Every year friends and I go to see Atlantic spotted dolphins in Bimini and Grand Bahama with the Wild Dolphin Project – run by my friend, the brilliant and oft-published researcher Dr. Denise Herzing.
I rent the guest spaces on her catamaran STENELLA, named after a family of dolphins, for either one or two of her 9-day expeditions every summer.
There’s a 4-bed guest cabin and a 2-bed guest cabin on the boat. One bed is pre-booked by my gear.
Denise knows, photographs, records sound and writes about dolphins she’s been studying for 35 years.
She also names the new calves.
Her focus is on dolphin “language” and especially on the spotted dolphins.
She and her team can identify about 300 spotted dolphins in the area, whether by memory or by photo ID.
Despite their main interest being the spotted dolphins, the WDP team also photographs the bottlenose dolphins we see from the surface and can identify some of those by their dorsal fins.
With the spotteds the team documents foraging, courtship, aggression, mother-calf behavior, travel and rest.
They track the dolphins’ reproduction and health, calving rates and pregnancy rates. And they collect fecal samples for DNA extraction and paternity.
We go in the water nearly every time spotted dolphins show up, and we try to swim with them.
Some recognize Denise and her research assistants instantaneously, swim around them and play with them.
The dolphins are unpredictable (never aggressive with us) and all have their own independent characters and behavior. Some are bold, some shy, some inquisitive and playful. Some calves are cheeky and some mothers stern.
Sometimes you can swim with them for a long time. We have often had encounters with familiar, friendly dolphins for an hour or more. Sometimes the dolphins immediately swim off when you get in… or the encounters are very short.
The average encounter lasts 20 minutes.
One day in 2018 we were lucky enough to swim with a dolphin called Monkey and another called Jammin’ for two hours and 55 minutes, over 3.15 miles ... on the very last day of our trip and right after we lifted the anchor to head home! The whole trip had been mediocre — nearly no “drops” or good swims for 9 days — and then a really long, life-changing, mind-blowing swim with two COMPLETELY active, interested, entertaining and playful animals. One of them spent ages playing with sargassum and swimming extremely close -- next to -- me, the other staying with the WDP crew behind me. Both swam intermittently among a huge group of jellyfish, often taking them in their mouths and playing with them.
Behavior varies… We frequently see them mating – so rude! Small groups playing; large groups traveling – busy cruising and disinterested in us; individuals looking for food in the sand et cetera.
The numbers of dolphins we see vary a lot as well. The most I ever saw in a group was 30, but they dispersed very fast into much smaller groups – as large groups nearly always do. Denise once got in, years ago, after the team guessed they had about 70 dolphins.
Some days we don’t spot a single dolphin.
Most of the time groups of 4-15 show up.
Denise has known some of the dolphins for over 15 years. One of the dolphins, who’s about 55, she’s known for her whole 35-year career.
The dolphins’ names include Arugula, Brush, Brat, Big Gash, Lettuce, Little Gash, Nassau, Palette, Picard, Soot, and Zeke. And of course: Monkey and Jammin’!
In November or December every year I go with friends to see spinner dolphins at Sataya in Egypt.
We rent a live-aboard boat called DIVE ONE that has 12 cabins and is mainly used for diving trips.
We go with my friend and guide Simone Piccoli, an Italian who shoots professional video[1] who has been living and working in Egypt for over a decade.
We anchor in the bay for 6 nights (though I now do two weeks there – with two different groups of people) and we swim with the dolphins every day, once for maybe 2-3 hours in the morning and then again for 2-3 hours in the afternoon.
We avoid the period between around 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. since “day boats” come from shore and put many more people – sometimes too many – in the water with the dolphins. Some of the dinghy captains drive badly and come too close to swimmers.
Often the swimmers are more like bobbing Muppets than capable people: many are clumsy or inexperienced swimmers.
Our group makes sure to be disciplined and spatially aware. We respect the dolphins tremendously (some don’t) and try not to kick each other in the face!
One hopes that the activity might become more regulated, the number of swimmers limited or rules of conduct imposed on both swimmers and dinghy captains, especially during peak hours.
There are between fifty and two hundred dolphins in the bay depending on the season. They come to rest and socialize during the daytime after hunting for squid off the reef at night.
We jump in with the animals from the 2 dinghies that live on the boat and tend to do multiple jumps in a row since the dolphins don’t usually stick around. Although they are habituated to people, the spinners in Sataya are much less interactive than the spotteds in the Bahamas. I’ve only seen a Sataya spinner really interact with someone, even for a few seconds, eight or nine times over four seasons.
As with the spotted dolphins, sometimes the spinners are swimming slowly, whether at the surface or down below… but sometimes they are swimming 4 times as fast as you can and the best you can do is watch them disappear into the distance or dive below you with a smile on your face.
Again like Bimini, the numbers vary.
Sometimes you see a whole group of 70 or more dolphins, sometimes ( the best of times) there are several groups of 20-40 around you. Invariably it’s the smaller groups of animals, frequently offshoots of a bigger group, that are most interesting to watch, that play with each other, mate, threaten each other or fight a bit amongst each other. These smaller groups are usually much more active and entertaining and make for better photographs.
Spotted dolphins and spinners are both from the family Stenella, after which Denise’s catamaran is named.
They are smaller and slenderer than the bottlenose one sees so frequently on tv. (Flipper was a bottlenose) and from boats the world over.
Whilst it’s sometimes hard to convince friends to fly to Egypt or the Bahamas and spend a week on a boat, most who have come once do repeat trips.
I personally wouldn’t give up the spotteds or the spinners for the world.
Just like with humpbacks in Tonga I think I will always go back to both places.
So long as the animals aren’t extinct and I’m alive…
1. He recently won multiple awards for a film about the whales in Tonga.
I rent the guest spaces on her catamaran STENELLA, named after a family of dolphins, for either one or two of her 9-day expeditions every summer.
There’s a 4-bed guest cabin and a 2-bed guest cabin on the boat. One bed is pre-booked by my gear.
Denise knows, photographs, records sound and writes about dolphins she’s been studying for 35 years.
She also names the new calves.
Her focus is on dolphin “language” and especially on the spotted dolphins.
She and her team can identify about 300 spotted dolphins in the area, whether by memory or by photo ID.
Despite their main interest being the spotted dolphins, the WDP team also photographs the bottlenose dolphins we see from the surface and can identify some of those by their dorsal fins.
With the spotteds the team documents foraging, courtship, aggression, mother-calf behavior, travel and rest.
They track the dolphins’ reproduction and health, calving rates and pregnancy rates. And they collect fecal samples for DNA extraction and paternity.
We go in the water nearly every time spotted dolphins show up, and we try to swim with them.
Some recognize Denise and her research assistants instantaneously, swim around them and play with them.
The dolphins are unpredictable (never aggressive with us) and all have their own independent characters and behavior. Some are bold, some shy, some inquisitive and playful. Some calves are cheeky and some mothers stern.
Sometimes you can swim with them for a long time. We have often had encounters with familiar, friendly dolphins for an hour or more. Sometimes the dolphins immediately swim off when you get in… or the encounters are very short.
The average encounter lasts 20 minutes.
One day in 2018 we were lucky enough to swim with a dolphin called Monkey and another called Jammin’ for two hours and 55 minutes, over 3.15 miles ... on the very last day of our trip and right after we lifted the anchor to head home! The whole trip had been mediocre — nearly no “drops” or good swims for 9 days — and then a really long, life-changing, mind-blowing swim with two COMPLETELY active, interested, entertaining and playful animals. One of them spent ages playing with sargassum and swimming extremely close -- next to -- me, the other staying with the WDP crew behind me. Both swam intermittently among a huge group of jellyfish, often taking them in their mouths and playing with them.
Behavior varies… We frequently see them mating – so rude! Small groups playing; large groups traveling – busy cruising and disinterested in us; individuals looking for food in the sand et cetera.
The numbers of dolphins we see vary a lot as well. The most I ever saw in a group was 30, but they dispersed very fast into much smaller groups – as large groups nearly always do. Denise once got in, years ago, after the team guessed they had about 70 dolphins.
Some days we don’t spot a single dolphin.
Most of the time groups of 4-15 show up.
Denise has known some of the dolphins for over 15 years. One of the dolphins, who’s about 55, she’s known for her whole 35-year career.
The dolphins’ names include Arugula, Brush, Brat, Big Gash, Lettuce, Little Gash, Nassau, Palette, Picard, Soot, and Zeke. And of course: Monkey and Jammin’!
In November or December every year I go with friends to see spinner dolphins at Sataya in Egypt.
We rent a live-aboard boat called DIVE ONE that has 12 cabins and is mainly used for diving trips.
We go with my friend and guide Simone Piccoli, an Italian who shoots professional video[1] who has been living and working in Egypt for over a decade.
We anchor in the bay for 6 nights (though I now do two weeks there – with two different groups of people) and we swim with the dolphins every day, once for maybe 2-3 hours in the morning and then again for 2-3 hours in the afternoon.
We avoid the period between around 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. since “day boats” come from shore and put many more people – sometimes too many – in the water with the dolphins. Some of the dinghy captains drive badly and come too close to swimmers.
Often the swimmers are more like bobbing Muppets than capable people: many are clumsy or inexperienced swimmers.
Our group makes sure to be disciplined and spatially aware. We respect the dolphins tremendously (some don’t) and try not to kick each other in the face!
One hopes that the activity might become more regulated, the number of swimmers limited or rules of conduct imposed on both swimmers and dinghy captains, especially during peak hours.
There are between fifty and two hundred dolphins in the bay depending on the season. They come to rest and socialize during the daytime after hunting for squid off the reef at night.
We jump in with the animals from the 2 dinghies that live on the boat and tend to do multiple jumps in a row since the dolphins don’t usually stick around. Although they are habituated to people, the spinners in Sataya are much less interactive than the spotteds in the Bahamas. I’ve only seen a Sataya spinner really interact with someone, even for a few seconds, eight or nine times over four seasons.
As with the spotted dolphins, sometimes the spinners are swimming slowly, whether at the surface or down below… but sometimes they are swimming 4 times as fast as you can and the best you can do is watch them disappear into the distance or dive below you with a smile on your face.
Again like Bimini, the numbers vary.
Sometimes you see a whole group of 70 or more dolphins, sometimes ( the best of times) there are several groups of 20-40 around you. Invariably it’s the smaller groups of animals, frequently offshoots of a bigger group, that are most interesting to watch, that play with each other, mate, threaten each other or fight a bit amongst each other. These smaller groups are usually much more active and entertaining and make for better photographs.
Spotted dolphins and spinners are both from the family Stenella, after which Denise’s catamaran is named.
They are smaller and slenderer than the bottlenose one sees so frequently on tv. (Flipper was a bottlenose) and from boats the world over.
Whilst it’s sometimes hard to convince friends to fly to Egypt or the Bahamas and spend a week on a boat, most who have come once do repeat trips.
I personally wouldn’t give up the spotteds or the spinners for the world.
Just like with humpbacks in Tonga I think I will always go back to both places.
So long as the animals aren’t extinct and I’m alive…
1. He recently won multiple awards for a film about the whales in Tonga.
SPINNER DOLPHINS AT SATAYA, A FEW HOURS’ CRUISE FROM MARSA ALAM IN EGYPT, IN LATE NOVEMBER OR EARLY DECEMBER 2016
The spinner dolphins at Sataya, a tiny reef in the middle of nowhere which protects a bay in which spinner dolphins congregate, have become quite famous because they are habituated to human presence, can be found quite easily in the small bay, and are amazing to swim among.
Sometimes you see 80 dolphins in a tight-knit group. Sometimes you get close to a small number — an offshoot — of 6 to 12
individuals. Sometimes the dolphins don’t want you there, stay 20 meters down and constantly swim away.
Other times you might be lucky enough to have dozens of spinners close to you and right at the surface.
Regardless of numbers and interactions, every hour in the water with dolphins — any dolphins — seems nearly miraculous,
Perfect dream or fantasy.
Sataya in Egypt, with its spinner dolphins, and Bimini in the Bahamas, with its Atlantic spotted dolphins, are 2 of my favorite places in the world,
and the only locations I know of (though there may well be others) where one can swim with large numbers of confident, curious, beautiful
(all dolphins are beautiful) habituated dolphins. The idea that if you go into the water when you see dolphins they will come and play with you is largely a fallacy, an urban legend, a myth, a children’s story. Wild dolphins want nothing to do with you! Nineteen times out of 20 wild dolphins will swim as fast and as far away from you as they possibly can. And whilst this may seem like an enormous letdown — a broken dream or ruined myth — it is precisely what makes Sataya and Bimini so special.
The spinner dolphins at Sataya, a tiny reef in the middle of nowhere which protects a bay in which spinner dolphins congregate, have become quite famous because they are habituated to human presence, can be found quite easily in the small bay, and are amazing to swim among.
Sometimes you see 80 dolphins in a tight-knit group. Sometimes you get close to a small number — an offshoot — of 6 to 12
individuals. Sometimes the dolphins don’t want you there, stay 20 meters down and constantly swim away.
Other times you might be lucky enough to have dozens of spinners close to you and right at the surface.
Regardless of numbers and interactions, every hour in the water with dolphins — any dolphins — seems nearly miraculous,
Perfect dream or fantasy.
Sataya in Egypt, with its spinner dolphins, and Bimini in the Bahamas, with its Atlantic spotted dolphins, are 2 of my favorite places in the world,
and the only locations I know of (though there may well be others) where one can swim with large numbers of confident, curious, beautiful
(all dolphins are beautiful) habituated dolphins. The idea that if you go into the water when you see dolphins they will come and play with you is largely a fallacy, an urban legend, a myth, a children’s story. Wild dolphins want nothing to do with you! Nineteen times out of 20 wild dolphins will swim as fast and as far away from you as they possibly can. And whilst this may seem like an enormous letdown — a broken dream or ruined myth — it is precisely what makes Sataya and Bimini so special.
SPOTTED DOLPHIN MOTHER AND CALF.
BIMINI OR GRAND BAHAMA IN SEPTEMBER 2015
With the Wild Dolphin Project, its director Doctor Denise Herzing and her graduate student research assistants.
This shot is actually right side up since I took it upside down.
Because my left leg is weaker it’s harder to shoot to the right so sometimes I flip the camera and shoot
under my arm...
One of the more beautiful inverted images I’ve ever seen. But people keep trying to turn it right side up in front of me!
BIMINI OR GRAND BAHAMA IN SEPTEMBER 2015
With the Wild Dolphin Project, its director Doctor Denise Herzing and her graduate student research assistants.
This shot is actually right side up since I took it upside down.
Because my left leg is weaker it’s harder to shoot to the right so sometimes I flip the camera and shoot
under my arm...
One of the more beautiful inverted images I’ve ever seen. But people keep trying to turn it right side up in front of me!
DOLPHIN LOVE OR “WOMAN ON TOP!”
BIMINI, THE BAHAMAS
SEPTEMBER 2015
Atlantic spotted dolphins just as they were finishing mating…
It is the male who goes upside down when dolphins mate.
I shot a whole series as the couple rose to the surface, attached to each other, from the bottom about 10 meters down… but this frame,
one of the final images, turned out the best. Personally I wish more of their bodies appeared in the frame. But you work with what you’ve got.
Spotted dolphins acquire more spots as they age. Calves are born spotless. Spots begin to appear when the animals are about 4.
Once the spots are quite numerous the animals are described as being “mottled”, and when they are innumerable, and the animals older, the dolphins are said to be “fused”.
These 2 specific dolphins are from among the very large number Doctor Denise Herzing has been observing and swimming with in the Bahamas (and writing about) for 30 years.
She recognizes something like 100 different dolphins from memory and more from photographic files, and runs an organization called the Wild Dolphin Project. We met in 2013 when I joined Brian Skerry on her boat for the spotted dolphin part of his dolphin cover story in National Geographic.
The dolphins she studies split into two groups around 2013, one of the groups joining the more numerous Bimini animals, which has it made it harder for her to find and study them.
Regardless, for a tourist and animal-loving non-scientist every single moment spent with dolphins is a joy, a childhood dream come true, and a lesson in animal intelligence, socialization and healthy family structures!
There are plenty of operators in and close to Bimini who take clients to swim with these dolphins; but none are as well-versed as Denise and her graduate students, as close to and loved by the animals… Or as concerned about their wellbeing.
When you see this image don’t fool yourself into believing these animals mate for life or are madly in love. Dolphins are promiscuous and, along with apes, among the only animals who mate for pleasure.
BIMINI, THE BAHAMAS
SEPTEMBER 2015
Atlantic spotted dolphins just as they were finishing mating…
It is the male who goes upside down when dolphins mate.
I shot a whole series as the couple rose to the surface, attached to each other, from the bottom about 10 meters down… but this frame,
one of the final images, turned out the best. Personally I wish more of their bodies appeared in the frame. But you work with what you’ve got.
Spotted dolphins acquire more spots as they age. Calves are born spotless. Spots begin to appear when the animals are about 4.
Once the spots are quite numerous the animals are described as being “mottled”, and when they are innumerable, and the animals older, the dolphins are said to be “fused”.
These 2 specific dolphins are from among the very large number Doctor Denise Herzing has been observing and swimming with in the Bahamas (and writing about) for 30 years.
She recognizes something like 100 different dolphins from memory and more from photographic files, and runs an organization called the Wild Dolphin Project. We met in 2013 when I joined Brian Skerry on her boat for the spotted dolphin part of his dolphin cover story in National Geographic.
The dolphins she studies split into two groups around 2013, one of the groups joining the more numerous Bimini animals, which has it made it harder for her to find and study them.
Regardless, for a tourist and animal-loving non-scientist every single moment spent with dolphins is a joy, a childhood dream come true, and a lesson in animal intelligence, socialization and healthy family structures!
There are plenty of operators in and close to Bimini who take clients to swim with these dolphins; but none are as well-versed as Denise and her graduate students, as close to and loved by the animals… Or as concerned about their wellbeing.
When you see this image don’t fool yourself into believing these animals mate for life or are madly in love. Dolphins are promiscuous and, along with apes, among the only animals who mate for pleasure.
MULTIPLE GENERATIONS OF SPINNER DOLPHINS CRUISING OVER SAND AND ISOLATED CORALS.
SATAYA, EGYPT, DECEMBER 2014
I’m always told this image looks more like a painting than a photograph. I don’t know why since
The camera was on the same settings as the rest of the day and week. Perhaps the natural light was
Different at that moment – overcast. Or maybe I was deeper, not at the surface. (one can’t dive with dolphins; only snorkel with them)
SATAYA, EGYPT, DECEMBER 2014
I’m always told this image looks more like a painting than a photograph. I don’t know why since
The camera was on the same settings as the rest of the day and week. Perhaps the natural light was
Different at that moment – overcast. Or maybe I was deeper, not at the surface. (one can’t dive with dolphins; only snorkel with them)
TRIO OF YOUNG SPOTTED DOLPHINS
BIMINI, THE BAHAMAS, AUGUST 2013
One of the first photographs I ever took of Atlantic spotted dolphins – on an expedition with Brian Skerry for his cover story.
We joined Doctor Denise Herzing, director of the Wild Dolphin Project and one of the most competent dolphin researchers in the world.
She has been studying these dolphins for 30 years or more. Many of them recognize and play with her. She can identify over 80 animals
From memory, many more based on photographs her team and she have taken.
These three young dolphins, whose small number of spots imply they’re
Probably younger than 8 (spotted dolphins are born spotless; spots increase enormously over time), may be part of what Denise calls “an alliance”: a small group
Of young males, friends, that compete with other alliances of similar animals.
That day we had 23 dolphins in the water with us – I’ve hardly ever seen that many since – but most of them split off into smaller splinter groups like this one.
The offshoots of a larger number of cetaceans always seem more interesting and active, and are more fun to photograph, than the rest.
Brian didn’t get in the water for that swim… he didn’t like the light conditions enough.
These specific 23 dolphins were making a cacophony as they played and socialized around and under us. Clicks and whistles galore! One of the older
Females had her dorsal fin missing, a sad sight to see… but apparently handicapped dolphins can do very well for themselves.
BIMINI, THE BAHAMAS, AUGUST 2013
One of the first photographs I ever took of Atlantic spotted dolphins – on an expedition with Brian Skerry for his cover story.
We joined Doctor Denise Herzing, director of the Wild Dolphin Project and one of the most competent dolphin researchers in the world.
She has been studying these dolphins for 30 years or more. Many of them recognize and play with her. She can identify over 80 animals
From memory, many more based on photographs her team and she have taken.
These three young dolphins, whose small number of spots imply they’re
Probably younger than 8 (spotted dolphins are born spotless; spots increase enormously over time), may be part of what Denise calls “an alliance”: a small group
Of young males, friends, that compete with other alliances of similar animals.
That day we had 23 dolphins in the water with us – I’ve hardly ever seen that many since – but most of them split off into smaller splinter groups like this one.
The offshoots of a larger number of cetaceans always seem more interesting and active, and are more fun to photograph, than the rest.
Brian didn’t get in the water for that swim… he didn’t like the light conditions enough.
These specific 23 dolphins were making a cacophony as they played and socialized around and under us. Clicks and whistles galore! One of the older
Females had her dorsal fin missing, a sad sight to see… but apparently handicapped dolphins can do very well for themselves.
YOUNG ATLANTIC SPOTTED DOLPHIN IN BIMINI OR A SURROUNDING AREA, EYE WIDE OPEN. JULY 2017
Much of the time the spotted dolphins in the Bahamas and spinner dolphins in Egypt, which are in the same family -- genus Stenella, have
Their eyes half closed. At times they don’t seem engaging, but rather detached or complacent. Wide open, inquisitive eyes are a special thing to me.
And much more interesting to photograph.
Much of the time the spotted dolphins in the Bahamas and spinner dolphins in Egypt, which are in the same family -- genus Stenella, have
Their eyes half closed. At times they don’t seem engaging, but rather detached or complacent. Wide open, inquisitive eyes are a special thing to me.
And much more interesting to photograph.
SPINNER DOLPHIN GAZE.
PART OF THE POD AT SATAYA IN EGYPT
DECEMBER 2014
Another open eye gazing directly at me. The type of look, and resulting emotional response, one doesn’t forget…
PART OF THE POD AT SATAYA IN EGYPT
DECEMBER 2014
Another open eye gazing directly at me. The type of look, and resulting emotional response, one doesn’t forget…
A PLAYFUL AND VERY ACROBATIC – AQUABATIC !– GROUP OF SPINNER DOLPHINS IN SATAYA, EGYPT. NOVEMBER 2018
I stayed with this group for a long time one magical morning, before breakfast as we can avoid crowds that way.
This was my second week at Sataya last year – in the company of Xenia and Rodrigo, my friend Jim, and wonderful
Local guide, award-winning filmmaker Simone Piccoli who has been taking groups, divers and film crews on expeditions for years.
Much of the time the Sataya dolphins keep to themselves, frequently staying fairly deep. They can’t be bothered to communicate
With or entertain people. You swim and swim, do “jump” after jump from the dinghy, but don’t get a reward.
SOMETIMES they surprise you, though, and for no reason you know, they play and play, chase after each other, form ridiculous
and thrilling shapes and make for absolutely timeless moments.
In such situations they sometimes allow you very close – in part because they are distracted and busy.
This was one such moment – one of perhaps three similar experiences during my 2 weeks on location.
I dove down for this photograph.
I have a whole series of these.
During incredible dives and swims I sometimes take hundreds of photographs.
On this specific morning, with a one-hour or more swim that was out of this world, I’m sure I took over 800 photographs.
When things are that good and animals that extraordinary it’s hard not to go crazy with the camera!
You never know whether you might get another chance this good – or if you will even find the animals again.
Wildlife has the word “wild” in it...
I stayed with this group for a long time one magical morning, before breakfast as we can avoid crowds that way.
This was my second week at Sataya last year – in the company of Xenia and Rodrigo, my friend Jim, and wonderful
Local guide, award-winning filmmaker Simone Piccoli who has been taking groups, divers and film crews on expeditions for years.
Much of the time the Sataya dolphins keep to themselves, frequently staying fairly deep. They can’t be bothered to communicate
With or entertain people. You swim and swim, do “jump” after jump from the dinghy, but don’t get a reward.
SOMETIMES they surprise you, though, and for no reason you know, they play and play, chase after each other, form ridiculous
and thrilling shapes and make for absolutely timeless moments.
In such situations they sometimes allow you very close – in part because they are distracted and busy.
This was one such moment – one of perhaps three similar experiences during my 2 weeks on location.
I dove down for this photograph.
I have a whole series of these.
During incredible dives and swims I sometimes take hundreds of photographs.
On this specific morning, with a one-hour or more swim that was out of this world, I’m sure I took over 800 photographs.
When things are that good and animals that extraordinary it’s hard not to go crazy with the camera!
You never know whether you might get another chance this good – or if you will even find the animals again.
Wildlife has the word “wild” in it...
SPINNER DOLPHIN PORTRAIT
TAKEN AS I WAS RUNNING OUT OF BREATH.
SATAYA, EGYPT, DECEMBER 2014
This image is burned into my memory cells. Ingrained and encrusted in the corners of my mind and depths of my soul.
My lungs are incompetent! A friend of mine managed to hold his breath for 3 whole minutes, his free diving instructor simply
Holding his back down at the surface, After only 2 classes!
Tom Peschak and so many admirable photographers can go to great depths and take magnificent photographs on one
Breath alone.
If only I could do that…
For me the limit is perhaps fourteen meters or 45 seconds!
For this image I had gone down below the surface – photographs look so much better when taken from below – and had the joy of a
Spinner rising directly towards my legs, eventually spiralling around them. My camera refused to shoot, and then refused again and again. And again.
The zoom must have been in the wrong position or light too low. I could not get an image of the dolphin spinning around me!
And then, as I was seconds away from desperately needing air, the dolphin rose just above me, into the light, and I got this shot off.
I was CONVCINCED the photograph would be a terrible failure, swimming back to the boat cursing my lungs, my camera and the light. (but not the dolphin!)
For sure I thought I might have half a fin, a head split in 2 or a throat without a face! But then, reviewing the images back on the boat, it was
Amazing to find what became my first book cover.
TAKEN AS I WAS RUNNING OUT OF BREATH.
SATAYA, EGYPT, DECEMBER 2014
This image is burned into my memory cells. Ingrained and encrusted in the corners of my mind and depths of my soul.
My lungs are incompetent! A friend of mine managed to hold his breath for 3 whole minutes, his free diving instructor simply
Holding his back down at the surface, After only 2 classes!
Tom Peschak and so many admirable photographers can go to great depths and take magnificent photographs on one
Breath alone.
If only I could do that…
For me the limit is perhaps fourteen meters or 45 seconds!
For this image I had gone down below the surface – photographs look so much better when taken from below – and had the joy of a
Spinner rising directly towards my legs, eventually spiralling around them. My camera refused to shoot, and then refused again and again. And again.
The zoom must have been in the wrong position or light too low. I could not get an image of the dolphin spinning around me!
And then, as I was seconds away from desperately needing air, the dolphin rose just above me, into the light, and I got this shot off.
I was CONVCINCED the photograph would be a terrible failure, swimming back to the boat cursing my lungs, my camera and the light. (but not the dolphin!)
For sure I thought I might have half a fin, a head split in 2 or a throat without a face! But then, reviewing the images back on the boat, it was
Amazing to find what became my first book cover.
“DOLPHIN DANCE” – MEMBERS OF THE SATAYA POD
SATAYA, EGYPT, DECEMBER 2014
One of my favourite photographs of all time. From the first season in Sataya,
Invited on the boat by Cousteau’s ex video man – Didier Noirot.
Somehow everything clicked into place as I clicked away. Wonderful positions and angles, beautiful light, all in focus.
This photo has since been printed for multiple friends, my house and a silent auction at a charity dinner.
SATAYA, EGYPT, DECEMBER 2014
One of my favourite photographs of all time. From the first season in Sataya,
Invited on the boat by Cousteau’s ex video man – Didier Noirot.
Somehow everything clicked into place as I clicked away. Wonderful positions and angles, beautiful light, all in focus.
This photo has since been printed for multiple friends, my house and a silent auction at a charity dinner.
“MAGICAL MOMENT” OR “POSITIONS” OR “SYNCHRONIZED INSTANT”
SPINNER DOLPHINS OF SATAYA, EGYPT, DECEMBER 2016
It was as if the dolphins moved into position on cue!
A split second earlier and a split second later these guys were just “normal” dolphins in simple poses at the surface…
I was shooting so much that I hardly noticed what was happening in front of me. When you look through a screen all
The time reality can seem detached. It was impossible to know this image would appear in my files.
There are two nearly identical versions of this photo, and it’s always interesting to see which frame people prefer.
SPINNER DOLPHINS OF SATAYA, EGYPT, DECEMBER 2016
It was as if the dolphins moved into position on cue!
A split second earlier and a split second later these guys were just “normal” dolphins in simple poses at the surface…
I was shooting so much that I hardly noticed what was happening in front of me. When you look through a screen all
The time reality can seem detached. It was impossible to know this image would appear in my files.
There are two nearly identical versions of this photo, and it’s always interesting to see which frame people prefer.