2024-10 Monterey Bay Whales by David Pitts
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  1. David Pitts' Gallery
  2. 2024-10 Monterey Bay Whales2024-10 Monterey Bay Whales
2024-10 Point Reyes
2024-10 Monterey Bay Whales
2024-08 Svalbard
2024-07 Alaska Bears
2024-06 Nanook Lodge
2024-05 Joshua Tree
2024-05 Hector Astorga
2024-03 The Nuthouse
2024-02 Lochloosa
2024-02 Curacao
2024-01 Yellowstone in Winter
2023-12 Everglades
2023-10 Scotland
2023-08 Alaska Bears
2023-07 Botswana
2023-06 Nanook Lodge
2023-04 Florida
2023-02 The Nut House
2022-12 Bosque Del Apache
2022-10 Costa Rica
2022-09 Yellowstone
2022-08 Denali and Interior Alaska
2022-05 Washington Coast Eagles
2022-04 Blue Cypress Lake
2022-03 Central Florida
2022-02 Canyons of Utah
2021-10 Great Smoky Mountains
2019-09 Moab
2019-02 Aurora Borealis

Monterey Bay 2024

This was my 11th trip with BCJ, my second with Jon Resnick and my third with Grant Ordelheide. Both are great guys and very good photo guides.

Wendy doesn't ask for much but when we were talking about trips to take she said she wanted to see a whale breach. I said I'd like to see that too and I said I'd schedule as many trips as it took to get that. Seeing it was primary, photographing it was secondary.

It took one trip. Grant had told us about the Monterey trip in 2023 in Botswana and I booked it as soon as it was announced.

Our first breach had Wendy standing at the stern of the boat and the whale breach COMPLETELY about 40 feet off the stern with it's belly toward the boat. When I say completely I mean it came completely out of the water. Wendy turned to me stunned with tears in her eyes. Mission accomplished. Of course I got no shot at all but Grant did. Hopefully he'll put it up somewhere and we will get to see it.

Sea Lions are out in force in Monterey Bay.
Obligitory landscape photo.
This Pelican was laughing with me, not at me.
Obligitory landscape photo.
Pelican, of course.
Pelican, of course.
Not our boat! There were 14 of us including guides on a boat that could handle 40 people.
This was my first shot of a whale, and for a while I feared it would be my only shot. It was insanely foggy. At some times you couldn't see the front of the boat from the rear. I barely got this as I had to crop someones head out of the picture. I did a B/W conversion since it was almost monochrome anyway.
Whale Fluke. I should have Whale names for all my flukes in a week or so.
Humpback whale breach.
Humpback whale breach.
Humpback whale breach.
Humpback whale breach.
It was so foggy when I shot this I thought I would never make a photo out of it, but Lightroom dehaze saved me. It makes a pretty dramatic B/W image.
This was the very next frame and as you can see it was foggy. The dramatic B/W shot was exposed exactly like this one. Thanks Lightroom dehaze!
This whale wanted to give us a hug.
These two humpback whales are lunge feeding.
The only Orca shot I got that was worth a flip.
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