MichaelBagleyPhoto's Blog

A lot of people ask the question: “What made you get into nautical photography?”.  Many of the answers are obvious.  Love of sailing, certainly.  The enjoyment of watching sailors, both amateur and professional, compete to the best of their ability.  An appreciation of boat design and construction.  An interest in keeping centuries-old traditions alive.  Probably none of those come as a surprise.  But one of our favorite aspects of what we do IS the surprises.  When we leave the dock we never know what we are going to see or experience or encounter on the water.  Unique sailing events, incredible weather, or one-off visual treats often await us.  And this weekend we were reminded how magnificent the unexpected can be.

Saturday we took Viewfinder down to Wildwood, New Jersey to shoot the annual gathering of Hobie Cats.  An amazing event, the sailors camp on the beach and launch their catamarans into the ocean for two days of racing.  This year the wind gods did not cooperate as they have in the past, with a nonexistent breeze in the morning only rising to around eight or ten knots by mid-afternoon.  We watched two races, and though the air kept both pontoons in the water and the crew on the trampoline, the racing was still impressive.  Serious and focused, each crew worked hard to make their vessel go as fast as possible.  One of the aspects of the Hobie community we appreciate is how family-oriented it is – husbands and wives, parents and children, uncles and nieces all make up the roster.  It is a nice group of people to be around, and we look forward to seeing them again in two weeks when they come to our own Barnegat Bay.  To view our photos from Wildwood visit michaelbagleyphoto.shutterbugstorefront.com.

After catching as many Hobies as we could we decided to take a ride south to shoot the Cape May Lighthouse.  As we began steaming down the coast it was impressive to see all of the activity on the beach from a distance, and we were taken by the variety of colors of the beach umbrellas (a great palette for an aerial shot!).  We rounded Cape May and drifted past the beacon that has marked the entrance to Delaware Bay since 1823.  The afternoon light was moving west, and we were able to capture several nice shots of the historic structure.

As we continued to motor to the west I began thinking about past visits to Delaware Bay and the several times I had seen dolphins there.  “You know, sometimes there are dolphins around here,” I said to Danise.  As if on cue, two seconds later a pod of five bottlenose dolphins emerged no more than ten feet from our hull, expelling air from their blowholes and sliding back under the surface.  The timing was surreal and the moment was magical.  It would have been enough if that was the end.  But it was only the beginning.  For the next 45 minutes we watched as more than 60 adult and juvenile dolphins swam around us.  At times they glided slowly and gracefully through the water.  Periodically they would dart and play.  And occasionally they would speed up and leap out of the water, revealing their power and beauty.  At one point the pod we were following churned up the water and two dolphins leaped out of the water and almost landed in Danise’s lap!  We saw young dolphins swimming close to their adults, and animals with damaged dorsal fins portraying their life experience.  It was without a doubt the most awe-inspiring experience of nature either of us had ever had the honor to witness.

After a while the large pod began to attract the attention of other boats and PWC.  We were concerned that the animals might begin to stress, and so we turned away to leave them be.  Danise shot more than 300 photos in the time we were with the dolphins, two of which are below.  The photos are amazing, but they don’t begin to express the awesomeness of spending time with those amazing mammals.

Why do we do what we do?  We never know what we are going to encounter!