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Ken Bondy
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Gray Whales
Since it's whale time:
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Natalie Ann
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Once again, Ken, ya made my day. I'm sitting in Ensenada in the rain, thinking how my annual trip to see the whales will this year be replaced by one
heck of a race... and how one does not make up for the other. Then you post these wonderful photos and I feel better.
So.... how did you come by these shots? Were you under the water with the whales, or.......... 
However it happened, they're way cool. Thank you so much.
Nena
Be yourself, everyone else is already taken.
.....Oscar Wilde
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Ken Bondy
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Thanks Natalie Ann. YOU always make MY day!! The third photo (the eyeball) I made in Laguna San Ignacio a few years ago just by holding a Nikonos V
camera underwater from the side of a Kuyima panga and firing blind. The first two.....well, this is from something I am writing:
<<In August of 1995 I spent a week on the dive boat TRUTH out of Santa Barbara with Howard and Michele Hall and their crew while they were
making an episode for their video series “Secrets of the Ocean Realm”. We made stops at Santa Barbara and Anacapa Islands. One morning we were
anchored near Cat Rock on the ocean (south) side of Anacapa. Here Howard and the crew were filming the interesting “mouth-flaring” territorial
behavior that male sarcastic fringeheads exhibit when they get close to each other. Howard and Bob Cranston were underwater when those of us still on
deck noticed a young gray whale very close to the boat. This was extremely unusual. The gray whale migration takes them southbound by the island in
December and January, northbound in about March and April. A gray whale at Anacapa in August was extraordinary. But there he was, big as life (so to
speak), and he hung around the boat for hours before rounding the east end of the island and disappearing in the channel. He gave us all the
opportunity to get some very rare underwater photos of a gray whale in relatively clean water. Howard wrote a terrific article about this incident
which was published several times and appears on his website at http://www.howardhall.com/stories/greymorning.html<<
[Edited on 2-28-2007 by Ken Bondy]
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KenS
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Wow
Just "Wow"
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Bajagypsy
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You absolutely amaze me everytime you post a picture.
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Ken Bondy
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KenS and Bajagypsy, thank you very much, you are very flattering!
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Ken Bondy
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| Quote: | So.... how did you come by these shots? Were you under the water with the whales, or..........
However it happened, they're way cool. Thank you so much.
Nena |
If it wasn't clear from my last post, I was in the water with the whale when I made the first two images. Michele Hall, standing on the deck of the
TRUTH, took a picture of me and the whale. I am the one with the red drysuit, the whale is the one with the big gray back:
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fdt
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Beautiful!
A well informed Baja California traveler is a smart Baja California traveler!
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pangamadness
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Outstanding photos
Ken, What do you know about Bob Cranston now? Is he still with Howard Hall? I lived near his family & new them well. Back when Bobby lost the
boat at Morro bay.
[Edited on 2-28-2007 by pangamadness]
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tehag
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whale pics
Again Ken, way too cool.
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SDRonni
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Beeeyooootteeeefullll!! I am so jealous!
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pacside
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those are the best whale pics i've ever seen. thanks for posting. was it scary swimming so close to the whale?
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Ken Bondy
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Gracias pacside, SDRonnie, tehag, pangamadness, fernando! Your comments are much appreciated.
@pangamadness - to the best of my knowledge he is still living in San Diego and working with Howard. I see him in the credits of all the Howard Hall
films, I think Bob is Howard's primary photographer.
@pacside - there were lots of emotions flowing but fear wasn't one of them. It was magnificent being that close to a gray whale in the water.
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Wiles
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Ken....
Thanks for sharing the photos.
Double thanks for sharing the passion.
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Mexitron
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Years ago in South Laguna a young gray whale was hanging near the shore in about 10 feet of water so my friend and I got our mask and snorkel and swam
out to it and floated around for awhile with the whale--I'll never forget the look in its eyes when it checked us out...your picture reminded me
again--thanks!
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BigWooo
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I often read this site anticipating that you will post some new pictures....no matter what you shoot, it turns out great. These are really cool.
[Edited on 2-28-2007 by BigWooo]
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shari
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Mood: there is no reality except the one contained within us "Herman Hesse"
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Awesome Ken...I'm surprised the gray's stuck around with you in the water. We find that grays are the least tolerant to having humans beside them in
the water and they generally swim away. IN the early days whenever we got in the water with them, not only did they swim away but they and all their
pals wouldn't let us get near them for several days...they knew which panga we jumped out of and avoided us like the plague so we learned NOT to get
in the water with them at all...a Japanese film crew took our advice and devised a long boom with the camera which they could lower beside the boat
which got the first great underwater pics in the lagoon....these pics showed us that when the grays "spy hop" they are actually standing on their tail
on the bottom with the flukes tucked under kind of stretching their back...yoga? We were so amazed! The first two pics look like a small whale,
perhaps a ballenato or yearling as the snout is very short like the calves...or perhaps it's a distortion thing but they look like calves which may
explain why they let you photograph them. Sometimes when the mom was asleep we would quietly slip into the water with the calf and he sometimes would
try to wake mom up...for me it was pretty scary as I have seen what moms do with their tails!! Anyway...thanks amigo
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Ken Bondy
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shari mil gracias for the very kind words. I agree, we were all surprised that this whale hung with us for so long, he/she (I will use "he" for
brevity) was in the area for hours. The whale was completely disinterested in us. He would surface for a breath in roughly the same place, allowing
us to position ourselves on snorkel for close photos. There was some interaction on the bottom with Howard and Bob Cranston as described in the
article. The whale was young, Howard called it a yearling, my estimate was about 25 feet in length. It is possible it was disoriented or ill,
remember this was in August at Anacapa Island in Southern California. He did not appear to be injured, there was no visible trauma to the body. This
whale should have been porking up in Alaska. The whale was in fact eating, the area we were in (Cat Rock) has a sandy bottom at about 60fsw. Howard
Hall observed the whale dredging sand in the normal gray whale feeding behavior, so he was in fact hungry. Howard, who is a trained marine biologist
and an expert in gray whale behavior, said that strays like this are occasionally seen in places they shouldn't be, and there is evidence that they
eventually rejoin the herd. But he may have said that just to make the rest of us feel good.
[Edited on 2-28-2007 by Ken Bondy]
[Edited on 2-28-2007 by Ken Bondy]
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Bob H
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Again, outstanding photography Ken. I just set up my new computer system and your photos on my new digital flat panel wide screen look just amazing!
Thanks,
Bob H
The SAME boiling water that softens the potato hardens the egg. It's about what you are made of NOT the circumstance.
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Ken Bondy
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Bob H I am honored to be on your new monitor!!! Thanks very much for the kind words.
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