I love photographing both landscapes and wildlife. I know some people prefer to shoot one or the other, but to me, these two genres of photography have always gone hand in hand. The landscapes and the animals that inhabit them are so closely linked that it is hard to tell the story of one without the other. My favorite photo locations are the places where you could reliably shoot landscapes and wildlife together. Some places are undeniably better for landscapes while other locations feature amazing animals in a so-so landscape. There are a few places around the world, however, where epic landscapes meet excellent wildlife opportunities: Alaska, Grand Tetons, Patagonia, and Serengeti are just a few the come to mind. Monterey California isn’t typically thought of as a photography hotspot, but in my opinion should be considered one of the best locations for both landscape and wildlife photography in the lower 48.

Sometimes referred to as the “Serengeti of the Sea”, Monterey Bay is teeming with life. From sea lions and sea otters, to humpbacks and orcas, there is an overwhelming amount of wildlife in the bay. Just down the road is the iconic Big Sur coastline. The sea stacks, waterfalls, and beaches make it one of the most picturesque coastlines in the United States. Combine them together and you have a location that can be incredibly productive for the nature photographer.

I was excited to lead our inaugural trip with fellow guide Jon Resnick. We met our group for orientation in our home base of Monterey, our hotel a stone’s throw away from the bay. We woke early the next morning for the first of our four safari style boat tours. When we arrived at the pier, we were quickly reminded of the advantage of our tour as we watched the general whale watching boats load passenger after passenger until their decks were full and rail space was at a premium. In contrast, our private charter was well under capacity, allowing us to move about the boat freely, shooting in any direction. The excitement was real as we photographed sea otters on our way out of the harbor.

In October, the bay is full of feeding humpbacks. It didn’t take us long to find them as they travel with a large posse of sea lions eager to catch any leftover fish the whales round up. We arrived to the sea lions splashing, jumping, and generally making a lot of commotion. Our boat captain predicted this was an indicator the whales were coming up. Sure enough, soon there was blows, backs, and flukes all around us. We lost count of how many surrounded our boat as they came and went in every direction.

As the whales dove, we moved around looking for more activity. While watching a couple of whales off in the distance, suddenly our biologist on board was excitedly grabbing our attention. A curious whale had come over to see what our boat was all about. We all frantically switched to wide angle lenses and looked over the railing to see a large shadow just under our boat. This whale spent the next ten minutes checking us out from every angle. We ran back and forth as it surfaced over and over. Seeing a whale that close to the boat really put into perspective how large these gentle giants are. It was so close a bunch of us were in the splash zone when it came up for a breath. If you have never had the privilege of smelling the breath of a humpback whale, it is reminiscent of rotting broccoli with a side of sardines. The interaction was so special and one that none of us will soon forget. We decided not to hold its dental hygiene against it.

We spent our afternoons exploring Big Sur and its surrounding state parks. This stretch of coast is so incredibly beautiful and offers so many photo opportunities. We worked our way down California 1, the famous highway hugging the western coast. We shot the iconic McWay falls, an 80-foot waterfall pouring directly into the Pacific. In Garrapata State Park, we watched as big waves crashed into the rocks guarding the beach like sentinels. If we didn’t have enough whale watching in the morning, there were always blows and breaches in the distance.

As we settled into the rhythm of the trip, we quickly found that no two mornings would be the same on the bay. Some mornings were calm and sunny, others foggy and choppy. Regardless, we pushed on to meet the whales. We were slowly filling our memory cards with so many great encounters and saw many interesting behaviors.

For our last morning on the water, we all felt like we had accomplished what we had come for and anything else would be just the cherry on top. Little did we know the action we were about to find. The safari started with an unexpected find: a Mola Mola aka ocean sunfish. We found this guy floating calming on the surface soaking up the sun. As we wrapped up shooting it, we began moving toward a small group of humpbacks in the distance. Almost as soon as arrived, one exploded out of the water for a massive breach. The first breach will almost always catch you by surprise, as a photographer you just have to hope the whale has one more in them for when you're a little more prepared. Thankfully for us, this juvenile was feeling extra playful and breached over and over and over. This whale just kept going and we were all able to get shots of the flying mammal. We estimated it breached well over thirty times in total.

As we were coming down from all the humpback excitement, our captain spotted something we had been looking for all week: the dorsal fin of an orca. We had finally found the pod of killer whales that had been hanging out in the bay. We were able to follow and photograph them for some time as they toyed with the idea of hunting some sea lions. We saw them interacting with a group of humpback whales who were aggressively trying to scare them away.  Humpbacks are somewhat altruistic and see themselves as the neighborhood watch and they really don’t like the killer whales going after their sea lion friends. This was fascinating behavior and we were all blown away at how lucky we were to see it.

As the boat pulled back into the harbor, it was hard not to feel grateful for the incredible experiences we had that week. We had seen and photographed all we could have hoped for. We appreciate all the guests who came and made the experience so great. See you out there for the next one!