Wow! I am still reeling from this amazing pod of Hawaiian spinner dolphins we ran across today off the island of Lana'i. There must have been over 100 dolphins in the pod, and they were more energetic than any I've seen before.
Spinner dolphins are one of the smaller dolphin species, but famous for leaping out of the water and spinning tightly like a spiraling football. They are the only dolphins that do this. I had my Canon 5d mark ii with 100-400mm L series lens for the closeup shots, and my iPhone 12 pro max for the wide angle shots.
It was really hard for me to pick which picture to put first. In the end I chose this wide angle shot of over 20 dolphins in one frame.
This dolphin was leaping out and doing back flops giving me a rare angle to photograph.
In the bottom left corner you can see the wake from the bow of our boat. The dolphins were loving surfing the wave created by the boat, just like surfers.
The telephoto shots were all about timing and lighting. The sun was low in the sky which really lit up the side of this surfacing dolphin.
Whereas this dolphin I shot towards the sun, so it is a bit more shadowed. I still had fast enough shutter speed to freeze the fast moving action.
I was following this dolphin with my camera as it swam underwater. I constantly adjusted the focus so the moment the dolphin leaped out of the water I was ready!
While everyone else looked ahead, I turned around to photograph these dolphins coming right at us. I always prefer my wildlife shots with the animals approaching the camera.
All about timing. They are moving so fast and only out of the water for an instant.
A dolphin acrobat. And a grand finale.
I hope you enjoyed these. I just had to share after such a wonderful encounter and photographic opportunity.
-Dai Mar
Very, very, avesome photos!
Thanks so much. I'm so glad I had my cameras and could share the cool experience.
These are some epic shots! Must have been awesome to witness and experience. Thanks for sharing it with us here!
It is one of the best parts of being a photographer, being able to share these experiences with people near and far, and bring them along for the ride!
I live vicariously through the photography in this community! hahaha
I get to travel around the world multiple times per day. I love your sentiment in this comment. Thanks for including us!
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