"My strange year in an extremely beautiful place"

#BelieveInFilm #Photography #Fuji #Monterey

"My strange year in an extremely beautiful place"

#BelieveInFilm #Photography #Fuji #Monterey

#sunrise over #Monterey #California this morning is indicative of the approaching storm.

#sunrise over #Monterey #California this morning is indicative of the approaching storm.

Free admission to the aquarium for Monterey county residents now till Sept 14: https://www.montereybayaquarium.org/visit/admission-tickets/locals

#Monterey#California

Free admission to the aquarium for Monterey county residents now till Sept 14: https://www.montereybayaquarium.org/visit/admission-tickets/locals

#Monterey#California

I like going to the open sea exhibit before we open, and after we close

#Monterey#Marine

I like going to the open sea exhibit before we open, and after we close

#Monterey#Marine

This is where Spock mind melded with whales (in Star Trek IV)

#Monterey#StarTrek

This is where Spock mind melded with whales (in Star Trek IV)

#Monterey#StarTrek

TIL Betty White funded the airlift that brought 19 penguins from New Orleans to Monterey during Hurricane Katrina.

https://www.ksbw.com/article/central-coast-locals-recall-hurricane-katrina/65926814

#Monterey

TIL Betty White funded the airlift that brought 19 penguins from New Orleans to Monterey during Hurricane Katrina.

https://www.ksbw.com/article/central-coast-locals-recall-hurricane-katrina/65926814

#Monterey

View from my situation room / ‘fish tank’:

Today we successfully launched the aquarium’s first public-facing service in the multi-year technology infra change that I’m leading.

We helped thousands of educators book free field trips and lab classes and talks.

Some days I feel my job is hard and annoying, but some days there is all of this.

‘Best booking experience in years!’ (Live feedback from an educator just booked free trips for her special ed class)

#Monterey

View from my situation room / ‘fish tank’:

Today we successfully launched the aquarium’s first public-facing service in the multi-year technology infra change that I’m leading.

We helped thousands of educators book free field trips and lab classes and talks.

Some days I feel my job is hard and annoying, but some days there is all of this.

‘Best booking experience in years!’ (Live feedback from an educator just booked free trips for her special ed class)

#Monterey

On the joys of whales, lumpfish, the ocean:

I discovered something delightful this year. I have sea legs. Perhaps because I come from an island, and I have never lived far from a sea. My idea of ‘home’ is ‘small and annoying cities by the sea’.

I am never sea sick.

I know how to manipulate my body on a boat.

I know when to sit at the hull, and when to avoid it.

I have a special technique for stabilizing myself on the side of the boat while something exciting is happening in the distance.

Lately, I have learned: in which direction I should point my camera, on a wildly unstable boat, just sensing and hearing the sound and huff of a whale spout right as it happens.

The smell of whale breath in the air: like broccoli, and brussel sprouts, and anchovies, all at once.

I laugh too much at stories about whale poop, whale genital parasites. I am surrounded by people who say things to me like ‘I discovered that male lumpfish can have pink blood’, as matter of factly as describing what they’d just had for lunch.

I participate in speculation about why whales slap their pectoral fins. Nobody knows for sure, but it is fun to imagine.

Some days, I am surrounded by so many whales, whale spouts, whale flukes, that I don’t know where I should look.

I see specific whales and dolphins and I know some of their names. I was happy to learn that a humpback calf I had seen in May now had a name (Mr Magic).

I point out specific whales to friends and say; that one is Pepper. That one is Little Dimple. I’m not a marine biologist but I listen to every word from naturalists and marine biologists about each of the creatures in our backyard.

Some spotted a whale breaching. The captain (who calls himself Only Fins), floors it, so that I can get this photo.

Going out on a small boat regularly to see whales, and soon, orcas, was the pillar of my mental health I didn’t know I needed.

I wish I can go back in time and tell the younger version of me: one day; you will know many whales, some of them by name.

#Whales#Marine#Photography#Monterey

On the joys of whales, lumpfish, the ocean:

I discovered something delightful this year. I have sea legs. Perhaps because I come from an island, and I have never lived far from a sea. My idea of ‘home’ is ‘small and annoying cities by the sea’.

I am never sea sick.

I know how to manipulate my body on a boat.

I know when to sit at the hull, and when to avoid it.

I have a special technique for stabilizing myself on the side of the boat while something exciting is happening in the distance.

Lately, I have learned: in which direction I should point my camera, on a wildly unstable boat, just sensing and hearing the sound and huff of a whale spout right as it happens.

The smell of whale breath in the air: like broccoli, and brussel sprouts, and anchovies, all at once.

I laugh too much at stories about whale poop, whale genital parasites. I am surrounded by people who say things to me like ‘I discovered that male lumpfish can have pink blood’, as matter of factly as describing what they’d just had for lunch.

I participate in speculation about why whales slap their pectoral fins. Nobody knows for sure, but it is fun to imagine.

Some days, I am surrounded by so many whales, whale spouts, whale flukes, that I don’t know where I should look.

I see specific whales and dolphins and I know some of their names. I was happy to learn that a humpback calf I had seen in May now had a name (Mr Magic).

I point out specific whales to friends and say; that one is Pepper. That one is Little Dimple. I’m not a marine biologist but I listen to every word from naturalists and marine biologists about each of the creatures in our backyard.

Some spotted a whale breaching. The captain (who calls himself Only Fins), floors it, so that I can get this photo.

Going out on a small boat regularly to see whales, and soon, orcas, was the pillar of my mental health I didn’t know I needed.

I wish I can go back in time and tell the younger version of me: one day; you will know many whales, some of them by name.

#Whales#Marine#Photography#Monterey

I will never make fun of sea lions for being lazy anymore. I saw thousands of them in the ocean swimming and hunting for a long time. no wonder they are so tired and they like to bark about it

#Monterey #SeaLions#Pinnepeds

I will never make fun of sea lions for being lazy anymore. I saw thousands of them in the ocean swimming and hunting for a long time. no wonder they are so tired and they like to bark about it

#Monterey #SeaLions#Pinnepeds