Whale song

My thoughts on tourism and photography are a bit muddled up:  To experience life through a camera lens, surely means that one is detached from the reality of the moment and is not truly experiencing it with full senses and emotions?

I am as guilty as most people I meet, so that is why I am wondering if it is posssible to capture the moment and actually be in the "now" with it? While going on a two-day whale watch tour in Hervey bay I tried to do both. And you know what? it worked, but maybe I was just lucky? When the amazing creature rose from the deep sea and came up so close that I could touch him, I took some pictures quickly and then put the camera down to let the moment wash over me with all the emotions that followed. I have seen whales before in the wild but each time I see them I can not believe how big and spectacular they are, it is a life changing moment, watching and hearing them sing up and close.

 Each year the humpback whales migrate from Antarctic waters to eastern coast of Australia where they mate and then give birth. Hervey bay is the best place in Australia to view them and in high season in August there will be around 300 whales moving around in the relatively small  Platypus bay by the coast of Fraser Island. Then in October they start to migrate back to Antarctica to feed.
As you know they are still being hunted by Japan, Norway and Iceland and therefore need all the help and protection we can give them. Whales have been on our planet for more than 50 million years and are important for the marine environment. Even after the whaling ban went into effect in 1986; 30 000 whales have been killed for commercial purposes. There are lots of organisations you can join in order to help and it is important that we do. Please see more info on IFAW's  website.

Dolphins and Humpback whales playing around.