This month’s feature:
We had a string of murky water days, possibly the result of a large algae bloom. For many days, the clarity was terrible, and then the jellyfish appeared. We had 2 days of seeing jellyfish without whales before I finally saw my opportunity as a jellyfish drifted past a humpback whale and her calf in the depths. I felt I only had one chance. Not wanting to disturb their rest, I let all the air out of my lungs to sink without moving my limbs, dropping slowly into the depths, my empty lungs compressing. Focusing the camera underwater with thousands of particles is very difficult. There was no time to swap my cameraʼs focus setting, and as the jellyfish drifted in the current, I wondered if my opportunity was drifting with it. Itʼs not fun holding your breath when you have no air in your lungs, and no time to breathe up. I took a few photos and then I was done. Desperate for air, I kicked up to the surface. There were many things that had to line up for me to capture this photo of two very different species passing by, one the size of a tennis ball, the other the size of a bus, possibly not even aware of each other.
Karim was published in National Geographic magazine for his humpback whale photography. He now leads his own trips so that others can swim with whales.
If you are interested in swimming with or photographing humpback whales, Karim guides people in small trips betweenAugust and October every year in Tonga. Visitwww.dancewithwhales.com to find out more
To see more of Karim’s work, visit his website at www.karimphotography.com
