Tom and I celebrate great images from workshop participants by selecting a Photo of the Month. For February we chose an image taken on our Baja Whales Workshop. The image was taken by Marni Nagy off the coast of Cabo San Lucas in Mexico. Marni is a California photographer who owns a business that makes custom camera straps: Capturing Couture
Congratulations to February 2025 ‘s featured photographer – Marni Nagy
The Story…
For this image I had my 150-600 lens all the way out. A guy named Bertrand was in the front of the boat and would not move. So I moved to the left side of the boat. The whale jumped another time right before the picture that I got. It was wavy and bumpy. I found it was easier to stabilize the camera shooting from the side of the boat.
It was dumb luck to get the boat in there. With wildlife photography you are just lucky most of the time.
I was shooting pretty quick. Tom had us up at over 4000th of a second for shutter speed. It was pretty sunny, so ISO was not a problem.
The boat gives the breach context and scale. In my new job I am always asking my media folks to give me more context. They submit close up images of race cars. I always want to see the track or something in the background for context.
EXIF Data:
Camera: Nikon D850
Lens: Sigma 180-600
Aperture: f6.3
Shutter: 1/5000
ISO: 4100
About Photographing in Baja
Baja was great. Whales galore. The whales were so close that they filled the frame. It was hard to get context because we were so close.
There were some behaviors that I did not even know I wanted to get. I was very happy to get a shot of the “golden rainbow” feeding behavior that creates a rainbow when the whale spouts.
The Sea of Cortez side was all about the different kinds of animals. I had never seen dolphins like that, They were small and black with stubby little noses.
The sealions had so many expressive faces. I took photos of everything we saw: Great Blue Herons, kingfishers, jellyfish. The sea lions had the most personality of all.
I always have a bit of gear envy on these trips. Most people had the new stuff. I was super impressed with the quality of the images from my Nikon d850. After holding it up for so long shooting whales, I started to think about how to create a small tripod support system to help with the weight. A mono pod might have helped.
I was sceptical that we would really get to pet the whales. On the second day we were headed back. The boat slowed down. Everyone was saying “Come on, come on.” The whale turned around and came to out boat. It was just magical. We all willed the whale to come over.
When I photographed the Blue Footed Boobies, they were getting bounce light off of the bird poop on the rock. It made everything really bright. I waited until the birds were doing something interesting with their heads. That was my first time photographing Blue-footed Boobies. They have weird little eyes. They look a bit creepy and have interesting feathers.
Marni’ s Tips for Photographing in Baja
Tip 1
Sunscreen.
Tip 2
The shots I like the most are the images with some background in them. I was on a workshop once with Joe McNally and he said, “Take a picture that can’t be shot in a zoo”. A whale with the Baja coastline in the background is definitely not from the zoo
Tip 3
Don’t throw anything away. I didn’t lock the pelican shot in the camera. It was brighter int he camera and I brought the exposure down in Lightroom. It was the shape of the water that made the shot for me.
On Marni’s Horizon:
Patagonia
Iceland
Finland
Galapagos
What’s coming up?
Happy Hour: Winter Image Celebration – Join Tom and Cree on March 19 at 6 pm MDT Denver time to see what everyone has been shooting lately. Submit your 3 favorite images from this winter and settle in for a photo expo. Click here to ask for the link
Where are Tom and Cree? They are in Alaska right now photographing in the arctic. The weather looks good and aurora activity should be high this week. Next up they will be heading to Costa Rica with 12 photographers to explore the rainforest and photograph sloths, monkeys and macaws.
Workshop Openings?
Last minute opening for Louisiana Bayous, just one space May 7-11, 2025 also just one space left for August 22-29, 2025 Greenland.
Hope to see you at the Image Celebration!
Tom and Cree
Congrats to Marni!!!!