Humpback whales

Description

A trio of whales reveals their powerful backs before diving, framed by Iceland’s ethereal landscape. Humpbacks use their pectoral fins, the largest of any whale species, for manoeuvring and even as a communication tool.

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Read the behind the scenes story – audio transcribed:

So the humpback horizons unlocked, I discussed in the Dolphins to the Isle of Skye image that I never expected to be able to get out on the water because I have had chronic motion sickness my whole life, and my ADHD diagnosis subsequently meant the medication I take to manage my ADHD has cured my motion sickness while the meds are active, and so I can now fearlessly get on boats without any wristband on or travel sickness tablets. I just get on and I have no problem

And it’s just been the most unexpected, positive side effects of learning about my brain and how it works and how it interacts with the world and it’s meant that I’ve been able to start to do things that I never thought I would get to do. And one of the most humbling experiences has been to be able to have gone to Iceland, to spend some time with an incredibly inspiring group of people who run a charity called Whale Wise, and they look at whale conservation and communicating, human impacts on whales.

And they use drone technology to do this. And they are currently looking at how, shipping and ghost fishing gear can harm and scar whales. And so the drones are used to look at the whales from above, and they’re able to get video footage and images of the whales body condition. And then as the whale flukes, which is when the tail fin comes up, each fluke and each tail fin rather has an individual pattern, It’s almost like a thumbprint.

So they’re able to identify the whales, individually. And what they’re then doing year on year is they go back to Iceland is they’re able to catalogue because whale behaviour, they know usually the same whales will move between the same areas or it’s hoped that they will. So then they can look to see if there’s been any changes in those whales bodies conditions by cross-referencing the flukes and then, the scarring, and the marks on the whales.

So, I offered my time to go and volunteer with them as a photographer, to donate some branding photography and nature photography time, so that they had those images to use within the nature work that they do and it was just the most magical week. And, some of these images that I’ve created from that are part of this. But one of the things I love to be able to do is give back to charities that I’m passionate about, and so, 10% of the profits from the 40 Frames for 40 exhibition, will be donated to Whale Wise. And this is one of the images that I captured with them.