Photo Of The Day and Natural History Commentary

BBC Wildlife is the finest wildlife magazine in the UK and Europe, and one in which I have enjoyed seeing my images occasionally appear. The November 2006 issue has a nice article about blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus), authored by Anna McKibbin, leading with a two-page spread of a shot I took some years ago while flying over the ocean in a small plane.

See also:

blue whale photos, Balaenoptera musculus photos, blue whale aerial photos.

My good friend and diving partner Skip Stubbs, just returned from another great dive trip, this one dedicated to bluewater freediving offshore of Magdalena Bay (Baja California), in search of marlin, mahi mahi and other pelagics alongside Terry Maas, Derek Stavenger, Bob Jackson, Mike McGettigan and Nils Larsen. While Skip was primarily shooting underwater video, he did shoot a few neat still photos which you should check out. (Note: the shot of Skip holding a camera was taken by Terry, all other images were taken by Skip.) Wow, that water is blue, I wish I was there…

EJ Peiker is a superb photographer. He is co-founder and senior technical editor of NatureScapes.net, one of the web’s premier nature photography websites, where he posts expert commentary on an amazing variety of photography topics, from technique to post processing, travel and location advice to computer support. I’ve sought his advice on a number of matters and have been surprised at how quickly and generously he has answered my questions. Peiker is quite well-travelled and excels at all manner of terrestrial photography; I am constantly impressed with the wildlife and landscape images he presents. Check out his website, you won’t be disappointed.

This guy was shooting a large format film rig in the same patch of turning aspens (Populus tremuloides) I was in, near North Lake, Bishop Creek Canyon, California in September:

A photographer is surrounded by changing aspen trees, turning fall colors, near North Lake in the Eastern Sierra, Bishop Creek Canyon. Bishop Creek Canyon, Sierra Nevada Mountains, Bishop, California, USA. Image: 17564   Species: Populus tremuloides Location: Bishop Creek Canyon, Sierra Nevada Mountains, California, USA

This Caribbean reef shark (Carcharhinus perezi) was shot late afternoon on a seamount in the Northern Bahamas. There were so many reef sharks it was crazy. They smelled the small bait box that I was sitting on and were quite bold, bouncing off my shoulders, tank, my head and arms and strobes, the whole bit. I shot machine gun style, hoping the strobes would recycle fast enough to keep up, in this shot only the top strobe fired which left some pretty deep shadows. I was not even certain if the shots were in focus as it was getting dark, hard to see, and I was not as thoughtful as I would have liked to have been in composing the images. This was my favorite shot of the bunch.

Caribbean reef shark, ampullae of Lorenzini visible on snout. Bahamas. Image: 10550   Species: Carcharhinus perezi Location: Bahamas

In the late 80s and 90s we used to leave the docks really early on summer mornings, motor 10-20 miles offshore in our little boats, far enough to get into really blue and bottemless water, drop a bucket of chum in the water, and make bets on when the blue sharks (Prionace glauca) would show up. When they arrived we would hop in and spend the day swimming around trying to photograph them, sometimes on a tank and sometimes just freediving. It was great fun. The last few times I did this, though, there were very few sharks, and none of the big ones we used to see. I hear talk nowadays that most of the blue sharks have now been fished out, presumably by longliners. This was shot about 3′ deep at sunset – bits of plankton are seen in the shot, they rise to the surface at nightfall. This is a juvenile, and shows none of the scarring acquired during mating that the mature males and females tend to exhibit.

Blue shark, open ocean. San Diego, California, USA. Image: 02286   Species: Prionace glauca Location: San Diego, California, USA

Surfline picked up a shot of mine for today’s ROCKTOBER slideshow, check this page out.

Breaking wave, Ponto, South Carlsbad. Ponto, Carlsbad, California, USA. Image: 17679   Location: Ponto, Carlsbad, California, USA