The occasional ripple on the surface acts like a prism and diffracts the sunlight giving you "rainbows" on the seabed. I caught one moving across a seahorse:



You can see the spectral band in the sand going from the top to the bottom and broken by the seahorse's head.

This is really interesting to me! Notice the yellow border on one side and the blue border on the opposing side of the band? This effect is the same reason why HID headlights appear blue even though they are really white. Most beam patterns where the cutoff AND the foreground are shielded, you will notice the cutoff up top is blue, while the foreground cutoff at the bottom is yellow.

I also liked the rays and sea horses, rays just look so cool flying through water, but sea horses look so ancient, and they're so different from most other animals.

[McGizmo]

Thanks guys! Two days ago, I paddled out for the first whale sit this season. The water was still with light wind and I ended up about 100 yards from a mother humpback who was parked on the surface. I could see a small calf surface next to her from time to time and every 20 minutes or so, a male "escort" would surface and blow. The law requires that you not approach the whales less than 100 yards in distance and I think this law is reasonable. Licensed researchers don't have to comply with this law but hopefully they show some consideration when they do encroach on the whales. I sat there hoping that the calf might venture over out of curiosity or perhaps the escort. Didn't happen. The mothers somehow excrete milk into the water for the calves to consume. I understand it is more like the consistency of cottage cheese and it holds together underwater so that the calf can swim over and gulp it down. I assume they filter it out with their baleen system. It is my guess that the mother was feeding the calf during the time I was out there and she didn't need to be distracted or annoyed by me!

When I got the shot of the calf that has been my avatar here for so many years, I also got a shot of it when it swam back to its mother and in the poor resolution of the image, there is a white mass under the mother that the calf swam to. I am pretty sure it was milk and I backed away further when I saw it.

Had I disobeyed the law in this situation and paddled in closer or swam over to them and the mother chose to evacuate with her calf, I could have easily caused the calf to swim away from a needed meal. My desire for a close encounter and possible photos would not justify a missed and critical meal. I've seen tourists on rented kayaks who probably don't think about things like this.

So no photos yet and unless I get lucky today, it won't be until next year that I have some whale shots to share.

[litew8]

Great pics Don, thanks for sharing.

[McGizmo]

Hi guys,
We have been getting swell after swell and the surf has been coming almost non stop. I discovered a really fun break right out where the seahorses were and although it is not so hot for surfing on a board, it is really fun on the wave ski. I went there today and the conditions were prety marginal because of an on shore wind with a lot of wind chop coupled with bump from the rip current that can be really strong there. While deciding whether to go out or not, we noticed a whale just outside the surf. A guy I now consider a friend who has a surf school set up at the beach said he was going to paddle out on a board to get a closer view of the whale. I decided to put off the surfing for a bit and paddle out on the wave ski with camera, fins and mask. The visibility looked OK but certainly not great.

Well the mother ended up swimming by me headed north with her calf safely on the other side and with her between me and it.



Had the vis been good, the above shot would be much better. I figured at least I had my first in the water encounter and likely a proof shot of it. After she swam pas me, she did an abrupt turn about.



With the calf still on her port side, it was now on the side close to me and it looked like she would give me another pass and possibly closer with calf in view.



I won't overwhelm this post with too many pics but as it turned out, she did come by me and way closer than I would have imagined!! She herded the calf directly at me and at the last minute swept her head under me diverting the calf past me but with both of them at less than my arms length away!!



I looked them both in the eye as then came past me. I was certain of physical contact but these benign creatures have the kinesthetic awareness of gymnasts and the grace and flexibility to match!





In the shot below, they are both partially past me and as close to me as they could probably get. Their tails have yet to pass and either could swat me like a fly!



Once past, they turned some more and mom checked me out:



And then the turned back to their port and swam off...





I day dream of encounters like this where the whales elect to come in close to me but never expected such a dream to come true!!

[FrogmanM]

Talk about a close encounter, awesome pictures Don!

-Mayo

[BigHonu]

Nice!

[Codeman]

If this didn't cause a serious case of goose bumps, I simply don't know what would.

After all the time you've spent waiting for such an encounter, I'm really happy that it paid off for you, Don!

[Stillphoto]

Such massive, beautiful creatures.

Guessing your heart had to nearly be beating out of your chest at the point that you were looking mom in the eye.

By the way, I have something of yours that will be on its way back shortly, just got a better color chart to use for comparison's sake.

[London Lad]

One can't help but think these great creatures know much more than we realize.

[Sigman]

Priceless Don! You know how we feel about your sharing those moments & pictures with us!

[I'mGatMan!]

You've got the life, Don. I don't even know what I'd give to be able to have experiences like that. Ugh...I need to leave Miami.

[adirondackdestroyer]

Great pics! I would give my left arm to switch locations with you!
Think about it, at the time you were swimming in beautiful warm waters with freaking whales, I was shoveling the snow off of my driveway in below zero temperatures. Damn. LOL.
Keep on enjoying the dream.

[toby_pra]

One can't help but think these great creatures know much more than we realize.

+1

Awesome pics, and very friendly creatures...

[Barefootone]

Hi Don,

Marvelous pictures, maybe some of your best of the magnificent Whales. I'm glad your dream has been realized of up close and personal.

It's freezing cold here in W. PA.

Be well,

Jeff

[McGizmo]

Thanks guys!

I am really stoked that I got the shots that I did as they did capture the experience for the most part. In reviewing the images I can see where I should have and could have done much better but hopefully the experience can influence my actions next time if there is one. With the whales that close and moving as quickly as they did, the thought of trying to view the experience through the tiny view port and at the disadvantage of objects being much smaller and apparently much further away, is frankly spooky!

It's an interesting balancing act of being in the moment as well as trying to capture it. This is especially true in a dynamic and unexpected event of which you have no control over.

I feel for you guys dealing with "real winter" and the best I can do is appreciate the paradise I find myself in (in my opinion anyway). Thanks for letting me share some of it.

[Kiessling]

Oh boy ... what a moment. Congrats bud
Incredible.

[Data]

Wow, great photos and story, thanks Don.

[Kiessling]

Best thread of all CPF. Ever.

[tino_ale]

AGREED

[DM51]

What an unforgettable experience that must have been! You obviously have a complete affinity for marine creatures, otherwise the mother would never have let you get so close to her calf... fantastic!

[McGizmo]

It's difficult to know what these whales sense but in their presence, it feels like there is some sensing going on and especially with some eye contact, it hardly feels "flat". Easy to romanticize but I do think there is something there.

Perhaps some day science will have tools and recording devices that detect a life force or energy aura and it would be interesting to see what emanates from these animals; provided they are still in the oceans at such a future date.

If that comment is to out there, new age or just plain goofy for some of you, so be it.

[BigHonu]

Perhaps some day science will have tools and recording devices that detect a life force or energy aura and it would be interesting to see what emanates from these animals; provided they are still in the oceans at such a future date.

If that comment is to out there, new age or just plain goofy for some of you, so be it.

Groovy man. Groovy

[McGizmo]