In search of whales
Hi friends & fam!
Hola from La Ventana, Mexico! Mucho caliente.
I'm here because it's time for the annual whale photo trip. These trips are have become incredibly meaningful and personal to me. So I figured, what better way to share my experience with friends & fam than sending an email like it's 1999??
Anyways, that’s a long way to say that you are now subscribed to my whale mailing list. Here are some example content you will receive:
Daily updates when I am on a whale trip
“Camera malfunctioned when I finally saw the elusive whale”
“Dropped camera into the bottom of ocean”
Scientific developments in the whale world
Project updates, like scoping out future destinations etc
Whale videos whale-thy of your time
Last November, I decided I'm going to photograph all types of whales underwater before I die. It's really grounding to have a measurable, actionable, yet somewhat unattainable life goal. It's like a tangible life northstar that's not the elusive "I want to be happy", but in turn also generates happiness. I wanted to share with all of you so you can keep me accountable (pro tip from goal coaches).
On the plane ride over today, I thought hard about how I fell into this rabbit hole (want to provide context on why these trips mean so much). The answer is pretty obvious in hindsight - it's a confluence of my longest standing passions / things that ground me the most. As a result, each trip feels like a crossover between pilgrimage and a meditation retreat.
Open exploration of oceans: awe
Photography: Almost been 2 decades and still hard to explain why it means so much in just a few words. This is despite the highlights of my illustrious career that included 1) a brief stint as the official food photographer for university, 2) 10 months repped by a small shitty gallery before mutually firing each other. Now I’m just photographing for myself (and enjoying it the most)
Whales: The most memorable film I'd seen growing up is Whale Rider (Kiwi film about a Maori girl and a humpback whale). Shortly after watching it, I saw a pod of orcas in NZ fjords. This was followed by a quick purchase of my first Orca book that accompanied me during lunch breaks when other kids didn't want to play. The est is history
I think I also like searching / photographing whales because it's fucking hard. It's a perfect blend of hard work, fate, and sprinkle of masochism. Case in point, yield has pretty quite low - 90 seconds in water from 90 hours spent on boat (0.02% according to my Mac calculator). A lot of conditions need to line up, including good water visibility that's not muddled by plankton or whale poop.
Anyways, that should be enough context for why this whale mailing exists. This brings us to Day 1 of 2024 updates!
May 26, 2024: Day 1 in La Ventana
I decided to come here because the body of water between BCS and mainland is supposedly one of the most marine rich. The trip is 5 days in total, but I was delayed by a day because I missed the baggage drop off window by 5 mins (I despise United). So just 4 days on water this time.
This trip’s journey is pretty easy compared to others:
Brooklyn trek to Newark (a leg on its own)
7AM flight from Newark to Cabo (last time I came here was spring break 2013 when I decided $30 bungee would be a fun story - still paying dividends obvi)
2 hour car ride to La Ventana (a town great for kitesurfing with an inevitable hoard of long haired cali bros)
I got here around 2pm and spent most of the afternoon cleaning, setting up, and testing my equipment. For someone who's not very anal, I'm v anal about my camera because I want to make sure there's no chance of malfunctioning.
The kite surfing season here just finished, so the town is pretty quiet. I grabbed some so so tacos, put on the magical scopolamine patch (aka Devil's Breath, Vice made me research it), and am in bed ready for tomorrow. Internet is so bad I can't watch Netflix. Am practically a caveman. Anyways will share updates tomorrow. Pray for me!!!