The Kingdom of Tonga.
This past trip was my third time returning to this magical land of friendly islanders and gentle giants with the @whalesunderwater team. Having spent a significant amount of time in the water with whales now, I had somewhat developed the luxury of being able to take a few risks to differentiate my approach to capturing the humpback whales. There is one thing about the whales that a lot of people may not realise from still photography, and it is that they are ALWAYS moving! And one flick of their fluke is enough for them to disappear back into the deep blue sea! So, I wanted to capture this movement within a single frame. Not an easy task, at all! I actually used the Manfrotto Polariser filter and ND filters, to reduce the exposure by a few stops, so I could get the shutter down low enough. The thing is though, once the filter goes on, you’re committed, because it may be too dark to shoot normal settings with it on in the housing. Making that decision was the easy part though. Getting a “Sharp” motion blur of these animals was such a challenge, and required a lot of focus and determination! The hardest part for me was probably the risk and loss, every time I chose to experiment with this style of photography, I would be losing great moments that would of easily turned out as sharp, beautiful pictures, if I had of kept my normal settings. But, with no risk, we have no reward! I definitely lost some great pictures, but what I gained was more special for me personally, as I am passionate about blurring the lines between photography and art.