Whale of a time

How about a two-fer today?

Photo 1: This one I call the "pacific life shot" because it reminds me of those commercials. I kept saying how bad I wanted to catch a pacific life shot and eventually I was able to hit the shutter at just the right moment and get this guy. It's not a perfect shot, but hey you can't be too picky when you have about a second to snap.

Photo 2: I almost forgot about this photo. This fella was on our morning whale watch. Lucky for me I have a pretty serious zoom on my lens so I was able to lock down pretty close to him. We learned a few things about whales on the trip. They can apparently stay under water for about 45 minutes at a time, and occasionally have to come up for air - which is when you get the chance to see them. They'll float near the surface, blow out their blow holes, belly flop a couple times then they'll be gone. And when they're gone - their tail goes up and that's likely the last you'll ever see of them.