Lonely Planet

October 2017 Lonely Planet Traveller 47We were returning by boat to La Pazfrom the island of Espíritu Santowhen our captain suddenly noticed some marinelife in the distance. When we got closer, wediscovered they were false killer whales, which areactually the fourth-largest members of the dolphinfamily. The pod was quite large but well scattered,and I took up position near the bow of the boat toget a clearer view. Occasionally the dolphins wouldbreak the surface but it was almost impossible topredict where they would next appear. I changed tomy 70-200 telephoto lens and switched my camerasettings to continuous autofocus. Soon enough,a small group started following the boat and ridingin the wake. My view was partially obscured by theback of the boat, but before I’d had a chance toswitch position, a couple of the dolphins leapt intothe air very close to us. Fortunately, I managed toget this unobscured view before they disappearedunder the water again. We were very lucky: ourguide had never seen them this close before.Shot on a Nikon D800 // 70-200mm lens // ISO 500// aperture f/9 // shutter speed 1/1250THE SHOTGREAT ESCAPEPhotographer Justin Foulkes onthe challenges of photographingmarine wildlife off Baja California