Nature never ceases to surprise us humans. You may witness something you have never imagined before. It will be a once in a lifetime opportunity. For example, you go on a coastal sightseeing tour and see a huge humpback whale breaching into the water right next to your boat. You should feel like you win a lottery ticket.
Douglas took incredible photos of the giant marine mammal from the porthole of his boat. The scene stunned him for a few seconds, but he immediately pulled the camera out of him and grabbed it. Fortunately, his shooting angle allowed him to get a larger, clearer view of the whale. Notably, the creature made the fishing boat look incredibly small in comparison.
The photographer also enlisted the help of a whale watcher, Kate Cummings, who was able to capture a video of the breaching whale in action.
The whale watcher revealed to the media: “It was fun to capture this video. The whale had already jumped several times much further away from the fisherman. But sometimes, when whales breach multiple times, they also head in a specific direction when underwater, building momentum for the next breach. I thought the next gap would be around the fisherman because the whale would head that way and of course! “Although I didn’t expect the whale and the boat to line up so perfectly.”
Adult humpback whales weigh about 25 to 30 metric tons (28 to 33 short tons). Humpback whales often make a series of leaps, so when Croft saw this whale leaping, he made sure he was ready.
“This whale had jumped a couple of times before this and will continue to do so many times,” said the then 60-year-old photographer.