Photographer captures jaw-dropping shot of humpback whale in B.C.
For Filip Hasson, a trip to B.C. last fall was an unforgettable one.
The leisure photographer from Toronto was visiting the province for the first time and spent a few days at Sailcone’s Grizzley Bear Lodge in Knight Inlet to do some wildlife photography.
Over several days, Hasson captured mesmerizing shots of B.C.’s wildlife, including bears, whales, and eagles.
Filip Hasson/Supplied
But it was on Sept. 26 that he managed to photograph a creature so magnificent he says it’s one of the most memorable moments he’s experienced.
That day, Hasson and his tour group left the lodge early in the morning to head out on the water.
Just after 8 a.m., Hasson told Daily Hive that he managed to photograph a whale breaching “much farther away” from the boat.
“Our guide told us that choppy weather usually meant whales were more active and breaching more often, which was definitely true. I captured photos from four separate breaches, and there were a few others that I was too slow to get,” explained Hasson.
About an hour later, a large humpback emerged out of the water right next to Hasson’s boat, and he caught it all on camera.
Filip Hasson/Supplied
“My reaction [was]absolute shock! We heard the whale before we ever saw it, almost like a huge breath as it flew out of the water. I was sitting at the back of the boat, so it was a very fast turn to see it and get photos. It can be hard to tell distances on the water, but if I were to guess, it breached somewhere around 30 metres behind the boat,” he explained.
Filip Hasson/Supplied
He noted that he already had his camera in his hands and was ready to shoot, although he was facing the wrong direction when the whale jumped out of the water.
“Thankfully, due to my placement on the boat, I was able to instinctively swing my camera around and fire off a burst of shots,” he said.
“Because we were out taking photos of fairly unpredictable wildlife, I had my camera set to shoot 60 photos per second, with my aperture as wide open as it could be and a decently fast shutter speed to try and freeze the action,” explained the photographer.
“This preparation paid off, and was crucial to getting these shots, between the first photo of the sequence where the whale is up in the air, and the last where it is almost fully engulfed by its splash less than half a second of time had passed, but I’d been able to capture 28 images.”
Although this whale breached metres away from Hasson’s tour boat, he emphasized that it is dangerous to purposely approach the creatures that close.
“Generally, you should give the whale a lot of space, and that really applies to almost all wildlife. Once the whale breached so close to us, we moved away at a slow speed not to risk a second close encounter,” he said.
Hasson recently shared pictures of his close-up whale encounter on social media, generating a lot of reaction from folks who were amazed at his incredible shots.
Looking through Hasson’s Instagram, which documents his wildlife photography, it seems like he’s been taking pictures for years.
Another image of a whale that Filip Hasson captured during his B.C. trip. (Filip Hasson/Supplied)
But at the time of his September trip to B.C., Hasson had only been photographing wildlife for a year and working with a proper camera for a few months longer than that.
“I’m a full-time software developer, photography helps me get outside and connect with nature when so much of my life is spent indoors on screens,” he said.
“Wildlife photography can seem glamourous in the photos when you’ve captured an intimate or unique moment with an animal. Behind the lens, however, it’s usually early mornings, hours of walking, waiting, sitting, planning and hoping!”
“Personally, I find it incredibly enjoyable, being out in the forest, focused on nature, hearing all the sounds of birds and leaves around you, your eyes darting to any movement they can see; it’s an incredibly recharging experience.”