I was probably a mile off the beach when I saw an excort, mother and calf coming down the coast well inside of my position. The escort was breaching on a regular basis so I decided to paddle in closer to shore and enjoy the show. The pod came down the coast and at one point were directly between me and the beach. They proceeded a bit further to my right and then doubled back. They ended up circling me and at one point I saw the calf swim at me. I was a bit concerned with such an active escort in the group but all was well and the escort did a number of breaches as they circled me and a few were front row visibility. I didn't count how many breaches he made but it wouldn't surprise me that he approached 50 in total. After circling me, the proceeded out towards deeper water and the escort kept going for air!! Incredible show and what energy this fellow spent!!

Full frame above (mother at far left and calf to her right) and cropped for the breach below:

Around this time, as I recall, the calf made a swim towards me and the escort, above, was headed my way with his breach. I put my UW housing in the water and snapped the shutter in the expectation that there was some activity underwater even though I couldn't see it due to the reflection on the surface. I had forgotten I had done this but came across the image after I had assembled this page.

This last breach is full frame with no cropping. The shutter lag required me to snap the shutter as soon as I saw the head break surface and hope for the best in terms of focus, centering and any composition issues. I couldn't see the LCD display in the glare so it was basically a point and pray. I am quite pleased that this simple little Olympus camera did such a good job of recording the show. With a digital SLR like the Nikon I have and a proper lens, I could have got some great images. Unfortunately the Nikon with fisheye lens in the UW housing didn't get any action here.