What a Fun, Fun Day at Sea.

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What a day today was! It was an incredible day. Sadly we are still zero for orcas, but today was so much fun. Exhausting, but fun. We went out to look for sea pandas and the big schools of Mobula rays. Well, it turned out the orcas were over in Cabo today. Too far for us to get to, but despite not having those badasses here, we had incredible encounters with massive schools of Mobula rays. They were popcorning all over the place. I snapped some images but could not get that perfect shot. So I gave up for a bit and jumped in to enjoy the incredible underwater show.

After we finished up with the mobulas, we cruised by a small island with a pretty healthy sea lion colony. Most of the sea lions were not there as it is breeding season for them, and love is in the air, along with very aggressive male sea lions. We left the colony, but before we did, I experienced some wicked cool magic. Up high in the rocks was a lifer sea bird for me - A blue-footed boobie! It was perched high up on the cliffs. I excitedly snapped a proof of life shot of this very iconic bird. I thought I would need to visit the Galapagos for a shot at this famous beauty. It turns out they frequently visit Baja. I still have plans to visit the Galapagos, but happy to have seen this bird. I want better images of it, but glad to have gotten this shot.

We left the colony and went out to look for finback whales to photograph. We found them pretty quickly, but they were shy and stayed far away from our boat. So we watched them for a little while then moved on. Shortly after, we ran into a superpod of common dolphins hunting sardines. It was chaotic and so much fun to watch. We tried jumping in several times, but the visibility was total crap. So we watched a fantastic topside show.

We left the bait ball and started motoring back to port, all of us sunburnt and exhausted from a bit of ocean fun. On our way in, we encountered a big pod of those beautiful black bottlenose dolphins. They started using our boats wake to launch themselves out of the water, and we were treated to a fantastic aerial show. While we were watching them, one of our friends, Garin, said, “I just don’t understand how anyone could lock up these beautiful things in an aquarium.” I have to agree with him.

They all should be wild and free.

Overall it was an amazing day out at sea. Looking forward to the surprises tomorrow has in store for us—can’t wait.

Ok, super tired and headed to bed. Thank you for reading, guys.

A New Week of Adventures Begins!

Today was day one of Week Two of our Baja adventure. Yesterday I picked up the group in our rental van. Whenever I rent a vehicle for our groups, I find it important to give it a name. Last week we dubbed our van, The Grey Whale. This week our crew added some deeper thoughts into what we were going to name our ride. After a few back and forths, we dubbed our big beautiful white beast Alice.

We chose Alice as our van's name because somewhere in the 1960s, there was an albino orca out in the wild; the researchers had dubbed her Alice. Well, since orcas are one of the animals we are all hoping to encounter this week, it was a fitting name.

We began our morning in perfect conditions. It was flat calm, with no wind, and our group was excited about getting things going. We left the marina and motored into the bay. After a few miles, we spotted some birds dropping down to feed on a bait ball at the ocean's surface. There was a bunch of common dolphins and sea lions hunting the bait ball. Flashes of them would explode out of the water.

We quickly geared up and jumped in to watch the carnage that was happening just below the surface. Sadly the water visibility was horrible. We could see the bait ball and the predators attacking it, but barely. It was murky. I snapped awful images of the excitement - it was just fun getting to dive on a bait ball. We jumped in and stayed with it as long as we could. It was great when it was just us. However, two other boats showed up, and the waters quickly got crowded, so we decided to say goodbye to these beautiful babies, let the other boats have some fun, and see what else we could find.

Not long after, we ran into a pair of massive finback whales. Finbacks are the second-largest whales on the planet. It truly is a privilege to be around them. We still had not heard reports of any orca activity in the area, so we decided to spend the rest of the day checking out these big badasses.

The pair of whales we encountered were not the only whales out here. There were at least ten finback whales scattered about, and it was awesome. There is something extra special about whales. No words can honestly describe them. We spent most of our time with them until we got a radio call from a friend, letting us know that orcas were spotted about five miles away from where we were. We said bye to the whales and hauled ass in search of the sea pandas. Sadly after a couple of hours of searching, we could not find them. We decided to call it a day and began a slow ride back home to the marina.

Of course, we had to stop and snap some images of a colony of sea lions sleeping, fighting, and barking on a tiny island of rocks. Sea dogs are always a lot of fun. We thought about getting in the water but decided just to go home - maybe tomorrow.

Overall, day one was great and a great way to kick off a new week of adventures. I can't wait to see what tomorrow has in store for us!

The Journal of Wildlife Photography - Oh yeah!

Cover of the Spring Edition

Taking a day off from our adventure journal (today was a travel day.) to share some excitement, at least for me, it is. I was waiting to share this news with everyone until it was official, and it is now - The Issue is finally done!

I had my first article published in the Journal of Wildlife Photography- Spring 2021 edition. Which is something I am humbled and honored to be a part of, especially since there are so many great shooters who write for this magazine.

Last year while I was chatting with the publisher of the Journal, Jared Lloyd, he asked me if I would be interested in writing for them. I said, "sure, sounds fun." Of course, I thought he was saying it in passing, as we discussed trips and diving and photography, and I figured that maybe he would forget about it since we chatted about quite a few things that day. Well, he was serious about it, and a few months later, the managing editor of the Journal, Jamie Banjak, emailed me to discuss the details on what kind of article I was going to write. My mind went numb, and I was lost for what to say exactly. I was stunned that they still wanted me to write for them, to be honest with you.

The reason is I suffer from imposter syndrome. Not sure why I do, especially after all these years working as a professional photographer, but I do. I look at my work with such a critical eye and am always concerned that it is just not good enough. I asked myself - Is my work good enough to be in this publication filled with such talented artists?

A small piece of the article.

A personal goal of mine has always been to have my work published in National Geographic magazine. Of course, that is every wildlife photographer's dream. It is such a high goal, and the talent level in that publication is insane, so my work needs to be at that level if I want to fulfill that achievement. This is why I have always been so self critical of my work—constantly questioning if it is good enough for the big leagues?

One of the images chosen for the article.

Fast forward to the writing request from the JOWP, and I am super nervous because this is a high-quality magazine written and edited by wildlife photographers for wildlife photographers. The images in this publication are amazing and Nat Geo quality.

Then I start thinking, how am I going to write this article? I don't speak camera. I know how to use it and how to change settings, but I don't speak camera nerd at all, and this is important when writing for a photography magazine. I made this clear to Jamie, and she said I would be fine, that some of their best articles are written in layman's terms. So that helped calm my nerves there.

The imposter himself!

They wanted an underwater photography article. I automatically knew what I wanted to write. The one subject that is not covered enough is shooting using natural light. The first thing is because most professional shooters always crap on it. I have always enjoyed it - I love the freedom that comes with it, and it has forced me to become a better shooter because of it. So even though most pros, shit on it, I feel passionately that this style of photography can be amazing if its done right.

So fast forward to yesterday and seeing my work published in this Journal. I was filled with pride, seeing my work there. Of course, when I first opened it up and saw all the other images, I was automatically overcome with imposter syndrome instantly because the photos in this issue are so freaking amazing.

However, I must say that when I got to my article, I was thrilled with how the images looked and the pieces chosen for the story. I felt like maybe I wasn't an imposter after all… and maybe one day soon, my images will be ready for that coveted magazine with the Yellow Rectangle.

The only way to find out is to keep shooting and writing.

Thank you for reading!

Day 5 - Final Day of the Trip!

Writing this blog a day late. I did not have a chance to write last night as it was the group's final night, and we went out for a few drinks and lots of laughs. Well, no orcas this week. Sadly we were always in the wrong spots when they visited the area. It is a vast ocean, and that is nature and the difficulties of seeking out wildlife. A huge thanks go out to our friends who joined us this week. It was such a great trip, and you guys made it fun.

We did find a massive school of Mobula rays which we spent a lot of time with. Conditions made things difficult for a while, and ten-knot winds kicked up the swells. There were white caps everywhere which made searching for big animals difficult. We got lucky with the mobulas because they were popcorning when we found them. If it weren't for them jumping, we never would have seen this school.

Thankfully they were, and we finished the day dropping down, snapping images and videos of them. It was a great experience and a hell of a lot of fun. The winds died down as we were motoring back to port, which made trying to scan for big fishies a bit easier. Sadly we ran into nothing along the way home. Overall it was a good trip. It was not perfect, but we made the most of it and had a lot of fun along the way. Until the next one, my friends - miss you guys already.

Our buddy Jay dropping down to grab video of the mobulas. In his hands is the Monstro Red camera, what a beast!

Until the next one my sketchy friends!!!

Thank you all for reading and following along with my journey. Tomorrow week two of our orca and Mobula ray trip, begins!

Day 4... We Need to Find some Orcas!

It's 11 PM, and I am tired. I have been trying to do this for a few days, and already I am too tired to write - but I need to write. Well, no need to pretend…. we did not get orcas. They were a no-show.

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The orcas were around today, BUT they were 73 miles away from us. This morning when we left port, we had to decide which way we would go - South on the ocean or North. I chose North, and I was wrong. Three hours into our day, we got a report that orcas were hunting dolphins on a seamount. Sadly the seamount was 73 miles away from us, so we were screwed; it was too far for us to travel to. So close, yet so far!

While up in the North, we were looking for mobula rays to dive with. We found them, they were a bit scattered, but after some searching, we found a group, or a school of them, whatever you call them. Once we did, the boys tore it up and had some fun with them - until Al saw a blow in the distance. Our captain confirmed it, and I called the boys back to the boat.

It was humpback whales!

We hauled ass over to the whales, and they turned out to be a humpback, mom, and calf. We stayed with them for a bit, trying to snap some images of them. Finally, the whales were tired of our presence, and we left them alone and went back to find the mobulas. Sadly we did not find them, so we decided to call it a day. On the way home, a massive male humpback was breaching in the distance. It breached over and over again. It was a hell of a show, and we stayed with it for a while. Finally, this whale was tired of our presence, so we left it alone and called it a day.

Encountering humpback whales is wild, because this time of year they are supposed to be gone for the season. Maybe they are lost? Or maybe they are vacationing. lol

We have one more day tomorrow; despite all the amazing magic the ocean has given us, we are still determined to find us some orcas. Tomorrow is the day!

Thank you for reading and I hope to see you out in the world… somewhere… anywhere!

Day Three - Come on Orcas!

Day three and well, the challenge continues. Damn, I know I like a challenge but ok - orcas, it is time to come and say hi. Today was a beautiful day. There was a slight breeze, and the ocean was flat, flat flat! It was perfect. These are the days you dream of when you go out on the sea.

Unless you are chumming, then it is too calm, and there is not enough current, and your chum slick goes nowhere.

But if you are not chumming for sharks and looking for whales and dolphins, this is what you dream of - flat, perfect seas, not much current with a perfect sky. Today was perfection with excellent visibility as well. We just needed some orcas to make it EPIC. Sadly we did not find them.

Rich chilling on the boat. Being patient. Thank you brother.

Something changed in the water over the last few days, and we are just trying to figure out what. Sadly we are not even close to figuring out what it is, all we know is - it was enough for the orcas to change their patterns, and now the game is trying to see what they plan next.

We made the most of our time out there playing with a pod of very dark-colored bottlenose dolphins. They were almost black; they were so dark. I think they were just tanned by the sun. Hammerheads skin tans, so why wouldn't a dolphin's skin?

Even our Captain was helping us try to find orcas, steering the boat in his own unique way.

We took a bunch of surface pics of them and also a bunch of underwater pics. The majority of those underwater images were crap because the dolphins would not come near us. We tried, though, repeatedly to take close-up photos of them, but they were not having it.

We finished the day a bit frustrated because the orcas are still a no show, but we understand this game - tomorrow is another day, and we all ready for it!

Thank you for reading and I hope to see you out in the world… somewhere… anywhere!

Day Two Was a Bit of a Challenge.

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Well, damn, we finished up day two and no orcas. In fact, there were zero reports of orcas from any of our contacts today. We have a network of ocean people we chat with helping us with any news of orca sightings in the area, and today there was none. There has been solid orca activity in the area since Thursday of last week, I have been getting those orca reports.

Today… Nada!

Jay snapping the speed racers.

Maybe they needed a break from people, or they are just full and not in the mood to hunt today. I am not sure why the orcas were not in the area today; all I know is that it gets me excited for tomorrow because they will be hungry and out for Mobulas or even dolphins.

Which reminds me, we spent the morning with a super pod of common dolphins. They were hunting very close to shore, so the water they were in was very murky, so we did not try to get in with them; we just enjoyed watching the craziness from the boat. Richard, Al, and I grabbed our topside cameras and shot the spectacle.

It is not easy capturing stills of porpoising dolphins, especially since you have no idea where and when they will jump out of the water. I shot over 300 images in a short amount of time, and almost all of them are crap. I did manage to shoot a couple of keepers; but the rest are garbage. I set my camera up with a shutter speed of 2500 to compensate for the fast motion of the dolphins and the movement of the boat, and it worked for freezing the motion. But the 7D has a slow auto focus and it is difficult to capture tack sharp images because of it. However, every once in a while things come together and you can make magic happen.

After the dolphins, we continued our search for orcas; sadly, we did not find them today, and we searched all day. In fact, we left the marina at sunset. As we were leaving a grey fox trotted across the marina dirt road and into the thick bushes when it saw us. sadly no pictures. Foxes normally come out at night, so it was a nice treat as were leaving.

Anyway, tomorrow is another day, and I am looking forward to whatever the ocean may gift us with.

QUOTE OF THE DAY… Okay, I told the boys that I would throw in tonite's quote in the blog from our buddy Garin. It's officially the quote of the day; I know you guys will not understand what it means, but this has turned into a boys trip with all the nonsense that goes with it, and I said I would share;

"Just tell them you are the chief Barnacle on the Grey Whale, you f@#king Donut!"

As I said, it won't make sense to you all, but I had a good laugh when he said it.

Our First Day on the Water - Baja Adventure!

The trip finally begins… and well, no point stringing you guys along, we got skunked. Yup, the orcas were a no-show for us. They were seen today, just not anywhere near where we were. They found two pods of orcas today, one near San Jose, and the other pod was seen off La Paz. Both pods were far from where we were looking, especially La Paz. It was about 4 hours away from us.

Hoping for a better day tomorrow, and I feel really good about our chances for successful encounters. Today we did have a few Mobula ray encounters. The moment we left the marina and hit the open ocean, a large school of mobulas was there. Individuals were popcorning all over the place. Since it was the first day, our group wanted to jump in and test out weights and their camera settings with the large school of mobulas. I stayed on the boat, trying to capture images of the rays jumping out of the water.

We didn’t stay with them very long as everyone was itching to find some orcas. Well, you guys know how our day went. It was long and hot and a whole lot of nothing as we motored for hours trying to find the elusive pod. But that is what this is all about. If the animals were easy to find, there would be a circus of boats out here with them. So thankfully, there is a challenge to it, making the encounters with them so much sweeter when they happen. I wouldn’t want it any other way.

Towards the end of the day, we encountered a breaching humpback whale mom and calf, which was wild because this is the wrong time of the season for humpback whales here off Baja. They are supposed to be gone. We watched them for a little while, then called it a day, all of us exhausted from the sun but happy to be out on the ocean, where we belong.

Already looking forward to getting back out there tomorrow because it is going to be a great day… I can feel it!

Thank you for reading and I hope to see you out in the world… somewhere… anywhere!

Travel Day... Getting Fired up!!!

Travel day. Today I picked up the group that is joining us for this trip. We are short two guests who sadly were locked up by their country from Israel. They were not allowed to travel here to Baja, which is heartbreaking; they were just a week away from this trip happening when their government decided it was not safe to travel. I am so sorry, guys.

This morning I left Cabo with our buddy Al who is joining us on this trip. We Ubered it to the airport to pick up our rental van. After that, we went to the airport to pick up the rest of our group joining us. In total, four guests are joining us this week. All of them eager to get out on the water and look for orcas and anything else the Ocean wishes to gift us with.

The boys. Al (wearing his Game Face), Jay, Garin and Richard.

We drove to our hotel, checked in then went down to a small restaurant to eat a quick dinner and get to know each other better. Everyone joining us had traveled with me before, so I knew them, but they did not know each other. It was fun small talk and easy to see that this group of sketchy guys (inside joke), we're going get along, and it was going to be a fun week. Reports of orcas this week have been good, so I am very optimistic about our chances for a good week. We will see, tomorrow is our first day on the water, and I am super eager to get out there and start looking.

Insane!!!

Today the reports were that the orcas spent the day in Cabo Pulmo, and the video clip I saw was insane. They captured a video of the orca breaching extremely high… talk about EPIC!

After we returned from dinner, I grabbed my topside camera and decided to see what the local bird activity was like. The place we are staying at is a small seaside town, and there seems to be a lot of birds here, so it looks like it could be fun.

After a few minutes, I encountered a cat walking across the street. Normally domestic cats do not catch my attention, nor do I ever take pictures of them. However the tail and the markings on this cat captivated me. The bob tail and the color patterns on this cat made me wonder if maybe this cats momma might have danced with a wildcat, more specifically a bobcat? I snapped a few images of it, and after studying the images it left me thinking it is part wildcat. The cats eyes are captivating, and it has tiny tuffs on its ears… so who knows? It is an amazing looking cat though.

bad image of the hummingbird. But what a beauty.

I found a beautiful hummingbird feeding on some flowers. It was a species I had never seen before called the Xantus's hummingbird. It hung out for a little while, but then it flew off. I got a crappy image of it, but now… I really want to capture a nice shot of it, so I will be using any spare time to find it.

I also managed to find a couple of dead palm trees with some nesting woodpeckers and starlings in them. I focused my time there trying to capture some behavior images, which I am pretty happy with. I will try for more later, if I have time.

Overall it was a great day. Now we are all retired to our rooms to prep gear and get a good night's sleep… the adventure officially kicks off in the morning… FINALLY!

Starling momma feeding her chick.

Thank you for reading and I hope to see you out in the world… somewhere… anywhere!

Shy Sharks out on the Ocean!

The Dude! Jacobo of Cabo Shark Dive.

Day One of my Baja trip - We went out this morning to look for smooth hammerheads. I joined a morning trip organized by my buddy Jacobo, owner of Cabo Shark Dives. The morning was beautiful, the sun was out, with no wind, and the ocean was deceivingly calm. Of course, the boat is moored in the bay of Cabo San Lucas, and the waters here are always nice and calm.

As soon as we left the bay's protection, the swells in the Pacific started building, and the winds picked up. It was going to be a rough day out at sea.

We motored out about 7 miles, and the chumming began. Not even 10 minutes into chumming, a silky shark showed up and took a bite out of our hang bait. Sadly the excitement was short-lived because the silky did not stay very long.

We continued chumming; everyone's hopes were high.

Two hours later, we had another visitor to our chum box. This time it was a smooth hammerhead, but sadly, like the silky, the hammer did not stick around long enough for us to get in the water. It left just as fast as it arrived. The chumming continued for another hour, and we had two silky sharks show up, but again, they did not stay.

Watching water… chumming and waiting for sharks to show up.

It is so difficult to figure out why some sharks stay and others leave. Sharks all have their own personalities - Some are bold, some are curious, and like the four sharks that visited us today, some are shy.

Sadly we had to leave early as Jacobo had a group he was taking out in the afternoon. The wind and the swells kept building, and the ride home was a bit of an ass-kicking, so I opted to stay in instead of going out with him for the second session.

Although we did not get skunked, we did not have the morning we all hoped to have. But that is nature and the ocean, and you never know what you are going to get. That is why I always plan our pelagic shark trips with more than one day because these sharks are so difficult to find sometimes. You need more than one day for a shot at seeing them. But despite the lack of shark encounters and no cool pics to share, I had a lot of fun hanging out on the ocean with the Cabo Shark crew and my buddy Al who out there with us.

Plus any day you get to spend out in nature is ALWAYS a great day.

So the plan now is to pack up my gear, grab some dinner and get ready to meet the group joining us for the orca trip tomorrow morning.

Thank you for reading and I hope to see you out in the world… somewhere… anywhere!